Axis Bank’s recently floated private equity firm, Axis Private Equity Ltd, has invested Rs 60 crore ($15 million) in Hyderabad-based Vishwa Infrastructures and Services Pvt Ltd. Vishwa is an urban infrastructure company specialising in water and sewage projects. It plans to utilise these funds to expand their operations to Gujarat and Rajasthan. The company is targeting revenues of Rs 1,000 crore in the next 3-4 years. The current revenues are not available.
Vishwa Infrastructure, which currently has seven projects under execution, was founded in 1993 by first generation entrepreneurs Yerra Srinivas, Sridhar Reddy, K. Vijay Kumar and J. Vikram.
Axis PE invests in sectors such as logistics, power & energy, shipbuilding, general aviation, education sector and port infrastructure.
The Mumbai based fund’s first investment was Rs 126 crore ($30 million) in Delhi-based railway line manufacturer Harish Chandra India Ltd (HCIL), followed by Rs 75 crore ($19 million) in hostpitality company Neesa Leisure Ltd and Rs 67 crore ($17 million) in oil and gas pipeline developer Corrtech International Pvt Ltd. Including the current investment, the total deployment of Axis PE stands at around Rs 330 crore.
Axis PE had announced first closure of its Axis Infrastructure Fund (AIF) at Rs 600 crore or $150 million in April this year. The fund’s final target is Rs 2,000-2,400 crore or $500-600 million and expects to acheive its final closure by end of this year.
The fund plans to hold its investments for about 3 to 4 years and expects an internal rate or return (IRR) of 20-25 per cent. It plans to deploy a minimum of $20 million in a company.
