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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3817)	2/27/1999 8:16:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

US-based Warburg Pincus to take $100 million equity in Indian firms by the end of the year Pradipta Bagchi & Gauri Kamath in Mumbai US private equity firm E M Warburg Pincus has plans to invest another $100 million in India by the end of the year. Warburg Pincus has pumped in $50 million till date in both private equity and listed Indian companies in media, healthcare and consumer products. The company's focus in India will be along the lines of its interests globally which include financial services, and software besides media and healthcare. Half of the $7.5 billion invested worldwide by Warburg Pincus, is contributed by information technology and healthcare. However, the company has yet to invest in any IT company here. In India, Warburg Pincus investments include the Rs 542 crore healthcare company Nicholas Piramal, software production and entertainment house United Television and FMCG major Marico Industries. The firm owns 10 per cent each in pharma major Nicholas Piramal India and Marico Industries as government regulations prevent it from picking up more in listed companies. In UTV, its stake is higher at around 24 per cent - UTV being privately owned. When Star TV divested its 34 per cent stake in UTV last September Warburg was expected to pick up a part of it, though details on this could not be got. Warburg Pincus has now set its sights on online company Rediff-on-the-net in which it will invest in the vicinity of $10 million. However, sources at the firm did not disclose the industries which would receive the fresh inflows. As opposed to other private equity firms in the country, Warburg Pincus is interested in pumping in a minimum of US $ 10 million in any venture. Sources said this was required for it to generate any economies of scale,. This is significant as investments made by other private equity firms in the country seldom cross half of that figure. Because of this, the $100 million will comprise a few large investments instead of several small ones which would be difficult to manage, sources added. Warburg Pincus also stands out by the long-term nature of its investments. Sources said this was one of the reasons why it was not unduly worried by the lack of adequate exit opportunities, a fact which has been the primary grouse of other venture capital firms operating in the country. Exit also did not pose a problem for Warburg Pincus as there were several firms in the United States that would be interested in picking up their stake they said. business-standard.com