Nalanda Capital has increased its holding in power transformer maker Voltamp Transformers Ltd through market purchase of shares for Rs 16.7 crore. The Singapore-based firm that invests in listed Indian companies apparently took an exposure in the firm between April-June quarter and held 1.6% stake as of June 30, but has continued buying since then. With the latest deal Nalanda India Fund has upped its holding by 1.8% to 5.88%, as per a disclosure.
Large chunk of the shares were purchased from US-based investment manager Wasatch at Rs 919.89 per share around the same price at which Nalanda is estimated to have acquired the shares early this year.
This comes soon after Nalanda increased its holding in mid-sized IT services firm MindTree by 1.7% to 8.4% through open market transactions, taking its total exposure in the company to over Rs 157 crore ($35 million).
Given that the fund house is putting in more money at a similar or higher price, it appears to be going long on these two investments.
The $400-million fund, headed by former Warburg Pincus India MD Pulak Prasad, has been one of the most active PE investors picking small minority stakes in Indian listed companies. It also invested in companies such as Aztecsoft which was acquired by MindTree in one of the biggest deals in domestic IT space. During the downturn, Nalanda picked up stakes in over half a dozen listed companies such as Mindtree, Mastek, Triveni Engineering, Page Industries etc. Its other investments include Vaibhav Gems and WNS.
Early this year, Nalanda had exited Chennai-based broadcaster Sun TV Network Ltd with 2.5x returns on its 14-month-old investment in Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun TV. Nalanda picked up a 2.22% stake in Sun TV back in December 2008. It also part exited its investment with a multibagger from Kirloskar Oil Engines with an estimated return of around 4x in less than two years.
