Axis Bank is in discussions with the limited partners (LPs) of its Rs 600 crore private equity fund for a suitable way forward as the third largest private sector lender wants to exit the PE fund, said Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, Axis Bank on Thursday. “We are in talks with the LPs. The PE fund business is not one of our strategic business areas. There is no timeline for the exit to happen. It could be three, six or even more than 12 months before a decision is reached. We want the LPs to be comfortable with the new promoters who will be coming in,” she said on the sidelines of the launch of its first urban financial inclusion initiative in Bangalore. Although Sharma did not disclose the name of the LPs, she said the PE fund is doing well with a professional team on board. Responding to whe­ther Axis Bank is comfortable with the present management of the PE fund buying out the stake, Sharma said: “We are not closed to that option. We will keep the interests of our LPs before taking any decision on this matter.” […]

Encouraged by a positive economic climate and quality business plans from Indian entrepreneurs, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's venture capital arm has more-than-doubled its investment target to $125-million for the year. Reliance Venture Asset Management (RVAM) has upped the earlier allocation of $50-million for investments to up to $125-million for FY 11 and correspondingly, there will also be a spike in the number of deals it closes to ten or above, a top company official said. “We had planned for 3-6 deals in the first-half (of FY 11). We have already concluded four, are close to a fifth and will do three-to-six more in the next six-months. It is an exciting year which will see us investing up to $125-million,” RVAM's Chief Executive Officer, Harshal Shah, told PTI here. Shah said it is an “excellent time for investing” because of the positive macro-economic factors, better quality business plans it is receiving and reasonable expectations on valuations, prompting RVAM to redraw its yearly targets. […]

Everstone Capital, the India-focused private equity and real estate investor founded by two former Goldman Sachs executives, is seeking to raise up to $350m to invest in warehouses in India, according to Bloomberg. The firm has already invested a quarter of its $240m Indospace Logistics Parks fund, and may seek to begin fundraising at the end of 2011, after 75 per cent of the logistics parks fund has been allocated. The firm is shoring up its reserves for industrial real estate and warehousing infrastructure investment because of a shift in India from a regional tax structure to a goods and services tax regime, expected to result in companies consolidating from regional warehouses to larger, centralised distribution centres. […]

This is a story of one port, many funds and negative returns after a decade’s wait—a long-term infrastructure story gone wrong. A private equity (PE) fund managed by AMP Capital Investors of Australia is set to make a substantial loss as it sells a part of its investment in Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd in the latter’s initial public offering (IPO). It is not alone. There are quite a few other funds that are not happy with their investment in the port operator. In a rare loss-making exit through an IPO in the infrastructure sector, the 11-year-old India Infrastructure Fund Llc will see a 27% erosion in the value of its investment if the issue, which opens on Monday, gets priced at the upper end of the `42-48 price band. At this price, India Infrastructure Fund’s loss will be `18.45-24.45 per share. India Infrastructure Fund was launched in 1999 under a joint management agreement between AMP Capital and the erstwhile Unit Trust of India, or UTI. In 2001, the fund bought 5.9 million shares in Gujarat Pipavav Port for `47 crore at `80 apiece. […]

US private equity giant Blackstone Group said Wednesday it expects to double its India investments to up to three billion dollars over the next five years. The company aims to target infrastructure and the fast-growing consumer sectors, said Akhil Gupta, chairman and managing director of Blackstone Advisors India Pvt. Ltd. “We are looking at two dominant themes: infrastructure, which includes ports, power and roads, and domestic consumption, like media (and) retail,” he told reporters. Over a five-year period beginning in September 2005, Blackstone has invested 1.25 billion dollars in India, of which 360 million dollars was earmarked for the power sector, Gupta said. It plans to invest as much as three billion dollars there in the next five years […]