Wayne Burt Capital plans to invest $ 150 mn to acquire distressed companies in the power and petrochemical sectors

Fund is in advance talks with companies in Chennai & Western part of the country

Wayne Burt Capital, a deep value fund backed by US and European PE funds, today said that it is planning to invest around $ 150 million to acquire distressed companies in the power and petrochemical sectors. Unlike other private equity funds, Wayne Burt acquires majority stake in companies, turn around and then exit.

Speaking to reporters at Chennai today T G S Mahesh, president & CEO, Wayne Burt Capital "we are looking to acquire two chemical companies-one based in south and another in west- and a 160 MW thermal power company in Tamil Nadu. We plan to invest around $100-150 million for acquisitions in India,"

According to Mahesh, the Chennai-based company has been clocking around Rs 1,000 crore revenue and the Fund is talking to its lenders to acquire the company. "It is a standalone power project which got stuck. We have held talks with the promoters and others. The power purchase agreement (PPA) and the fuel supply agreements are in place for the project."

Wayne Burt manages assets over $ 1 billion, with investments in the oil & gas, petrochemicals and aerospace manufacturing sectors.

Strategy of the fund has been it would acquire the companies at significantly lower value than its intrinsic value and through effective asset management and financial restructuring unlock the value from these assets, said Mahesh.

Last year, Wayne Burt Capital and its associates acquired Chennai-based Cetex Petrochemicals which has a plant at Manali, north part of Chennai, the petrochemical zone established by the RPG group.

The company is planning to invest around Rs 400 crore in the plant to expand its capacity to 80,000 tonnes from the current 20,000 tonnes. By 2018, target is to touch a turnover of Rs 1,250 crore from the current Rs 150 crore, said Mahesh.

Post-acquisition, according to him, Cetex from a single product company has diversified into a multi-product manufacturing company and already it has signed up strategic partnership agreements with Chevron Oronite, Singapore & USA and Mitsui chemicals Japan, & Sojith Japan for the marketing and off-taking of 50 per cent of the total production for the export market.

Wayne Burt has strategic relationships with aerospace companies such as GE-Aviation, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce, oil & gas companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Chevron and Cameron and petrochemical companies such as Shell, Chevron, Mitsui Chemicals, Univar and Sojitz.