· Dubai-based alternative investment firm reiterates commitment to continued growth in India
· Evolvence India Fund II to focus on diversified growth in mid-market segment
Dubai-based alternative investment firm Evolvence Capital, announced today, the forthcoming launch of Evolvence India Fund II - its third India focused fund.
Evolvence India Fund II, which is a private equity fund of funds, is targeting a corpus of US$ 400 million from institutional and high net worth clients from across the globe. The fund aims to make select investments in the mid-market growth capital segment in the Indian private equity market, through fund investments, co-investments and direct investments.
This new fund from Evolvence Capital follows the successful closing of Evolvence India Fund I in 2007 and Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund, a healthcare and life sciences fund in 2008. Evolvence India Fund II will invest with high quality private equity fund managers and established entrepreneurs in India and may selectively consider investments in secondary private equity opportunities.
“The Indian economy has shown considerable resilience registering a 7.2% growth in FY10 even during the global economic downturn,” said Khaled Al Muhairy, Chief Executive Officer of Evolvence Capital. “We believe that this growth is broad based and will translate into long term potential in the Indian private equity space. Evolvence is committed to India and has been actively investing in this market since 2004. Our investors recognize India’s potential, and we strive to offer them exceptional returns by identifying attractive investment opportunities in the country. The new fund from Evolvence Capital will be focused on the mid-market growth segments, where companies need expansion capital to scale up their activities.”
“We believe that the rapidly emerging Indian private equity space offers great opportunities for our institutional and high net worth investors,” said Ajit Kumar, Managing Director of Evolvence India Fund.
“In India, we see a shift in PE investments from IT & ITeS sectors to other broader areas of the Indian economy. We are of the view that PE investments will play a critical role in India’s growth story in the coming years as rising private consumption and urbanization requires substantial investments in micro, small and medium enterprises to mega infrastructure projects. Over the next few years, there will be numerous growth capital opportunities in FMCG, Agro and food processing, Auto Ancillaries, Pharma and Healthcare and Infrastructure enabling sectors etc,” concluded Kumar.
Evolvence India Fund I was the first successful India-dedicated fund of funds. It had its final close in July 2007 with US$ 250 million of commitments, which has been deployed across 10 funds and 8 co-investments/direct investments. In addition, the management team has invested US$ 50 million on behalf of investors in side pocket transactions.
Fund I has a well diversified portfolio, with exposure to more than 120 companies in high growth sectors in India. Fund I investments include India Value Fund, New York Life Investment Management India Fund, IDFC Private Equity Fund and Ascent India Fund (formerly UTI Ventures), while select direct investments include Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited, Zylog Systems and Centurion Bank of Punjab. Having experienced impressive growth in the size and profitability of its underlying holdings, the fund is entering its exit phase and expects to have substantial realizations in the next 2-3 years.
About Evolvence Capital:
Evolvence Capital is a UAE-based alternative investment firm with over USD 1 billion of assets under management. One of the first alternative investment firms to be established in the Middle East and North Africa region, its investment focus is on emerging markets, specifically the GCC region and India. In addition to the Evolvence India Fund, Evolvence manages a number of investment funds, including, amongst others, the Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund (a private equity fund focused on investing in healthcare companies in India), the Evolvence MENA Hedge Fund (a hedge fund targeting the MENA region) and Evolvence Education Holding (a fund focused on investing and developing schools in the MENA region).
