Larsen & Toubro Ltd., India’s largest engineering company, plans to create a $300 million private equity fund to invest in power, road projects in India, said N. Sivaraman, senior vice president for financial services reported Bloomberg. Larsen’s plan follows an investment by Morgan Stanley and a group of companies that invested in utility Asian Genco Pte in India’s biggest private equity transaction this year. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and a group of global investors will invest $425 million in Asian Genco, which is developing about 4,000 megawatts of hydro, thermal and wind power projects in India.
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Sudip Bandyopadhyay, former managing director of Indian billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Money, has started a financial services company backed by private equity firm CX Partners. Bandyopadhyay’s Convexity will offer equity broking and portfolio advisory services with a focus on derivatives, according to an e-mailed statement recently as reported by Bloomberg. Bandyopadhyay quit Reliance Money and joined Spice Group to head its financial services business in November. CX Partners, a $500 million buyout fund whose investors include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., will name two people to Convexity’s board, according to the statement. The fund is managed by Ajay Relan, a former managing director of Citigroup Inc.’s private equity arm in India. Blackstone Group LP, the largest private-equity firm, plans to invest 2.25 billion rupees ($50 million) in the owner of Dainik Jagran, the Hindi-language broadsheet that says it’s the world’s most widely read newspaper reported Bloomberg. The New York-based firm is investing in Jagran Media Network Pvt., which holds a majority stake in Indian newspaper publisher Jagran Prakashan Ltd., as local-language publications are poised to grow. Dainik Jagran has 54.6 million readers and prints 37 editions and more than 200 sub-editions across 11 states, according to a joint statement by Blackstone and Jagran Media. Red Fort Capital Advisors Pvt., a real estate private equity fund, plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India’s property market over the next few years to tap demand in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy reported Bloomberg. The firm has invested $400 million since 2007, mainly in residential projects, and may consider investing in offices, hotels and shopping malls, Managing Director Subhash Bedi said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday. Demand for homes is picking up and Red Fort and its partners have sold 3,000 apartments over the last six months in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, Bedi said. Red Fort has invested in projects with Parsvnath Developers Ltd. in the New Delhi area, and with closely held Prestige Group in Bangalore, he said. “In India, there’s a growing middle class whose incomes are rising, the economy is consumption-led, investments come from high domestic savings and it’s a growing economy,” said Bedi. “Mortgage penetration rate is miniscule and as the penetration rate increases, more Indians will be buying homes.” Red Fort Capital has returned an average 25 percent to its investors in each of the past three years, he said. Red Fort Capital Advisors Pvt., a real estate private equity fund, plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India’s property market over the next few years to tap demand in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy.The firm has invested $400 million since 2007, mainly in residential projects, and may consider investing in offices, hotels and shopping malls, Managing Director Subhash Bedi said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday.
Demand for homes is picking up and Red Fort and its partners have sold 3,000 apartments over the last six months in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, Bedi said. Red Fort has invested in projects with Parsvnath Developers Ltd. in the New Delhi area, and with closely held Prestige Group in Bangalore, he said. “In India, there’s a growing middle class whose incomes are rising, the economy is consumption-led, investments come from high domestic savings and it’s a growing economy,” said Bedi. “Mortgage penetration rate is miniscule and as the penetration rate increases, more Indians will be buying homes.” Red Fort Capital has returned an average 25 percent to its investors in each of the past three years, he said. A group of private equity firms led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) is in the final stages of investing around Rs 1,000 crore (over $200 million) in Coffee Day Resorts — a company owned by VG Siddhartha, a serial entrepreneur and son-in-law of foreign minister SM Krishna — the largest investments by private equity in an unlisted firm in recent times reported the Economic Times. The PE firms KKR, New Silk Route and Standard Chartered Private Equity are likely to end with an ownership of more than 20% in Coffee Day Resorts, which performs the role of a holding company besides running a host of businesses like resorts and IT parks apart from Café Coffee Day, the coffee chain, confirmed two people close to the transaction. This fund-raising exercise — once concluded — will value the company between $800 million and $1 billion. KKR is likely to own over 10% of the unlisted company and invest between $75 million and $100 million, NSR is likely to invest between $50 million and $75 million, while StanChart will invest around $50 million. Cafe Coffee Day, a subsidiary of Coffee Day Resorts, plans to use some of this cash to increase the number of retail outlets and also speedily add international locations to its small portfolio in Austria, Pakistan and Dubai. Read More » Dalip Pathak, who started Warburg Pincus’ private equity business in India in 1994, will again run the firm’s operations in the country, Warburg Pincus said in a statement as reported by Bloomberg. Pathak currently runs the firm’s European business. Warburg’s India Managing Director Rajesh Khanna is leaving to start an India investment business. Indian financial services group Religare Enterprises Ltd agreed to take a controlling stake in private equity firm Northgate Capital, as part of a $1 billion plan to build a global asset management business reported Reuters. Religare will take more than 60 percent in the company, while the management will retain the rest. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but based on similar transactions, the deal could value Northgate at as much as about $200 million. Northgate, with $3 billion under management, is Religare’s first U.S. deal and the Indian company is hoping to end the year with at least $60 billion to $65 billion of assets under management through further acquisitions, Religare Enterprises Chief Operating Officer Shachindra Nath told Reuters. “If we happen to get a fixed income shop, we might cross 100 (billion),” said Nath, who was speaking on the telephone after an off-site meeting in the Indian city of Udaipur. Read More » Quadrangle Capital Partners, the private-equity firm co-founded by Steven Rattner, led a group of investors in buying stakes in Tower Vision India Pvt., the nation’s second-largest independent manager of wireless towers reported Bloomberg. The equity capital and some additional debt financing will provide Tower Vision with $300 million to add to its portfolio of transmission sites, the companies said in a joint press release. The New York-based private equity fund, which manages $3 billion in assets, will take a “significant minority” stake in Tower Vision, Jessie Hsieh, who handles media enquiries for the fund, said without giving more details. This is the first transaction in Asia for Quadrangle Capital, which opened a Hong Kong office in 2008. The fund’s investments in the region will focus on telecommunications, media and technology in India, China and Australia, Hsieh said. Tower Vision, based in Gurgaon, has more than 5,000 sites in India, the world’s second-largest wireless market by subscribers, where it competes with Indus Towers Ltd., a venture controlled by Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Group Plc. GTL Infrastructure Ltd., India’s largest independent operator of mobile-phone towers, agreed to buy transmission sites from Maxis Communications Bhd.’s Aircel Ltd. unit for 84 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) earlier this month to help it double its network in India. BTS Investment Advisors, a private equity fund based in Zurich and Mumbai, plans to start a $150 million fund to invest in Indian clean energy companies amid rising interest in green power to fuel Asia’s top economies reported Bloomberg. BTS expects to start the fund by April with an initial $60 million and increase that to $150 million over the next year, Managing Partner K. Srinivas said. “There has been a perception that the clean energy industry is thriving on subsidies, but we have a different opinion,” Srinivas said recently. “The industry is maturing and it is now being commercially driven,” because of better government policy, including a more liberalized power trading market and clearer tax structures, “Like the technology sector in the 1990s, clean energy from 2010 onwards will be the main theme for private equity.” BTS plans to initially invest in companies producing power from wind, biomass and water, as well as those manufacturing renewable energy equipment, he said. Read More » The founders of Indian developer DLF Ltd will pay 23 billion rupees ($495 million) to buy out hedge fund D.E. Shaw‘s minority stake in a property trust, the Economic Times reported. The newspaper also said the country’s largest listed real estate firm has started talks with bankers for the property trust’s listing in Singapore after attempts in 2008 failed due to the global equity markets tumble. DLF had earlier said its founders would be using the proceeds from a $783 million share sale earlier this year to inject capital into the property trust, DLF Assets Ltd (DAL), and also to buy D.E. Shaw’s stake. DLF has not disclosed details of the holdings in DAL, where Symphony Capital is the other PE investor. ($1=46.5 rupees) Megha Mittal will buy insolvent German luxury fashion house Escada for an undisclosed price, the company said as reported by Reuters. All key assets of Escada’s operating business as well as shares in its subsidiaries will be transferred to Mittal’s trust, excluding those that serve as guarantor for the Escada bond. Escada, once one of the world’s top fashion labels, filed for insolvency in August after years of diminishing sales took their toll and a broad restructuring plan failed to win approval from bondholders. Mittal won the bidding war for Escada against Sven Ley, son of Escada founder Wolfgang Ley. He said on Tuesday he had teamed up with the former head of Gucci, Giacomo Santucci, and Italian investment group Borletti to mount a rescue bid. Megha Mittal, the 33-year old daughter-in-law of ArcelorMittal Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal, had also expressed an interest in Escada. