Mr. Kamal Khetan is the founder and chairman of Sunteck Realty Ltd, a real estate development company he started in 2000. He has two corporate business centers totaling around 90,000 square feet in Bandra Kurla Complex that are leased to multinational and Fortune 500 companies. Sunteck Realty's most prominent project is Signature Island, a luxury residential development in Bandra Kurla Complex consisting of 63 high-end apartments that are priced around 40,000 rupees per square foot and of which 21 have already been sold. Kamal Khetan expects the total investment in Signature Island of around 6 billion rupees to generate approximately 15 billion rupees in revenue
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Kamal Khetan - Sunteck Reality Limited Interview
1. Mr Kamal Khetan (Sunteck Reality
Limited – Interview on
Indiainfoline.com
2. Mr. Kamal Khetan, Chairman, Sunteck Realty Ltd is a first generation
entrepreneur who founded the Sunteck Group in 2000. He has done his
Engineering in Electronics and Communication from Mangalore
University. Kamal Khetan has followed a diverse and dynamic pathway
to success. He gained valuable experience working in his family
businesses of construction, finance and the service industry. Keeping in
mind the global markets and the interwoven dynamics of today's
business world, the group has designed world class business centers in
the hub of the commercial district at Bandra Kurla Complex and
successfully serviced Fortune 500MNC's and Indian Blue chip
companies.
Speaking with Anil Mascarenhas of India Infoline, Kamal Khetan says, We
will take maximum opportunity in this lean period and provide value to
our shareholders.?
3. By when do you see a revival in the real estate market? What are the
opportunities you see amidst the slowdown?
I see the market reviving in 12 to 18 months. If the market doesn’t
recover by then we have reasons to worry. Else we see this slowdown
more as an opportunity. We will look for some distress sales. If anything
comes our way we would like to grab it, of course after careful due
diligence.
4. Brief us about your JVs.
We have been very selective about our JVs and are happy with the
progress with each of them. Piramal Sunteck Realty Pvt Ltd, a joint
venture with Piramal Enterprises Ltd (promoted by the Ajay Piramal
Group) focuses on high-end realty projects in the most sought after
locations in metros and select Tier II cities in India and strategic
locations across the globe.
Piramal Sunteck Realty and Oman's WJ Towell (one of the oldest and
leading diversified group in Oman) group have signed an agreement to
develop high-end and mixed-use properties in and around Muscat.
Piramal Sunteck Realty and W.J.Towell have joined hands with Bank
Muscat to form a new company for development of various projects in
Oman.
5. Tell us about the private equity funding.
In such a turbulent scenario, it was very encouraging to have Kotak
Realty converting warrants at an agreed price of Rs. 1,167 per share.
Following the conversion, Kotak Realty holds 10% in Sunteck. In October
‘07, Kotak Realty had agreed to pick up 10% stake for Rs 1.40bn. The
investment was routed through investment fund Kotak Alternate
Opportunities India Fund.
6. You get rental income from Corporate Business Centers. How many do
you have and what is the leased area?
Keeping in mind the global markets and the interwoven dynamics of
today’s business, the group has designed corporate business centers in
the new international financial hub, Bandra-Kurla Complex and Andheri.
We have two corporate business centers at Bandra Kurla Complex
namely Sunteck Centrako and Sunteck Certainty and one at Andheri (E).
The total area of the business centers is appr. 90,000 sq.ft. We offer
ready to use office facilities which are tailor made to the client’s needs
and specifically service MNCs and Fortune 500 companies.
7. Brief us about your other properties.
Sunteck Centre (1,50,000 sq.ft.) at Vile Parle, Sunteck Grandeur
(1,00,000 sq.ft.) in Andheri, a high end mixed use project of almost
5,00,000 sq.ft. at Borivali, a commercial and retail project of 1.5 mn.
sq.ft. at Sion, Sunteck Kanaka (1,25,000 sq.ft.) at Panjim Goa. We also
have 2 projects in Oman. In the residential space we have the
prestigious high end residential project, Signature Island (1 mn. Sq.ft.) at
Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai and a premium residential project
(1,25,000 sq.ft.) at Nagpur.
8. How many flats have you managed to sell at Signature Island? What
are the rates?
We have already sold 21 out of the 63 apartments. Due to the ultra
luxurious nature of the project amenities have been planned
accordingly. The building will feature a lounge, coffee and mini
consumable shop, children?s play area, modern health club, spa and
health care center, temperature controlled swimming pool, digital
security systems and basement parking for residents. The amenities
would match those of any seven-star hotel.
The building has duplex apartments. Designed by architect Talati and
Panthaki, this is probably the fastest construction happening in India at
present with ~500 people working on the site 24/7. Shapoorji Pallonji is
doing the construction and they will complete it within 18-months.
9. What is the investment done so far in Signature Island? How much do
you expect to make out of this project?
The total investment so far is Rs 2bn and we are investing another Rs4bn
soon. The approximate revenue we expect is approximately Rs15bn in
the next 24 to 30 months. We even got close to ~40,000 per sq. ft. at
peak. We are in no hurry to sell the remaining apartments. If the market
sentiment remains lower we may look at leasing out some apartments
but we have no reason to go in for any distress sale and lower prices.
10. What about your project in Sion? Is it on the backburner?
We have an upcoming project in Sion, where we are evaluating various
options given the depressed market condition. We will decide soon and
look to create a project that will add value to our current portfolio.
What are the new areas you would look at diversifying?
We are into already into IT, commercial and high end residential.
Fortunately, we are not into SEZ. Hotel and service apartments would be
the new areas. We will look at a good brand to manage both Hotels and
service apartments.
Would you look at merging any of your subsidiaries?
At a later date such options are open. These subsidiary companies are
sitting on cash reserves. Either we could merge it or consider giving the
amount as dividend to Sunteck Realty.
What is the shareholding pattern of the company?
The promoters hold 68%, Kotak has 10% and ~22% is with the public.
11. What is your message to shareholders?
Most of our projects will take 18-36 months for completion. By the time
the projects are ready; we expect the economy and sentiment to be on
a huge upswing and will look at benefiting from the same. In this
market, we are sitting on cash. We will take maximum opportunity of
this lean period and provide value to our shareholders.
Our shareholders will be happy to know that we have managed to get a
loan at a very competitive rate of 12.5%. A developer getting loans at
this rate in the current environment is remarkable. We have not utilized
the loan. All our existing projects for the next 2-3 years are on track. We
aspire to have our projects in prime locations nationally as well as
internationally.
We want to create shareholder value by focusing on quality, innovation
and customer satisfaction and being one of the leading players in the
industry. We are grateful to our investors and customers for their
continuous support they have provided all these years.