Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) is one fund that is looking to make best of the falling valuations. The fund has bought an undisclosed stake in construction company Man Infraconstruction. It has also upped its stake in Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services,
the vehicle finance arm of automotive major. This comes after SCPE picked up stakes in Indian public sector banks Karur Vysya Bank Ltd and Indian Overseas Bank in February from open markets.
The private equity fund has increased the stake in the firm to 9.54% from 7.45% earlier, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. SCPE has bought this 2.09% stake for a total amount of Rs 37.5 crore, at an average share price of Rs 193. This is nearly half of the price at which the fund was allotted shares at Rs 370 per share last year. With open market stake buys, SCPE is bringing down its average price of share purchase.
SCPE had picked up a 4% stake through preferential allotment in early 2008, when TPG-Axon also picked up a 7.22% stake. Private equity major ChrysCapital also picked up a 4.16% stake in a pre-IPO deal in in 2006 in the company through its wholly owned subsidiary Copa Cabana. The stake was bought for Rs 190 per share and was to fall to 3.67% post-issue.
But Copa Cabana's shareholding stands at 4.87% as of December 2008, and Dali Ltd, another entity owned by ChrysCapital has a 3.55% stake in the firm. This takes the total stake held by ChrysCap in Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services at 8.42%.
In another development, SCPE has invested an undisclosed amount in Man Infraconstruction Limited, reports PTI. The company has also earlier raised monies from Sabre-Abraaj Fund. Man Infra specialises in civil construction services in infrastructure (primarily ports), industrial structures, residential and commercial real estate. SCPE is also evaluating inorganic options for the company in order to expand its footprint.
