The promoters of Casa Grande Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based real estate developer, have paid ten times the initial investment to buy out an investor’s stake.

The residential projects developer has paid over Rs 50 crore from internal accruals to Fulcrum Ventures, which brought in the seed capital of over Rs 5 crore between 2004 and 2006.

This is in addition to the ‘intermittent dividends’, said M. Arunkumar, Managing Director, Casa Grande, Managing Director, and a promoter. Fulcrum Ventures is a family enterprise with a background in the pharmaceutical industry, he said. Casa Grande, which has completed over 1.5 million square feet of built-up space, expects a turnover of over Rs 240 crore in the current year.

Its revenues in the first quarter of the current year have gone up by nearly 40 per cent to Rs 76 crore compared with the corresponding quarter last year.

The company is predominantly focussed on Chennai with a presence in the Coimbatore and Bangalore residential markets. Fulcrum Venture’s return is an illustration of the trend in Chennai’s residential space where there is a keen demand for quality and affordable products, he said.

Casa Grande’s residential development span the market segments from about Rs 30 lakh to over Rs 1 crore a house. The company has built a number of projects in Chennai and its suburbs, and is in discussions with private equity funds for project-level participation.

A few years down the line, the company, which is on an expansion mode will consider an entity-level partner either through private equity funding or capital markets, he said.

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