Rajesh Singhal, partner at Tata Opportunities Fund, is set join Quadria Capital to head the recently acquired business from Milestone Religare. Singhal will be the principal managing partner for India Build-out Fund I, a Rs 420 crore rupee-denominated fund focused on healthcare and education sectors.
The move marks a comeback for Singhal who, along with Quadria Capital’s Dr Amit Varma, conceptualised and raised India Build-out Fund I. Singhal left in 2011 to join Tata Opportunities Fund, a $600 million vehicle focused on the group companies of the $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate.
In March this year, Quadria Capital acquired the PE firm Milestone Religare, a 50:50 JV between financial services major Religare Enterprises and Mumbai-based Milestone Capital Advisors. The deal came after Milestone Capital started exploring a sale process after its founder Ved Prakash Arya died in a freak accident in 2011.
With the current appointment, Singhal will lead the team, which also includes managing partners Anant Kulkarni and Srinivas Baratam.
“Rajesh and I worked together on the India Build-out Fund I from the concept stage and he was part of the five deals out of the six, done by the fund. So he knows the portfolio very well. His addition will help stabilise the portfolio as we will look at exits from our investments over the next 24-36 months,” said Varma, Quadria Capital’s founder and managing partner.
After Singhal joins back, the team will discuss whether or not there will be follow-on to India Build-out Fund, said Varma.
Commenting on reports that the Quadria-Milestone Religare deal is under the scanner of the market regulator SEBI, Varma said, “There has been no formal debate on this issue and we have provided all the information to SEBI and conformed to all SEBI regulations.”
Before joining Milestone (which later became the JV, Milestone Religare) in 2008, Singhal spent over eight years with Intel Capital in India where he was responsible for 20 investments. Some of the key investments included India Infoline, NIIT, Persistent Systems, FINO, Subex and Nipuna Services.
He started his career with ICICI in 1995 and spent five years across project finance, corporate finance and distressed debt restructuring. Singhal holds an MBA from IIM-Lucknow and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay.
Milestone Religare’s portfolio includes oncology chain Healthcare Global Enterprises (which recently saw investment by Temasek), Hyderabad’s multispecialty hospital KIMS and test preparation firms IMS Learning and Resonance Eduventures. It has also invested in credit rating agency CARE Ratings, which was listed in December 2012. Its most recent investment was Rs 60 crore in the food processing company Capricorn earlier this year. The PE firm has already made partial exits from CARE and Resonance.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
