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Yatra Capital Ltd, the Euronext exchange-listed real estate investment company, has invested $7 million in Jalan Intercontinental Hotels Pvt Ltd, for a 40 per cent stake. The company is building a 200-room business hotel in Kolkata, which will be operated under the Taj Gateway brand by Indian Hotels Ltd. This is the 14th investment of Yatra Capital in India.
The hotel will be built on a 1.9 acre plot located at the junction of Rashbehari Connector and EM Bypass in Kolkata. EM Bypass is the main arterial road between old and new Kolkata, connecting Kolkata Airport and eastern parts of the city. The hotel will primarily cater to the needs of IT/ITES companies located in and around the IT parks and SEZs coming up in the area.
At present, there are close to 1,500 rooms in the premium category in Kolkata.
Occupancy levels have increased at an average rate of 15-18 per cent over the last few years with average annual occupancy levels hovering around 80 per cent, which is expected to remain at the same level in the medium term, a company statement said. Almost 60-70 per cent of guests in the premium category hotels are business travelers.
Yatra Capital, which manages Euro 220 million ($350 million), is listed on the Euronext in Amsterdam. It raised Euro 100 million ($159 million) in 2006 and Euro 120 million ($191 million) in 2007. Out of this capital, the company has so far invested Euro 174 million, which is 78 per cent of the corpus raised.
Yatra invests in India through the advice it receives from the investment committee of its wholly owned subsidiary K2, and Saffron Capital Advisors Limited (SCAL). This will be Yatra Capital's 14th investment in the country and has two other investments in the hospitality sector.
Yatra had invested Rs 63.44 crore for a 30 per cent stake in another firm Platinum Hospitality Services which will develop a hotel in Bangalore at an estimated cost of Rs 402.62 crore. Yatra Capital had also acquired one of the first India-focused property fund Eredene Capital Mauritius for Rs 99.39 crore in 2007.
Ajoy Veer Kapoor, Managing Director, Saffron Asset Advisors Pvt Ltd: "This is Yatra's third hospitality project and is in line with our commitment to building a strong, diversified portfolio of quality assets. Our investments for Yatra have the potential to deliver across a variety of sectors and locations and we will continue to seek opportunities that will maximise shareholder returns."

US-based Acumen Fund is upping its investments in India. Acumen, a fund that is focused on making investments in social businesses, has invested Rs 4.5 crore in Kerala-based AyurVAID Hospitals. AyurVAID is promoted by Kochi-based Kerala First Health Services Pvt Ltd.
The company plans to set up hospitals in six new locations, including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, in the next one year. Its target is to build 40 hospitals by 2012 in various metros and tier-2 cities of south India. Besides, it also plans to start a chain of 200 ayurveda centres across India in long term, of which 160 would work on a hub and spoke model.
AyurVAID is a network hospital of almost all the leading insurance third-party administrators, including TTK Health Insurance Services, Family Health Plan Ltd., Paramount Health Services, United Healthcare, MediAssist India, and several more. It is also a network hospital of Star Medical and Allied Insurance, the first focused medical insurance company in India.
Acumen is a not-for-profit venture fund. Its investment portfolio has four sectors- health, energy, water and housing. Acumen has also invested $1.6 million in Drishtee, a rural ICT (Information and Communications Technology) network orchestrator that helps local entrepreneurs to set up kiosks that provide a variety of services to villagers for a fee. Acumen also has a joint venture with Hindustan Latex Ltd for Lifesprings, a network of maternity and child healthcare hospitals.

Singapore-based property developer Ascendas has entered a joint venture to develop a $290 million project through its private property fund Ascendas India Development Trust(AIDT). AIDT has formed a 50:50 joint venture with IREO for an integrated project in Coimbatore.
The joint venture will be developing an integrated project on an area of 53 acres of land, comprising of an IT special economic zone (IT SEZ) and mixed-use development in Coimbatore. The development will be managed by Ascendas. The project will be executed in four phases and will be completed within six to seven years.
IREO is a foreign fund established to invest in real estate in India and has invested more than $500 million of equity and committed $2 billion of capital to date in a diversified portfolio of projects. It has experience in the acquisition and development of real estate in India. Ascendas, which has developed 265 acres of IT infrastructure in six cities in India, Coimbatore project will be its third venture.

Construction is getting hotter. Hyderabad-based B Seenaiah & Company (Projects) Ltd (BSCPL), a construction company specialising in highway and irrigation projects, have received Rs 150 crore in private equity from New Vernon Private Equity Ltd, and from a group led by Tiger Veda Management and Touradji Capital Management. The PE firms have picked up 19 per cent. Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) acted as exclusive financial advisor to BSCPL for the investment. [Via Sify]

The Economic Times reports that the company is likely to go in for another round of investment from firms like Goldman Sachs, ahead of an IPO scheduled for the last quarter of 2006. BSCPL has an order book worth Rs 2,000 crore in the road sector and Rs 615 crore in irrigation. It's also forayed into real estate.

