NITESH ESTATES

Bangalore-based real estate developer; promoted by Nitesh Shetty.
Secret Sauce Uses the joint venture model to build some of the best addresses in Bangalore.
Financial Dashboard Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, has quadrupled its investments since 2007.
What the Smart Set Saw A young entrepreneur with verve and a differentiated, low-risk business model in a fast growing business.
Guiding Light For now, it is adrenalin. Says Nitesh Shetty, 32, "We wanted to show that young companies can fight the big boys."

Nitesh Shetty was all of 24 when he started building some 80,000 square feet of property in the heart of Bangalore city where he grew up. Shetty, at that time, had no experience in the real estate business and his first tryst was a lost court case with a prominent city builder. Shetty had managed to convince the owner of the property to jointly develop the piece of land under his firms' brand name. The trick worked.

Today Nitesh Estates is developing over 8 million square feet of hotels, housing, commercial and retail space in the country. This includes the Rs. 700 crore Ritz Carlton project – the first one from the global chain in the country. Pitched against veterans like Delhi-based DLF and Unitech who accumulated land over decades, Shetty has made a name for itself by a joint venture model. Nitesh Estate doesn't buy land but instead it makes the land owner a partner and gives him a portion of the total revenue from the developed property. Not only does Shetty save the capital for buying the property, but he also saves a considerable time in land acquisition.

 

Shetty, a national tennis player and a close friend of Mahesh Bhupati, started an advertising business borrowing Rs. 12,000 from his mother. His company, Serve and Volley, got a big break when it won the contracts for advertising in the Delhi and Calcutta Metros. Shetty wanted to do something bigger and a property in M.G Road, Bangalore's high street bought him into the thick of the business.

 

In the real estate business, this far, only companies with big land banks attracted high valuations. Shetty, however, worked with an asset-light model through his joint ventures. After six years, Nitesh's 8 million sq.ft. under development compares well with new players like India Bulls real estate and Phoenix Mills. Shetty's projects are mostly in Bangalore but he is slowly expanding to other cities. The company is developing luxury villas in Goa and will shortly issue shares to raise capital to expand its operations. With cities like Mumbai redeveloping their old precints, Shetty is looking at a large opportunity that won't vanish in a hurry.