ANAROCK to buy JLL’s PE funds
MUMBAI: Real estate veteran Anuj Puri, who quit as the head of property consultant JLL India earlier this year, is close to buying two private equity funds worth ₹460 crore from his former employer, two people aware of the development said.
ANAROCK Investments Advisors Private Ltd, the newly launched Investment firm of Puri, will acquire the ₹160-crore Residential Opportunities Fund-I (ROF-I) and the ₹300-crore Residential Opportunities Fund-2 (ROF-II), the people said on the condition of anonymity. Puri, they said, is also planning to raise $300 million from offshore investors to invest in property.
ROF-I, registered with Sebi in 2012 as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund, has raised money from institutions and high net worth investors in India. ROF-I has signed deals with Bengaluru-based Assetz Property, and Chennai-based developers Vishwakarma Real Estates & Constructions and Plaza Group.
Puri confirmed the fund-raising plan, but declined to comment on whether he will be buying the JLL funds. “We will start our roadshow by the end of this year. Our strategy is to buy completed residential projects at a discount and to sell through our newly acquired platform later.”
The funds will deployed in mid-market residential projects with homes costing between ₹60 lakh and ₹1.25 crore in markets like Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai, Puri said.
A JLL spokesperson also declined to comment.
The deal is expected to be closed in two months, the first of the two people said. According to the second person, Sandip Kundu, MD of Segregated Funds Group that runs JLL’s PE funds, will join as CEO at Puri’s ANAROCK Investment Advisors Ltd.
The management fee of ROF-I will be shared with JLL, while ANAROCK will get management fee and a part of the return from the ₹300-crore second fund, which is yet to start its deployment.
This is Puri’s second deal with JLL after leaving the firm on February 28. In April, ANAROCK bought JLL’s residential services business, Jones Lang LaSalle Residential Pvt Ltd, for an undisclosed sum. Puri also bought 13,000 sqft at One BKC building in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) for around ₹40 crore.
After buying JLL’s residential brokerage, Puri hired 240 more brokers, taking the total number to 650.