India-focused private equity firm Nine Rivers Capital has taken a $7m stake in Global AgriSystem Private (GAPL), a New Delhi agribusiness supply chain specialist. The promoters of GAPL also participated in the funding round to strengthen the company’s capital base. GAPL provides procurement, storage, processing and distribution services for the fresh fruits and vegetables sector, currently operates six bases in various parts of the country and has expressed plans to expand its footprint to 20 or more over the next three years. According to the company, the demand for all-season availability of produce is increasing in India in light of the country’s growing wealth and emerging middle class.   more »

eYantra Industries Limited, a Hyderabad-based corporate gifts and brand merchandising company, has raised $7.8 million (approximately Rs 35.4 crore) in a second round of PE funding led by Argonaut Private Equity. This Series B funding also saw Chennai-based Ventureeast Proactive maintaining its pro-rata investment, which was $2.1 million (Rs 9.5 crore) in March 2008 and $1 million (Rs 4.54 crore) in September 2008, into eYantra. "We plan to utilise 40 per cent of the Series B funding to seal three acquisition deals, which will broadbase our presence in the corporate merchandising sector, besides enabling us to diversify into online product customisation and basic office supplies space. The remaining fund would be used to equip our 1.1-million T-shirts capacity per year facility with technologies laser-embossing and 3D sublimation by May this year," eYantra Industries managing director Phani N Raj, told Business Standard.   more »

Aditya Birla Capital Advisors, the private equity (PE) arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, will close Fund I, its first fund, this month raising about Rs 800 crore. It had earlier announced its first closure at Rs 675 crore by January. The firm had invested Rs 50 crore last month in Anupam Industries Ltd, a Gujarat-based makers of material handling equipment. Aditya Birla Capital is the first PE arm of an Indian corporate group to close the debut fund successfully. Tata Group and Reliance ADA Group, are in the process of raising their debut PE funds. Tata Capital expects to close the fund-raising for its $350-400 million PE fund in the next six months. Reliance Equity Advisors, the PE arm of Reliance ADAG, was expected to close its first Rs 1,500-crore fund last year.   more »

Private sector Axis Bank had initiated talks with investors to spin off its private equity (PE) business as a separate entity, the lender said on Monday. The move was part of the lender’s restructuring plan, said a senior official of the bank. The lender’s PE venture, Axis Private Equity, has a fund size of $150 million. Shikha Sharma, managing director and chief executive officer of Axis Bank, on the sidelines of the MMA Women Managers' Convention 2010 held at Chennai on Monday, said, “We have initiated a dialogue with our investors and the process would take a few weeks and this would be part of our restructuring plan.” She refused to give a time frame for the plan. “We will first get investors’ approval and then decide,” she said.   more »

The corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA group, Reliance Technology Ventures on Wednesday re-branded itself as Reliance Venture Asset Management with immediate effect and said it expects to close three-six deals worth a cumulative investment of USD 50 million in the first half of this year. "We have revamped our strategy to exploit the investing potential in sectors such as clean technology, aerospace, defence, media and entertainment in addition to our mainstay of technology enabled companies. In line with this strategy, we are expected to close three-six deals in H1 2010 worth a cumulative investment of USD 50 million," Reliance Venture Asset Management CEO Harshal J Shah said.   more »

esh Khanna, former managing director of Warburg Pincus’ India operations, is set to join the breed of private equity (PE) veterans launching their own ventures, industry sources told DNA. Warburg’s India office confirmed the development, saying Dalip Pathak, managing director, who established the PE firm’s India business in 1994 and is currently leader of the firm’s European effort, will assume direct oversight of Warburg Pincus’ investment activities in India. “Rajesh Khanna will depart from the firm to pursue the formation of an independent investment business in India,” the official statement said. Unlike a few other separations in the past, Khanna’s departure has been a very amicable one, said the industry source.   more »

UK-based private equity (PE) firm Ashmore Investment, which holds 49% stake in Mumbai-based cable company Digicable Network, has initiated talks with a host of companies to sell its stake in the venture, two persons familiar with the matter said. According to an executive in the investment banking space, Ambit Finance is advising Ashmore Investment in its bid to exit Digicable, a mid-sized cable company that claims to have over 8 million subscribers. However, ET could not independently verify it. An email sent to Ambit Finance did not elicit any response. As per another executive in a media company, Ashmore has been looking to sell its stake for a few months now. As per the FDI rules in India, an international company can own up to 49% stake in a cable company and Ashmore can not increase its stake further.   more »

The Asian Development Bank may raise at least $100 million more in venture capital to invest in developers of advanced clean-energy technologies in the region. The lender has formed a taskforce to design the fund before seeking management approval, Jun Tian, an adviser at the Manila- based bank’s regional and sustainable development department, said in an interview in Tokyo today. The lender had already raised $363 million for four funds focusing on renewable energy including wind and hydropower plants in order to thwart climate change, Tian said. Clean energy investment fell 6.5 percent to $145 billion worldwide last year from 2008, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, as the global recession sapped funding for the sector.   more »

Maverick investor C. Sivasankaran has completed the first leg of yet another profitable exit, with the Sahara group repaying around Rs1,680 crore to Siva Ventures Ltd even as it has to repay an additional Rs1,120 crore by March if it wants to regain complete control over Aamby Valley Ltd, which has built an eponymous luxury township spread over 10,600 acres an hour’s drive from Mumbai. Sahara India Commercial Corp. Ltd, a housing subsidiary of the group, owns 51% stake in the project. The group had sold 49% stake of Aamby Valley City to Siva Ventures in 2007 with an arrangement to buy back the stake in three years at a pre-determined price. Siva Ventures bought this stake for Rs1,000 crore. In addition to that, it has lent Rs1,200 crore to Aamby Valley.   more »

The Burman family, the promoters of FMCG major Dabur India, is planning to set up a $200 million (around Rs 925 crore) private equity (PE) fund dedicated to the healthcare and life sciences segment. This is the second major initiative of Burmans in the healthcare space after they sold their entire stake in cancer medicine manufacturing company Dabur Pharma for Rs 878 crore to French healthcare major Fresenius SE in 2008. The Burmans are known to be investing in a greenfield facility to house the operations of Dabur Research Foundation, now a full-fledged contract research organization. Former Dabur Pharma CEO Ajay Vij will be heading the contract research entity as well as the private equity fund. When reached for comment, Vij confirmed the development   more »