Homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital has completed the fundraising process for its eighth fund, overshooting its hard cap of $850 million (Rs 5,950 crore).
The firm raised capital from several new investors, including sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds, insurance companies and global fund-of-funds, it said in a statement. All major existing investors continued their commitment to ChrysCapital, it added.
“The fundraiser benefited from ChrysCapital’s strong realized track record of close to $5.5 billion in realizations through 70-odd exits," said managing director Gaurav Ahuja.
The PE firm didn't specify the exact amount it raised, saying only that the latest fund "was significantly oversubscribed past the hard cap of $850 million" by October last year.
ChrysCapital had hit the road for the latest fund in August last year. The eighth fund will take its total assets under management to nearly $4 billion.
The PE firm said the new fund will have scope to write larger cheques than before. It said that it is increasingly being invited to participate in larger deals. It can write checks of more than $200 million from the new fund and can look at deals as large as $500-600 million with the support of its strong investor base.
The firm has offered more than $650 million of co-investment opportunities to its investors in the past three to four years, including investments in the National Stock Exchange and Mankind Pharma, the statement said.
The new fund will focus on the same sectors as before – financial services, healthcare, business services and consumer. It may selectively evaluate deals in other sectors as well. The structure of the deals--whether minority or control, primary or secondary--will remain flexible.
Kunal Shroff, managing partner at the PE firm, said 2018 was a very active year for ChrysCapital. The firm invested more than $250 million across four deals in 2018, taking total deployment to over 80% of the seventh fund, which was raised in 2016.
ChrysCapital also realised over $300 million from several full and partial exits over the course of the year, he said.
The PE firm had sold LiquidHub to Capgemini for about $500 million in February last year. It also exited City Union Bank and Torrent Pharma earlier in 2018.
ChrysCapital also struck partial exits from IT services company Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd, clocking above-benchmark returns.
Its investments included acquiring a 10% stake in Mankind Pharma for $325 million, a portion of which came from its limited partners. ChrysCapital had previously invested in Mankind in 2007 and exited in 2015.
ChrysCapital also acquired a controlling stake in GeBBS Healthcare, a provider of revenue cycle management services in the US last year.
The PE firms' senior investment team includes Sanjiv Kaul, who has nearly 40 years of work experience. Sudip Nandy, the firm’s IT operating partner, has 35 years of experience at Wipro and Aricent, a KKR-backed IT company.