Private equity major Warburg Pincus, which focuses on growth investing, said it had closed Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI, L.P. with $11.2 billion in commitments. The new fund is one of the largest PE funds raised after the global financial crisis.
The fund is successor to Warburg Pincus Private Equity X, L.P., which raised $15 billion in 2008.
“This successful fundraising, in a challenging environment, was driven by strong support from both existing and new investors. We see this success as a clear endorsement by our investors who support our global growth investing model,” said Charles R. Kaye, co-president of Warburg Pincus.
WP XI’s limited partners include leading public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations and wealthy individuals. Also, a significant number of new investors in the fund are from outside the US. The firm held the final close of the fund within one year of the first close, as planned.
Warburg Pincus was one of the first global private equity players to start investing in India in 1994 and opened the Mumbai office in 2001. The India office is headed by Niten Malhan and Vishal Mahadevia.
WP XI, like all the prior funds of the PE firm, will invest in growth companies across stages of development – from startups and growth capital to special situations and buyouts. The firm invests globally, with focus on five key industry sectors – namely, energy, financial services, healthcare, technology, media & telecommunications (TMT) and consumer, industrial and services (CIS).
The final close of WP XI follows a very active 2012 when the firm invested over $2.3 billion in 28 new companies and made follow-on investments into several existing companies. Warburg’s recent investments in India include minority stakes in auto component maker Avtec and online classifieds firm Quikr India besides the management buyout of the non-banking finance company Capital First.
The firm, which has $40 billion in assets under management, has also been active in distributing the capital back to investors in prior funds. Warburg’s funds distributed $6.2 billion to investors in 2012 and another $3 billion in the first quarter of 2013.
Some of its recent profitable exits from India include off-highway tyres maker Alliance Tire Group, electrical goods company Havells, outsourcing firm WNS, private sector bank Kotak Mahindra and Max India, a company with presence in healthcare and insurance space.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)