Mayfield Fund, a US headquartered private equity fund with a presence in India, has completely exited from its investment in Fourcee Infrastructure Equipment Pvt. Ltd., the company’s chief executive told VCCircle.
The exit comes as part of the third round of funding for the bulk logistics solution provider which just inked a deal to raise $104 million from private equity major, General Atlantic.
Mayfield Fund was the first institutional investor in the company and had put in around $5 million in 2010. It was followed by India Equity Partners investing up to $25 million, with the original institutional investor Mayfield also participating in a funding round last year. The exit was made at significant mark-ups to the last round of funding.
“We have always provided good exit to our investors. We gave 9x exit to SIDBI two years back and about 10x to Mayfield Fund. They really helped us bring best practices to the company,” Rajesh Lihala, founder and chairman of Fourcee told VCCircle. Lihala added that Vikram Godse, director, Mayfield India Fund has stepped off the board of the company.
A Mayfield spokesperson said that they would not like to comment on the story.
Such an exit is significant considering it has been made in a two year time frame. Mayfield is currently investing out of Mayfield XIII, a $400 million fund focused on venture investments in the U.S. and Mayfield India I, a $111 million fund focused on investments in India-based companies.
Lihala said India Equity Partners remains a shareholder.
Fourcee provides bulk logistic solutions in specialised tank trailers and equipment in a cost-efficient manner and caters to metals, manufacturing and specialty chemicals industries. It also provides an end-to-end, full-service logistics chain to customers -- right from manufacturer’s pick-up location to the drop-off point at the customer’s premises.
Indian private equity firms not delivering good returns on exits has been the common concern of Limited Partners (LPs), who are a class of investors who invest in private equity or venture capital funds. More data points are likely to emerge in the year as the internal rates of return (IRR) that PE investors reap from the sale of their portfolio holdings will be closely examined by LPs.
Exit volumes and value lost the momentum which was gained during 2010. PE exit volume fell 38 per cent to 109 deals while value fell 55 per cent to $2.5 billion due to weak capital markets, according to VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle. Exits hit a record in 2010 when there were 175 exit transactions worth $4.54 billion in the backdrop of robust capital markets.
