Market is the only king, you can never dominate it, asserted ace investor and billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala while adding that markets are always volatile and mysterious.
Speaking at a CII real estate event on Thursday, Jhunjhunwala said he is not a big supporter of new developers getting listed.
“If I was a developer, I would not list. It’s not a business suitable to listing. Blue Chip companies have high return on capital of 18-25%, but unitl now realtors have only burnt capital,” Jhunjhunwala said.
The billionaire investor, however, said he is very bullish on commercial real estate and REITs as it’s going to be a very big asset class by itself. REITs are big source of investment for middle class people.
Speaking on his new venture Akasa Air, Jhunjhunwala said he has a business and game plan along with the fact that the aviation will grow in a big way in the future.
He added that Akasa has already received delivery of fleet a fourth the size of IndiGo’s
Akasa, backed by some impressive aviation veterans, has hired around 50 employees for back office functions and is now recruiting pilots, flight attendants and airport staff.
Akasa’s founding team has a long history running airlines. Dube is a former Delta Air Lines Inc. veteran who also ran Jet Airways until it went belly up in 2019. He briefly led Wadia Group’s no-frills carrier Go Airlines India Ltd. and laid the groundwork for the budget carrier to file for an initial share sale.
Akasa, operated by SNV Aviation Pvt., is also backed by Aditya Ghosh, who spearheaded IndiGo for nearly a decade and propelled the once little-known startup to the nation’s top spot, eventually capturing more than 50% of the market.
The carrier will begin flying internationally by the summer of 2023 when it inducts 20 aircraft, the minimum fleet requirement to serve overseas routes according to local regulations. Akasa Air, which will take off as a low-cost carrier, has placed an order for 72 Boeing 737 MAX planes, which are fuel efficient.
Jhunjhunwala has also said he very bullish on warehousing sector in India. “Warehousing is still at an initial stage in the country and storage will be needed as a lot of companies now don’t want to give the storage responsibilities to logistic groups”
Another industry veteran Deepak Parekh, speaking at the event, said, the Indian real estate market is on an upward cycle and residential housing continues to be the star of the sector.
The HDFC Chairman said unlike many other Western countries, the demand for housing in India is from genuine homebuyers and is not speculative in nature.
“The India real estate market is on an upward cycle which bodes well for all of us. The big star of the real estate sector continues to remain residential housing in India. I hardly need to reiterate that demand for housing in India continues to remain robust,” Parekh said
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