Foreign private equity fund NYLIM Jacob Ballas India Fund is close to picking up 21.5% equity stake in Devyani International (DI), a Ravi Jaipuria-promoted company that owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee in India, for more than Rs 300 crore. That puts the valuation of the company at around Rs 1,500 crore.
When contacted by ET, RKJ Group chairman Ravi Jaipuria declined to comment. But a source said that Jacob Ballas is currently awaiting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) approval. The proposal will come up for clearance next week.
Devyani International is a leading franchisee of YUM! Restaurants International, the world’s largest restaurant company with over 34,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Devyani runs KFC and Pizza Hut chain of restaurants and is also the Indian franchisee of UK’s Costa Coffee chain. The company also has an agreement with Walt Disney Group to own and operate Disney Artist stores across India.
According to sources, the deal will help Devyani expand its operations across India . “The idea is to add the number of franchisee outlets in cities where we have a presence and set up shop in others,” said a source on condition of anonymity.NYLIM Jacob Ballas India Fund is a part of Jacob Ballas Capital India, which is a non-banking finance company founded in 1995.
It has investments in Aster Teleservices, Mahindra Holidays and Resorts and Saravana Global Energy among others. Jacob Ballas serves as an advisor to two other India focused private equity funds— New York Life International India which has a total fund size of $40 mn and $127-mn New York Life Investment Management. NYLIM Jacob Ballas India made investments worth $278 million in FY 08.
Source: Economic Times