NSR has an appetite for Moshe’s

This change has happened faster in cities where more women are entering the workforce, creating more dual-career households. As a result, many women - whose jobs are often equally demanding as those of their husbands - are no longer responsible for the meal, meaning more families are eating out.

This one of the trends, along with a growing middle class and increasing disposable incomes, that has led NSR to purchase Moshe's Fine Foods, its second investment under a broader plan to build its own domestic casual dining platform in India: Gastronomy Management Services (GMS). For NSR, GMS is a means of acquiring several brands which can then be scaled up by managing several functions - such as HR and real estate - together.

"In India, scale is one of the biggest management problems to overcome," says Saxena. ‘We found many small chains with perhaps 10-15 stores, but we couldn't find a single brand that we could multiply substantially, so this is what we pursued."

The platform is comparable to the models used by Yum Brands in the US - owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell - and Jubilant FoodWorks, the Indian company that holds the local franchises for Dominos Pizza and Dunkin' Donuts.

NSR has allocated $100 million for its food and beverage strategy, which began last year with an investment in Vasudev Adiga's, a Bangalore-based chain that specializes in south Indian cuisine. This followed a two-year period spent looking for targets, in particular restaurant chains which could offer the broadest amount of appeal.

Moshe's had fit this mould. Founded in 1988 by chef proprietor Moshe Shek, the chain operates seven cafés, two restaurants and one takeaway in Mumbai offering Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods.

According to Saxena, Shek had been looking to pass on some of the responsibility for the business in order to focus on his first passion. "For Mr. Moshe it represented a good solution, he could stay on and continue doing what he loves, designing menus and picking out dishes without having to worry about the everyday running of the day-to-day running of business," Saxena says.

NSR now plans to expand the business into India's tier one and tier two cities, starting with Pune, Bangalore and New Delhi, over the next two years. Restaurants, cafés and takeaway outlets will be opened, depending on the demographic of the surrounding neighborhood.

While transactions detail were not disclosed, Saxena describes the EBITDA multiple as large but reasonable. "At this level you are buying Mr. Moshe, his concept and fact he has spent many years to get to where he is," he says.

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• Topics
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• South Asia
• buyout
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• NSR New Silk Route Partners