Warburg Pincus raises new $12 billion global fund

MUMBAI: Warburg Pincus, one of the first global private equity major to set up an India office, has raised a new global fund of $12 billion or Rs 79,000 crore as dealmaking has started picking up in the country. The new global pool also comes at a time when the PE firm has been stepping up investments in India, leading seven deals worth over $1 billion or Rs 6,500 crore since October 2014.

The New York-headquartered firm, which set up an India office back in 2000, said that Warburg Pincus XII was launched in May 2015, received "third party commitments significantly in excess of its $12 billion hard cap." Globally Warburg Pincus follows a model of growth capital investments, with venture capital and buyout deals also included in the mix.

“With the new fund, we aim to continue our successful strategy of combining deep industry expertise and local market experience to identify outstanding management teams and entrepreneurs to partner with to build companies of sustainable growth. Our focus remains on sectors where we have identified long-term structural growth opportunities,” said Niten Malhan and Vishal Mahadevia, Managing Director and co-Heads, Warburg Pincus India, in a statement.

The PE firm invests across sectors with some its recent deals including Rs 1,800 crore in realty arm of Piramal Group, Rs 850 crore in ecommerce focused logistics player Ecom Express, Rs 1,200 crore in jewellery retailer Kalyan and a Rs 300 crore round cloud based software solutions maker Capillary Technologies.

The private equity firm is most well known for its early investment and exit from Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator by number of users. Between 2004 and 2005, Warburg Pincus exited its Bharti stake, generating proceeds of $1.83 billion on its original $290 million investment.

But the PE firm, which is said to have invested over $3.5 billion in India till date, has had several other multi-baggers like off-highway tyre maker Alliance Tires Group, business process outsourcing firm WNS and private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank. Earlier this year, Warburg exited diagnostic chain Metropolis by selling its stake for Rs 580 crore on an investment of around Rs 170 crore.
Warburg's new fund comes at a time when PE investments have soared $13.83 billion during January-October period across 863 deals, as against 497 such transactions worth $10 billion in the same period a year ago, according to Grant Thornton.