Creador in 3x partial exit from India's Repco Home Finance

The exit was made via a bulk transaction on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), with Creador selling 3.1 million shares (5%), at INR470 apiece, for INR1.45 billion ($23.6 million). The GP originally acquired a 10% stake in the business via its maiden fund for $13.5 million in March 2013.This was diluted to 7.46% after RHF went public in March of last year - Creador now has a 2.46% stake.

RHF was founded in 2000 as the mortagage finance unit of Repco Bank. The firm is headquartered in Chennai and provides home loans across southern India and adjacent areas, with 74 branches in eight states and one union territory. RHF focuses chiefly on the underserved segment of self-employed borrowers located outside of India's major cities.

"During our tenure the business has grown rapidly and the margins have been very strong," Brahmal Vasudevan, CEO of Creador, told AVCJ. "Since we achieved fairly good returns quite early - though we would normally invest over a five-year cycle - we decided now as a good time to exit."

The firm has had a number of PE backers with The Carlyle Group initially investing around INR1 billion between 2007 and 2009 through the purchase of a 49.7% stake. The PE firm then sold a little over 23% in secondary transactions to Wolfensohn and Creador, with the former taking 13%. It also sold a 2.78% to Antique Broking and Shardul Securities, raising a total of INR1.9 billion through all sales.

RHF went public in March last year, paving the way for Carlyle to make a full exit the following June via an INR4.72 billion open market transaction. Wolfensohn made a full exit over two transactions in April this year, reportedly generating a 2x return.

Creador still has three other investments in the financial services sector, including Cholamandalam Investment & Finance in India and BFI Finance in Indonesia. The third business is another Indonesian financial services deal, which has yet to be formally announced.

"Financial services is a big area of focus for us and it something expect to do more of going forward," added Vasudevan.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Exits
• Expansion
• Financials
• India
• Exit
• Creador
• Growth capital
• Financial Services