| Lazard, a global financial advisory and asset management firm with $140 billion under management, is set to raise a $300 million India focused private equity fund. |
| Lazard becomes the latest to join the India story, which during 2007 witnessed private equity investments in the range of $18 billion. |
| While Lazard India management offered not to comment on this development, industry sources indicate that the fund is expected to be in place by middle of this year. |
| “There will be an anchor investment from Lazard and the India PE team will start road-shows by as early as February. We expect the fund to be in the range of $250-$300 million,” sources in the company said. |
| Lazard, which in industry is referred to as the ‘Grand daddy of M&A’ has been associated with landmark deals such as MCI’s sale to Verizon for $10 billion and Banc One’s sale to J P Morgan for $56 billion. The company in India has been active in the investment advisory space and is said to be advising Hindustan Unilever in an attempt to sell off Modern Foods. |
| Industry analysts indicate that while Lazard may be late to get into the PE party in India, which on an average is returning at least 25 per cent returns over a four year period, a strong team and an investment banking heritage will play a huge role in swinging in good deals. |
| Lazard is coming into India at a time when the PE investments into Indian companies increased by more than 100 per cent during 2007, touching $17.5 billion over 380 deals. Another significant aspect to this growth equity story is the fact that the number of high value deals also jumped significantly in 2007. |
| According to a report by Grant Thornton, there were 48 deals of over $100 million and 77 deals of $50 million in 2007 as compared to 11 deals of over $100 million and 29 deals of $50 million in 2006. |
Source: Business Standard