Mumbai: Barings Private Equity Partners has received commitments from its existing shareholders to extend more capital towards the company's New Economy investments. Confirming this to eFE, Mr Rahul Bhasin, managing partner of the fund, said that the fund's shareholders which are European institutions like Comcraft Group, Gembel and the ING Group, have decided to "extend more capital" to the fund.He was unwilling to disclose the extent of fresh commitments from these shareholders but said that Barings Private Equity would be able to call for this capital from the investors as and when required.
Barings Private Equity has also closed one of its first few investments for this year. "We are a lot more comfortable with the kind of valuations we see this year".
Disclosing details of the deal to eFE, Mr Bhasin said that the company has just concluded a $5 million transaction with Support Slash, a San Jose-based company in the enterprise level support business. The company, which has been promoted by Indians, also has an office in Chennai.
Referring to the fresh commitments from shareholders towards the fund, Mr Bhasin said that the investment strategy for the fund will be similar to the one being pursued so far. "IT-enabled services, pure technology and distribution focused companies will be the focus of the investments", he says.
Mr Bhasin adds that Barings Private Equity plans to step up investments this year. The fund had seen a marked slowdown in investments last year given the skyrocketing valuations that startups were commanding. The fund has invested a total of about $40 million in India so far. Much of this had been prior to 2000, according to Mr Bhasin. "Investments were minimal last year, we were quite uncomfortable with the valuations but that has changed and now we plan to step up investments", he explains.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
