US-based real estate development and investment company Portman plans $300 mn India realty fund

MUMBAI: US-based real estate development and investment company Portman Holdings is looking to raise up to $300 million (over 1,600 crore) worth of third-party capital to invest in Indian property markets, said a top company official.

The company will raise these funds in overseas markets beginning first half of 2013 and deploy the entire corpus in the next 30 months once the fund raising is concluded. Apart from these third-party funds, Portman will also continue to invest its own capital into Indian real estate.

"We are bullish on India apart from US and China. Even at 6% growth, India will be the second-fastest growing economy amongst the larger ones. Our existing two investments here that we made since 2009 have been performing well with positive returns," said Ambrish Baisiwala, CEO, Portman.

So far, Portman has invested $160 million ( 860 crore) in Pune-based Kolte-Patil Developers' two projects. Both are residential projects with total development of 1.8 million sq ft in Pune.