Xander Finance invests Rs 49 crore in Century Real Estate

BANGALORE: Xander Finance, the Indian NBFC arm of the global investment firm, Xander Group has invested Rs 49 crores in real estate firm Century Real Estate.

“Xander Group’s investment is structured as senior secured non-convertible debentures,” says the company in a release. The money was raised against Century Eden, a 40 acre plotted development project in Doddaballapur road in Bangalore. The plots ranges between 1200sft and 2400 sft and is priced at Rs 2000 per sft.

NCDs are unsecured bonds that cannot be converted into company equity or stock and usually have higher interest rates. This instrument, which offers healthy yields of over 20%, has emerged as this year's tool-of-choice for real estate firms.

The Bangalore-based builder had raised Rs 410 crore in four tranches through NCDs from Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Capital, JM Financial and Kotak Realty Fund over the last four years. Century is also looking to exit its $125 million investment that it raised from Goldman Sachs in 2008-09.

Private equity-real estate investment was valued at $887 million across 20 deals with disclosed values in the first six months of 2013, a drop of 16% as compared to same period last year, as per Venture Intelligence.

Century has 7.5 million sq ft residential properties under construction and 2.8 million sq ft plotted development. It plans to have a portfolio of 75% residential and 25% plotted development.