HK’s Navis buys 74% in Narang cos

MUMBAI: The Hong Kong-based private equity firm Navis has bought 74% stake in two companies owned by Sanjay Narang — Sky Gourmet and Mars Group of Restaurants.

This is the second investment by Navis in India. The first investment was in Delhi-based fast food restaurant chain, Nirula’s. Mr Narang has created two brands of restaurants under the Mars group. Fast food restaurants like Not Just Jazz by the Bay, Pizzeria & Pasta bar, Just around the Corner, Birdy’s, Dosa Diner, Roti, China Joe and Cake Khazana come under the first one.

Sky Gourmet is a catering firm which provides in-flight catering and has a supply centre at Delhi.
Arvind Ghei, chief financial officer, Mars group, confirmed to ET that Sanjay Narang has divested 74% of his stake in both the companies to Navis.

Bruno Seghin at the Navis headquarters in Hong Kong also confirmed the investment in the two companies but refused to divulge the total size of the investment.

“We have raised funds basically to take our brands national. We also intend to expand our Gordon Hotel franchise into Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai,” Mr Narang said. Mars currently has one hotel running in Pune under the Gordon House brand.

“We have also taken investment into Sky Gourmet services as this will be taken to new airports like Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The Delhi facility of Sky Gourmet will also be expanded,” he added.

“We are also looking at a new category of expansion for our quick service brand formats into malls and food courts across the country. Brands like Roti, Dosa Diner, China Joe, Birdy’s etc will be taken to malls and food courts across the country.”

“We are looking at expanding our other brands like Oyster Bay and Jazz by the Bay to other cities. These are high-end brands and need a certain ambience and investment for expansion.”

Navis has divided the stake in the two Narang group companies into three funds — Navis Asia Fund III, Navis Asia Fund IV and CIMB Muambalat Fund I.

Navis was started in 1998 in order to make private equity investments in buyouts, recapitalisations and financial restructuring in Asia.

According to Bruno Seghin, Navis likes to invest in the food and restaurant businesses, and the fund looks at investments in only the leaders in these two segments.

Navis has been investing in enterprises based in Asia, particularly South and South East Asia, where the principals of Navis have lived and worked for many years. Navis, through its subsidiary, Navis Investment Partners (Asia), manages several private equity funds,. Navis’ first investment was made in ’00 and since then, the firm has completed more Asian control buyouts than any of its peers. Navis also invests in publicly-listed companies through its Navigator Asia Fund.