Aquarius to raise capital for $200-m growth fund

NEW DELHI: According to sources, International Finance Corporation (IFC) has pledged a sum of $20 million for the fund. Singapore-based Kewalram Chanrai is also said to be one of the investors but its not immediately known how much its putting into the fund.

S L Subramaniam ex ICICI Ventures and Hexagram, which was the broking arm of the Singapore-based Magnus Capital, will be heading the fund. Aquarius Capital will be looking at investing across sectors which have a strong propensity for growth, sources said. The World Bank’s investment arm, IFC has closed a dozen deals in 2006 itself.

They include deals with Moser Baer, Apollo Tyres, Usha Martin, Sundaram Finance, HDFC and Ballarpur Industries. IFC’s portfolio in India is around $1.2 billion with investments in sectors such as manufacturing, finance, infrastructure, IT, telecom, oil and gas.

Kewalram Chanrai on the other hand started in India in 1860 as traders of locally made handlooms and today has interests in manufacturing, agro commodities, international trade and property development in Europe, Asia, Africa and the US. The group had investments in Singapore-based Olam International before it went public last year.