Sahara-Turner Construction JV plans $25 billion projects
The Sahara Group today sewed up a joint venture with US-based Turner Construction and a private equity firm Acropolis Capital to undertake USD 25 billion worth projects of Sahara Prime City over the next two decades.
Sahara Prime City is the real estate arm of the Rs 1.30-trillion privately held diversified Sahara Group.
"Sahara Turner Construction will provide integrated construction services and will lead the construction of the chain of Sahara City Homes' integrated townships and other projects of Sahara India Pariwar.
"It is planned that the construction volume of Sahara Prime City will reach USD 25 billion over the next 20 years of which USD 2.5 billion will be completed over the next five years.
Sahara Turner Construction will be the preferred contractor for the execution of this entire volume of work, and will also play role as a project management company," Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy told reporters here today.
The partners did not disclose the financial details of the joint venture.
While Acropolis has been roped in as a private equity partner for the new company, Turner, which was the project manager for the iconic Burj Khalifa in Dubai, will provide its expertise in the construction field, Roy said, adding "an investment of about USD 100 million will be made over the coming years for undertaking projects."
The company will lead the construction of the chain of 'Sahara City Homes' integrated townships and other projects of Sahara India Pariwar, he said.
"All our projects under the real estate firm will be undertaken by the new venture. The new company will not limit itself to the Sahara projects but will also pursue third-party building-construction projects. We want to emerge as a multi-product and integrated construction services company which covers the life cycle of building infrastructure and real estate projects," he said.
Currently, Sahara has a 63 percent stake in the new company while the rest is held by Turner and Acropolis. However, details about revenue, investment or profit sharing pattern was not revealed.
"The investment pattern will change depending on the projects we undertake," Roy said.
Turner on the other hand has spent around USD 1 million in setting up the partnership, its president and chief executive Nicholas Billotti said, adding, "we look forward to making a significant contribution to the construction market in one of the world's fastest growing economies."
Roy further said the collaboration with Turner will continue in its future ventures including entering the infrastructure sector.
"We will continue our association with Turner in our future ventures as well. We are in talks with the company's sister concerns which are into the infrastructure segment for a similar collaboration to bring the best quality services in the sector to the country," Roy said.
