Baer Capital Partners, the newest private-equity firm to enter the country, has just sprung out of the starting blocks but plans to invest $1 billion in Indian firms in the next one year.
“Our target is to invest one billion dollars in India by 2008. Baer has three deals in the pipeline,” says Alok Sama, founder and president of Baer Capital Partners.
While the buzz is that the private-equity firm has already struck a deal, picking up a stake in Saffron Art, Sama declined to comment. “It’s still early days,” said Sama who’s not fazed by the incumbent private-equity players.
Baer is not focusing on private equity alone to reach its target of $ 1 billion. The firm is setting up a platform for foreign institutional players and will offer each asset class a separate product.
With the stock markets at life-time highs, the investment bankers at Baer are unfazed by that they are latecomers to the party. “We are not overly concerned. Valuations don’t bother us,” said Sama who was formerly a senior managing director at Morgan Stanley and instrumental in establishing Morgan Stanley’s investment banking business in India.
On Thursday, Baer Capital Partners (India) Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary, opened its Mumbai office. Baer Capital Partners will seek to sponsor various offshore investment vehicles targeting India, including private equity and hedge funds.
Over a period of time, the firm will also build an investment banking and private-banking business in India, subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
The first Indian investment vehicle sponsored by Baer Capital Partners is the Beacon India Private Equity Fund.
Baer’s confidence stems from the local advisors to the fund. Deepak Shahdadpuri, founder of GEM India Advisors and former principal of Reuters Venture Capital and Rajeev Thakore, co-founder and CEO of Jacob Ballas Capital, advisors to the New York Life India Fund I and Fund II.
Deepak and Rajeev have a decade-long experience in private equity investing with a track record for profitable investment and exits. Thakore was in the team that invested in Bharti-Televentures, Punj Llyod etc, while Shahdadpuri has made his work discovering Sula Wines and Saffron Art.
Baer Capital Partners was launched in 2006 with a broad mandate to create an investment management, corporate finance, and wealth advisory business. The founders of Baer Capital Partners are Michael Baer, Alok Sama and Brij Raj Singh. Michael Baer’s family founded Bank Julius Baer, the largest Swiss private bank, and until recently Michael was on the Executive Board of Julius Baer.
The firm already has a presence in Dubai, London and Zurich.
Source : DNA India