ChrysCapital closes sixth fund at $510m

The vehicle, which was launched last year, is a little more than half the size of the Indian private equity firm's previous vehicle, which returned $300 million of capital to LPs in 2010, bringing its corpus down to $960 million.

ChrysCapital VI will concentrate on making investments with a $20-100 million equity ticket, with most falling into the $30-50 million bracket. It will focus exclusively on growth capital transactions in India, taking equity stakes ranging from 5-45%, although the occasional buyout is to be expected. Three to four deals will be realized per year, around 12-14 in total, and while some of these will involve co-investment with other investors, this is not ChrysCapital’s intended strategy.

Target sectors include infrastructure (construction, building materials), niche manufacturing (not commodities or textiles), IT, consumer, pharma, healthcare and financial services.

“There’s just too much competition,” said Managing Director Gulpreet Kohli, explaining the decision to go smaller. “All the big boys are there. Because of the size of the fund, we’re now trying to avoid doing larger deals.”

Apart from being more modest in size than its predecessor, this latest vehicle is notable as the first ChrysCapital has raised without Ashish Dhawan at its head. Dhawan, the private equity firm’s founder and senior managing director, announced last year that he would leave the industry in July 2012 to help address social issues in India. This didn’t distract ChrysCapital’s six remaining managing directors from closing the fund at its hard cap and exceeding the initial target of $400-500 million, though.

Domiciled in Mauritius, ChrysCapital V will have a lifespan of 10+1+1, having been structured by law firm Cooley in the US and Luthra & Luthra in India. The fund administrator is International Fund Services. At 2% and 20%, the management fee and carried interest are in line with the industry standard, while the minimum subscription accepted from LPs was $10 million. The entire fund will be used for new investments, as opposed to follow-on rounds.

The fund, which has a cornerstone investor, received half of its investment from US endowments and pension funds, and half from sovereign wealth funds and institutions based in Asia and Australia. VCCircle reported last November that the main backers of Fund VI – out of a total of 30 – were the Harvard Management Company, Asia Alternatives, and Singapore-based Adam Street.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Venture
• South Asia
• ChrysCapital Management
• India
• Fundraising