US-based private equity player Clear Trade, which is floating a $12 billion fund along with leading US private equity firms to invest in Indian power and infrastructure projects, is in talks with a leading power producer in China to float a consortium to bid for the ultra mega power projects (UMPP) in India. “We are in discussions with a leading Chinese company to form a technical consortium to bid for the UMPPs and hope to finalise it within a few weeks,” said Deepak Kavadia, managing director, Clear Trade. Some of the US funds associated with Clear Trade had made over $500 million investments in the Chinese power major, he added. The Indian government is planning to set up 9 UMPPs in the country with about 4,000 mw capacity each to add at least 78,000 mw of additional power by 2012.   more »

Despite the global slowdown and falling markets worldwide, Indian fund managers are increasingly launching India-dedicated property funds, which target 20-25 per cent returns here. Saffron Asset Advisors, which manages the real estate investments of NYSE Euronext-listed Yatra Capital, is now planning to launch a bouquet of funds focusing on India. The company is aiming at a total corpus of Rs 4,000 crore in the next couple of years. Starting from real estate, the company will launch sector-specific funds such as healthcare, logistics, infrastructure, hospitality and so on. The company has already launched Saffron India Real Estate Fund-1 and done its first closure of Rs 300 crore with Standard Life of United Kingdom. The company is planning to invest the amount in the next two months.   more »

Despite prospects of an economic slowdown, the infrastructure sector still continues to be a big draw among foreign private equity investors. Europe’s biggest publicly-traded buyout and venture capital firm, 3i Group Plc’s ‘3i India Infrastructure Fund’ had exceeded its $1-billion target. A final closing of the fund is slated to be announced later this month, industry sources said. The response from investors to the fund, which is among the largest India-focussed core-sector funds raised so far, could augur well for some of the other big-ticket infrastructure funds in the offing, including an joint initiative being floated by Citigroup, Blackstone and State-owned India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) to raise a $5- billion fund and ICICI Bank’s plans to launch a $2-billion fund.   more »