Indiabulls Real Estate head Gehlaut to invest Rs 538 cr

Sameer Gehlaut, co-founder and chairman of the Indiabulls Group, will invest Rs.538 crore in Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd, raising his stake in the property developer to 37 per cent from 27 per cent, a year after the three founders of the group separated their business.

According to reports appearing in the media, Indiabulls Real Estate will raise the money through a preferential allotment of 5 per cent equity shares and 5 per cent warrants at a price of Rs.67 per share to Gehlaut. The funds will be used to pare the company’s debt of Rs.5,480crore.

The investment is Gehlaut’s first significant infusion of equity into the group after the reorganisation. Gehlaut now controls the home finance, real estate, securities and wholesale trading business segments of the group. Rajiv Rattan and Saurabh Mittal, the other two co-founders, head the power business.

“The equity infusion into IBREL (Indiabulls Real Estate) is for growth capital and to front load the debt reduction from the second quarter itself,” Gehlaut, also the chairman of Indiabulls Real Estate, was quoted in the reports as saying.

Mumbai-based Indiabulls Real Estate’s debt has risen after the acquisition of the 22 Hanover Square property in central London and around eight acres of land in Thane last year, for a total of about Rs.2,050 crore.The company doesn’t have any new project planned this year.