HDFC and SBI float real estate venture fund

By Our Banking Bureau | 24 Mar 2005

Mumbai: The Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC Ltd) has announced its venture into the real estate fund business with the launch of the HDFC Property fund, in association with the State Bank of India.

A trustee company (HDFC Ventures Trustee Company Ltd) and an asset management company (HDFC Venture Capital Ltd) have been incorporated for the purposes of the fund.

The SEBI approved venture capital fund would be investing in equity-linked instruments of companies engaged primarily in real estate in major cities in India, said a press release.

To achieve a balanced risk-reward profile, the inaugural scheme, HI-REF will invest in three broad classes of companies. These are projects which are complete-comprising real estate assets in use with established high quality tenants denoting steady income type characteristics, projects in the development stage where the lead time to commercial deployment is typically between one and three years and projects in the planning stage where the lead time to commercial deployment would between three and six years, the release said.