New Delhi: Real estate is the choice of investment for many of India's super rich, but Infosys' outgoing CEO SD Shibulal may put many to shame, including some of his former Infosys colleagues, with the scale of his investments in realty not just in his home country but with a wide range of apartments in the US as well.
According to an Economic Times report, Shibulal has over 700 apartments spread across the Seattle and Bellevue area in the northwest Pacific coast and his tenants include senior to mid-level employees of firms like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon.
Real estate makes up over half the investments by the family office, including resorts and projects in India.
“We believe real estate as an asset class provides a high probability in protecting the wealth against inflation in the respective geographies in the long run," said Senthil Kumar N, who manages Shibulal's family office.
Kumar did not confirm or disclose the number of apartments owned by Shibulal's family in the Seattle area.
Shibulal's office already owns multiple properties in India including the 170-acre resort Tamara resort in Coorg, that is held by the Tamara Real Estate Holding and Development. The company is now planning to invest in other properties in Thiruvananthapuram and Kodaikanal as well.
In the hospitality sector, the family office owns a 50 percent stake in Avant Garde Hospitality, that manages two restaurants in Bangalore, Fava and Caperberry.
The office also manages around 900 acres of coffee and cardamom plantations in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and owns the Organic World shop in Bangalore which sells organic produce from across the country.
In comparison, former CEO Nandan Nilekani's wife owns one residential building in Bangalore and he has a plot of non-agricultural land in his name in Bangalore. Nilekani's primary investments are in fixed deposits and shares.
Even former Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy isn't as big a player in the real estate market, with his family office primarily investing in markets and small companies.
Murthy's family office, Catamaran Ventures, makes no bones about the fact real estate is one sector in which it does not invest in and according to this Business Today report, instead has investments in 20 companies directly and around 100 indirectly through angel funds.
