US alternative investment firm Värde Partners plans to invest as much as $1 billion to grow its portfolio in India as part of a broader strategy to tap potential opportunities in the credit market, Mint reported on Monday.
“Over the next 12 months, across 6-8 transactions, we are looking at anywhere around $800 million to a billion dollars in terms of pipeline, where we see some real transactions, which have progressed well or are at stages of progression,” Sandeep Chandak, Managing Director at Värde Partners, told Mint in an interview. He said Värde is looking to invest $100-200 million per deal.
Varde Partners did not respond to a request for comment by DealStreetAsia.
Founded in 1993, Värde Partners has invested $90 billion in corporate and traded credit, real estate and mortgages, private equity, and direct lending. It has invested across 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific, and has offices in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.
Värde Partners was in the news for raising close to $2.5 billion for its thirteenth flagship vehicle, the Värde Fund III, in December 2019. The fund was slated to invest in credit and credit-related assets globally ranging from liquid traded credit, special institutions, real estate, and financial services.
Its investment plans come at a time when global funds, including Sequoia, Accel, LightSpeed, and Matrix Partners, have either raised new funds or are in talks to raise capital to tap tech investment opportunities in India. Earlier this year, Sequoia India said it raised a whopping $2.85 billion across three funds to invest in the Indian and Southeast Asian markets, while Accel India mopped up $650 million and Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners) raised its largest-ever fund at $670 million.
Earlier on Monday, alternative asset manager Investcorp said it is planning to increase its exposure to $5 billion in India in the next five years.
“As an alternative capital provider, we should be flexible in terms of how the economy and the country are going, and what kind of opportunities the country is providing. India as a country offers a fairly large opportunity on the private credit side. It’s a large economy with strong GDP growth, and you have a limited supply of private credit, which is done in an institutional manner. All of that implies that it will be an attractive market for many, many years to come for someone like Värde,” Chandak said.