Standard Chartered PE is looking to exit its $3.5-billion private equity (PE) business globally and could find a buyer in the existing team lead by global co-head Nainesh Jaisingh, persons familiar with the development indicated to FE.
The size of the Indian PE business, headed by Uday Dhawan, is around $1 billion. However, the bank isn’t ruling out a sale to other interested parties, the persons quoted above added. Jaisingh, an IIM, Bangalore, alumnus, has worked with the global equity investment arm since 2000. Standard Charted Bank declined a comment on the story. Among the prominent PE deals in India are those in Coffee Day Enterprises, the holding company of the Cafe Coffee Day chain of cafes where SCB PE invested around $150 million along with a clutch of other investors in 2010. Moreover, the portfolio was also invested in InterGlobe Travel Quotient, which is the travel reservation arm of IndiGo. It holds over 35% with other PE players.
Industry professions that FE spoke to believe a management buyout is more likely since the fund hasn’t performed up to expectations and might not, therefore, sufficiently interest another PE player.
Jaisingh and his team could be investment managers picking up a stake of 1% to 2% of the corpus. The remaining stake could be taken up by a limited partner.
In 2013, the fund had picked up 50 lakh shares in Fortis Healthcare for Rs 47 and topped up the investment subsequently through various instruments. Moreover, it also bought shares in Sterlite Power Transmission. After a lull of several years, PE funds have done well in the last couple of years. Grant Thornton noted in a recent report that 2017 was a milestone year in which $ 21 billion was attracted, the highest yearly value.
By Manisha Singhal
