kolkata piramal capital housing finance one of the largest investors in the real estate sector has forayed into kolkata and expects to pump rs 15002000 in equity debt construction finance and housing finance here developers in the city view the move as a huge positive for the citys image as a mature real estate market we have been in the business for fourandahalf years and have offices in mumbai pune ncr bengaluru chennai hyderabad ahmedabad and surat were added last year we are now starting an office in kolkata it is a smaller market but one that is gaining significance and cannot be ignored said company md khushru jijina though piramal capital housing had done business with forum projects and ideal group in kolkata it had limited its exposure due to the negative perception about the market the group view on kolkata wasnt that positive so when i heard about the states good performance across various economic parameters i was pleasantly shocked we are now starting an office here we dont want to play ranji trophy we are here for the world cup we dont know what the market appetite is it looks to be the size of pune but for the right type of developer we can meet the entire requirement said jijinawith the company specializing in bailing out distressed realtors there are plenty of opportunities in the city piramal capital has invested nearly rs 1000 crore in fourfive deals in mumbai where it facilitated financially sound developers take over stressed assetsthe company is also planning to raise a 500million fund to set up an asset aggregation platform that would bring together a portfolio of yieldproducing operating properties across sectors to be set up in the next three months the platform will be established through an infrastructure investment trust or an alternate investment fund it has also entered into a strategic partnership with ivanhoe cambridge a real estate subsidiary of caisse de dept et placement du quebec cdpq to provide equity capital to residential developers across five major indian cities this is one of the first large platforms being formed for equity participation in the real estate sector after the global financial crisis in 2008 the initial fund size is pegged at 330 million