Private equity (PE) firms are smacking their lips at the depths to which valuations of companies have plummeted from their high perch just over three months ago.
But some of these firms are plagued with another problem: The climate to raise funds for investing is not at its best.
The global credit crisis triggered by defaults on home loans in the US, and the looming recession in that country has sparked scepticism among pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, family offices and others who serve as the main sources of funding for these private equity firms.
“Raising funds is much tougher now. It means many more phone calls, more meetings, more effort,” says Alok Sama, founder and president of Baer Capital Partners, which is in the process of raising a $500 million fund to invest in Indian real estate and infrastructure.
“You can no longer source funds just sitting in your office. You really have to go out and pitch your case to investors,” said the head of another firm, who had got accustomed to investors queuing up at his office to park their funds. But since January, when global markets weakened, the tide has turned and investors have gone into a shell.
Zephyr Peacock, another private equity fund which has been active in India, is said to have delayed the closing of its new fund for the same reason.
Kartik Parija, managing director of the fund, could not be contacted. Raising money will be all the more difficult for first-time funds for lack of a track record. Nikhil Khattau, managing director of Mayfield Fund, an early-stage and growth fund managing $2.7 billion in capital, was vocal about this at a private equity conference hosted by VC Circle in Pune earlier this month.
“First-time fund raisers will find it difficult,” he said. “On the other hand, if you have a good history of investing and have been around for sometime, it will be relatively easier.”
Such a track record is probably what helped 3i India Infrastructure Fund close with $1.2 billion in committed capital, above the target of $1 billion, even in these hard times. “People have become selective in choosing the funds they invest in. Earlier, if they had the mandate to invest in 10 funds, now it would be 6. Similarly, if they had $100 million to invest earlier, they would now cut that down to $60 million,” said Anil Ahuja, partner, managing director and co-head Asia of 3i, who says that the response his fund generated validates 3i’s focus on infrastructure. “If there is a good theme and a good fund, there is still money to be had,” he added.
However, for the smaller lesser-known entities, the obstacles to raising money in this market means that if it is not already sitting on cash raised earlier, it may not be able to take full advantage of the rock-bottom valuations at which companies will be available.
The qualifier ‘will be available’, because promoters are yet to come to grips with the fact that they cannot raise as much as they would have three months ago, and are yet to reset expectations downwards.
“There are a lot of deals, but it will be at least three months before we start seeing them. People are still waiting for valuations to settle down,” said Niren Shah, managing director of Norwest Venture Partners.
But as opposed to expectations, the flow of PE deals have not been as badly hit as experts had prophesied when the markets started crumbling in early January. A report from Grant Thornton shows that mergers and acquisitions have slowed down in the first three months of this year, while PE deals have actually picked up. As against 112 deals valued at $2.98 billion in the first three months of 2007, there have been 124 PE deals worth $4.38 billion in the corresponding period this year.
Source: Sify