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The Reliance Industries group (Mukesh Ambani) is setting up a private equity fund with a corpus of $111 million (Rs 500 crore). It will invest in the retail and real estate sectors. The fund is likely to be called Skill, reports The Economic Times. It may be headed by Mukesh Ambani's close aide Anand Jain. The fund is likely to be open for investments by outside investors as well as RIL promoters and associates.

Sahad: Pantaloon is another retail business group which has floated two private equity funds - Kshitij and Horizon - to invest in retail and real estate projects. Pantaloon is also one of the investors in Indivision, a private equity fund that will invest across mid-market companies.

Go to article in The Economic Times.

Here is a story on a lesser know fund called Trikona Capital Group, which plans to invest in Indian real estate in a big way. The US-based fund, started by two India-born entrepreneurs, would plough in at least $1 billion through two funds launched in the US and UK, according to DNA.

Trikona, which has offices in New York and London, had recently raised

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]

Bill Owens, the former chief executive of Nortel and former high-ranking US military official, will join US private equity firm AEA Holdings to lead firm's expansion into China and India. An official announcement is expected this week. AEA was formed last year out of the merger of AEA Investors, a leading buy-out firm on Wall Street, and Aetos Capital, a property investor and hedge fund-of-funds manager.

The combined group now has about $10 billion under management. Owens will be based out of Hong Kong where he will oversee AEA's investments in China, India and south-east Asia. [Via MSNBC]

Business Standard reports that Bill Owens has joined Wipro Ltd as an additional director with effect from July 1, 2006. At present, Owens is on the boards of Polycom Inc, a media communications company; Daimler Chrysler AG, an automotive company; Sprint Wireline, a communications company; and AEA Investors LLC, an investment company. He was also an Admiral in the US Navy and V-C of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ravi Krishnan, India chief of sports and entertainment management company IMG, is moving out to head a $100 million real estate fund in India. Krishnan, who spent 11 years with IMG, has joined a real estate group, primarily based in Australia and Israel, to set up their India specific multi-million dollar fund. Krishnan will however will remain as an advisor with IMG.

"Krishnan will be joining a highly respected Australian/Israeli group of investors that is setting up an India-focused fund that will initially commit USD 100 million for investment in the real estate sector," said a statement. A lawyer by training, Ravi Krishnan was part of a four-member team that was sent in 1995 to set up IMG's operations in India. As the youngest member of the team, at 27, he began his new career by selling hospitality for the Cricket World Cup 1996.

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.

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]

GMR Infrastructure, a part of the Bangalore-based GMR Group, is in talks with private equity companies to raise $100 million, Dow Jones Newswires reports quoting a GMR official. Today's edition of The Economic Times had reported that GMR was talking to PE fund like ICICI Venture, Blackstone, Chrysalis Capital, and Temasek Holdings for the investment.

"We are in serious talks with four Indian as well as global private equity companies. We should close a part of the deal by tomorrow," Madhu Terdal, head of strategic finance, told Dow Jones Newswires.

GMR Infrastructure is also planning to an IPO. GMR is developing a greenfield airport at Hyderabad and modernizing the Delhi airport. [Via Yahoo! Finance]