Bob Dhillon all Set to Become the First Sikh Billionaire in North America

Bob Dhillon is on the verge of creating history by becoming the first Sikh billionaire in North America. It all started when he went to do his MBA at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, nine years ago.

'Dhillon was quite famous among his colleagues for his stated goal of becoming the world's first Sikh billionaire. One of his classmates quoted him as aggressive, ambitious and entrepreneurial, when he graduated in 1998.
Recently, when The Globe and Mail newspaper's Gordon Pitts asked him whether he would be the first Sikh billionaire in North America, Dhillon responded, 'I hope sooner rather than later.'

Dhillon got into business at the age of 19 when he bought two houses and sold them at a profit amounting 18,000 dollars. In the next 15 years he reportedly bought and sold Calgary real estate worth about $150 million.

His publicly-listed Mainstreet owns hundreds of apartment buildings in Calgary, Alberta; Surrey and Abbotsford, British Columbia, Toronto and elsewhere. Dhillon who is 42 now owns a 2,700-acre island in Belize where he is building what he calls an "architecturally-controlled oasis in the Caribbean," with "resorts, condos, high-end houses, golf courses, residential lots." In Belize -- of which he is the consul general in Canada -- his neighbour is movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.

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source: nrirealtynews.com

Maars Software eyes real estate in India with Rs 20 bn

Maars Software International,a key player in enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, client server applications, GUI frontends, CRM and eBusiness solutions had unveiled its plans to step into real estate business in India with joint ventures to develop residential and commercial complex with Rs 20 billion project cost.

The decision was announced on Wednesday after the board of directors approved the proposal. Maars Software International started way back in 1996 in Chennai and currently has offices in Bangalore, Chennail and Chicago(US).

To capitalize the Indian media, entertainment and film distribution business, a further Rs1 Billion project cost was set aside. A subsidiary company in the name of MAARS International was approved to set up for this venture.

Shares of the company gained Rs 0.32, or 4.95%, to settle at Rs 6.79. The total volume of shares traded was 2,889,590 at the BSE.

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source: msnbc.msn.com

US based Real Estate firm turns to Coimbatore with Rs 100 crore investment

Mint Homes, the US-based Rs 300- crore real estate development and construction group, promoted by a non-resident Indian, plans to invest Rs 100 crore in high class housing, resorts, eco tourism and integrated organic farms in Coimbatore.

The investment is planned over two years for high-end residential and hospitality projects through the Indian arm, Mint Homes Pvt Ltd. This investment is raised fully internally without the aid of loans. According to Raj Natarajan, director, Mint Homes.

``The company has started construction on 2.7 acres in Sowripalayam for developing an integrated high-end housing complex and the project will be launched in January next year. The company proposes to build four towers and the first one would be ready by January 2009 and the other three by that year-end.

A park and club house would be completed before the residential complexes in March 2008.Mint Homes will also be looking at developing 250-acre township projects in selective tier-II cities like Coimbatore and Mysore."
The distinctive feature of this NRI venture would be the two to ten year warranty that comes with materials and workmanship besides its transparency and reliability.

The company plans to manage the complex and community for 10 years and then handover the management to the residents. Coimbatore with its pleasant weather, healthcare and educational institutions offered a perfect recipe for infrastructure development in the future for this debut venture.

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source: msnbc.msn.com

Unitech makes way for Unitech Office Trust (UOT)

Unitech Corporate Parks Plc, a real estate investment firm listed on AIM market of London Stock Exchange, has proposed to sell stake in three of its development projects for 234.1 million pounds (Rs 1,830 crore).

Unitech's InfoSpace projects in Gurgaon, Noida and Kolkata would make way for wholly-owned subsidiaries of Unitech Office Trust (UOT). However company intends to seek the approval of shareholders for the conditional sale of its interests in three out of its six development projects in India. The proposed sale would be conditional upon the successful completion of the UOT's offering and the listing of the units on the Singapore Stock Exchange. If the transaction is not completed, the company intends to continue to develop the projects itself.

UOT is a Singapore-based business trust established with the principal objective of investing in real estate in India to raise the consideration for the acquisition by way of an international placement to investors and an offering to the public in Singapore. UOT is also a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of India's second largest real estate firm Unitech Ltd.

Unitech Corporate Parks Plc chairman Atul Kapur said "We intend to reinvest the proceeds of the disposal into early stage Indian real estate development projects and are seeking approval to widen Unitech Corporate's investment strategy to include the hospitality, retail and other commercial and mixed-use sectors. As we are of the firm belief, that in addition to our focus on the real estate requirements of the high growth Indian IT and IT Enabled Services sectors, these are areas where we can also create significant shareholder value."

Investment strategy of Unitech Corporate Parks aims to cover 92.4 acres and provide an area of 10 million square feet of commercial property for the IT and IT Enabled Service Sectors with the completion of its projects. The minimum consideration payable to Unitech Corporate Parks for these assets would represent an average project level Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 38.9 per cent, assuming completion on March 1, 2008.

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source: nrirealtynews.com

Banks Lure NRIs into Real Estate with Attractive Schemes

The mushrooming Indian real estate market in the country has encouraged industry players to come up with a range of innovative products for people interested to pay. Whether it be real estate developers, real estate fund managers, banks or housing finance companies, all are taking full advantage of the situation. But behind those ecstatic times, some banks, with branches in India and other countries are offering innovative products to non-resident Indians (NRIs), which could turn tricky in case Indian real estate market falls into a trough, according to sources.

It involves the foreign and Indian operations of the same bank, the NRI and his friends, relatives and associates based in India. Banks are providing loans to NRIs to buy land in India if an NRI establishes an Indian company that could do business in the real estate sector.

On the other hand, the NRI keeps a fixed deposit with the wealth management division or private banking arm of the same bank's overseas operation. Unofficially, the foreign branch of the bank, with FD in its books, stands guarantee to the loan given by the bank's Indian operation to the company set up by the associates of the NRI. But the same is not officially shown as a guarantee in the books of the two branches involved.

According to the current FDI rules in real estate, any residential project in which foreign money in invested, should be on a land measuring 25 acres or more. For commercial properties, the minimum stipulated area should be 50,000 square meters.

But because of the booming real estate market, NRIs find it quite difficult to buy land at market rate, as per market experts. The seller demands prices higher than the market rate when he comes to know that foreign investment is involved in the transaction. The rates go up further when sellers get to know that the buyer wants adjoining plots which should aggregate at least 25 acres.

In the given scenario, the company established by the associates of NRI buys smaller plots of adjoining land without raising the rates much or even raising suspicion of the sellers that an aggregation is on play or even foreign money is involved. Once enough number of plots are bought, those are aggregated (to at least 25 acres) and the company then transfers the same to the NRI to comply with FDI rule. While the NRI pays back the bank in India, his FD kept in the bank overseas is also released at the same time.

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source: nrirealtynews.com