Walton Street Black Soil Real Estate Debt Fund II Invests INR 110 Crores in Housing Projects

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Walton Street BlackSoil Real Estate Debt Fund II (WSBREDF-II), with a target corpus of INR 500 crores, has announced the deployment of debt financing of INR 110 crores in two housing projects, closely following on the first closure of this second fund at INR 360 crores. These debt financings were made with prominent developers, Krishnaiah Projects Pvt Ltd (part of the Bollineni group) and Jain Housing & Construction Ltd for projects located in Chennai & Hyderabad, respectively. Both projects cater to the mid-income housing segment. These debt financings are in line with the plan of WSBREDF-II to pursue residential structured debt investments in projects across India with developers that focus on execution and delivery. Apart from these two transactions, the WSBREDF-II fund will target 6-8 more investments in tier-1 cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and the NCR. These financings are expected to provide debt capital support to developers and make consistent cash flow available to them to facilitate the timely completion of existing projects. In Q2 2021, more than half of the new housing projects launched across India were in the affordable and mid-income residential segment. Project Zion, being developed by Krishnaiah Projects Pvt Ltd, is located in Chennai and is part of the last phase of an established township comprising 1800 families. The developer has a strong track record of project execution and enjoys high-quality credit. Project Salzburg by Jain Housing & Construction Ltd is located in Hyderabad and has an affordable price point and established sales track record. Both projects enjoyed substantial existing sales at the time of entry. Vimal Jangla, Managing Partner at Walton Street India, said, “The mid-income housing segment has shown great promise. In the last one year, the segment has gained prominence and has led the share of new launches. Gradual pickup in sales volume has been witnessed in this market segment following the recent relaxations in the lockdowns and other factors such as higher absorption than supply, improved affordability, and favorable government policies. We are delighted with the opportunity to partner with such marquee developers and provide financing to these two key housing projects and shall continue to invest WSBREDF-II commitments with developers of similar pedigree.” Talking about the WSBREDF-II fund, Vimal Jangla 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 India and BlackSoil have jointly placed more than INR 1,500 crores of debt capital across more than 50 real estate transactions. Recently, BlackSoil and the former India-based management team of Walton Street Capital, L.L.C. joined forces to acquire Walton Street India’s real estate debt business (the “Buyout”). The India management team is led by Kaushik Desai, Vinit Prabhugaonkar and Vimal Jangla. As a result of the Buyout, Walton Street India is no longer affiliated with Walton Street Capital, L.L.C., a U.S. private equity real estate investment firm (WSC US). WSC US has no affiliation with and is not an advisor to, WSBREDF-II.