Asia-focussed private equity firm ADV Partners has invested $105 million (Rs 685 crore) in infrastructure services provider Feedback Infra Pvt. Ltd.
The deal, which was a combination of debt and equity, also involved a secondary component, where existing investors IDFC Bank shed some of its holdings while L&T Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd fully exited.
The primary objective of this fundraise is to reduce debt and provide growth capital, Feedback Infra said in a statement. It didn't give the break-up of debt and equity components.
“The market is not a constraint for us – domestic or international, and now we have the liquidity to further fuel our market leadership in our chosen sectors,†said Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman and co-founder of Feedback Infra.
RS Ramasubramaniam, co-chairman of Feedback Infra, said the company’s capital structure has improved after this transaction and that the fundraise positions the company well for growth.
IDFC Bank has reduced its stake to comply with banking regulatory norms, the statement said, without elaborating.
IDFC Bank held a 24.6% stake in Feedback as of 31 March 2017. L&T Infrastructure Finance owned 23.2% and HDFC Ltd had 11.1%. The company’s founders, through investment arm Missions Holdings Pvt. Ltd, owned 41.2%.
This is the first investment by ADV Partners from its second fund, ADV Opportunities Fund II, the statement said. It didn’t give any details about the second fund.
Axis Capital was the sole adviser for this transaction.
Feedback Infra provides advisory, engineering and construction management services in sectors such as transportation, energy and urban infrastructure.
The company had raised Rs 100 crore via non-convertible debentures in 2011. In September 2015, to redeem the NCDs, Feedback raised Rs 150 crore term loans from its institutional shareholders, according to a January 2017 report by ratings firm ICRA Ltd.
Feedback Infra made a profit after tax of Rs 24.53 crore on consolidated total income of Rs 859.13 crore for the year through March 2017, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
ADV Partners was founded in 2013 by Suresh Prabhala, Brad Landes and Jianyi Zhu. The PE firm primarily invests in India, Southeast Asia and China. It seeks to invest between $30 million and $60 million, and potentially larger transactions as co-investments.
ADV Partners has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Mumbai. In 2015, it had raised $550 million (Rs 3,575 crore) for its debut fund. The firm has a portfolio of 10 investments across India, China and Southeast Asia.
In India, it has invested in Chennai-based healthcare company Dr Agarwal’s Healthcare and appliances maker Amber Enterprises. It also proposed to invest in Mumbai-listed non-banking finance company Chokhani Securities.