VCCircle

D E Shaw, the world's second-largest hedge fund, is entering India. DE Shaw has roped in Anil Chawla, chief executive officer - commercial finance, India & South East Asia, GE. Chawla will join the fund in June as the country head. He will be responsible for setting up offices and recruiting people.

According to a US hedge fund industry publication Absolute Return, in 2005, Westport-based Bridgewater Associates topped the list of hedge funds with $17.7 billion in assets, followed by DE Shaw with $17.1 billion. It will invest in private equity as well as distressed assets in India. [Via Business Standard]

Satish Mandhana has joined IDFC Private Equity as its executive vice president. Prior to this, Mandhana was CFO at J K Paper. He holds an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, and a bachelor of industrial engineering from IIT, Roorkee. He has over 24 years of experience in financial services. [Via The Hindu Business Line]

CNBC-TV18 has an interview with Luis Miranda, President and CEO of the private equity arm of IDFC. He says the $400 million fund would focus on infrastructure, besides healthcare and tourism sectors mainly hotels. The fund plans to invest in another hotel very soon. It had already invested in two including Leela Ventures from which it exited recently at 136 per cent returns. The fund will primarily look at unlisted entities.

Indian private equity fund lures Goldman veteran

Goldman Sachs managing director, Atul Kapur, is moving to Mumbai as chief investment office of Indivision. Indivision is the Pantaloon-backed private equity fund which forms part of Pantaloon’s strategy to build an all-encompassing business in the financial services arena in India called Future Group.

Goldman may invest $100m in Pantaloon arm

Goldman Sachs’ private equity arm is understood to be in talks to invest around $100 million as a strategic investor in Indivision Capital, a private equity fund managed by Future Capital Holdings, Pantaloon’s financial retail arm. Indivision, which will invest primarily in small and regional consumer-related companies as a strategic investor and scale it up to a national level, is currently undertaking roadshows abroad as part of its fund-raising strategy.

JP Morgan, IDF to buy 20% in L&T arm for Rs 500cr

Private equity investors JP Morgan and India Development Fund (IDF) are picking up a 20per cent stake in L&T Infrastructure Holdings for Rs 500 crore through a preferential allotment. While JP Morgan is investing Rs 300 crore, IDF will pump in Rs 200 crore. A formal announcement to this effect is expected shortly.

New Vernon and Bessemer Venture Picks Up 9.29% In Motilal Oswal for Rs 125 Crore

New Vernon and Bessemer Venture Partners have bought the stake at Rs 208 per share (face value of Rs 2) for Rs 125 crore, valuing the firm at about Rs 1,250 crore.

Capitaland To Invest $75 Million Pantaloon's Realty Fund

Capitaland, Singapore, South-east Asia’s largest property developer by market capitalisation will be investing $75m in Horizon Realty Fund, a retail property fund set up by Pantaloon Retail (India), now known as the Future Group.

Former Microsoft Managing Director in India, Rajiv Kaul, has moved to Actis. He will be a partner with Actis and will be based out of London. Here is an Economic Times article which talks about other corporate honchos who have shifted to private equity or VC firms.

Naina Lal Kidwai has many firsts to her credit. She was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. She was the first Indian to get a position on the global board of Nestle AG. Now she has become the first Indian woman to head a foreign bank in India. She has been appointed as the CEO of HSBC in India. Before joining as vice-chairman and managing director of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets India in 2002, she was vice-chairman at investment bank JM Morgan Stanley. She was also ranked 34 in the list of the world’s Top 50 businesswomen by the Wall Street Journal in November ‘04. [Via The Economic Times] Picture credit: Time Magazine.

Here is an update on Siemens Venture Capital. Rajesh Vakil will head Siemens investment portfolio in India, reports Forbes.com. It further says that SVC will increase its venture capital activities in India and China by investing in infrastructure technologies, medical solutions, transportation systems and other business fields.

Vakil is currently an associate with the Communications Fund for Siemens Venture Capital. He joined Siemens in 1992, and has held a wide variety of roles in areas such as Finance, Marketing and Business Development and Engineering. He moved to SVC in 2005. Vakil graduated from Mumbai University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1991 and later received his Master's in Finance from the same university.

