Mumbai, March 17 Private equity firm L Catterton is not seeing any impact from the West Asia conflict on its deal-making operations, and plans to invest at least USD 100 million more in India by the end of 2027, a top official said on Tuesday.
The consumer sector-focused firm has over USD 440 million in active investments in the country across two funds, and is looking to increase its bets on the country, L Catterton India's executive chairman Sanjiv Mehta said.
The investments include USD 340 million across entities like Jio Platforms and Sugar from its Asia fund, and USD 100 million through the India fund, which has been deployed in companies like Haldiram's, Mehta said.
Its co-head for India, Vikram Kumaraswamy, said the firm is "aware" of the conflict in West Asia, but emphasized that it believes the India macro story is strong and intact.
When asked about the deal pipeline and the impact of the West Asia conflict, he said that three-fourths of the deals are proprietary, meaning the firm is not involved in any bidding wars for stakes, and the conflict has had no adverse impact on them.
"None of them have been affected by West Asia because our focus is on India, our focus is on businesses that benefit from the Indian consumer (or) Indian macro (story), none of it is affected by West Asia," he said.
Mehta said that it has raised nearly half of the targeted USD 400 million in the India fund from family offices and insurers so far, and expects to close the fund in the next 18 months. The entire fund will be deployed by the end of 2027, he added.
The firm also has the option to increase its overall fund size to USD 600 million, but the target remains USD 400 million, officials explained.
Kumaraswamy said that the investments from the India fund have been made at a valuation that is up to 40 per cent lower than market benchmarks.
Describing capital as a "commodity," Mehta said that the firm benefits from its strategic focus on the consumer sector globally for over three decades, which helps the growth of investee companies.
Three investee companies from the India fund have shown earnings growth of 40 per cent in the last year, and Haldiram's and Drools are among the candidates who are ready for an initial public offering, Kumaraswamy said.
An official said that the company targets a return of at least three times in every investment that it makes.