Amrapali group gives partial exit to JP Morgan, ICICI Prudential from Noida projects

Real estate developer Amrapali Group has given partial exits to JP Morgan Real Estate and ICICI Prudential India Opportunity Portfolio Series 1 from two of its projects in Noida.

JP Morgan Real Estate fund, which had invested Rs 85 crore in Amrapali Zodiac in 2010, has got a return of Rs 135 crore so far and will get another Rs 60 crore by the end of this financial year, said two people aware of the development.
ICICI Prudential India Opportunity Portfolio Series 1, which had invested Rs 75 crore in Amrapali Sapphire in 2011, “has so far got Rs 95 crore from Amrapali and will get a full exit in the next few months”, one of them said.

Shiv Priya, executive director at the Noida-based builder, confirmed it has managed to give partial exit to the two funds and repay bank funding of around Rs 350 crore taken for these projects despite a slow market. “Sales are definitely slow at the moment and and so we are focusing on execution at this point of time,” he said.

A spokesman for ICICI Prudential AMC, which manages the ICICI Prudential India Opportunity Portfolio Series 1, said Amrapali has reaffirmed its commitment to provide complete exit to it in the immediate future.

“While there have been marginal delays in providing the exit, the builder has efficiently managed his cash flows and has been able to service our investment from project cash flows. The project continues to have sufficient residual value and we do not foresee any challenges in securing a complete exit,” the person said.

A spokesman for JP Morgan Real Estate Fund said, “As a matter of policy, we do not respond to press queries.”

The two funds had invested at the early stages of the projects. At the moment, about 70 per cent of the towers in these projects are completed and have offered for possession to buyers.

Though these apartments, like many others in the vicinity, have been standing completed for some time now, buyers were unable to take possession because of an October 2013 order of the National Green Tribunal, barring Noida Authority from handing out completion certificates to projects that fall within a 10-km radius of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary.