Actis Private Equity, the global private equity fund with nearly $5 billion funds under management, is looking at a total investment of $500 million in India during 2010. The fund has already invested $228 million in three deals and is understood to be closing in on two or three more deals cumulatively worth around $300 million.
Actis’ Partner J M Trivedi told Business Standard that the deal flow is pretty thick and they expect to finalize 2-3 deals in infrastructure, business services such as financial services in addition to consumer segments such as branded goods.
Actis, so far during 2010, has taken significant bets in infrastructure having invested $100 million in IDFC and another $78 million in the road segment along with the Tata Group.
In addition to this, it has invested $50 million in Integreon, a legal process outsourcing firm. Actis has been focussing on investing in emerging markets and has raised over $7.3 billion funds to date and have over 100 investment professionals in 9 offices throughout Africa, China, Latin America, South and South East Asia. In the last ten years, it has invested $3.1billion in businesses in the emerging markets.
Actis’ strategy of rapidly trying to increase its exposure in India stems from the fact that the Indian corporates are looking at aggressive expansion. According to Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on PE and M&A transactions activity in India, Private equity firms doubled their investments during third quarter of 2010 investing about $2.04 billion, also doubling the total investments during 2010 to $6.5 billion.
Actis is currently investing from a $2.9 billion Actis Emerging Markets Fund III and has exposures to Nilgiris Dairy Farm, Paras Pharmaceuticals, Halonix Lamps, besides others. The PE fund is understood to be looking at exiting Paras as well as exit the automotive business of Halonix Lamps while trying to build further value in the consumer segment of Halonix. The global fund, which was recently tangled in a board room battle with promoters of Nilgiris Dairy Farm, has further added that all issues have been settled. “All the rifts have been reconciled and we along with the promoter family are charting the growth plan,” Trivedi added.
According to him, the plan is to open around 5 new stores every month through the franchisee route and take the total number of stores to 200 over the next 12 months. “Grocery retail is the most defensive segment and our sales per sq feet has been steady. We have our niche in South India and we will grow our business actively,” he added.
