Everstone Capital, the India-focused private equity and real estate investor founded by two former Goldman Sachs executives, is seeking to raise up to $350m to invest in warehouses in India, according to Bloomberg. The firm has already invested a quarter of its $240m Indospace Logistics Parks fund, and may seek to begin fundraising at the end of 2011, after 75 per cent of the logistics parks fund has been allocated. The firm is shoring up its reserves for industrial real estate and warehousing infrastructure investment because of a shift in India from a regional tax structure to a goods and services tax regime, expected to result in companies consolidating from regional warehouses to larger, centralised distribution centres.   more »

UNIFI Capital (P) Ltd has launched the Insider Shadow Fund with a corpus of Rs 100 crore. This will be company’s sixth fund. The Chennai-based fund management company has assets under management of around Rs 500 crore and is planning to increase it to Rs 1,250 crore. K Sarath Reddy, chairman, UNIFI Capital (P) Ltd said that the company made a soft launch in June and raised around Rs 75 crore from the existing customers and is planning to raise another Rs 25 crore from the new customers. The company is licensed in India and Mauritius to manage Indian, NRI and institutional clients from India and abroad. Of the total portfolio 60 per cent of investment comes from domestic investors and 40 per cent from offshore, of which 50 per cent will be institutions nd remaining NRIs, he added.   more »

This is a story of one port, many funds and negative returns after a decade’s wait—a long-term infrastructure story gone wrong. A private equity (PE) fund managed by AMP Capital Investors of Australia is set to make a substantial loss as it sells a part of its investment in Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd in the latter’s initial public offering (IPO). It is not alone. There are quite a few other funds that are not happy with their investment in the port operator. In a rare loss-making exit through an IPO in the infrastructure sector, the 11-year-old India Infrastructure Fund Llc will see a 27% erosion in the value of its investment if the issue, which opens on Monday, gets priced at the upper end of the `42-48 price band. At this price, India Infrastructure Fund’s loss will be `18.45-24.45 per share. India Infrastructure Fund was launched in 1999 under a joint management agreement between AMP Capital and the erstwhile Unit Trust of India, or UTI. In 2001, the fund bought 5.9 million shares in Gujarat Pipavav Port for `47 crore at `80 apiece.   more »

IL&FS Investment Managers (IIML), the country’s largest private equity fund, is close to exiting at least six of its investments, mainly in the real estate sector by the end of the current fiscal. The private equity firm, with over $2.8 billion of assets under management, will raise around Rs 1,500-2,000 crore through the exits, which are mainly due to the maturing of the investment horizon, according to vice chairman Shahzaad Dalal. The returns could average 25-30% from the real estate investments that were made about five years ago. “We hope this is the right time to unlock few of our investments. We have already identified three real estate investments for exit and are evaluating a few more,” said Mr Dalal. However, he refused to disclose the name of the companies. This move has come at a time when real estate sector has started looking up and ready to provide better returns on investments.   more »

US private equity giant Blackstone Group said Wednesday it expects to double its India investments to up to three billion dollars over the next five years. The company aims to target infrastructure and the fast-growing consumer sectors, said Akhil Gupta, chairman and managing director of Blackstone Advisors India Pvt. Ltd. "We are looking at two dominant themes: infrastructure, which includes ports, power and roads, and domestic consumption, like media (and) retail," he told reporters. Over a five-year period beginning in September 2005, Blackstone has invested 1.25 billion dollars in India, of which 360 million dollars was earmarked for the power sector, Gupta said. It plans to invest as much as three billion dollars there in the next five years   more »

Subhkam Growth Fund I, the maiden Domestic Fund from Subhkam Ventures, has made an investment in Nicheken Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The investment will be the first round of growth capital, and will provide Subhkam a substantial minority stake in the Company. Nicheken is promoted by two distinguished technocrats, Dr. M.V. Pitke and Dr. T. Chandrasekaran. Nicheken, a technology oriented company, specializes in the areas of telecommunications and power electronics. The Company focuses on creating cost effective innovative add-ons to the existing equipment which have the impact of reducing the overall cost in the eco system, either by decreasing the incremental capex requirement or by improving the efficiency. Mr. Rakesh S Kathotia Chairman, Subhkam Ventures said, “with the ever increasing appetite for telecom bandwidth and power and the inherent redundancy of such infrastructure equipment (due to technology upgradation), the need for cost effective add-ons, which enhance the efficiency and life of critical equipment, is immense. Such cost effective equipments could also be a great enabler in fulfilling the government’s objective of providing telecom and power in each nook and corner of India.”   more »

Baring Private Equity Partners (India) Pvt. Ltd (BPEP), the private equity (PE) fund which has traditionally invested in the information technology (IT), healthcare and financial services space, is now planning investments in real estate. "Apart from the other sectors, real estate will be our new focus," said Rahul Bhasin, managing partner, BPEP India. On Thursday, BPEP India along with Matrix Partners India invested Rs157 crore in gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd. In March, it hired Varun Batra, managing director and head of Citigroup India's global special situations group, to spearhead its initiative in real estate.   more »

Evolvence Capital announced Thursday that it was planning to launch another India fund for a number of selected investments. According to the Dubai headquartered private equity company, it is planning to launch the fund named “Evolvence India Fund II” in the country and will raise the money from both institutional investors and high net worth clients globally. The announcement further outlined that the fund will be utilized for particular chosen investments in the mid-market growth capital division for the Indian private equity market and will be undertaken via both joint and direct investments. Evolvence’s latest fund is the third in a line of funds the Arabian company has launched geared for India. Its introductory fund was undertaken back in 2007 with the launch of Evolvence India Fund I that was about 250 million dollars. The company’s second fund was launched in the year 2008 and was named the Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund meant to support investments in the life sciences and healthcare sector. Further more, the fund will target diversified growth and will comprise a fund of funds at the 400 million dollars and will also target investments in high quality PE fund managers and already well grounded entrepreneurs in the country.   more »

IL&FS Investment Managers (IIML), one of the country’s oldest private equity funds, plans to invest $300 million, or around Rs 1,400 crore, in real estate and urban infrastructure projects by the end of 2010. The PE arm of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), with $2.8 billion assets under management, has already invested an equal amount in the last six months and evaluating some of the big-ticket projects for investment in the country, said a senior official. “We are in the advance stages of finalising 3-4 deals in residential real estate and urban infrastructure space like roads and hospitality,” said IIML vice-chairman & MD Shahzaad Dalal. According to industry sources, IIML has recently made commitments for an equity investment of Rs 110 crore in Palais Royale, a 75-storey luxury residential tower being built by Vikas Kasliwal-owned Sree Ram Urban Infrastructure. The project may entail investments of around Rs 1,800 crore, which is scheduled to be completed in the next two years.   more »

Tata Capital, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, is planning to raise $1 billion for its private equity business by December 2011, said Praveen P Kadle, managing director and chief executive officer said on Wednesday. The company has already closed the first tranche worth $200 million on the domestic side. “We have started the international fundraising process this month. In due course, we will talk more about this. Going by the initial feedback, we have got a good response from international investors,” Kadle said. The company has tied-up with Mizuho Bank of Japan for its growth fund. Tata Capital also has a healthcare fund for which they have tied up with Swiss firm HBM Partners. Besides these, the company also has a special situation fund, which helps to meet capital requirements of some stressed companies and an innovation fund to finance new technology ideas which can become big success, Kadle said.   more »