Ex-JLL India Capital Markets MD launches ANB Capital Advisors

Shobhit Agarwal, former Managing Director - Capital Markets & International Director of JLL Property Consultants (India) has launched ANB Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., a real estate investment banking firm. Shobhit Agarwal has over 18 years of experience in the property finance and investment sector and has overseen several major cross-border real estate transactions. He and his team are highly experienced in structuring joint ventures, equity raising, debt advisory and advising on disposals and acquisitions in core markets. Headquartered in Mumbai, the firm will focus exclusively on various asset classes of real estate. It would focus on capital markets, corporate finance, hotels & hospitality, land, and warehousing and logistics across India. The firm would work with developers, landowners, capital providers including private equity funds, banks, insurance companies and financial institutions. "The capital requirements in Indian real estate are immense," says Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO - ANB Capital Advisors. "To give a perspective, India still has a shortage of 18 million homes that requires USD 330 billion of construction funding. The existing gross bank credit to the sector is less than USD 55 billion. If we consider the larger sector beyond residential, the capital infusion requirements are virtually limitless." "Indian real estate is metamorphosing into a highly transparent industry into which all large global funds will want to enter aggressively," he says. "Intermediary services in this space are very thin on the ground, and there is considerable scope for organized professional advisors. The launch of ANB Capital Advisors could not be better-timed, given the high deal flows in residential and office real estate." Commenting on the prevailing funding scenario in the Indian real estate sector, Mr Agarwal says, "Quality office assets available at attractive valuations currently attract the majority of equity investments. Residential will continue to look for financing options till equity investors focus more on this sector. In the GST era, there is also a lot of interest in warehousing and logistics. 2017 saw more than USD 4.2 billion of investments flowing into real estate, missing 2016 investments by a whisker. 2018 will be equally good - and if REITs launch this year, we can certainly surpass the 2016 numbers with room to spare."