Essel Finance, the financial services arm of the Subhash Chandra-promoted diversified business conglomerate, has invested Rs 45 crore ($7.47 million) in two residential projects of real estate developer Assotech Ltd.
Essel Finance has invested in on-going projects of Assotech in Noida and Ghaziabad.
This is the first investment by the company after it appointed Abhinav Bhushan as head of realty fund business.
“This transaction is in line with our focused investment approach on providing last mile financing to projects with approvals in place and significant construction and sales already achieved. Of a total residential development area of these two projects, for instance, over 75 per cent is already sold," said Bhushan.
This has taken the total disbursement of Essel Finance since the beginning of this year to Rs 180 crore, including one investment in Mumbai.
In January, Essel Finance’s realty fund invested in Mumbai-based Ariisto Realtors’ project and is also believed to be in talks to co-invest Rs 150 crore ($25 million) in Nirmal Lifestyle's residential project along with Warburg Pincus-controlled non-banking finance company, Capital First.
Sanjeev Srivastava-promoted Assotech is a leading Delhi NCR-based developer and has delivered more than 30 projects. The Noida-based real estate firm is currently developing eight projects with over 9 million sq ft under construction.
Last year, the PE arm of India Infoline Group, had invested Rs 75 crore in a plotted development project in Faridabad, developed by Assotech.
Essel Finance is a financial services arm of Essel Group, which has diverse presence across media, entertainment, packaging, infrastructure, education, precious metals and technology sectors. Currently, Essel Finance has three operating business – private equity, non-banking financial company (NBFC) and investment banking.
It had earlier invested Rs 60 crore in Delhi-based listed realtor Parsvnath Developers’ Gurgaon-based project. Recently, the firm was also planning to launch a Shariah-compliant fund for foreign investors in real estate with a corpus of $100 million.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
