Finance Institutional Investment
Trikona Inks Deal for M-F Redevelopment in Mumbai
July 9, 2008
By: Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

As part of its commitment, announced in late 2006, to invest more than $1 billion in slum redevelopment in Mumbai, India, Trikona Capital Ltd. of New York City has signed up for a 4-acre, $40 million middle-class housing project in Bandra, a residential area adjacent to Mumbai’s Central Business District.

The deal is a co-investment with SachsenFonds, a German fund manager, and the developer is Keystone Constructions Pte. Ltd. Though Trikona has more than 15 urban redevelopment projects in Mumbai totaling 20 million square feet, this is its first investment that involves the renovation of middle-class housing.

According to a statement from Trikona, urban rejuvenation projects that are approved by the Indian government mandate that investors and developers build new homes for current residents, often with double the square footage, and also provide them with money to relocate during construction. Developers may then build on the remaining land or sell it at market prices.

Founded in 2003 by Aashish Kalra and Rak Chugh, two Indian expatriates, Trikona was one of the first companies to dive into Indian real estate in a big way after the Indian government finally, in February 2005, loosened restrictions on investments by both foreign and domestic institutional investors in most types of Indian real estate.

Last year, Forbes Asia magazine quoted a London-based securities analyst as describing Trikona’s Trinity Fund as “the largest institutional player in terms of the deals it’s doing and the number of developers it’s working with across the country.”

 
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