Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Donald Trump Junior setting up US$ 1 billion fund to invest in property in India

New Delhi: Donald Trump Junior, is planning to set up a US$ 1 billion fund to invest in property in India. His father had amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune in real estate. Trump will be joining Deutsche Bank AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. for setting up funds for the investment. 

India had recorded the world's highest growth in millionaires in 2007, the reason behind the huge demand for luxury homes. According to a report by Merrill Lynch and Co. and Cap Gemini SA on June 24, 2008, the number of Indians with financial assets of more than US$ 1 million rose by 23 per cent in 2007, outdoing China's 20 per cent and Brazil's 19 per cent growth. 

In a telephone interview from New York Trump revealed that he was likely to set up the privately held fund with a group of investors, which would include an Indian family. However, the details of how the money would be raised and when the first investment would be made were not let out. 

"The fund will be for acquisitions of real estate in the high end, and across the spectrum," Trump said. "The market place is beginning to understand and appreciate luxury, so there is a great opening for us there, as well as in resorts," he said. 

"Our entry has to be in Mumbai and that's where everything is going on right now in terms of the high-end real estate," he added. "That's the place where one is going to achieve the highest prices per square foot. It sets the tone for all of the other future developments." 

Trump Organization Inc. also plans to set up a residential and hotel project in Mumbai in partnership with a local company. 

With growth forecasts above 8 per cent for this year, there is an inflow of global funds into India. Rising incomes is further expected to raise the demand for property. 

Lehman's real estate fund last month invested in a US$ 175 million stake, (its biggest investment in India's realty sector), in a Mumbai project, being development by Unitech Ltd. Deutsche Bank and other private equity investors invested US$ 425 million in the Lodha Group of Mumbai, in 2007. Deutsche Bank's RREEF unit will be investing more than US$ 1 billion in India's real estate and infrastructure assets by 2011.

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