ChrysCapital picks up 10% in Au Financiers for Rs 120 crore

NEW DELHI: Homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital has picked up 10% stake in Au Financiers, a non-banking financial company for Rs 120 crore.

At this price, the company is being valued at Rs 1,200 crore, which is 50% more than its previous valuation in March 2012 when WarburgPincus and International Finance Corporation ( IFC) had acquired a minority stake in the company.

"ChrysCapital has acquired 10% stake in the company from the existing investors for Rs 120 crore," the founding promoter and managing director of the company, Sanjay Agarwal, told ET.

ChrysCapital has picked up about 7% stake from Motilal Oswal Private Equity Advisors and the balance 3% from the Agarwal family. After the deal, promoters' stake in the company has come down to 35%.

Last March, global private equity firm Warburg Pincus and IFC, a member of the World Bank group, had picked up 26% and 18% stakes, respectively, through a combination of secondary sale of shares by existing investors and fresh issue of shares by the company, Agarwal said.

Warburg Pincus and IFC had together invested about $50 million or about Rs 250 crore in the company and balance about 100 crore was paid to the selling investors.

Since Au Financiers does not need funds and Motilal Oswal was reluctant to sell its entire stake, the promoters have divested a small stake so that ChrysCapital can acquire a minimum 10% stake, said Agarwal.

Motilal Oswal, which had picked about 35% stake in the company in the first two rounds of investment, is still holding 12% stake in the company.

Au Financiers has sufficient liquidity, said its managing director. The company is expected to report a net profit of about Rs 90 crore and net worth of Rs 480 crore that include paid up capital of Rs 40 crore, Agarwal said. With an asset size of Rs 1,300 crore, the company that has forayed into housing finance is poised to register aggressive growth in the near future.