Two for Trikona

The India-focused fund has completed two projects in the last month, raising their total investment in property on the subcontinent to $1bn.

This past month, private equity real estate firm Trikona Capital has announced two new deals, a residential township project in Mumbai and an IT park in Greater Noida, a Delhi suburb.

Aashish Kalra, managing director and co-founder of Trokina Capital, said that the firm has completed a total of three deals and has around $1 billion (€780 million) in projects under development in the country. Trikona is the asset manager for Trinity Capital, a fund listed on the AIM in London, which raised £250 million ($467 million; €373 million) earlier this year from a group of institutional investors.

The firm has acquired a stake in an IT park in Greater Noida for £215 million, with Trinity committing £28.3 million to the project. The remainder of the project's cost will be financed via debt financing and pre-construction sales.

According to the firm, the development will include 5.2 million square feet of IT offices, 894,000 square feet of residential space, 612,000 square feet of hotel space and 477,000 square feet of retail space.

“Great Noida is probably the only place in India today where the infrastructure is pre-provided,” Kalra says. “Greater Noida is actually making an effort to get these people there.”

Kalra adds that the deal was attractive because all of the land being developed for the IT district has been acquired. “What we like here is that it is not replicable,” he says. “The government is not going to provide these 600 acres again.”

Earlier in the month, Trikona announced a residential project in Worli, Mumbai. The fund is investing £11.6 million in the project, which is valued at £56 million. The transaction is a partnership with Mumbai-based developer Lokhandwala Builders and will be comprised of 1.4 million square feet of residential space.

Kalra says the project fits in with the government's campaign to redevelop the island city. “The only way you can do this is by rehabilitating the city centers,” he says.

The deals come on the heels of the firm's first investment. In August, Trikona announced it was investing $100 million alongside investment bank IL&FS to develop Indian infrastructure. “The single most important bottleneck is infrastructure,” Kalra says, adding that the land around the roads and ports is often ripe for development.

Kalra says the firm is looking to choose partners that will grow along with the fund. “If I do this deal, what else can I do on the back of that transaction?” he asks. “It's sort of like the traditional venture capital fund, trying to help people become institutional.”

Kalra co-founded Trikona with Rak Chugh earlier this year to focus on Indian property.