Private equity firm Everstone Capital Asia has announced the final close of its third sector-agnostic but consumer theme fund, Everstone Capital Partners III LP, at $730 million.
The PE firm was chasing to raise $650-700 million in the fund and closed it with an oversubscription. It had made a first close of the fund last December at $301.5 million.
This fundraising comprises $700 million of Limited Partner (LP) capital from leading institutional investors, and an additional $30 million commitment from Everstone and its affiliates, it said on Tuesday.
The company said over half of the capital came from North America, while Europe constituted approximately 37 per cent. The investors include public pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and select asset managers. A select number of new marquee LPs also joined.
IFC, which has both direct investments in India as well as LP interest in a clutch of Indian private equity firms, had committed up to $50 million to the fund.
Campbell Lutyens acted as exclusive global placement agent and Akin Gump acted as lead counsel.
The fund that will invest in consumer goods and services, including healthcare, education and financial services, is one of the biggest India-focused PE funds to be raised in recent times.
AION Capital Partners, a joint venture between Apollo Global Management and ICICI Venture, raised $825 million in a special situations fund last year. Last year, IDFC Alternatives also raised a large infra PE fund.
The biggest India-focused sector agnostic fund ever was raised by ChrysCapital. The PE firm had received commitment for a record $1.25 billion for its fifth fund in 2007, at the peak of the previous bull-run in the market and fast paced growth in the economy. But in 2010, ChrysCap slashed the size of that fund to $950 million.
This remains the largest India-dedicated private equity fund raised to date, excluding infra funds raised by 3i and IDFC. WestBridge Capital currently has $825 million in its evergreen fund. Early this year, VC and growth equity firm Sequoia Capital topped its existing fund to take the corpus of its new fund to $740 million.
This is also the second large India-focused PE fund raised in the last three months. In July, India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) raised $700 million in its fifth India-focused fund.
The previous sector agnostic PE fund of Everstone, Everstone Capital Partners II, closed in 2011 with total commitments of $580 million. The first fund, Indivision India Partners was a $425 million private equity fund raised in September 2006.
Besides its sector agnostic funds which have a bias towards consumer services firms, Everstone also has a platform for investment in industrial real estate under IndoSpace Logistics.
It has been busy inking deals from its existing funds. Last week it said it will acquire the bakery business of FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever Ltd housed under its unit Modern Foods.
In July this year, it signed a deal to invest up to Rs 85 crore (approximately $13.4 million) in restaurateur Zorawar Kalra's Massive Restaurants, which runs the Indian-themed Masala Library, Made in Punjab and Farzi Cafe chain of restaurants and cafes.
Everstone Capital has invested Rs 1,200 crore in F&B Asia, which has under it fold assets such as Pind Balluchi, Harry's, The Disgruntled Chef, besides local franchise of Domino's in Indonesia and Burger King in India and Indonesia, among others.
