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Jacob Ballas plans $500 mn India PE fund

Jacob Ballas Capital India, a non-banking finance company focused on private equity advisory services, is planning a $500 million India-focused private equity fund. The NBFC, founded in 1995, currently serves as advisor to three India-focused PE funds in which New York Life is an active participant.

Jacob Ballas was founded by Rajan Jetley, who was earlier the CEO of Air India and currently manages $445 million across three funds.

When contacted, Srinivas Chidambaram, Managing Director of Jacob Ballas Capital India, said he cannot confirm, deny or comment on this as they are in process of raising the fund.

The funds have been focusing on infrastructure, IT/BPO, textiles, pharmaceuticals and the financial services sector in India. The move by Jacob Ballas to raise a $500 million fund is backed by a strong pipeline of deals available in the Indian market given the losing lustre of the public markets.

According to Venture Intelligence, a venture and private equity research firm, India-focused PE /VC funds has so far raised $ 4 billion for investing in Indian companies and this is expected to cross the $10 billion mark, which was touched during 2007.

New York Life has a stake in Jacob Ballas through its wholly owned subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM).

New York Life has $200 billion in assets under management and the subsidiary is an integrated asset management enterprise serving a variety of sectors – namely retail, institutional, bundled defined contribution and defined benefit, guaranteed products and wholesale.

Jacob Ballas had earlier managed New York Life International India Fund I, which had a size of $40 million, while the second one had a corpus of $127 million.

The third one, NYLIM Jacob Ballas India Fund III, as of March 31, 2008, closed on commitments of approximately $278 million

In addition to New York Life Management, Jacob Ballas has Indtech Construction, an investment holding company owned by Atul Punj, chairman and managing director of Punj Lloyd, one of India's largest oil and gas pipeline construction companies, as a shareholder.

Source: Business Standard

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