The Hindu Business Line : Tayal group forays into real estate

The Mumbai-based Tayal Group, primarily engaged in the production and exports of knitted fabrics through its flagship company KSL and Industries Ltd, has forayed into real estate business with two separate companies.

The Group-managed Jaybharat Textiles and Real Estate Ltd (JTAREL) (in which the Group has around 60 per cent stake) and subsidiary company Reward Real Estate Ltd (RREL) have embarked on multi-crore construction projects in several two-tier and three-tier cities.

Jaybharat is constructing a hypermarket-cum-commercial centre called City Centre with a built-up area of over a million sq ft at Vapi in Gujarat.

It would be constructed on a 12-acre plot and will include a shopping mall, an IT park, banquets and auditoriums, a five-star hotel, a hypermarket with five screens and several food courts.

Strategic location

"Vapi is a strategic location because it lies in close proximity to the Mumbai- Surat highway. The place serves as headquarters to around 15,000 manufacturing and trading companies, which have works in places such as Silvassa, Daman, Valsad and Surat. City Centre will target corporates from these places," said Mr Saurabh Tayal, Chairman of JTAREL and RREL.

City Centre will house the best of anchors in its shopping and banquets sections. The company is holding negotiations with major hoteliers and IT companies to set up shop. German architecture company O2 is engaged in the design.

According to Mr Tayal, Jaybharat will invest Rs 200 crore in the project, which will be ready for operations in three years.

Jaybharat is also in the process of acquiring land for construction at Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar.

Reward Real Estate Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of KSL and Industries Ltd, has begun the construction of Empress City, a Rs 450-crore integrated township project in Nagpur.

"The project, spread over 25 acres, aims to create a premium housing complex, a multiplex, an edition of Taj Hotels and an IT park. The project is likely to be completed by December 2007. The project is coming up on the land belonging to the defunct Empress Mills," said Mr Tayal.

The company is also considering other locations in Maharashtra, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh for similar ventures, he added.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Meanwhile, Jaybharat has reported 11 per cent increase in net for the quarter ended June 2006, to 6.49 crore (Rs 5.85 crore). Net sales rose 35 per cent to Rs 38.45 crore (Rs 51.82 crore).

The Jaybharat scrip traded at Rs 155.50, up by Rs 2.10 or 1.37 per cent, on the BSE on Friday.