国际投资者重返印度楼市

Global investors got burned badly in Indian real-estate a few years ago. Now, a handful are trying anew -- but with a different strategy.

几年前，国际投资者在印度楼市损失惨重，如今，一些投资者又卷土重来，不过采用了不同的策略。

In the largest commercial real-estate deal in India this year, private-equity firm Blackstone Group made an equity investment of $170 million in a portfolio of three office complexes. That followed a $200 million investment a year earlier into a joint venture that operates an office park. In March, Morgan Stanley's real-estate investment fund invested $90 million in a joint venture developing a Mumbai apartment complex, the firm's first investment in Indian real estate in four years.

私募股权投资公司黑石集团(Blackstone Group)投资1.7亿美元入股三处写字楼综合体，这是印度今年以来最大规模的商业地产交易。一年前，它还向一家管理一处办公园区的合资公司投资了2亿美元。今年3月，摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的地产投资基金向一家合资公司注资9,000万美元，用于开发孟买的一处公寓综合体，这是摩根士丹利四年来在印度房地产市场的第一笔投资。

What is different this time around is the type of investment the firms are making. In the past, private-equity firms, hedge funds and other investors put their money in untested development companies that were building large-scale residential and office complexes for the first time.

这一轮投资的不同之处在于投资类型。过去，私募公司、对冲基金和其他投资者的投资对象是第一次建设大规模住宅、写字楼综合体而没有什么经验的开发企业。

Now, they are largely investing in actual properties, rather than companies. Since the buildings are finished or under construction and presold or preleased, the returns are clearer to see.

现在它们主要是投资实体房产，而不是企业。由于这些建筑已经完工或正在建设，并已预先出售或出租，回报更加清晰可见。

'Investors are being far more selective and far more disciplined,' said Shirish Godbole, India head of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. At the residential complex the firm invested in earlier this year, one third of the homes have been sold already.

摩根士丹利房地产投资基金(Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing)印度负责人戈德博尔(Shirish Godbole)说，投资者比原来挑剔得多，谨慎得多。在摩根士丹利今年早些时候投资的住宅综合体，三分之一的房屋已经出售。

The new approach by foreign investors in India real estate reflects a broader trend in many emerging markets recovering from a flight of capital during the global economic crisis. Capital is beginning to return to property deals, but investors have learned from the mistakes they made during the boom years.

外国投资者在印度楼市的新方针，反映了很多新兴市场在摆脱国际金融危机期间资本外逃影响的过程中呈现出的一种更普遍的趋势：资本开始回到楼市，但投资者记取了繁荣年代所犯错误的教训。

'Investors are almost obsessed with due diligence,' said David Green-Morgan, head of capital markets research for Jones Lang LaSalle, a real-estate services company. 'People want to have a greater line of sight into exactly what they're investing in.'

房地产咨询公司仲量联行(Jones Lang LaSalle)全球资本市场研究总监格林-摩根(David Green-Morgan)说，投资者几乎是迷恋于尽职调查，他们想更加明确地了解投资的到底是什么东西。

Between 2006 and 2008, private-equity and other investment firms poured nearly $15 billion into Indian real estate, primarily into companies. But many of those investments soured as developers used the money to buy land while failing to finish construction of projects on schedule. By the time many were completed, India's economy had slowed, and these properties didn't lease or sell as expected. Meanwhile, India's initial public offering market lost its luster, depriving many of the private-equity firms of the exit strategy they had expected.

2006年到2008年，私募等投资公司向印度楼市投入150亿美元，主要都是投进了企业。但由于开发商用这些资金购地之后未能按时完工，很多投资变成坏账。许多项目在完工的时候，印度经济已经放缓，房产没有如期出租或出售。与此同时，印度首次公开募股(IPO)市场失去吸引力，使很多私募公司无法实施原计划的退出策略。

Often, local partners took advantage of funds by buying them out at steep discounts, said Manish Srivastava, a professor at New York University's Schack Institute of Real Estate, who has worked as a consultant to several of the funds. Other 'horror stories' included local partners who 'instead of buying the land in the name of the company, took the money and bought the land in their own name,' said Mr. Srivastava, who declined to identify his clients.