Siemens has also appointed a head for China operations. Madeline Song will direct the company's investments in China. Both appointments take effect in June. Siemens did not state how much it plans to invest in both countries. Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) holds 700 mln eur in assets.

I had earlier linked to a story that talks about Siemens' venture capital plans for India.

Related:

Siemens Venture Capital May Debut In India

Morgan Stanley has appointed Ridham Desai and Sanjay Shah to head its Indian equity venture. Two months ago, Mihir Doshi had quit as chief executive officer of the unit to join Credit Suisse First Boston. Desai, 38, head of India research at JM Morgan Stanley Securities Pvt Ltd, and Shah, 37, head of sales at the venture, were promoted as co-heads of the company.

“India is an extremely important market for Morgan Stanley,” said Danny Hegglin, managing director and head of the institutional equities unit in Hong Kong. Desai and Shah will report to Hegglin, Nimesh Kampani, chairman of JM Morgan Stanley, and Marcus Walsh, Asia-Pacific head of research, the US firm said.

Desai has worked for Morgan Stanley since 1997, while Shah joined JM Financial in 1996 and had been head of sales for JM Morgan Stanley Securities.[Via DNA]

Kumar Mahadeva, founder of Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the leading Indo-US technology companies, has been appointed as operating partner at GRS Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. Mahadeva founded Cognizant Technology Solutions, a leading global offshore outsourcing provider, in 1994 and served as Chairman and CEO from 1994 - 2004, creating more than $4 billion in company value and delivering a 2700 per cent return to investors since the 1998 initial public offering. Prior to founding Cognizant, Kumar served as Corporate Vice President and Chief Executive for India and China for Dun & Bradstreet (now known as D&B), as Corporate Director for Strategy and Corporate Development at AT&T, and as an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company.

GRS Partners is a New York-based private equity firm that makes growth capital investments in business services companies. The firm was founded in September 2005 by Harvey Golub, Ramanan Raghavendran and Renny Smith. Golub, Raghavendran and Smith worked together at TH Lee Putnam Ventures, and continue to oversee investments made by them at that fund. [Via Yahoo! Finance]

When John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram of Sherpalo came visiting to India, there were two other partners at KPCB who accompanied them: Ray Lane and Ajit Nazre (I will have a post on Nazre since I had a chat with him when he was in Delhi).

Here is a story on Lane's views on India. Lane was, by the way, President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle Corporation, the second-largest software company in the world. He said the next Silicon Valley is likely to come from India or China rather than from Boston or North Carolina.

"India and China are the two hotspots for every VC in the world. I believe that India is soon going to be a place where innovations are going to come out of," says Lane whose focus now is on new technologies and applications that will drive high-impact change.

So what are Lane's focus areas of funding in India in particular and in general?

The pharmaceutical sector - “Today, everybody needs greater detection when it comes to diseases. Genomics medicine, life sciences and stem cell research are areas which we find interesting."

The energy sector - How to prolong battery life of anything ranging from a cell phone to an industrial product. “The next 10 years are going to see innovative ideas to increase battery life - not just for laptops and cell phones but also for automobiles, operating plants and you will soon see fuel cell technology becoming more efficient,” he points out. (Via The Times of India)

I had seen this story but forgot to post it here. Avinash Vashistha, neoIT's founder and managing partner for the last six years, has moved on from neoIT to pursue his passion as a 'risk taker'. That's interesting, and I like people who are constantly looking for excitement rather than sitting within the confines of their established businesses.

Avinash announced that he will be floating his new venture in the US, called Tholons Inc, an innovative vehicle for global private investments, advisory and management. The author of the book ‘The Offshore Nation’ says, “In most deals, a lot of value and equity is left on the table”. By engaging with the customer in a deep partnering relationship, Tholons will take the lead in assisting clients not only develop a strategy but also fund the business using private equity investments. Avinash's pioneering expertise in services globalization and the operational experience of working with Global 2000 clients over the last decade, is the key strength that he brings to Tholons Inc.

Elaborating on the business model of the new start up, Avinash said, “Instead of providing consulting and charging a fee for the services, Tholons will involve in equity based partnership model that delivers returns based on set milestones. Therein, lies the risk, and, that is the part I most look forward to.” Avinash is in the process of hiring a team and setting up offices in US, Europe and Asia. (Via The Economic Times)