IDFC Alternatives raises $100m for fourth fund

MUMBAI: IDFC Alternatives, the private equity arm of IDFC group, has raised $100 million towards the first close of its fourth fund. The commitments have come from domestic institutional investors and a final close of $300 million is expected by end of the year, a senior company official said.
“We have raised $100 million from domestic institutional investors and large family offices,” said Girish Nadkarni, partner, private equity at IDFC Alternatives, in an exclusive interaction with ET.

Last year, IDFC returned about Rs 1,100 crore from around five partial or complete exits from dairy and food products maker Parag, logistics company Star Agri, Food and e-catering company Manipal IS, telecom tower company VIOM and Delhi Assam Logistics.

“These investments were done from our third fund of $650 million and we have a DPI of around 1, which puts us in the high quartile bracket,” Nadkarni said.

From the fourth fund, IDFC is looking at investing in 8-10 companies with a ticket size of around $30-50 million. “We have made our first investment in InCred from the fourth fund,” said Nadkarni.

InCred is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) floated by former Deutsche Bank senior executive Bhupinder Singh and that is backed by Anshu Jain, the former co-chief of Deutsche, Manipal Group’s managing director and CEO Ranjan R Pai, Gaurav Dalmia, founder and chairman of Landmark Holdings (Dalmia Group) and Alpha Capital.

According to news reports, Singh and Pai have contributed about Rs 150 crore each in the venture. IDFC will now own around 10% stake it has picked up for Rs 80 crore, valuing the company at about Rs 800 crore.

The non-banking financial company will focus on small ticket education loans, credit for white goods, consumer loans, medical and loans to SMEs. “The ticket size will be in the range of Rs 8-10 lakh,” he said.