Reliance Equity Advisors, the private equity (PE) firm under Reliance Capital, has been renamed as Fairwinds Asset Managers Ltd, after its top team completed a spin-off early this year.
Ramesh Venkat continues to lead the team as founder and managing partner of Fairwinds, which counts on three other partners Snehal Shah, Prakash Iyer and Rahul Manek, besides five directors, a CFO and a support team.
VCCircle was the first to report in July this year that the top management at Reliance Equity Advisors is moving on to float an independent PE fund. Sources had added that the new firm is looking to set up a new $200 million mid-market focused fund.
Fairwinds is currently managing Reliance Alternative Investments Fund - Private Equity Scheme I, a $200-million fund that the team had raised in 2009-10 from domestic investors with anchor investment from Reliance Group. This fund is now fully invested.
Its portfolio consists of Delhi-based Pathways World School, supply chain solutions firm Shankara Infrastructure Materials, digital printing firm Max Flex and Imaging Systems, kitchen appliances manufacturer Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances, EMS firm Amber Enterprises, valves maker Dembla, FMCG firm VVF and footwear maker Khadim India.
Earlier this month, VCCircle had reported that the PE firm is looking to exit its three-year-old investment in Mumbai-based VVF Ltd, which manufactures and markets personal care products and oleochemicals, through a secondary market transaction.
Reliance Equity Advisors had invested Rs 136 crore in VVF Ltd in October 2011 through a combination of equity shares and compulsorily convertible debentures. With the equity infusion, VVF Ltd transferred the domestic businesses along with related assets into a separate company called VVF India Ltd (VIL), in order to fund business growth.
As per Fairwinds' website, it retains Reliance PE's three key investment themes: domestic demand, companies allied to infrastructure related services and skilled human capital.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
