mumbai ajay piramalpromoted piramal enterprises said it has formed a strategic alliance with canada pension plan investment board to set up a 500 million real estate finance company in india it said the alliance will offer rupee debt financing to residential real estate projects mainly in mumbai delhi the national capital region chennai pune and bangalore it said both the entities have made an initial commitment of 250 million each for the venture mumbaibased piramal enterprises has presence in pharmaceuticals and financial services canada pension plan investment board cppib invests the assets of canada pension plan one of the top 10 retirement funds in the world this is an opportune time to be creating an aligned pool of capital to target what we believe to be very compelling financing opportunities in the real estate sector ajay piramal chairman at piramal enterprises said et had first reported the development on november 22 the nonbanking finance company of piramal enterprises will route all of its investments hereon through the new venture the company said the alliance will be advised by indiareit fund advisors the real estate fund management arm of piramal enterprises the alliance is likely to invest in residential real estate across the spectrum of affordable to highend projects depending on investment opportunities we are looking to deploy the entire corpus in the next 253 years and aiming at target annual returns of over 18 we have already identified certain investment opportunities that are likely to be finalised by march end said khushru jijina md at indiareit fund advisors cppib is keen on recycling the investments of the same size at least once with piramal enterprise after the initial commitment is fully deployed jijina said this is cppibs second such alliance in india in november cppib had entered into a joint venture with shapoorji pallonji group for investing in leased and incomeproducing foreign direct investment fdicompliant office buildings cppib will own 80 of the shapoorji pallonji alliance with an initial equity commitment of 200 million this opportunity will allow us to participate in indias burgeoning middle class residential sector which has demonstrated compelling fundamentals through ongoing population and income growth and rapid urbanisation said graeme eadie senior vicepresident and head of real estate investments at cppib