Private equity firm General Atlantic, which has invested around$1.5 billion in India since opening its account in the country a little over a decade ago, now intends to invest around the same amount in the next five years, Sandeep Naik, the company’s India managing director told CNBC.
He said General Atlantic has exited only about half of its India-related portfolio and returned over $1.7 billion to its own investors. This translates into roughly 2.5x on its investments.
It has exited from firms like Genpact, Patni Computer, Cyient, Hexaware, NDTV and ShareKhan.
The PE firm, which prefers to invest in only four sectors, including healthcare, IT, financial services, retail and consumer, presently has nine companies in its Indian portfolio and is looking to exit three by next year.
Its present India related investments include Citius, Jubilant Life Sciences, IBS, IndusInd Bank, MuSigma, NSE, AND Designs, Asian Genco and Fourcee Infrastructure.
Naik said he hopes to get around $500 million from these three proposed exits without sharing the names of the firms where he may press the sell button.
Last year the PE firm part exited IndusInd and fully exited Cyient. Its remaining stake in IndusInd Bank is now worth over Rs 1,100 crore.
Referring to the investment in stock exchange NSE, Naik said it wants to hold on to its investment for now as the rise in stock markets means a good time for the bourse.
“The company’s underlying performance is always strong and there will a the right time that the owners of the company and the shareholders are going to take it public and if and when that happens that is when we will look at exiting the company,†he told the TV channel.
The PE firm which has been doing roughly one deal a year in the recent past, invested in Mumbai-based Citius IT Solutions Pvt Ltd last year.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
