Brahmal Vasudevan, former managing director at India’s largest independent private equity firm ChrysCapital, is steering a new private equity fund along with three other partners. The fund will invest in South-East Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, besides India. The new private equity firm, called Creador Capital, is looking to raise $350 million for the maiden fund and is eyeing a first close by the end of this year, sources familiar with the development said.
Creador will have four managing directors – Vasudevan, Anand Narayan who was a director at the Chennai-based investment bank Veda Corporate Advisors until recently, Malaysia-based Jeyabalan Parasingam and a former senior executive with the Jakarta Stock Exchange (however, this could not be independently confirmed).
Creador, a Spanish word that means a person who grows or makes things, is expected to make a first close for the fund by December this year after garnering around $100 million. The four managing directors of the fund are also expected to put in significant capital themselves, which might be up to 10 per cent (according to sources), this having enough ‘skin in the game.’
An e-mail query sent to Vasudevan did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this article.
The fund currently has a team of nine investment professionals, including the four MDs, but will soon grow into a 14-strong team. In addition to investing in privately held companies, the fund will also look at investing in listed companies.
Vasudevan, who had announced his plans to quit ChrysCapital earlier this year, will also be shifting base to Kuala Lumpur now. A Sri Lankan Tamil who grew up in Malaysia and the UK, Vasudevan joined ChrysCapital in August 2000 and sits on the board of companies like JMT Auto and Hathway Cable. He has also worked with companies like Malaysia’s Astro, British American Tobacco and Boston Consulting Group.
Anand Narayan, who joins Creador after a five-year stint with Veda, has also worked with companies like Eicher Motors, Eicher Financial Services and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services.
Another new private equity firm looking to invest in South and South-East Asia is KV Asia Capital, started by former Standard Chartered Private Equity global head Karam Butalia and JP Morgan PE’s India head Vibhav Panandiker. KV Capital is looking to raise a $500 million private equity fund.
South-East Asia is increasingly attracting interest from global private equity shops as they look at other emerging markets. Earlier this month, US-based TPG Capital entered into a share-swap deal with Indonesian private equity firm Northstar Pacific to improve access to the regional deal market. Private equity firms like Carlyle and 3i Group Plc. are also looking at the region.