Ashmore among the suitors for Milestone Capital – report
Milestone Capital, the Indian private equity firm set up by Ved Prakash Arya, who died last year, is attracting interest from Ashmore Investment Management as well as a clutch of local financial services players. Arya’s family are seeking around INR3 billion ($60 million) for the company.
The other prospective buyers include Edelweiss Financial Services, Ashmore Investment Management, Arth Veda Capital, a unit of Dewan Housing Finance and L&T Finance, the Financial Express newspaper reported, citing local media. Standard Chartered is advising the family on the sale.
In October, Arvind Bansal, one of Milestone's independent directors, confirmed that a merger or buyout was likely, saying that global private equity firms, corporations seeking entry to the PE business, real estate developers and other asset management firms had all expressed an interest in the company.
Milestone's principal investment areas are private equity and real estate, and it has joint ventures in both, as well as running independent funds. IL&FS is its joint venture partner in two real estate funds, while there is a separate partnership with Religare covering private equity.
Arya died last August after being struck by a falling coconut tree - downed by high winds - in Mumbai. His wife Rubi, the global head of human resources at Kingfisher Airlines, and brother Ashwein, a director of fixed income, currency and commodities sales at Royal Bank of Scotland, were subsequently appointed to Milestone's board of directors.
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