Global private equity biggie, Warburg Pincus, will invest $ 75 million (Rs 300 crore) in Jaipur-based Mannat Group company, Unique Affordable Homes, to build affordable housing projects in North and Western India. Warburg Pincus will provide an initial equity line of up to $ 75 million to the venture. Unique Builders has completed nine real estate projects comprising four residential and five commercial projects mostly in Rajasthan. With a large land bank in Jaipur and its surrounding areas, the group has imminent plans to launch mega projects in the residential, corporate/commercial and township sectors.   more »

Blackstone Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of the New York based Blackstone group announced to invest approximately $18 million for a minority stake with the board representation in the Banglore-based real estate firm Synergy Property Development Services. However the quantum of stake Blackstone will be picking up in the company has not been specified. Formed in 2003, Synergy is one of the top project and construction management offices, company has already delivered 20 million square feet of real estate and presently managing assets 100 million square feet across the country, across various classes like hospital, retail, office etc.   more »

Coimbatore-based Chiranjeevi Wind Energy Ltd (CWEL), leading wind turbine manufacturer, has sold 40 percent of its equity to Dubai Investment Group (DIG), the leading diversified financial services company of Dubai Holding. Kumaravel, Executive Director of CWEL confirmed the news saying that private equity participation was sought for this closely held public limited company for expansion within India and overseas. CWEL refused to divulge the value of the deal. Dubai Investment Group, which aims to build a diversified portfolio of assets in renewable energy, has made focused investments, through its subsidiary Dubai Ventures, over the past two years in the renewable energy sector across Asia.   more »

PE firm India Value Fund Advisors (IVF) is close to picking up a majority stake in Bangalore-based Atria Convergence Technologies, which is a digital cable and broadband service provider. Sources have confirmed the development stating IVF is in talks with Atria, which is looking at raising funds to roll out its services in other cities and bring in better digital technology. When contacted, Atria Convergence Technologies managing director Sunder Raju refused to comment. The IVF spokesperson could not be contacted. However, industry sources believe that the company is looking at investments worth $150-200 million to expand its services. IVF Advisors has a corpus of $600 million. The broadcast distribution industry has been undergoing transformation since the introduction of CAS and DTH.   more »

Private equity firm Blue River Capital has picked up a minority stake in Wilson Sandhu Logistics (WSL), a freight management company, for Rs 40 crore. WSL has offices in 35 locations across the country and an agent presence in over 70 countries. The company has capabilities in multi-modal transport and also handles specialised cargo for some of its clients. WSL has recently acquired Detraco GmbH, a freight management company based in Germany.   more »

Chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji`s, private equity fund PermjiInvest has acquired 2% stake in Koutons Retail for about Rs 200 million, reports Business Standard. Through his private equity fund PremjiInvest, Premji acquired about 300,000 shares of Koutons from the secondary market. This is the second investment by Wipro Cheif in a textiles related company. Earlier he had acquired more than 3% stake in Bangalore-based Himatsingka. (My Iris)   more »

D E Shaw, a global private equity firm has picked up a 35 per cent stake in Mysore-based e-learning firm Excelsoft for Rs 125 crore, valuing the Rs 50 crore firm at Rs 350 crore. This 35 per cent stake was held by UTI Ventures, which had invested Rs 2.5 crore in 2001. UTI Ventures, with this exit has multiplied its investments 50 times, making this among the top exits in the recent history of PE/VC investments in India. UTI Ventures’ MD & CEO Raja Kumar confirmed the development but declined to spell out further details. According to industry sources, other private equity funds such as Sequoia and Cisco Ventures were in the race to pick up stake in the firm which is estimated to have pretty high net margins. According to recent information, Excelsoft posted a net profit of Rs 25 crore on a topline of Rs 50 crore. Sources further indicated that UTI Ventures in addition to selling its stake to D E Shaw, has invested a further $5 million in this firm at its present valuations.   more »

Lizer Cylinders Limited today announced participation by South Africa based Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) private equity arm, FirstRand (Ireland) PLC, a leading foreign private equity investor. RMB is advised by Rosewood Investment Advisor Pvt. Ltd in India.Lizer is promoted by Mr. Ashok Ramsinghani who has extensive business experience of over 30 years in diverse industries. Mr. Vishal Ramsinghani – Managing Director, a business graduate from USA manages the day to day operations. Commenting on the participation, Mr. Vishal Ramsinghani said, “We are happy to have RMB Private Equity as financial partner, which would help us in achieving faster growth. The RMB – Private Equity has invested INR 400 Million (US $ 10 Million) in Lizer Cylinders. The fund raised will be utilized to further expand the Company’s manufacturing capacity from current level of 200,000 to 400,000 CNG Cylinders per annum.”   more »

Cleartrip, India’s leading online travel agency received $18.5 million, making this the largest round of venture funding in 2008 – according to India Venture Capital Report. The company has raised a total of $30.2 million over the past three years. India’s travel portals have received a flurry of investments over the past two years, but Cleartrip stands out as the only company in this space to have successfully secured world class investors such as Sherpalo, Kleiner Perkins and Draper Fisher. These investors have collectively created billions of dollars in market capitalization by helping to build businesses such as Google, Amazon, skype and many others. With this pedigree of investors Cleartrip customers can rest assured that the company is backed by investors and a management team that believes that the best businesses are those that put the customer first.   more »

At least four large foreign private equity firms are chasing independent outdoor advertising firm Laqshya, and if sources are to be believed, Warburg Pincus has already firmed up plans to pick up 15-20% equity stake for Rs 300 crore in the Mumbai-based outfit. According to Laqshya promoter Alok Jalan said, “The information about the Warburg investment in our company is not correct. At the moment, we are talking to several PE funds for growth funding but nothing has been finalised.” A source told ET that Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse First Boston and KBC are also in fray but the deal is likely to go in favour of Warburg Pincus. Outdoor media firms have recently been on the radar of PE and venture capital funds. New airports, roads, highways, malls and emergence of organised retail have created the need for outdoor advertising like billboards, hoardings, mobile vans, bus shelters, promotional activities at the point of purchase and television screens.   more »