On the back of SKS Micro Finance filing red herring prospectus for a possible IPO, another MFI — Equitas — has managed to attract $24 million from CLSA Capital. While the exact stake picked up by CLSA Capital Partners is not known, sources said it was a minority stake for $24 million.
With this, the net worth of the MFI stands at Rs 270 crore, said P N Vasudevan, MD of Equitas. CLSA has made the investment through one of its funds, Aria Investment Partners III, which raised $333 million last month. This is the third investment by the fund and Aria’s ninth investment in India. CLSA Capital Partners is the alternative asset management arm of CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. It has about $2.6 billion in assets under management.
In January, Kalpathi Investments, an investment arm of serial investor Kalpathi Suresh, had part exited Equitas by selling a 10% stake to Sequoia Capital for $10 million, by way of a secondary transaction.
Source: Times of India