PE veteran Gupta, ex-TPG exec plan $500m fund

MUMBAI: M&A rainmaker and former Carlyle boss Rajeev Gupta and Amol Jain, who recently left TPG Capital, plan to raise a new private equity fund focused on mid-market buyouts in India. The duo is targeting a $500 million fund, marking Gupta's return to private equity investing after leaving Carlyle three years ago.
This will be one of the rare maiden funds to be attempted by Indian fund managers in recent years with global investor sentiment turning positive after the general elections in May this year.
Gupta was involved in several bulge-bracket deals such as Swiss cement maker Holcim's acquisition of ACC, Tata Motors' overseas purchase of Daewoo's truck unit, Flextronics' buyout of Hughes Software and Carlyle's $650 million investment in mortgage lender HDFC.
Jain, too, has a prolific private equity background and was involved with TPG Capital's purchase of debt-ridden Vishal Retail. Gupta's advisory firm Arpwood Capital will be a co-promoter of the new fund with Jain being its CEO.
Gupta confirmed the development but Jain could not be reached for comments.
The fund will look at investing in companies across sectors that might go through restructuring or are spinning off assets. Several PE heavyweights such as Apollo and KKR are eyeing majority stake in companies by buying their debt and swapping it for equity. Recently, the RBI said that private equity funds and large non-bank financial companies with proven expertise in resolution and recovery may be allowed at auctions of stressed assets.
Former Temasek head Manish Kejriwal and ex-General Atlantic MD Suneesh Sharma's Kedaara Capital raised $540 million two years ago. Earlier, former ICICI Venture head Renuka Ramnath's PE fund Multiples raised $450 million in its maiden fund.
The private equity industry - which raises investible cash from big global pension funds, university endowments and family offices - has deployed about $80 billion in India in the past decade. But it has mopped up little returns from the country where profitable exits from investments remain tricky.