Virtuous Retail buys land worth Rs 700 cr from Raymond

New Delhi: Singapore-based Virtuous Retail South Asia Pte Ltd on Wednesday said it has acquired 20-acre land in Mumbai from Raymond for about Rs 700 crore and will invest another Rs 1,700 crore to develop a retail project.

The company, which is the retail arm of private equity firm Xander, announced an "investment of USD 340 million (Rs 2,400 crore) in a retail-anchored project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region."

Virtuous Retail said in a statement that it has "acquired a prime 20-acre land parcel from Raymond Ltd for USD 100 million and will invest an additional USD 240 million to develop the site".

The company would build a 3.7 million sq ft mixed-use city centre anchored by a 2.4 million sq ft VR Retail Mall.

Separately, Raymond Ltd informed exchanges that its arm JK lnvesto Trade (India) Ltd has entered into an agreement for sale of its property measuring 78,310 sq meters (around 20 acres) located at Thane (West) with an affiliate of Virtuous Retail for Rs 700 crore subject to payment of taxes, cost of approval as applicable.

Commenting on the deal, Sid Yog, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Virtuous Retail, said, "Prime land parcels of this size seldomly trade, especially in major metropolitan markets like Mumbai. We have been waiting patiently for the ideal opportunity to expand our portfolio into the Mumbai region."

In the first phase of development, Virtuous Retail will deliver a 2.4 million sq ft VR Flagship Centre anchored by international and national brands.

Upon completion, the mall/centre is expected to attract over 20 million customer visits annually, and generate over 4,000 permanent, direct new jobs, in addition to over 7,000 construction jobs over the next four years during the development phase.

In line with expansion strategy through organic and inorganic acquisitions, Virtuous Retail said this investment bolsters the company's development pipeline which includes centres/mall currently under construction in locations in South Bengaluru and Delhi NCR, schedule to open in May 2020 and August 2022 respectively.

Along with the existing centres in Chennai, Punjab, Bengaluru and Surat, Virtuous Retail's pan-India portfolio now stands at around 11 million sq-ft.

Rohit George, Executive Managing Director, Virtuous Retail, added, "we see strong demand for a world-class project that reflects changing consumer preferences, new age lifestyles and communities."