PE funds for Lavasa likely by June

The Lavasa hill station project of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) is set for a private equity injection. However, a source said a group of investors were taken for a site visit to Lavasa over a week ago and the placement is expected by June.

HCC officials refused to comment on the private equity infusion.However, they said a likely reason for private equity interest may be that work on the Lavasa project was running one year ahead of schedule at a time most other real estate companies were deferring their developments.
Somewhat ironically, they said easier availability of manpower and other resources, as the slowdown takes hold of the industry, which has helped HCC speed up work on the project.
In a recent interaction with this newspaper, Ajit Gulabchand, chairman and managing director of HCC said they were encouraged by sales during the last one year to advance the phase I completion target from 2022 to 2015. "By 2012, around 10,000 students and executives will be pursuing their studies at Lavasa. By the same time, there will be 1,000 hotel rooms across various categories. Phase 1B and Phase II will begin parallel to each other. What we hoped to complete by 2030 will be completed by 2022," he said.

Developed by Lavasa Corporation, an HCC group company, Lavasa is positioned as Independent India's first and largest hill city, which can be reached in 3 hours by road from Mumbai and in 1 hour from Pune. Spread over 12,500 acres, the hill city is expected to house a number of global leaders in hospitality, tourism, education, healthcare, business research and industry