Gold Souk – the jewellery mall developer – is planning to set up a gems and jewellery special economic zone (SEZ) with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in Gurgaon. The company plans to start work on the project within this financial year.We have got 40 acres from the Haryana government. It is an ambitious project. We plan to have residential apartments named Gold Souk City, apart from having gems and jewellery manufacturers from Thailand and Dubai who will open their units in India,” Gold Souk Vice-Chairman and Joint Managing Director Ashish Gupta said. A formal announcement of the project is expected in the next couple of months. “We are at the design stage now. We are working out how much percentage of land should individually be designated for malls, residential and the other commercial offerings,” he added. According to Gupta, the company is looking for private equity (PE) players to fund a portion of the project. “The rest would be financed through internal accruals and joint ventures,” he said. The company is also contemplating an initial public offer (IPO) over the next two years. “We are trying to identify the right time for the IPO. Right now, the market is quite unstable. So, we will wait and see if it stabilises in the next 12 months. We could then launch our IPO,” Gupta said. At present, Gold Souk has four operational jewellery malls in Gurgaon, Ludhiana, Jaipur and Cochin. This financial year, it plans to launch similar malls in Indore, Hisar, Ajmer, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai, Calicut and Selam. The company is also in talks with an international hotel group and plans to launch five four-star hotels within this financial year. “Our primary focus will always be on real estate and, this financial year, we will be launching a lot of jewellery malls across the nation. Apart from this, we are diversifying into hotels and also plan to open a hospital in Ludhiana,” Gupta said. Source: www.indianrealtynews.com
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