ChrysCapital Investment Advisors has finished the fundraising for its sixth vehicle, raising $510 million as hard cap, according to reports. The new fund, which won’t be including the founder and senior managing director Ashish Dhawan as a partner, will take the firm’s AUM to $2.5 billion across six funds.
Sanjiv Kaul, managing director of ChrysCapital, confirmed the fundraising to VCCircle. ChrysCapital had raised $1.25 billion for its fifth fund in 2007, which is the largest India-dedicated private equity fund raised till date. But in 2010, the PE firm slashed the size of that fund to $950 million.
ChrysCapital VI LLC will be one of the largest funds raised by an India-focused General Partner after Everstone Capital raised $580 million last year. Other major funds raised by sector-agnostics GPs include Multiple Alternate Asset Management’s $400 million fund in 2011, Tata Opportunities Fund’s second close at $550 million (targeting $1 billion) and CX Partners’ $515 million in 2010.
The new fund also comes at a time when fundraising is becoming tougher with Limited Partners reviewing India allocations on the back of low returns (from existing commitments) and policy paralysis.
The new fund will also come after in the ChrysCapital team, which saw founder Dhawan and managing director Brahmal Vasudevan leaving. The remaining six managing directors – Ashley Menezes, Gulpreet Kohli, Kunal Shroff, Sanjay Kukreja, Ravi Bahl and Sanjiv Kaul – are expected to lead the new fund.
VCCircle reported last year that ChrysCapital VI made a first close at $225 million, raising money from investors like Harvard Management Company, endowment and related financial assets manager for Harvard University; Asia Alternatives, an Asia-based alternate asset management firm; Adam Street, a Singapore-based private equity investment management firm and some sovereign wealth funds.
ChrysCapital VI is expected to continue with the strategy of growth capital investments. According to an AVCJ report, the fund will typically invest $30-50 million per deal, building a portfolio of 12-14 companies. Over the last 4-5 years, ChrysCapital has focused more on investments in listed companies, although it could not be ascertained whether that strategy would continue.
However, the firm will continue to focus on sectors like pharmaceuticals, financial services, IT, consumer, infrastructure, manufacturing and healthcare. Some of the recent investments made by ChrysCapital include Karur Vysya Bank and Intas Pharmaceuticals.
