Motilal Oswal Ventures Capital Advisors on Tuesday said its 125-million-dollars private equity fund -India Business Excellence Fund- plans to invest in 10-12 companies by this year-end.

"We are close to sealing a few transactions within the next few weeks," a Motilal Oswal Venture Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd (MOVCAPL) official told PTI here.

The company was already evaluating various companies in which to pump in investment and "by end-this year, we hope to complete investments in about a dozen companies," the official said.

The 125-million-dollar growth stage fund which achieved its final closing in December last, invests across sectors except in retail and real estate.

"We are sector-agnostic and typically invest in the range of 5-15 million dollars and primarily in unlisted companies," he said.

The company has so far invested in four companies-- Time Technoplast (before it went public), Effort BPO, RT Outsourcing and IMP Powers.

"Of this, IMP Powers is a listed company, but we invested here because we found it a great turn-around story and had a good track-record," he said.

The fund has now invested in Rajasthan-based non-banking finance company, AU Financiers (India), which provides finance to rural and semi-urban areas in the state.

"Our investment in AU Financiers is in the form of equity-linked instrument--at a later stage, it will get converted into equity shares," the official said, without disclosing the amount invested.

Source: Economic Times