纽约大学(New York University)沙克房地产研究所(Schack Institute of Real Estate)教授斯里瓦斯塔瓦(Manish Srivastava)说，当地合作伙伴常以大幅度的折扣买断投资基金。斯里瓦斯塔瓦曾当过多只基金的顾问。他说，其他“恐怖故事还包括当地合作伙伴拿着资金以自己的名义购地，而不是以公司名义购地。他拒绝透露客户的名字。

The largest foreign investments in India real estate included Deutsche Bank AG's $425 million purchase of a stake in Mumbai's Lodha Developers Ltd., which aims to build the world's tallest residential building in the city. Also, D.E. Shaw Group invested $400 million in an affiliate of Delhi developer DLF Ltd. in 2007.

外商在印度楼市的大手笔投资包括德意志银行(Deutsche Bank AG)以4.25亿美元收购孟买开发商Lodha Developers Ltd.一笔股权，这家开发商计划在孟买修建世界上最高的住宅楼。另外，德劭集团(D.E. Shaw Group)在2007年以4亿美元的价格投资了德里开发商DLF Ltd.的一家附属公司。

The deals have shown mixed results. In February, Lodha Developers bought back its stake from Deutsche Bank for about $454 million. The return for Deutsche Bank was meager partly because the Indian rupee lost 50% of its value against the U.S. dollar during the period of the investment. Meanwhile, D.E. Shaw was repaid around $500 million by DLF in 2009, according to research firm Venture Intelligence.

这些交易的结果不尽相同。今年2月，Lodha Developers花4.54亿美元购回了德意志银行所持有的股权。德意志银行没有从这笔投资中获得太多收益，其中一个原因是，在其对Lodha Dvelopers投资期间，印度卢比对美元贬值了50%。与此同时，根据研究公司Venture Intelligence的数据，DLF在2009年回购了德劭集团所持的股权，德劭集团因此套现约5亿美元。

So far this year, private-equity and other investment firms have invested $1.1 billion in Indian real estate, compared with $8.2 billion in 2007 and $5.4 billion in 2008, according to Venture Intelligence. Out of about 35 foreign funds that invested in India between 2005 and 2007, only four or five are left, according to Mr. Srivastava.

据Venture Intelligence的数据，今年迄今，私募股权投资公司及其他类型的投资公司在印度房地产领域已经投资了11亿美元，相比之下，2007年的这一数字为82亿美元，2008年为54亿美元。斯里瓦斯塔瓦说，2005年到2007年在印度投资的约35只外国基金中，目前仅剩下四、五只基金仍然保留着在印度的投资。

But the firms that stayed are dusting off their check books. Part of the appeal is that property values have fallen. Top-quality office buildings in Mumbai today are worth about 73% of their value in 2008, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

不过，留在印度的这些公司正打算在印度进行新的投资。部分原因是印度的房价已经下降。根据仲量联行的数据，孟买优质写字楼当前的价格大约是2008年价格的73%。

Real-estate investor Sam Zell's Equity International began scoping out the India market in 2000 but didn't buy anything until last year, when it purchased SAMHI Hotels Pvt., a developer and owner of hotels.

房地产巨头泽尔(Sam Zell)旗下的Equity International从2000年开始关注印度市场，但是直到去年才有所行动。去年，该公司收购了酒店开发商及所有者SAMHI Hotels Pvt.。

During the boom years, 'we were sitting there agape,' Mr. Zell said. 'The pricing didn't make sense.'

泽尔说，我们在楼市火爆的年份里只是观望，因为定价不合理。

Blackstone set up its real-estate unit in India in 2007 but made only one $18 million investment until last year. Blackstone executives say they were cautious about promises some developers were making.

