Multiples Alternate Asset Management or Multiples PE has logged its first full exit activity by selling its remaining 3.67 per cent stake in its just over two years old investment in South Indian Bank for Rs 151 crore ($23.8 million).
In July it had struck its debut liquidity event from its Indian portfolio firm by selling a fifth of its holding in South Indian Bank. The PE firm had sold its shares to a hedge fund run by Indian origin investment manager Mohnish Pabrai for Rs 47.3 crore (just under $8 million). It also sold some more shares pocketing around Rs 35-38 crore in the same quarter.
In the latest instance, bulk of its shares were picked by mutual fund schemes under ICICI Prudential. Although Multiples PE has also sold shares of other portfolio firms in the past such as PVR, this marks its first full exit from a portfolio from its debut fund which raised around $450 million in 2010-11.
The PE firm had picked 5.6 per cent stake in old generation private bank through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) in 2012, where South Indian Bank raised Rs 443 crore in total. The QIP had also seen participation from The Carlyle Group, which started picking up stake in the Thrissur-based bank a few months before the same year.
Multiples had picked shares in South Indian Bank at Rs 22.13 apiece and invested around Rs 165 crore in the process. It has exited with around Rs 235 crore, translating into internal rate of return (IRR) of around 20 per cent, not counting dividends.
Besides Multiples and Carlyle, South Indian Bank also counts among its shareholders CX Partners.
South Indian Bank’s shares last changed hands at Rs 30.95 apiece, up 6.91 per cent on the BSE in a strong Mumbai market on Friday.
Multiples, set up by former ICICI Venture CEO Renuka Ramnath, is also in the process of raising $500 million in its second fund. General partners (GPs) tend to showcase some exits while raising new funds.
From the first fund it has also backed names like PVR, Sara Sae, Vikram Hospital, Arvind, Mogae Media, Milltec Machinery and Indian Energy Exchange, as per data collated by VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
Multiples was one among a clutch of PE firms set by former Indian heads of larger investment outfits over the last six-seven years. While Multiples was set by former chief of ICICI Venture, Ajay Relan, ex-head of Citigroup Venture Capital in India, formed CX Partners and Manish Kejriwal (Temasek) and Sunish Sharma (General Atlantic) teamed up to form Kedaara Capital.
