New Funds

The bank has already brought in Vivek Mehra, Ex-Managing Director of VC Tech Finance, as the Private Equity Practice Head.
Source: Livemint.com

• A new private equity fund of corpus USD 500 – 600 mn is proposed to be launched by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). LVMH, headquartered at France, is a luxury brand having a portfolio of around 60 prestigious brands in sectors like leather goods, cosmetics, perfumes, watches, jewelry, wines etc. The said fund will make investments in Indian retail chains and brands. LVMH also plans to foray into spa and entertainment and introduce its cosmetics range ‘Sephora’ in India by next year. Source: Economic Times

• IndiaCo Ventures Ltd., the financial services company, has announced the launch of a Special Purpose Vehicle in the telecom sector to invest in networking products, antennas and dish manufacturing companies, mobile applications and telecom infrastructure solutions. IndiaCo will have 51% equity participation in the SPV having an initial corpus of USD 30 mn. The next SPV in the offing is in the manufacturing sector with an initial corpus of USD 50 mn. IndiaCo also plans to launch other sector specific SPVs for real estate and IT to provide equity support to promising companies in these sectors. Source: Business Standard

• Gopal Srinivasan, Founder Director of TVS Electronics Ltd, has launched a growth equity fund, ‘TVS Capital Funds Ltd’. Srinivasan will be the Chairman of the asset management company and the fund will focus on entrepreneur development and mid-cap family owned businesses especially in Tier II and Tier III cities across all sectors. Suresh Raju from Deutsche Bank’s technology investment banking practice in Boston has been brought in as a General Partner. Source: IndiaPE.com

• Ripplewood Holdings, the New York based private equity firm, is considering to launch a USD 1 bn fund to invest in Indian securities. This will be Ripplewood’s second entry in an Asian country after Japan. Ripplewood became famous for its acquisition, turnaround and sale of Japan telecom. Ripplewood is currently scouting for a suitable candidate to head the fund. Source: Economic Times

• The ASK group, headquartered at Mumbai, proposes to launch a private equity fund of corpus USD 1bn by the financial year 2009-10. The initial corpus will be funded through internal accruals and later on strategic partners will be brought in. The group also plans to foray into mutual fund business and has already applied to Insurance Regulatory Development Authority to enter the insurance segment as well. The ASK group, promoted in 1983 by Asit Koticha and Sameer Koticha, is a financial services group with strong foothold in equity research and investment advisory services in India and abroad. Source: Economic Times

• Actis Advisors have announced to launch a global private equity fund with a corpus of USD 3-4 bn. From the corpus, USD 1 bn is earmarked for India investments. Actis also plans to launch a 10 year real estate focused fund with a corpus of USD 250-300 mn. The funds will be raised from institutional investors in the US, Europe and West Asia. The real estate fund will invest in commercial, residential and hospitality properties with the investment size ranging between USD 30 – 50 mn. The first closing of USD 100 mn has already been achieved. Source: Business Standard

•  Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital has increased its corpus to USD 6 mn by raising funds from NABARD, Cordaid (a Dutch non-government development organization), CEP Investment Trust Fund (a Canadian social venture fund) and ENAM capital. These funds will be used to support 60 socio-commercial ventures over a span of five years. Aavishkaar started its operations in 2002 and has won several global awards including the prestigious World Business Award 2006 sponsored by the UNDP-IBLF-ICC. Source: Business Standard

• Swedish Incubator firm, IQube, plans to enter the Indian scene by investing in early stage companies and entrepreneurs. IQube incubates new ventures by providing them start-up capital and free office space for a period of 12- 18 months, after which the start-up is free to scout for further funding options. Equity participation is typically upto 10.1% which can be raised to 15% in such companies. Till date IQube has made over 70 investments. Currently IQube is looking for a partner to start its operations in India. Source: Livemint.com