黑石集团2007年在印度创办了专注房地产业务的子公司，但是该公司直到去年才在印度进行了一笔规模1,800万美元的投资。黑石集团的高管们说，面对一些开发商做出的承诺，他们的态度一直很谨慎。

'People thought 100-acre townships could be built in three years,' said Tuhin Parikh, managing director of Blackstone's real-estate group in India. 'On a risk-return basis, it didn't make sense,' he said. Now, he believes prices have come off their highs and expectations are more realistic.

黑石集团房地产子公司驻印度董事总经理帕里克(Tuhin Parikh)说，有人认为三年时间可以建成占地100英亩（约合40万平方米）的居住区。他说，从风险回报的角度来看，这根本说不通。他认为印度房价现在已经从最高点开始回落，人们的期望也更加现实。

'Now, you have developers who've gone through baptism by fire,' Mr. Parikh said.

帕里克说，一些开发商已经经历过火的洗礼。

Blackstone's investment in October of the portfolio of office buildings in south and west India was appealing because many buildings in two of the three office parks in the portfolio are preleased, assuring an immediate cash flow. 'India's real-estate industry has reached early adulthood,' Mr. Parikh said.

黑石集团10月份投资了印度南部和西部的写字楼项目，这项投资之所以具有吸引力，是因为投资项目所包括的三个办公园区中，有两个园区中的很多建筑都是预租的，这就保证了黑石集团可以立刻获得现金流。帕里克说，印度的房地产行业已经进入了初步成熟阶段。

To be sure, some foreign investors are still buying companies. Equity International's purchase of SAMHI reflects its longtime strategy of buying companies instead of properties, relying on its decades of experience at selecting local partners.

诚然，一些外国投资者仍然在收购印度的企业。Equity International收购SAMHI的决定反映了该公司的长期战略，即凭借该公司数十年来在不同地区选择合作伙伴的经验来收购当地企业，而不是购买地产。

Also, foreign investors in India real estate still must deal with a bureaucracy, currency risk, weak infrastructure and a creaky system of property rights. A deterioration of the global economy could once again make it difficult for investors such as Blackstone to exit their investments.

此外，投资印度房地产的外国投资者仍然需要面对官僚主义、货币风险、薄弱的基础设施和不完善的产权体系。全球经济恶化可能会像从前一样，让黑石这样的投资者难以撤出投资。

But investors are structuring deals to give them more protection. For example, Kotak Realty, an India-based fund manager that raises money from both local and foreign investors, co-invests with developers into so-called special-purpose vehicles that fund construction projects.

不过，投资者正在设计一些能够给自己更多保护的交易。比如，印度基金Kotak Realty与开发商共同投资所谓的特定目的投资机构(special-purpose vehicle)，这些特定目的投资机构可以为建筑工程注资。Kotak Realty同时从国内外投资者那里筹集资金。

The vehicles pay the fund a debt-like return of 16% to 20% annually, as well as repayment of principal at the end of construction.

这些特定目的投资机构像偿还债务一样每年向Kotak Realty支付16%到20%的利息，并且在施工结束后偿还本金。

Investors 'are standing first in the queue to get their money,' said S. Sriniwasan, Kotak Realty's chief executive.

Kotak Realty的首席执行长斯里尼瓦桑(S. Sriniwasan)说，投资者可以最先拿到属于自己的钱。

Some foreign investors also aren't counting on the IPO market as an exit strategy. Mr. Godbole, of Morgan Stanley, points out that developing homes for sale relies on individual buyers not broad capital-market trends.

一些外国投资者也不指望可以通过IPO市场撤出投资。摩根士丹利的戈德博尔指出，开发商用住宅需要依靠一个个房屋购买者，而不是资本市场的大趋势。

'It may take one year, two years, three years, but it sells,' he said.

他说，销售一套住宅可能需要一年、两年甚至三年时间，但是最后一定卖得出去。