Textile business Raymond expands into real estate market

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 27, 2019

The textile business Raymond has launched a new division Raymond Realty as it expands into the real estate market. The business will use this new sector to monetise its land bank.

Raymond has set aside a 20 acre land parcel for its first retail development project from its almost 125 acre contiguous land parcel at Cadbury Junction in Thane. The business will develop a close to three million square foot residential project on the land which will be made up of 10 towers with 3,000 residential units inside.
 
“Given the historical land bank we have, we have decided to enter into real estate development on our own,” Raymond’s real estate business president and CEO K Mukund Raj told the Economic Times. “This is the best option available with us to enhance the shareholders’ value. We are also open to other options that would help in value creation and maximise the returns for all stakeholders.”

The land was previously housed Raymond’s flagship textile unit and the business reached an out-of-court settlement in 2010 to appease its labour union which represented almost 2,000 employees at the Thane unit. The settlement included compensation worth Rs 313 crore ($47 million) given by Raymond to the labour union to secure its support of the retail development. 

The retail development is expected to take between five and seven years but some apartments will be launched in six months. The business has all necessary permissions to go ahead and has already offered apartments to its employees and their families through a soft launch which resulted in 450 applications for the apartments.