Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd, an unit of Kotak Mahindra Bank , has raised $440 million through its third private equity fund, it said on Monday. The Kotak India Growth Fund II raised the money within three months mainly from the client base of the group, it said in a statement. The private equity unit of the group manages three funds - India Growth Fund - I, India Growth Fund II and Kotak India Venture Fund I - and typically invests $15-40 million in each firm, the statement said.(Reuters)   more »

Kotak Investment Advisors, the alternate investment arm of the Kotak Mahindra group, is set to launch a $1 billion (Rs 4,000 crore) infrastructure fund. The group, which consolidated its alternate investment business, currently manages two private equity funds and three real estate funds. The infrastructure fund will invest in core assets like power and transportation, which includes roads, ports and airports. The funds will be raised in the first quarter of 2008-09.   more »

The Triangle Real Estate India Fund, established by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI) and ICS Realty of India with the aim of achieving superior returns in the world’s fastest growing economy after China, has secured an investment pipeline of projects worth more than $400 million. The $500 million fund, which is due to open on March 31, is initially aiming to capitalise on the rapidly expanding organised retail market in India, says Colin Young (Pictured right), head of institutional property investments at OMIGPI. “Organised retail is wholly under-represented in India,” he says. “Retail is dominated by small operators, mainly owner-operated kiosks. Currently organised retail accounts for less than 4% of the $400 billion market. "The organised sector is expected to grow to 12% by 2010 as consumer preferences in a growing, urbanising population, half of which is under 25, increasingly shift to modern retail formats.   more »

One of the oldest global venture funds — and one with a sharp focus on what India can offer — is almost two thirds of the way through its last funding cycle which had $650 million in the kitty two years ago. Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is already planning to assemble its next war chest which, Managing Partner Pramod Haque indicated, might be deployed in 2009 and could well be around $1 billion. Speaking to the media on Thursday, even as NVP opens its second India office here (the first is based in Mumbai), Mr. Haque said the focus would increasingly be on harnessing and leveraging the reservoir of product and process innovation — much of it Internet driven — that is available in India. An indication of which sector might seem like sunrise for NVP was the recent appointment of former Motorola Vice-President Mohan Kumar as India-based Executive Director.   more »

Lok Capital LLC, a Mauritius-based venture capital fund, has raised USD 22 million from institutional investors to fund micro-finance institutions in India. "Lok Capital raised its first round of funds from institutional investors including CDC, FMO, KfW, and IFC. The funds will be utilised to finance micro-finance institutions engaged in rural and urban lending," Lok Advisory Services Managing Director Vishal Mehta said. He said with a fully functional local venture team in place, the Fund was confident of delivering support to larger number of MFIs and contribute to the overall growth of the sector. The increased capital base will enable the venture fund to reach out to a few more MFIs than what it originally envisaged, he said.   more »

In India, CalPERS made new investments of over $75 million (Rs 300 crore) in 100 new stocks, as per its annual report for the year ended June 2007. Companies belonging to oil/refineries (26.4 per cent), IT (20 per cent), logistics (14.2 per cent), banks/financial institutions (6.5 per cent) and infrastructure (5.5 per cent) accounting for the lion’s share of the fresh capital. Though the annual report does not show any investments in real estate companies, the fund’s spokesperson clarified that they have allocated $100 million to IL&FS Investment Managers for the India Realty Fund and $50 million to Sun Apollo for the India Real Estate Fund. The fund’s latest India portfolio shows that CalPERS’ top five sectors were oil/refineries, banks/financial institutions, IT, cement and telecom.   more »

Mahindra & Mahindra is setting up a venture capital fund with an initial corpus of $50 million (Rs 2 billion). The fund, which will be held by a trust, is going to invest in the group's film and media initiatives. "The name of the media company is not yet firmed up. But it is the VC fund which will invest into the media business," says a source in the company. Though the company will kick off with the film production business, it also plans to get into the television, internet and mobile space. "We are also considering the broadcasting business," the source says. The peak funding requirement for the movie business would be $75 million (Rs 3 billion), the source adds. The plan is to produce 2-4 films in the first year of operations.   more »

Gujarat Venture Fund Limited (GVFL) has raised Rs.600 million for its SME (small and medium enterprises) Technology Venture Fund. “The fund would be used for investing in various projects of both small and medium technology companies. GVFL plans to invest this entire fund in six to eight projects in a time period of one year with an approximate investment amount per project anywhere between Rs.5 and 15 crore (Rs.50 million to 150 million),” said Vishnu Varshney, CEO of GVFL, in a statement here Friday. GVFL plans to raise the entire corpus of its SME Technology Venture Fund to Rs.250 crore (Rs.2.5 billion) by 2009-10 from existing Rs.60 crore (Rs.600 million),” the statement said. “Venture capitalists invested over $777 million in 57 deals in India during the first three quarters of 2007, as per the India Venture Capital Report as against $158 million in 2006.   more »

India-focused real estate investment company Yatra Capital Ltd said it has invested 28.01 mln eur in two joint venture projects in Bangalore. Yatra said it has acquired a 30 pct stake in Palladium Constructions, for 17.86 mln eur, and another 30 pct stake in Platinum Hospitality Services, for 10.15 mln euro. The company said with the new projects, it now has invested in 11 deals and has used 146.34 mln eur of 220 mln eur it has earmarked for investments in the Indian real estate market.   more »

Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd (KIAL) has raised $440 million in a fund to invest in private equity opportunities, taking its total corpus under management to $1.4 billion. Kotak will continue its focus on investing in small and medium enterprises, mostly unlisted, a top official said. The fund has been raised entirely from institutional investors and high networth individuals in India who are Kotak Mahindra’s clients. Compared to three years ago when the emphasis of investment was on global themes, private equity strategy is increasingly shifting to domestic opportunities, C Jayaram, head of KIAL and executive director at Kotak Mahindra Bank, told ET. “We believe that is where the growth story is. Our sweet spot will also continue to be investments in range of $10 m-$30 m,” he said.   more »