IDFC PE to raise $600 million in third fund by March 2008

IDFC Private Equity, the private equity investment arm of infrastructure financing firm Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd (IDFC), is raising a $600 million (Rs2,364 crore) fund, its third since it set up operations as the country’s first pure play infrastructure PE investor in 2002. The proposed fund has an upper limit of $700 million on the final corpus and is expected to close fund-raising in March 2008 as reported by Mint.

Separately, IDFC PE’s parent, the state-owned IDFC is itself in the process of closing first-round commitments for a mega $5 billion mega infrastructure fund, which includes debt and equity. With the proposed $600 million fund, total funds raised by IDFC PE till date stand at $1.2 billion. Its first fund, India Development Fund, had a corpus of $192 million and was the first to raise capital entirely from domestic institutional investors. The second fund, dubbed, IDFC Private Equity Fund II, raised $440 million of which over 70% came from overseas investors.

The firm has invested in 22 companies till date, which includes three airports and 31 roads and bridges. It typically picks up stakes between 10% and 50% in each of its portfolio companies and invests across the spectrum in power, oil and gas, transportation, telecom, urban and rural infrastructure and social infrastructure

Sical Logistics to receive Rs. 110 crores private equity from IDFC; to hive off non-core activities

Sical Logistics Limited will receive private equity funding of around Rs. 110 crores from IDFC Private Equity from its IDFC Private Equity Fund II. The proposed investment would be through a preferential issue of equity shares. SSKI Corporate Finance was the advisor to Sical for the fund raising exercise.

Sical intends to become a pure play integrated logistics provider. It is now in the final stages of divesting its non-logistics businesses. As part of this process, Sical proposes to de-merge the non-logistics businesses comprising of trading undertakings, services undertaking and coffee plantations as per the de-merger scheme approved by the board. The ratio for issue of shares upon de-merger has been endorsed by Ernst & Young. Additionally, Sical is also hiving off some of the other non-core businesses including palm oil, refractory, auto, drums, agri-bio products, specialty chemicals and flexible shafts. Buyers have been identified and relevant due diligence exercises are currently in the last stages. It is expected that a significant portion of the hive off exercise will be completed within FY 2007.

Read more on Sical Logistics in Moneycontrol.com.

GIC and IDFC Private Equity buy 31% stake in Quipo Infrastructure for Rs. 150 crores to fund growth plans

GIC Special Investments, Singapore and IDFC Private Equity have picked up around 15.5% share each, totaling 31%, in Quipo Infrastructure Equipment Limited (QIEL) for Rs. 150 crores.

Quipo has been promoted by the SREI Group, one of the largest equipment retail companies in the country. It will use the funds to part-finance a capital expenditure plan of over Rs. 3400 crores over the next two years. Following this, the paid-up equity capital of the company is estimated to be around Rs. 90 crores with a total net worth around Rs. 225 crores. SREI’s shareholding in Quipo has come down to 15.5% from 22%. Dutch FMO and SwedFund hold around 22%, while other shareholders like Ingersoll Rand and other venture capital funds hold the balance.

Apart from internal cash generation, the company plans to go in for various debt options to fund its capex plans. Around Rs. 1200 crores of debt will be raised next fiscal. A large part of the capital expenditure of almost Rs. 2000 crores will go towards building almost 6000 telecom towers across the country. Quipo, through its subsidiary has been involved in the renting of towers to leading telecom operators.

The company is expected to gross a turnover of around Rs. 200 crores in the current fiscal and the new business is likely to double revenues from next year.

Read the article in DNA Money.

IDFC invests Rs. 45 crores in logistics company DARCL

Logistics company Delhi Assam Roadways Corporation Limited (DARCL) has raised Rs. 45 crores through stake sale to private equity firm IDFC Private Equity for part funding its expansion plans, which include starting container train operations.

The company has entered into an agreement with the Indian railways to operate container trains throughout the country and expects the new business to push it overall revenues to the Rs. 1000 crore-mark by 2008-09. The company would invest Rs. 50 crores in acquiring three rakes and 600 containers and the container freight business expected to be operational by September 2007.

The company expects the container train business to contribute Rs. 300 crores to its overall revenues in the next two years. The company operates over 5000 trucks through out the country and caters to a host of corporate and public sector companies.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Evolvence to launch Indian private equity fund

Dubai-based fund-of-funds Evolvence Capital is launching an AIM-listed closed-ended FOF in January which will invest in Indian PE funds. The fund intends to raise $105 mn for the Evolvence India Fund. The FOF will invest in a number of closed-ended PE funds focused on the Indian infrastructure, pharmaceutical and retail sectors. UTI Ventures’ Ascent India Fund, Barings India Private Equity Fund II, IDFC Private Equity Fund II, India Value Fund II, IL&FS’ Leveraged India Fund and New York Life Investment Management India Fund II will be the initial beneficiaries of the fund.

Earlier this year, Evolvence had made direct investments into Emaar-MGF Land Private Limited, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited (an engineering and construction contractor) and Eastern Silk Industries Limited (a silk textile manufacturer). Also, sometime in the April – June quarter of 2006-07, Evolvence announced the launch of a $150 mn fund for investing in small- and medium-sized Life Sciences companies in India.

For more details, read the article from Citywire.co.uk.