Parsvnath picks 38% stake in Nanocity

Realty major Parsvnath Developers has joined hands with Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, to develop an 11,138 acres knowledge city—Parsvnath Nano City—near Chandigarh involving a total project cost of Rs 50,000 crore.

Under the joint venture agreement, Parsvnath Developers has picked up 38 per cent stake for Rs 41.5 crore. In addition, the reality major would help the joint venture to raise debt of Rs 360 crore, said Pradeep Jain chairman and managing director of Parsvnath Developers.

Former Hotmail innovator Sabeer Bhatia, who promoted the project, holds the majority stake of 52 per cent.

Haryana government owns the balance 10 per cent stake in the company. Under the agreement, Bhatia will be the chairman of the company while Pradeep Jain will be the managing director of the company.

To be developed in Panchkula, the project would be completed in two phases over the next 10 years, where the company would develop 5,000 acres in the first phase. “We have already acquired about 1,500 acres and we are talking to various land owners for acquiring the rest,” Jain said.

The JV would raise funds from private equity funds and would also enter the capital market in the next 18 – 24 months.

“In the first phase the company would raise resources at verticals level such as IT park, or biotech city from the private equity funds. In the second stage, it would enter the capital market,” Jain said.

“We plan to take the company public in 18-24 months, but we have not finalised how much stake will be diluted or how much money we are going to raise.”

Elaborating on the project, Jain said: "The knowledge city will be divided in four districts - IT, University, Airport and Biotech." Residential area would constitute 30 per cent of the total city, while commercial area would be of four per cent area, he added.