Bajaj Alternate Investment Management Ltd, the alternative investment platform of Bajaj Finserv Ltd, has hit the first close of its maiden real estate fund at roughly Rs 950 crore (about $100 million).
The vehicle, Bajaj Alts Real Estate-Growth Fund I, raised capital from family offices, institutions and high-net worth individuals, the company said in a statement. It didn’t disclose the investors’ names.
The fund has a target corpus of Rs 2,000 crore, including a greenshoe option. It did not disclose the size of the greenshoe portion.
Lakshmi Iyer, group president for investments and managing director and chief executive officer at Bajaj Alts, said this fund sets the foundation for building a broader and diversified alternatives platform.
“As we continue to build our alternatives platform, our focus remains on creating sustainable long-term value for our investors,” she said.
The firm said that the fund aims to partner with leading developers through equity joint ventures to develop Grade A commercial office assets in prime markets. It will combine the development capabilities and market access of developers with institutional capital, disciplined underwriting and active investment oversight.
“In India, real estate investment strategies have historically focussed on debt financing for residential developers or core asset acquisition. Our equity-led approach to commercial office development gives investors an opportunity to participate in the value creation from high-quality real estate projects favoured by corporates and GCCs,” said Sanchit Bhatia, head of the real estate fund at Bajaj Alts.
The firm said that the fund has a strong pipeline of transactions, providing visibility for deploying capital over the coming months. It said it believes India’s commercial office market continues to benefit from structural demand from global capability centres and other large occupiers, supporting the long-term attractiveness of high-quality office assets in established markets.
Bajaj Alts’ suite of investment offerings spans multiple alternative asset classes, including real estate, private equity, and listed equities. The company also seeks to leverage differentiated portfolio construction techniques such as long-short and quantitative strategies to effectively manage diverse market environments and investment cycles.
