Indian Private Equity Funds are in Style with Big Indian Players
By Azam on July 14, 2008
India has been dominated by few large players since the time of the License Raj. The Large business houses in India are setting up Private Equity Funds to acquire equity stakes and companies. Previously, business would use the large business holdings and division to fund acquisitions. Recent announcements from players like Azim Premji, Mittal , Tata, and Anil Ambania Reliance Capital have set up private equity vehicles for investment
TATA
The $29-billion Tata Group is in the process of making a major private equity push through its flagship financial services company, Tata Capital Ltd (TCL). The plans being set up PE funds aimed at mid-cap, technology and healthcare sectors.
TCL sources said each fund would be to the tune of $200-300 million, and would aim at getting investors also from the non-resident Indian community. The PE plan is part of a broader financial services game plan being put in place by the Tata Group under the Tata Capital umbrella.
Accelor Mittal
The Carbon Fund
The company also announces that it has created a new carbon fund in order to strategically engage in the carbon market and promote climate friendly solutions that are relevant for the steel industry. The fund, which has an initial investment commitment of €100 million (US$ 157 million) is currently looking at investment opportunities in renewable energy, energy efficiency, methane capture and greenhouse gas reducing technologies – all of which have the potential to generate carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. ArcelorMittal intends to use the carbon credits received from these Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation projects for compliance in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Mittal has been an astute investor in India with IndiaBulls and IndiaBulls Real Estate Funds. Also Mittal recently announced Clean Technology Venture Capital Fund to invest alongside leading venture firms Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers – to help finance clean technology innovation through the fund. The funds objectiveis to support the commercialization of clean energy technologies, which will help in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the fund will focus on ventures that have relevance for the steel industry and its customers.
Azim Premji
PremjiInvest
Azim Premji the founder of the leading software vendor WIPRO technologies is setting aside a fund of 1B of personal fortune for investment. Azim Premji holds approx an 80% stake in WIPRO with most of wealth tied up in the company. PremjiInvest is a great vehicle for diversify Azim Premji personal wealth. The fund is sector agnostic in the types of investment made. It is harder to qualify as typical PE Investment fund due to proprietary capital and being exclusive funded by Premji himself.
Previous investments, Mr Premji holds 3.33% in Himatsingka Seide while in JM Financial, he owns 2.92%. In Aventis Pharma, Mr Premji holds 1.03%. However, there is no information on the quantum of Mr Premji’s holding in cement maker Birla Corporation.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)
Anil Ambani is raising a fund with a corpus of 2B an entity separate from Reliance Capital. The Fund is seeking global investors to participate in the 1.5B to 2B fund. The fund will be professional managed by a team of investors.
The group company Reliance Capital has an existing private equity division within companies like Prime Focus, Kinetic Engineering, DTDC, Yatra Online, Financial Technologies and Southern Wind farms.
The formation of Private Equity funds from leading industrialist is a good sign of the progressive development of investment environment and opportunities. Private Equity funds will help provide much needed capital to fund economic growth for India. Private Equity would serve better allocation of risk capital if professionally managed. PE Funds will increase the number and levels of opportunities available in India.
Categories : India, Tech
Tags : Accellor Mittal, ADAG, Anil Ambani, Azim Premji, India, PremjiInvest, Tata