Walton Street BlackSoil Real Estate Debt Fund II raises Rs 360 cr

New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) Walton Street BlackSoil Real Estate Debt Fund II has raised Rs 360 crore so far for financing middle-income housing projects in major cities.

Walton Street BlackSoil Real Estate Debt Fund II (WSBREDF-II), with a target fund size of Rs 500 crore, has secured commitments of Rs 360 crores for its first closing, Walton Street India said in a statement.

The fund, which has an additional green-shoe option of Rs 250 crore, plans to invest the generated funds into self-liquidating senior secured debt instruments, focusing on middle-income residential real estate projects across key tier I cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi-NCR.

The debt fund is registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).

"With reduced availability of the capital for residential real estate development, the funds generated from WSBREDF-II will be deployed to provide financial assistance to developers to ensure consistent cash flow and timely completion of projects," the company said.

Earlier in 2018, Walton Street BlackSoil Real Estate Debt Fund I (WSBREDF-I) was launched with committed capital of Rs 320 crore. It was fully deployed earlier this year, across 10 investments in the key metros of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, more than 50 per cent of which has been returned.

WSBREDF I has invested in marquee developers like Cybercity, Bollineni and Saket, amongst others.

Kaushik Desai, Managing Partner, Walton Street India Real Estate Advisors, said, "The focus of our second fund is to provide financing to developers with proven track records of execution across the mid-income housing sector in our key markets driven by end-user demand, to invest in key in-fill projects with full control over cash flow and visibility on financial closure and completion."

Since 2013, and prior to the launch of WSBREDF-II, Walton Street Capital India and BlackSoil have jointly placed more than Rs 1,500 crore of debt capital across more than 50 real estate transactions.

Recently, BlackSoil and the former India-based management team of US real estate investment advisor Walton Street Capital, L.L.C. (Walton Street Capital) joined forces to acquire Walton Street India''s real estate debt business.

The India management team is led by Kaushik Desai, Vinit Prabhugaonkar and Vimal Jangla.

As a result of the buyout, WSBREDF-II is no longer affiliated with or advised by affiliates of Walton Street Capital, L.L.C., a US registered investment advisor focused on the real estate sector.

Source: https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/walton-street-blacksoil-real-estate-debt-fund-ii-raises-rs-360-cr/2152468