Bajaj Capital To Expand With $50 Mn.

Bajaj Capital is planning to raise $50 Mn. to expand it's network. Bajaj Capital is a 4 decade old investment advisory & financial planning firm owned by KK Bajaj.

Sources indicate that Citigroup Venture Capital and Barings Private Equity are among the funds which have shown inclination to fund Bajaj Capital. In addition to being an investment advisory and financial planning company, Bajaj Capital is also a Sebi-approved Category-I Merchant Banker.

The company currently has 170 outlets across the country and is understood to be expanding. Early this year, Bajaj Capital started online trading under the Just Trade brand, which also offers online investment advisory services.

As reported in Business Standard

Baring acquires 12% in Sharekhan

Baring Private Equity beat Merill Lynch to acquire 12% stake in Sharekhan for Rs.240 Cr.

The transaction is mixed secondary sale by Citigroup Venture Capital and additional infusion of capital.Last year, CVC along with IDFC had invested around Rs 650 crore to pick 85% stake in Sharekhan.CVC owns 75% in Sharekhan while IDFC holds 10% and the management and employees hold the remaining 15%.

Last year, CVC and IDFC together had acquired 37% equity owned by Sharekhan promoter Shripal Morakhia while 48% was acquired from other shareholders including GE, Intel Capital and some funds advised by HSBC PE India.

A private equity firm holding substantial equity stake in an unlisted company would be classified as a promoter. If that company goes public, the PE firm’s shares would have a lock-in period and cannot exit for a certain period. This could be one reason why CVC intends to dilute its stake, though it could not be verified independently (We suspect a hole in the books was discovered during due delligence and the promoter asked to make up. I would try to do some molework)

Baring earlier took exposure in the sector picking 44.8% in JRG Securities for $35 million (Rs 140 crore) about a year ago.

Go to Economic Times here

Barings is launching its third India dedicated fund

Baring Private Equity Partners India Ltd plans to launch its third India fund in the second half of 2007, with a corpus of at least $175 million (Rs717.5 crore) to target the energy and the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) sectors, reported the Mint. The focus will be on alternative energy projects as they have a small gestation period and are comparatively smaller as compared to the conventional power projects.

Baring Private Equity Partners was founded in 1984 and has operations in Latin America, Europe, Russia, Asia and India. The company already has two funds operating in India with interests across sectors such as information technology, life sciences, financial services, energy and fast moving consumer goods.

Baring’s Indian operations started in 1997 with a $40 million fund and its second India fund of $175 million. Its two funds have invested in companies such as Mphasis BFL Software Ltd and Integra among others.