Edelweiss arm set to buy two realty funds from Milestone Capital Advisors
Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors, a wealth management arm of Edelweiss Financial Services, is set to buy two real estate funds from the Mumbai-based MilestoneCapital Advisors as it seeks to diversify its investment portfolio, bring in fresh talent and add new high net worth clients. The deal is likely to be announced on Monday. Edelweiss will buy Milestone Opportunities Fund 10 and Milestone Commercial Advantage Fund which together have Rs 150-crore worth of commercial real estate assets under management, adding to the Rs 22,000-crore corpus it manages for ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and institutions, said two people familiar with the deal. “Both these funds have been raised to invest in commercial real estate for which Edelweiss sees a lot of potential. The plan is to scale them up to Rs 1,000-1,500 crore. The acquisition includes a ten-member team and marquee clients which will bring new capabilities for the alternative asset business,” one of the persons cited above said. Though this person did not specify the value of the deal, it is likely to be more than 10 per cent of the assets. Edelweiss Alternative currently manages seven funds which invest in sectors such as infrastructure, real estate and distressed debt. In March, it had raised Rs 2,300 crore from investors to invest in operational infrastructure projects promising post-tax returns of 10-12 per cent over a ten-year period. Firms such as Edelweiss are offering rich clients yet another way of investing by promising them equity-like returns without its volatility. Some estimates say that the total market for alternative investments could be worth $50 billion in India and it has doubled in the past five years.
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