Avendus Capital bags $152 Mn funding to grow credit and asset management businesses

Financial services firm Avendus Capital has raised about $152 Mn (Rs 980 crore) in a round led by mid-market private equity firm Gaja Capital and global PE buyout specialist KKR.

With this investment, Yogesh Mahansaria—the former promoter of Alliance Tire Group will come on board Avendus Capital as a minority stakeholder.

Commenting on the development, Gopal Jain, managing partner of Gaja Capital, said, “The focus of this capital round was for Avendus to grow its credit and asset management businesses.” Post the closure of the round, and across asset classes, Avendus currently manages about $4.1 billion in assets.

The funds will be used to build the wealth management business of Avendus capital as it transforms into a full-service financial services operator.

“Avendus already had strong capabilities in investment banking, wealth management, and alternative asset management. This capital will help us go deeper into those businesses,” said, Ranu Vohra, chief executive of Avendus Capital.

A portion of the funds will also be utilised to complete the acquisition of UK-based asset management company Ocean Dial Asset Management.

Avendus Capital was founded in 1999 by Ranu Vohra, Kaushal Aggarwal, and Gaurav Deepak. Earlier, Avendus had sold a majority stake, estimated at 70%, to KKR for about $105 million.

This is Gaja Capital's second investment this quarter. Prior to this in October 2017, co-investor Gaja Capital who led a $15 Mn (Rs 96 crore) round in Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) Kinara Capital. Earlier in June, investor KKR & Co. had raised $9.3 billion for its investments in Asia Pacific region, under fund name KKR Asian Fund III.