PE Firm Milestone Capital to raise $250 mn

November 2, 2009	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Private equity (PE) firm Milestone Capital is looking to raise a $250 million (about Rs 1,175 crore) offshore fund independently or jointly with Delhi-based Religare, its existing partner in a fund that invests in the healthcare and education space in India, an industry executive, familiar with the matter, said on conditions of anonymity. The new fund will invest in the US, Europe and the Middle East in education and healthcare sectors. At present, Religare Group and Milestone have a 50:50 joint venture (JV) fund, Religare Milestone, with a corpus of Rs 600 crore. The fund focuses on local companies in tier II and tier III cities in the education and healthcare space. The fund has already invested Rs 25 crore in test preparation firm IMS Learning Resources and is also in talks to invest similar amounts in 2-3 hospitals in the country.

When contacted, both the Milestone and Religare spokespersons declined to comment. The person privy to the development said one of the options for Milestone is to jointly raise the fund with its JV partner. Milestone has already initiated talks with the financial services group promoted by former Ranbaxy owners, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, to raise this amount, he added. If negotiations with Religare fructify, this would be the second fund under its management catering to the education and healthcare space.

As per analysts tracking the PE sector, companies in the education and healthcare space are attracting significant investor interest as they cater primarily to the domestic market and are thus recession proof. As per estimates, in the education space, there were about six deals signed during the April-September period this fiscal with an estimated value of $90 million, while 11 companies in healthcare sector collected $147 million in the same period this fiscal.

Milestone Capital, which was floated by ex-Pantaloon executive Prakash Arya last year, invests primarily in real estate projects in India. It operates six funds that has a total corpus of $150 million and has invested in projects worth more than $1 billion across India and abroad, as per its website. Religare is a leading player in the healthcare industry with presence in hospital, diagnostics and chemist chain. As per advisory firm Grant Thornton figures, during the first six months this year, of the total of 93 private equity deals in the country, pharma, healthcare and biotech industry received six fundings worth $119 million.

News Published Under:   Delhi |

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