Ex-Apax India head to join Carlyle – report
Neeraj Bharadwaj, former India head of Apax Partners, is tipped to become The Carlyle Group’s newest managing director. The appointment would fill a vacancy created last year by the departure of Rajeev Gupta, head of the private equity firm’s India buyout operations, who went on to set up his own PE advisory firm.
Sources told the Business Standard that Bharadwaj is Carlyle's preferred candidate. He most recently worked at Accel Partners, joining the company from Apax in 2009. Bharadwaj started out with Apax in the US, focus on technology investments, having previously worked at McKinsey & Co, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Carlyle currently has two managing directors based in Mumbai, Shankar Narayanan and Devinjit Singh, who are responsible for growth and buyout investments, respectively.
Recent growth capital deals include the purchase of a 9% stake in domestic brokerage India Infoline Group for around $37.5 million, a $26 million commitment to affordable housing developer Value & Budget Housing Corporation, a $25 million investment in polymer-emulsion maker Visen Industries, and the acquisition of an undisclosed stake in ethnic wear chain Fabindia.
On the buyout side, Carlyle exited roughly 1% of its stake in mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp. (HDFC) in February, generating around INR13.5 billion ($245 million). It originally purchased a 5.6% holding in the company for $650 million in 2007.
Carlyle and The Blackstone Group have also signed a term sheet to buy up to 95% of Reliance Infratel for INR150-200 billion in what would be one of India's largest ever private equity deals. However, the transaction is in limbo because the valuation has yet to be finalized as parent company Reliance Communications is seeks regulatory clarification on spectrum pricing and allocation.
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