DLF Assets, the property fund of real estate magnate KP Singh, which was set up to acquire commercial projects of DLF Ltd, is likely to raise $450 million from private equity investors like JPMorgan and Texas Pacific Group.

This will enable the former to pay back part of the money it owes to the promoter group firm DLF Ltd.

Industry sources said, DLF Assets owes DLF Rs4,800 crore and will raise $450 million or Rs2,200 crore through private equity by the end of this  quarter.

However, DLF Assets chief financial officer Ramesh Sanka refused to reveal the names of the PE funds and said DAL would receive the funds by January-end.

Private equity investors are likely to put in $200 million.

Analysts said the money would improve the overall liquidity of DLF, which is pretty tight. DLF was planning to list on the Singapore stock exchange in June, to raise $2 billion, but did not do so because of weak market conditions. It also had to defer plans to come out with a domestic float for the same reason.

DLF Assets has so far raised more than $1 billion from private equity firms to purchase properties from DLF. These include raising $400 million from global investing firm DE Shaw, in 2007, while the company raised another $200 million from the now bankrupt investment banking firm Lehman Brothers, which later sold the stake to SC Asia, a unit of US-based private equity firm Symphony Capital.

This year, DLF Assets has raised $450 million from Symphony Capital, which owns 60 per cent of the $1.1-billion invested by overseas companies in DLF Assets.

At present, DLF Assets has let out 4.7 million square feet, which is expected to go up to 10 million square feet by March 2009, yielding rentals of Rs600 crore per annum.

DLF vice chairman Rajiv Singh told the press last month, ''While steps to monetise DLF Assets through the next round of equity funding have overshot the originally set timeline, teams continue to work on it. However, the management continues to retain the opportunity to monetise the assets, internationally or domestically, based on the cash flows over and above the equity funding process currently underway, an option which we intend to exploit in due course.''