Apax Partners to enter India with customised strategy

Kavitha Vivek in Bangalore

International private equity player Apax Partners is eyeing an entry into India armed with an India-specific investment strategy within the next 12-18 months.

Plans are also being worked out to replicate in India successful investment models the fund has implemented in other countries, especially with regard to investments in the IT, bio-tech and retail sector.

The investments will be made out of the recently raised new fund of Euro 4 billion (of which 10 per cent has already been invested).
Incidentally, Apax currently has close to $12 billion funds under management with investments in over 330 companies. The earlier fund of $2 billion was recently closed. Close to one-third of the funds are pumped in towards early stage investments in US, Europe and Japanese markets mainly across the retail, IT, telecom, media, bio-tech and financial sectors.

Speaking to The Financial Express Apax Partners Ltd director Adrian Beecroft said the company was first looking at setting up an office in India and then begin investments. “We never invest in a country where we do not have a direct representation. The plan is to be a long term player in the Indian market and we have been assessing options in the country and feel that a slow yet well-planned entry is the strategy required,” Mr Beecroft said.

While the fund is actively looking at investment options in South-East Asia, India will be treated as a separate investment market. “We are also not restricting the focus only to the IT sector, therefore this gives us an opportunity to broadbase our investments across all sectors.

We also think that our investment focus could more or less function within the same sectors that we have been investing in globally,” he said.