FutureVen buys into Star Centres

Future Venture, the Kishore Biyani promoted venture capital firm, has picked up a stake in Star Shopping Centres Pvt Ltd, a mall management start-up, as part of the latter's initial fund raising exercise, sources said. The announcement is yet to be made as the venture capital entity is planning an IPO, they said. Investment details could not be ascertained and both the companies declined to comment.

Star Centres, founded by Pranay Sinha and Shilpa Malik in 2008, is the brain behind shopping destination Select Citywalk in South Delhi.

The company is currently working on three shopping centre projects in Bangalore, Pune and Noida.

While Pune and Noida developments are management contracts, the Bangalore project will be Star Centres' signature shopping mall. Sources said Star Centres has an equity position in the project.

Star Centres is also looking to launch a dozen-odd shopping destinations across the country. The company is understood to have launched the business with a start-up capital of Rs 120 crore, majority of which was spent on its equity in the Bangalore development in addition to building a specialised team to look at each of the projects to be managed by Star Centres.

According to Sinha, Star Centres has signed management deals with two developments wherein it will handle everything from conceptualising, planning, designing, identifying the tenant mix, leasing and marketing of these projects.

Star Centres has signed up with Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp Ltd and Bhasin Infotech & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd for Ishanya mall in Pune and The Grand Venezia in Greater Noida respectively.

"The focus at Ishanya is to create a high-street shopping model while the Noida project will work around the tourism theme and will be the first-of-its-kind development with an aquarium, planetarium and a museum showcasing 2,000 years of India's rich history," Malik, president and CEO of Star Centres, said.

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