Maytas selling assets, wants to raise $500 million

Maytas Properties, the Hyderabad-based real estate firm linked to Satyam Computer Services chairman S Ramalinga Raju’s family, has reportedly approached consulting firms and bankers to chart out a $500 million (about Rs 2,350-crore) fund-raising plan through divestments in key identified assets. Maytas’ fund-raising exercise would see the property firm bring in equity partners in some of its ambitious projects or sell some of its assets spread across most southern states, a business daily reported.

However, a Maytas spokesperson has declined and said: “We cannot comment on market speculation.”

Kotak Realty, a real estate fund promoted by Kotak Mahindra Group, is in talks with Maytas to pick up equity in Maytas’ warehousing project. Confirming the development, Kotak Realty Fund CEO S Srinivasan said: “We are in talks, (but) no deal has been signed so far.”

Some of the assets that could be used to unlock cash, include the group’s three SEZs, an ambitious warehousing project, property developments in various cities and outright sale of land parcels in and around Hyderabad, the report added.

Meanwhile, the firm has already put on block over 60 acres of land situated opposite to the Satyam Technology Centre in the northern outskirts of Hyderabad. With prevailing land valuations in the region at around Rs 4 crore per acre, the total value of this deal could reach Rs 250 crore. Maytas has about 350 acres of land in Nagpur, Maharashtra, as part of its land bank and for 25 upcoming projects in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The funds from some of these equity dilutions are expected to meet the promoters’ equity contribution in the Rs 12,000 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project that has been undertaken by the group company Maytas Infra, quoted sources close to the development in the report.

Earlier, Satyam has called off the purchase of Maytas Properties, for $1.3 billion and a 51 per cent stake in Maytas Infra, citing "the market reaction to the decision.