Carlyle Group, the world's second biggest buyout firm, has identified India as one of its key markets and would invest in companies across sectors, earmarking between $15-75 million for investment in each company.
Carlyle successfully closed its fourth Asian growth capital fund called Carlyle Asia Growth Partners IV (CAGP IV).
It raised $1.04 billion in 14 months from a broad geographical range of investors in the US, Europe and Asia despite a difficult fund-raising environment.
"We will invest between $15-75 million in a company. Our sweet spot is typically a stake between 20-35 per cent," Carlyle India Advisors' Managing Director M Shankar Narayanan told PTI here.
The bulk of the $1.04 billion would be invested in China, followed by India and Korea, he said.
With a sector-agnostic approach, Carlyle plans to invest in companies spanning across domestic healthcare to FMCG, media and entertainment to engineering products and services to IT and IT-enabled services firms.
It is singling out companies "that have a track-record of profitability" besides the potential to grow by 30-50 per cent, both in topline as well bottomline, Narayanan said.
"In India, we would like investing in strong domestic consumption. We believe India would continue growing at a very frantic pace in the coming years. There would be a lot of world-class companies emerging out of it," Narayanan said.
Carlyle India, which hasn't invested in any Indian company in the past 18 months, is actively looking at infrastructure firms, he said.
"The infrastructure sector will grow. There is a need, there is a requirement and naturally, you will see growth there. We are studying some companies in the sector," he said.
The world's second-fastest growing economy is well-positioned because of its promising demographic fundamentals, mature capital markets and a skilled workforce, he said.
"India's strong emerging middle-class is fuelling strong domestic consumption, while the outsourcing and re-engineering of various products from all over the world to India continues to grow at a lively pace," Narayanan said.
The country's growth story is sustained by its vibrant capital markets, a resilient banking system and a pro-business stable Government, he added.
The US-based PE firm currently has stakes in HDFC, Financial Software Systems, Newgen Imaging Systems, Repco Home Finance Ltd, Claris Lifesciences, Elitecore Technologies Ltd and Great Offshore.
