VCCircle

It looks like there is some action on the expansion stage funding front. Time Technoplast Ltd (TTL), which makes polymer products catering to the industrial and consumer packaging solutions, has raised a total of Rs 38.75 crore ($9.2 million) from two private equity funds - Bangalore-based Zephyr Peacock and from Mumbai-based Motilal Oswal Venture Capital Advisors, the private equity arm of Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Zephyr has led the round with Rs 19.25 crore ($4.7 million), joined by the India Business Excellence Fund (IBEF) managed by Motilal Oswal which invested a Rs 19.50 crore. Kartik Parija, Managing Director of Zephyr Peacock India, has joined TTL’s Board of Directors.

Apparently, Time Technoplast's IPO application has been pending with the market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) since December 2006. TTL is a India's leading polymer products company engaged in the design and manufacture of industrial and consumer related plastic packaging.

Early this month, BTS India Private Equity Fund, a fund focused on SMEs, picked up under 20 per cent stake in a Nashik (Maharashtra) based auto component manufacturer Reliable Autotech Pvt Ltd for Rs 20 crore ($4.5 million).

Interestingly, many SMEs are dropping their IPO plans are choosing private equit instead. See this one. Jas Toll Road Company, which operates and maintains a 32 km 4-lane road on the National Highway 4 between Neelamangla and Tumkur near Bangalore, has raised Rs 65.6 crore ($16.4 million) from IDFC last month, according to Business Standard. Jass was planning to go in for an IPO and had even filed its draft prospectus. It dropped the plans later and decided to go in for private capital.

Similarly another company Vigneshwara Exports, which has withdrawn its IPO application, is believed to be taking private equity route now to raise capital.