India's Edelweiss raises $270m pre-IPO fund
Edelweiss Financial Services has raised a new fund to invest in pre-IPO funding rounds for Indian companies, with a corpus of INR17.5 billion ($271 million).
The vehicle will invest at several stages in the IPO process, beginning before the prospectus is filed and including investments during and after the offering, according to a Livemint article linked from Edelweiss’ website. Edelweiss has already made the first investment from the fund: it paid INR1.25 billion this month for a 4.9% stake held by SSG Capital Management in supply chain and logistics company Future Supply Chain, which has filed for an IPO.
Edelweiss has been trying to grow from its roots as a capital markets advisory firm in recent years to embrace a more diverse business model including credit, insurance and wealth management. Through its private equity division, the firm has supported companies such as Indian car rental start-up Revv and enterprise technology services provider Bridgei2i. It has also partnered with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to invest in Indian distressed assets and private debt.
According to its most recent annual report Edelweiss recorded revenue of INR66 billion for the year ended March 2017, up from INR53 billion the year before. Over the same period net profit grew from INR4.1 billion to INR6.1 billion.
Edelweiss’ IPO fund is intended to take advantage of the robust performance of Indian IPOs in recent years and the strong perceived pipeline. Notable offerings this year include SBI Life, the life insurance subsidiary of the State Bank of India, and ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
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