Israeli Giants Enter Indian Retail Sector

February 29, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Israeli mall giants, owners of retail-linked realty assets across the world, are buying into India’s money minting retail sector. Tel Aviv-based mall giant Gazit Globe has tied up with one of the HDFC funds to pump in $150 million into developing assets, including supermarket anchored retail play. Big Shopping Group, of of Isreal’s biggies has teamed up with Lehman Brothers Real Estate Private equity to set up ‘open malls’ in tier I and tier II cities.

Israeli tycoons and families, which raked in money from core real estate developments in the US, have turned their attention to retail assets from Sao Paulo to Macedonia, as mall ownership and management provides attractive 20% plus annualised returns in developing markets. Billionair eChaim Katzman, at the helm of Gazit Globe, is no exception as he went on acquiring shopping centres from market to market.

While Gazit Globe’s retail play in the Indian market is still not clear - it is also looking at getting into business parks and special economic zones (SEZs) - Big Shopping Group along with Lehman has drawn up plans to show up with 60 centres over the next 10 years. This will entail over $2 billion in investments, with over $100 million pumped in as initial corpus through Big Holdings Mauritius, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lehman Brothers real estate private equity.

News Published Under:   Retail Market in India |

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