The venture firm has nearly finished raising a $280 million fund for early-stage investing, according to a regulatory filing.

It is called Sequoia Capital India III. A filing from Aug. 2 shows that Sequoia has raised $264.5 million. The filing was first reported by VentureWire. The fund follows the $200 million fund it had raised previously.(Mercury News)

Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP) will raise $450 million for its third India fund for strategic investments in healthcare, pharmaceutical, IT-enabled services, FMCG and alternative energy generation sectors in India. About 30 per cent of the fund will be specifically targeted towards healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, Akhil Awasthi, partner, BPEP (India) said. BPEP’s ongoing investments in over 20 companies have come from its earlier India funds of an aggregate size of $200 million. BPEP had raised $175 million as second India fund in 2004. “Unlike several other sectors, healthcare and pharmaceutical is an ideal industry to leverage on intellectual capital. There are various niches, technologies and market segments that one could explore. There are at least 25-30 knowledge driven companies in this sector that could go for an expansion mode on their intellectual strengths,” Awasthi said. […]

US-based private equity fund Carlyle has made the highest PE investments in India in the first seven months of 2007. Its total investment of $416 million is the highest by any single PE investor, followed by Morgan Stanley and IL&FS realty fund. Carlyle invested this amount in a single deal — it invested in HDFC for 5.6% stake — through the Carlyle Asia Partners II fund. According to data compiled by research outfit Thomson Financial, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia invested $152 million while IL&FS realty fund invested $100 million. In the numbers game, Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC), IDFC Private Equity and Warburg Pincus occupy the No. 1 slot. The threesome signed four PE deals each in the first seven months. Home-grown PE fund ICICI Venture, through its India Advantage Fund V, made three investments worth $64 million. […]

In a remarkable development, veteran Indian private equity player Anil Thadani has listed his private equity fund, Symphony International, in London. The IPO raised $200 million through the issue of 190 million new shares, including $11 million invested by Thadani and his management team. Turning to the equity markets for capital could be a shrewd move given the recent turmoil in the credit markets and the threat of higher future interest rates. Following the capital raising, Symphony will be capitalised at $340 million, taking into account the $140 million the fund is already sitting on. Merrill Lynch was sole bookrunner on the deal. This is the first time that an Asian fund has followed the example of US funds, such as Blackstone which raised $4 billion through an IPO, and KKR which raised $1.15 billion. (Although KKR's share price has since dipped below its IPO price.) […]

Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile-phone operator, will spend $1 billion to expand transmission towers before joining rival Reliance Communications Ltd. in selling shares in the unit to investors. Bharti Airtel plans to sell a stake in the wholly owned tower subsidiary, Chief Executive Officer Manoj Kohli said in an interview today, without giving a timeframe. The unit will grow to be the world's biggest by the end of the year, he said. “A separate tower company gets a much better valuation than a single entity,'' said Mahesh Patil, who helps manage the equivalent of $1.5 billion in equity assets at Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co. in Mumbai. The incremental value creation in Bharti's case could be as much as $12 billion, said Patil, who has Bharti as his largest holding. Reliance Communications, India's second-largest wireless operator, valued its tower assets at 270 billion rupees ($6.7 billion) when it sold a 5 percent stake, more than the entire company's market value when it went public last year. […]