Swiss PE eyes IT, pharma in India portfolio rejig after 300% gain

By Advait Palepu and Savio Shetty

 

Swiss private equity firm Partners Group Holding AG is looking to rearrange its India portfolio that has quadrupled to more than $8 billion since it first started investing in the country a decade ago, according to a top company official.

 

The fund is looking to exit some India investments and deploy the winnings in other sectors in the country such as healthcare, technology, education and shadow lending, Manas Tandon, partner and global head of private equity goods and products at Partners Group, told Bloomberg News.

 

The company raked in over $3 billion on the sale of its 23 per cent stake in retail chain Vishal Mega Mart Ltd., which debuted on the stock exchanges last week. It is now awaiting regulatory approvals to sell its entire 10.8 per cent stake in mortgage lender Aavas Financiers Ltd. to Luxembourg-based CVC Capital Partners under a deal announced in August.

 

Also in the works is an initial public offering for Ecom Express Ltd., the country’s second-largest logistics solutions company, in which it owns a 40 per cent stake.

 

“We hope to close the Aavas exit by the first half of 2025, while the draft prospectus for Ecom Express has been approved,” Tandon said.

 

The Aavas deal could fetch as much as Rs 1,400 crore ($164 million), over three times the investment made between 2016 and 2018. 

 

The private equity firm is looking to sell only a part of its stake in Ecom Express in which it had invested $325 million in early 2021. It expects to sell shares worth Rs 930 crore in the public offer, according to the draft prospectus.

 

While public equity markets have been trading close to their historical highs, Tandon believes that there are lots of opportunities for investors with a longer investment horizon. 

 

“Whether it is the healthcare sector, which is consolidating, Indian software companies creating artificial intelligence solutions that can serve global clients or in education, there are attractive investment opportunities even if valuations are higher than the global average,” he said, adding that its about investing with conviction behind an interesting opportunity.