The Indian private equity venture of Fidelity International Ltd. has invested $13.5 million in Transpole Logistics Pvt. Ltd., a New Delhi-based company. Fidelity wants to take advantage of the rapid growth of the logistics business as India's economy expands.
The move comes about a fortnight after private equity firm Warburg Pincus India Pvt. Ltd. invested $100 million in Chennai-based Continental Warehousing Corp. (Nhava Seva) Ltd., a unit of the NDR Group. Warburg Pincus India has deployed $2.5 billion in the country.
Fidelity Growth Partners India has invested in Transpole through an instrument that can be converted into
equity at a later date, said Sandeep Upadhyay, who heads the infrastructure and logistics team at Centrum Capital Ltd., which was the financial adviser to Transpole on the deal.
“This investment would represent a significant minority stake in Transpole,” he said.
Transpole plans to go public by 2015, and expects to increase its sales to 10 billion rupees ($226 million) in the next three to four years.
Executives at Fidelity and Transpole were not available for comment.
Transpole is expected to post revenue of 3.50 billion rupees ($79.2 million) in the current financial year, according to a company press release, and the funds raised from Fidelity would be used to expand operations in India and Singapore and build a pan-Asia network of offices across South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Transpole offers logistics services such as freight forwarding, warehousing, distribution, third-party logistics and advisory services.
Source: WSJ