Taurus plans $500 million India-focused realty fund

BENGALURU: Boston-based real estate investment advisor Taurus Investment Holdings plans to raise around $500 million (about Rs 3,250 crore) for a commercial and retail fund that will invest mainly in tier-I and II cities in southern India.

The firm is also in the process of launching a $100 million residential platform to invest in the mid-income and co-living segments in the country.
“We see India contributing one-third of our global portfolio over the next five years. India will be the fundamental core market for Taurus in the coming years,” Ajay Prasad, MD at Taurus Investment Holdings India, told ET.


“Around 70% of the raised money will be invested in commercial while 30% will be for retail development in tier-II and III cities.”

Taurus is currently on the road to raise the commercial fund that will invest at the project and portfolio level in the growing commercial, office and retail market in India. “We have spoken to Embassy Group to jointly have a commercial platform of 5-10 mn sq ft over the next five years,” Prasad said.

According to EY, infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) are finding favour with global investors, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. Investments in India’s real estate sector rose 66% to $3.8 billion in the first half of 2019, as per EY’s private equity deal tracker. The sector contributed 10 large deals worth $9.9 billion in the first half of the year. The largest deal in the first six months saw Brookfield buy out four hotel assets from Hotel Leela Venture for $572 million.

In 2017, real estate developer Embassy Group had entered into a joint venture to develop 2 million sq ft of office space held by Taurus in Kerala.

“Taurus has so far invested over Rs 400 crore equity in the Indian real estate market. The total investment for mixed use development is around Rs 2,000 crore,” said Prasad.

The real estate sector in the country is expected to witness an addition of nearly 200 million sq ft of new real estate space in 2019 across categories including office, retail, residential and logistics to reach 3.7 trillion sq ft.