GIC in residential JV with Vatika Group

GIC Private Limited, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, has announced a joint venture partnership with an Indian developer, the Vatika Group to invest in residential projects in the country.

The value of the partnership was not disclosed.

Under the partnership, Vatika will develop two residential properties spread over 2.3 million square feet in Gurgaon, located on the outskirts of Delhi. The projects are due for completion by around 2018, following which they are expected to yield revenues in excess of INR20 billion, the firms said in a joint statement announcing the partnership.

“GIC is confident of India’s growth potential over the long term. Vatika Group is one of the leading developers in Gurgaon and we are pleased to establish this partnership. We have nurtured long-term partnerships with developers across the global successfully and hope that we will leverage each other’s strengths to grow this partnership steadily in the coming years,” said Loh Wai Keong, co-head for Asia at GIC Real Estate, the real estate focused division of GIC. 

The state fund has been part of similar JV partnerships in India before. In September this year, it tied up with the Bangalore-based Brigade Group to invest INR15 billion in residential and mixed-use developments in the southern parts of India. The first project under the venture is a residential community in Bangalore spread over 1.6 million square feet and is currently under construction. 

GIC added meaningfully to its real estate portfolio in markets across the world in 2014. This month, it also announced it had acquired its first wholly-owned real estate property in Latin America – an under-construction office building in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. Earlier in the year, the state fund also announced investments in New Zealand, through a joint venture partnership with the Goodman Trust, and Turkey, via the acquisition of a part stake in a Turkish real estate company.