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus is looking to sell its 50.12 percent stake in back-office firm WNS Global Services, the Economic Times reported. New York-listed WNS, India’s second-largest back-office firm, may fetch a valuation of around $800 million providing Warburg with an exit payout of $400 million, the report said citing investment banking sources. Bain Capital and Blackstone Group are among the private-equity funds with whom Warburg has had informal discussions even as there is speculation that software firms could be interested in pursuing the deal, it said. In 2002, Warburg had paid $40 million to buy a 64 percent stake in WNS from British Airways, the paper said. Merrill Lynch was believed to be advising Warburg on the possible deal, the report added. JM Financial, an Indian financial services firm, is looking to launch a private equity infrastructure fund that aims to raise up to $400 million reported Reuters. “We are very keen to start an infrastructure-related private equity fund. It could be up to $400 million,” Ashith Kampani, managing director of institutional corporate marketing at JM Financial Consultants. The private equity fund could be launched later this year or early next year after gauging investor appetite, he said. “We are open to putting seed money of between $50 million to $100 million and it may have an onshore as well as offshore tranche,” Kampani said. Global private equity firm TPG and U.S. fund T Rowe Price are among the anchor investors for Indian utility Adani Power‘s initial public offer to raise as much as $623 million, sources said recently as reported by Reuters. Adani, which opens its 301.65 million share offer on Tuesday at a price range of 90 to 100 each, has placed 52.85 million shares to anchor investors, said the sources. Adani Power is the first Indian IPO to get an anchor investor after the regulator allowed such investments starting last month. India’s Future Group recently said private equity firm Fung Capital has agreed to invest $30 million in Future Logistics Solutions, its logistics and supply chain unit, for a 26% stake. The company will use the capital to expand the firm’s supply-chain network. The Future Group includes Pantaloon Retail, India’s largest listed retailer, and Future Capital Holding, the group’s financial arm. Fung Capital is the private equity arm of the controlling shareholders of Li & Fung Group, which had annual revenues of $16.7 billion in 2008. Read More » India’s UTI Asset Management Company has set up a private equity fund worth $500 million in partnership with Germany’s HSH Nordbank and Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment Company, the firm said recently as reported by Reuters. The fund will mainly tap offshore clients and invest in unlisted infrastructure firms engaged in sectors such as roads, ports, power, logistics, airports and energy among others. State Bank of India and Macquarie Group plan to raise a $500 million infrastructure fund in India and to take the size of the fund to nearly $1.5 billion sources said as reported by Reuters. The fund has raised $887 million from foreign investors and aims to get commitments from Indian investors by September. State Bank has commited $150 million to the domestic leg of the fund raising. SBI Capital Markets, a unit of India’s top lender, has been mandated as the arranger, the sources said. State Bank and Macquarie own 45% each of the fund. International Finance Corp, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, owns the rest. The fund eventually aims to reach $3 billion. State Bank and Macquarie in a joint statement in April said the fund would focus on traditional infrastructure assets that generate long-term cash flows, such as transport infrastructure, telecoms, power and logistics projects. Private equity Blackstone Group will not raise its stake in India’s Nagarjuna Construction Co through warrants after the plan failed to get regulatory approval. In late 2007, the Blackstone Group announced a $150 million deal to buy shares and warrants in Nagarjuna, but had to drop the purchase of 9.1 million warrants after it did not get approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, the Indian firm said in a statement. Blackstone owns 9.3% of Nagarjuna, according to stock exchange data. Last year, Blackstone’s planned $275 million investment in unlisted Ushodaya Enterprises failed to get finance ministry approval. Renuka Ramnath, former CEO and Managing Director of India’s largest private equity fund — ICICI Venture, is fundraising for a $450-500 million private equity fund. She has formed an assets management company, Multiples, and already has a financial commitments of $150-200 million within sight from various limited partners (LPs). According to sources, the fund will be sector agnostic and will aim at investing in high-growth high-margin businesses. Ramnath is said to be especially targeting industries where human capital will be the key differentiator. “She has an impressive track record and will not look for readymade deals. She has the knack of creating winning deals,” said the source. Read More » |
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