Other PE deals in construction

UTI Venture Fund Invests In Chennai Construction Company

ICICI Venture Picks Up 7.5% In Action Construction Equipment

Construction Companies Next Target For Private Equity Firms

JP Morgan, India Development Fund Pick Up 21.6% In L&T Infrastructure Arm

Private equity firm UTI Venture Fund and a Middle East investor have together invested about Rs 120 crore in the Chennai-based construction services company, Consolidated Construction Consortium (CCCL). It's a combination of fresh equity and picking up of a minority stake of the promoters.

The Rs 400-crore CCCL was launched about a decade ago by a group of professionals associated earlier with Larsen & Toubro. It has offices in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi, and recently set up an office in the Middle East. “Its an unique construction services company and we see a good growth opportunity. It may well be another L&T in the making,” KEC Raja Kumar, CEO & MD, UTI Venture Funds, said. [Via The Economic Times]

A JP Morgan subsidiary and India Development Fund of IDFC have picked up 21.6-per cent stake in L&T Infrastructure Development Projects (L&T-IDPL) for Rs 550 crore ($122.2 million). L&T-IDPL is the infrastructure development subsidiary of the engineering major Larsen & Toubro. L&T and L&T-IDPL have signed the agreements with Silver Peak Investments (Mauritius) Ltd , a wholly owned subsidiary of JP Morgan, and a consortium led by India Development Fund.

The deal values L&T-IDPL at Rs 2,548 crore ($566.22 million). L&T would retain the remaining stake. L&T-IDPL has so far completed 20 projects and six new projects are under construction. They are major developers of industry parks, especially software development centres. For instance, it has built the Hitec City in Hyderabad. [Via Domain-b]

Indivision Capital, the private equity arm of Future Capital (a Pantaloon Retail group company), has picked up 33 per cent stake in processed foods company, Capital Foods. VC Circle learns that the amount of investment could be in the range of Rs 25-30 crore.

The Mumbai-based company makes processed food brands like Smith & Jones and Ching’s Secret and is also a leading private label supplier to several big retailers like Target and Tesco. The promoters of the Capital Foods will hold 67 per cent after the transaction. It has a turnover of around Rs 40 crore. The company has a manufacturing facility to make ready to eat meals plant at Kandla for products like ketchup, chutney and cooking pastes. [Via The Economic Times]

ICICI Venture Funds Management has acquired 6.38 per cent in Geometric Software Solutions for Rs 45.4 crore ($10 million). The company will issue 3.86 million equity shares at Rs 117.66, at a face value Rs 2 per share to ICICI Venture. Geometric was advised by Enam Financial on this transaction.

Geometric plans to utilise the proceeds to fund its inorganic growth plans, and it is actively scouting for acquisitions in the engineering services space, a Geometric Software release said. Meanwhile, in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said that it was "prospecting the acquisition of an engineering services business". It has already signed a term sheet, and the company will fund this transaction through a mix of debt and equity. [Via Business Standard]

How many of you know Maxwell Industries? I bet, not many. By the way, Maxwell is the company which owns some of India's best known innerwear brands. It has VIP and Rivolta under its belt. Strangely, Maxwell, promoted by JK Pathare and the Reddy families, was completely under the radar till very recently.

A few months back, when I was at Business Today magazine, I had written about this company as one of the value picks. It was an undervalued stock, because few stock investors had heard of the company. Subsequently, however, after the reorganisation of the company, the stock caught the fancy of investors and it ran up from Rs 60 to Rs 300-levels in a matter of three or four months.

Anyways, before digressing from the news, the company has got Rs 45 crore ($10 million) investment from Reliance Capital Partners, part of the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Capital Group, which would acquire 14.55 per cent stake.

A company release to the Bombay Stock Exchange says, the equity infusion will help achieve financial closure for its planned Rs 250 crore ($55.5 million) expansion. It plans to launch a few more international brands in India and start export outsourcing projects.

Singhi and Associates Advisors Pvt Ltd. acted as advisors for this transaction. [Read the BSE announcement here]

Post script: I am not sure about the recent news item (The Times of India reported) that Actis had picked up 20 per cent in Maxwell. If that's right, the company should have informed the stock exchange. It hasn't yet.

Indium, Chennai-based provider of software testing solutions, said it has secured $1 million funding from IRIS Capital for its technology upgradation and market expansion programme. The fund would be used to set up two centres of excellence, one for wireless/network data and another for enterprise applications, Indium CEO N Raghunathan said.

The company currently has revenues of $1 million. [Via CIOL]