Private equity firm Xander Group is talking with Reliance Industries-backed Urban Infrastructure Opportunities Fund,HDFC Property Fund and real estate developers to buy large stakes in mall projects spending about $250 million,said banking sources briefed on the matter.
Xander has been in advanced discussions with southern developer Ozone Group in which Urban Infrastructure opportunities Fund (UIOF) and HDFC together hold majority interest to buy 1.2 million sq ft retail and hotel project in a deal estimated at Rs 350 crore.It has also approached Bangalore based Mantri Developers to purchase a big stake in a proposed one million sq ft mall that's completing regulatory clearances for construction.The talks with Mantri are preliminary.
The $2 billion Xander,an emerging markets PE firm,has Lord Jacob Rothschild,Harvard professor Arthur Segel and Sid Yog as its founding partners.Xander has been bullish on Indias real estate,retail and hospitality sectors.The seven year-old fund plans to own a network of malls leveraging on its close ties with Indian conglomerates like Tatas and RIL,which have significant interests in retail.
Xanders retail investments are routed through Virtuous Retail,which is also focused on building greenfield malls.Xander is aggressively talking to mall owners for acquisitions across cities,and could invest as much as $250 million in opportunistic buys, said one of the sources mentioned earlier,who did not wish to be named since talks are private.
An emailed query to Xander Group and messages to senior executives remained unanswered.Ozone COO KS Sudarshan did not answer phone calls.
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