Khaitan & Co and Wadhwa Group’s in-house counsel have closed Mumbai’s largest land deal of the year, in the 18.18-acre land purchase in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai from Hindustan Composites (HCL) for Rs 571 crore ($125m).

The real estate transaction has been billed as one of the largest Mumbai deal of the past year and was announced yesterday after the Bombay Stock Exchange was notified by HCL.

Khaitan & Co led for the sellers HCL and buyer Wadhwa Group was represented by in-house lawyer Pinki Karve.

Khaitan real estate and infrastructure partner Sudip Mullick was in-charge and his team consisted of senior associates Yigal Gabriel and Abhishek Sharma. Senior Khaitan partners Pradeep Khaitan and Haigreve Khaitan were also involved.

“The real estate sector is really looking up,” said Mullick.

He added: “It was a huge and complex transactions, a lot of issues between parties were taken into consideration. The process involved was totally transparent and both the buyer and seller were careful that nothing untoward would happen and that everything was smoothly conducted.”

The builder group’s chairman Vijay Wadhwa has planned construction of residential blocks on the newly acquired plot, which will be launched on January 31 according to a company press release.

HCL is a listed company headed by Chairman Raghu Mody and manufactures asbestos products.

It is understood that IndiaBulls Financial Services has partly funded the buyer by infusing Rs 300 crore in loan after Morgan Stanley’s refusal to assist.

To fund the rest of the acquisition cost the developer will use internal accruals. Consultants termed the deal expensive in light of the current property prices, reported the national daily Business Standard.

However, in 2008 rival developer K Raheja Universal had almost bought the same real estate for Rs 700 crores.

The Wadhwa Group also holds the overall national record for a land deal when it bought almost two acres at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex for Rs 831 crore in November 2007.

Photo by Maximo Lopez