Aditya Birla Capital Ltd, the holding company of the Aditya Birla Group's financial services businesses, said on Thursday it is raising Rs 1,100 crore ($153 million) from US-based private equity firm Advent International and homegrown investor PremjiInvest.
Advent will pump in Rs 1,000 crore while the family investment arm of Wipro Ltd's Azim Premji will put in Rs 100 crore via primary equity capital, Aditya Birla Capital said in a stock-exchange filing.
Advent will hold a 4.15% stake while PremjiInvest, an existing investor, will own about 4.11%. PremjiInvest had first bought a stake in the company for Rs 703.7 crore in July 2017. It owned a 3.77% stake in the company at the end of June.
ABCL chief executive Ajay Srinivasan said the investment represented the group’s commitment to its financial services business.
Separately, Advent International managing director and India head Shweta Jalan said ABCL was a leading financial services company in the insurance, lending, asset management and advisory segments.
"Premji Invest is pleased to enhance and deepen its existing partnership with ABCL, a company that has remained focused on creating a unique franchise through a profitable and scalable business model," the firm’s managing partner TK Kurien said.
The transaction comes barely three months after Advent raised $17.5 billion for its ninth global private equity fund.
Advent has been active in India since 2007 and had invested nearly $1 billion in India prior to the deal with Aditya Birla Capital. The firm’s most recent deal in India was the buyout of Manjushree Technopack in October 2018. Prior to that, Advent had picked up a significant majority stake in innerwear maker Dixcy Textiles Pvt. Ltd in 2017.
Meanwhile, Aditya Birla Capital is also raising Rs 1,000 crore from its promoter group companies including Grasim Industries Ltd. The promoter and promoter group entities will hold about 70.54 % of Aditya Birla Capital upon the completion of the issuance.
The company said it will raise the capital by issuing shares at Rs 100 apiece, which is at a 10.62% premium to the closing price of Rs 90.40 as of Wednesday.
It added that it will use the funds to grow its businesses and repay outstanding debt.
The share allotment is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and shareholder approvals.
