Exhilway Asia Ventures files for IPO at NASDAQ

Exhilway Asia Ventures (EAV), the emerging markets PE fund of New Jersey based investment management firm Exhilway Global, has filed for an IPO at NASDAQ with a valuation of $2.5 billion, to be concluded by January 2015. The PE fund is targeting an investment of $1 billion ( Rs 6000 crore) in India over the next five years across sectors.

"The investments in India are not going to be quantum specific and we are looking at projects above Rs 50 crore. It will be an early exit fund with tenure of five to seven years. We have conducted due diligence of 35 companies already and more than 50% of them are going to be in Southern India across categories as diverse as horticulture, ready-to-eat food, IT, education, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, as well as super-speciality healthcare," said Joy Ghosh, India Head of EAV.

Exhilway Global shifted its focus from high risk hedge funds to raise multiple private equity funds with a focus on emerging markets such as South Asia, Africa, South America among others. The deployment of IPO proceeds of Exhilway Asia will be in the form of structured equity and investments in several business sectors. Exhilway Global is a US-based private equity fund managing over $2 billion worldwide which employs over 200 people and has operations in US, Canada, UK and India.