INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 11th - MAY 31st - 2008
DEUTSCHE BANK’S MISRA BUYS 30% IN CHENNAI IT SEZ FOR RS 262 CRORE
Rajeev Misra, global head of Deutsche Bank’s credit trading business, in his individual capacity, has acquired 30% equity stake in Chennai-based Rattha group’s special economic zone project for about Rs 262 crore.
Rattha group is developing a Rs 1,750-crore, IT SEZ project in a privately-held land at Porur, a western suburb of Chennai.
“I feel, Chennai is the right location for investments. It is an upcoming IT hub and the city has already emerged as manufacturing centre,” Mr Misra, a non-resident Indian based in London, said. “Currently, many auto and pharma firms are developing manufacturing capacities. The city is also close to other IT hubs such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.”
He added that compared to other cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, land prices in Chennai are comparatively cheaper in Chennai.
Rattha group, with interests in garment exports, infrastructure and hospitality industries, focuses on constructing infrastructure facilities, particularly for the IT industry. Its IT SEZ project is being built on 26-acres, with a saleable area of over 4.5 million sq ft.
It is estimated that the project would generate over 50,000 jobs and comes equipped with a 100-room service hotel. The first phase of 1.1 million sq ft would be completed by December 2009, and the project would be fully completed by 2012, Mr. Misra said.
SEZ projects, coming up in privately-held lands, are currently attracting investments from private equity funds as well. Recently, Delhi-based Raheja Developers said it has plans to raise Rs 530 crore from PE funds for its proposed engineering special economic zone at Gurgaon. It will offload a 26% equity stake in the SEZ to the PE fund.
Media reports suggest that PE funds and infrastructure institutional investors are in the race for acquiring stake in Pondicherry SEZ Company, which is setting up a Rs 2,700-crore integrated fashion city with 26% local government holding.
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