Rabo Equity Advisors (REA) is understood to be in the final stages of closing three more investments in the Indian food and agribusiness space. With the successful closure of these placements, REA will have five investments in its portfolio just 15 months from the launch of the fund in September 2008.
Speaking on their investment plans, Rajesh Srivastava, chairman and managing director, said, “The three additional investments should get concluded by year-end. Close to 50% of our India Agri-Business Fund (IABF) corpus will get invested between the five placements.”
IABF recently made its second investment — the fund on Tuesday announced the acquisition of 26% equity stake in Geepee Agri Pvt Ltd (GAPL). IABF has also invested Rs 45 crore in Hyderabad based agri-biotech firm Sri Biotech Laboratories.
REA refused to divulge details on the quantum of money invested into GAPL. However, Srivastava told DNA it was well within their ‘sweet spot’ range. IABF generally makes investments under $10 million (Rs 48 crore). GAPL intends to use this investment to further expand its business operations in the country in addition to setting up a new port-based refinery with capacity of over 500 tonnes per day, by March 2011.
The refinery will require investment of around Rs 40-odd crore and is most likely to come up in western or southern India.
Comments