Grapevine: Ravi Thakran exits L Catterton, KKR eyes Jio, Mahindra solar assets

By Ankit Agarwal

  • 21 May 2020
Credit: VCCircle

Private equity veteran Ravi Thakran, who is the managing partner and chairman at consumer-focused PE firm L Catterton Asia Private, is said to be parting his ways from the company, people close to the matter told Deal Street Asia.

In his previous role, Thakran worked as group president for South Asia, South East Asia & the Middle East for the LVMH Group and director for Groupe Arnault in Asia. He has also worked with Tata Group, Swatch Group, and Nike.

Meanwhile, the Adani Group, private equity firm KKR and Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund have separately shown interest to acquire 810 megawatts (MW) solar projects of Mahindra Susten for about $530 million, two people aware of the development told Mint.

Previously, CLP India emerged as the final buyer of Mahindra Susten’s 160 MW solar assets. The other interested taker was Piramal Group.

Mahindra Susten, which builds and sells solar power projects, has commissioned over 967MW till date and has over 668MW of projects under execution.

In another development, KKR & Co is said to be in an active discussions and has been carrying out due diligence to invest up to $1 billion in Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms, people in the know told The Economic Times.

KKR, with this investment, will join its peers like Silver Lake, Vista Partners, and General Atlantic who have together committed over $3 billion for the Jio Platform recently.

A formal announcement is expected in the next few days.

Besides KKR, Saudi sovereign fund PIF is also said to be closing in on a stake purchase in Jio Platforms as the company continues to attract marquee investors, the report added.

Reliance is engaged in several parallel dialogues — including with sovereign wealth fund of UAE Mubadala — that are at various stages, said officials directly involved in the discussions.

Also, automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), in its foray to exit from non-core businesses, is looking to sell its 29% stake in Mahindra Sanyo Special Steel (MSSSPL), its speciality steel joint venture (JV) to the other two partners Japan’s Sanyo Special Steel Co and Mitsui Corp for up to Rs 300 crore, multiple sources with the knowledge of the matter told The Economic Times.

M&M may sell the stake in one shot or multiple tranches. Presently, Sanyo owns a 51% stake in the JV and 20% stake in held by Mitsui.