India-focused investor Eredene Capital will seek shareholder approval to enter the fund management business and raise $200 million to fund a pipeline of ports and logistics investments, its chief executive said on Monday.
Eredene's ability to raise money using its listed equity has been limited after its shares were hit by an expensive divorce from its externally managed investment firm Saffron Capital.
Shares in Eredene were up 1.5 percent at 16.75 pence at 1108 GMT, but are less than half their February 2005 peak of 37 pence, when it began trading on London's junior AIM market.
“We're talking with shareholders whether to raise funds through an issue of equity or via a third-party fund management route, and we can see ourselves going down that route,” Eredene CEO Alastair King told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“Given the share price is where it is, I don't like a dilutive share price issuance.”
The company will hold talks with a number of Far East and Middle-Eastern investors from next week to gauge interest, King added, declining to provide further details.
The AIM-listed property vehicle is still bullish on India: the $200 million is earmarked for investments in a port company, container-related facilities, logistics parks and special economic zones in Asia's third-largest economy, King added.
Source: Reuters