NEW DELHI: Financial services major Edelweiss Group on Monday said that its asset management wing has managed to raise Rs 6,600 crore from global long term investors for an investment/lending fund which will lend to Indian companies and projects looking for capital.
According to the group, the AMC is also planning to raise an alternative investment fund (AIF) of over $1 billion next year which will look to invest in Indian real estate assets. “This fund raise, amidst subdued economic climate, is a strong endorsement of the opportunities in the Indian alternative asset management space, as well as the robust and unique private debt platform of EAM,” the group said in its statement.
Group chairman Rashesh Shah pointed out that $890 million is the largest fund raise that has been recorded this year by any Indian entity. He added that the fund raised by this Edelweiss Special Opportunities Fund-III (ESOF), will go into companies that are not being served by the banks or NBFCs due to potential asset liability mismatches.
Edelweiss Asset Management’s (EAM) president and head Hemant Daga meanwhile, said that the platform is targeting a return of 16-18 per cent per annum for the seven-year fund. Among the investors for the fund are global long term investors such as pension funds and insurance companies, Daga said.
The ESOF-III will be a sector-agnostic fund and EAM plans to commit up to 35 per cent of the $890 million corpus in the next year. “Banks and Mutual Funds have been receding from the structured credit space in line with global trends and the current dislocation has further accentuated the need for long-term flexible capital. This presents a huge opportunity for private debt players and it’s reassuring to note that the present market environment has not deterred investors,” Shah said.