Sabre Capital eyes ailing firms
After achieving the turnaround of Centurion Bank of Punjab, investment firm Sabre Capital Worldwide is looking at repeating the success with two other firms in the IT and manufacturing sectors.
By TNN |
HYDERABAD: After achieving the turnaround of Centurion Bank of Punjab, investment firm Sabre Capital Worldwide is looking at repeating the success with two other firms in the IT and manufacturing sectors. Sabre Abraaj Private Equity, the 50:50 joint venture between Sabre Capital Worldwide and Abraaj Capital, is in the process of acquiring two firms in the IT and engineering products space that would be finalised in the next two months, according to Rajiv Maliwal, vice-chairman, Sabre-Abraaj Private Equity.
"We are looking at turnaround cases in India, like we did with Centurion Bank of Punjab. We would first acquire the companies and then work out the strategy to achieve turnaround", said Mr Maliwal speaking to ET. The company is in talks with the prospective companies for acquisition but declined to disclose names.
Sabre Capital acquired an ailing Centurion Bank in 2003 and merged it with Bank Muscat. Later with the infusion of fresh equity, merger with Bank of Punjab and the Kerala-based Lord Krishna Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab today is the fifth largest private bank in the country with market capitalization of nearly $1 billion.
Singapore based Sabre Abraaj Capital has recently launched the $300 million Sabre Abraaj India Private Equity Fund I and invested around $16 million in city based Ramky Infrastructure. Investments in new acquisitions will be through the new India specific venture fund, Mr Maliwal said. Sectors like infrastructure, retail, auto components, leisure and entertainment and medical devices are attractive sectors now to obtain venture fund investments, he added.
"Infrastructure sector is a very attractive as there is a huge amount of investment needed in the sector. Also there aren't many large players in the infrastructure sector in India unlike other countries", Mr Maliwal explained. Sectors like IT/ITES are not as attractive as earlier because many companies in the country have attained critical size and also their capital requirements are also not too huge, he said.
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