Samara Capital, an Indian private equity firm, revealed that it is concluding the first round of financing for its second fund at US$150 million. The revelation comes at a time when world wide investors are increasingly becoming cautious in committing funds to risk capital companies that invest across mutliple sectors.
Samara Capital has been a very active investor throughout the Indian landscape. Late last year, the fund acquired Network 18's entire 77.5% share in financial news services enterprise Newswire 18. They later renamed Newswire 18 to Cogencis Information Services. It also counts Monte Carlo Fashions, Flemingo Duty Free, Ratnakar Bank, among other companies in its portfolio.
The fund's close will draw the first phase in the Mumbai-based firm's initiatives to put up a total of US$300 million. Samara Capital's currently manages its first fund worth US$125 million, which it initially raised in 2006.
"Limited partners are now giving money to the sector-specific PE funds, since they believe that these funds have a more consistent investment strategy that will allow for greater returns in the long-term," Avigo Capital Partners managing director Mahendra Swarup said.
Samara Capital was founded by former Goldman Sachs and Citigroup India executive Sumeet Narang.
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