Actis, Nexus and ChrysCapital's Dhawan win at AVCJ India awards - Update

Dhawan used his keynote address earlier the same day at the AVCJ India Forum to look back at the evolution of ChrysCapital and forward to how he expects private equity to develop in India.

He recalled two turning points, both of which involved the Harvard Endowment and both of which throw light on the wider industry. The first was signing up Harvard as an anchor investor in 2000-2001, a time when blue chip foreign LPs were wary of committing capital to India. The second was convincing Harvard that PIPE deals could form part of successful India strategy. "They said PIPE deals haven't worked in the US. I said we need to have flexibility in the model," Dhawan recounted.

Dhawan told the forum that Indian private equity firms must use flexibility to counteract the inherent pro-cyclicality of investment in India. He also advocates moving away from "capital hungry businesses that also tend to be crappy" and learning when to sell rather than holding assets for long periods in the hope of a better tomorrow.

Actis' two awards acknowledge the firm's landmark exit from Paras Pharmaceuticals, selling a 63% stake to Benckiser Group for around $457.4 million in December 2010. This equates to a 10x return on an initial investment of about $42 million made four years earlier. The company founder exited alongside Actis, making the full transaction worth $726 million.

Mahesh Chhabria, a partner at Actis, told AVCJ that the strategy justified the firm's strategy of pursuing control deals, which are generally difficult to come by in India. "The team that managed Paras worked very hard to bring value," he added. "We put in place professionals to manage the business for us and this ensured that the timing was right from an exit perspective."

Everstone Capital fought off some tough competition for the Private Equity Fundraising of the Year Award. The firm's second vehicle achieved a close of $550 million in March, just 18 months after launch. "We would like to thank AVCJ, the judges and the voters for this award," said Everstone's Atul Phul. "It is an honor to be included amongst the distinguished nominees, and to be recognized for a successful fundraising in a difficult environment."

The full list of award winners was:

Indian Private Equity Deal of the Year: Hero Honda Motors (Bain Capital)
Indian Venture Capital Deal of the Year: Exclusively.in (Tiger Global Management/Accel Partners/Helion Ventures)
Indian Private Equity Fundraising of the Year: Everstone Capital Partners II (Everstone Capital)
Indian Private Equity Exit of the Year: Paras Pharmaceuticals (Actis)
Indian Private Equity Professional of the Year: Sandeep Singhal (Nexus Venture Partners)
Indian Financial Advisor of the Year: Ernst & Young
Indian Legal Advisor of the Year: Khaitan & Co.
Indian Private Equity Firm of the Year: Actis
Indian AVCJ Special Achievement Award: Ashish Dhawan (ChrysCapital Investment Advisors)

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• Topics
• South Asia
• AVCJ Awards
• India
• Ashish Dhawan
• ChrysCapital Management
• Bain Capital Asia
• Accel Partners
• Helion Ventures
• Everstone Capital
• Actis Capital
• Nexus India Capital Advisors
• Sandeep Singhal