After Mumbai, Vikas Oberoi looks at the National Capital Region

Vikas Oberoi

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Wednesday, December 5, 2012.

Oberoi Realty, the predominantly Mumbai-based developer, plans to enter the Delhi market within a year, joining other city-based realtors such as Tata Housing and Godrej Properties that have recently come up with projects in and around the national capital.

While Oberoi would enter the National Capital Region (NCR) in a year, the company also intends to expand into southern India at a later stage.

Vikas Oberoi, chairman and managing director, said, "Now that we know how to do multiple sites in the same city, we want to look at multiple cities. Markets like Delhi, NCR, Gurgaon and NOIDA will be looked at to start with."

Delhi with its simplified and well laid-out land acquisition processes also has a lot of established developers, he said. "We will soon set up a team and get going with developments there. It's a work in progress for now. Something concrete should happen in the next 12 months." said Oberoi.

While entering other states, he said the company will look for partnerships and initially take up small projects. "We want to set our company for the next 100 years," said Oberoi.

On expansion in other markets, Oberoi said, "In the outer circuit we have kept Hyderabad and Bangalore, but have not gone beyond a particular point in exploring those possibilities. We want to first do Delhi and will see how it works in the next 2-3 years."

On the company's serviced residences and residential development in Worli, Mumbai, Oberoi said the project is in the fairly advanced stage of being launched and details will be made public within the next couple of months.

While the market is abuzz about Mandarin Oriental being signed as the hospitality partner for the serviced residences, Oberoi did not disclose any deal.

With cash reserves of about Rs 1,111 crore, Oberoi has no plans for any fundraising in the future. But the company will have to go for an offer for sale to reduce stake in the company to 75% as mandated by the new guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.