SAIF makes first Indian manufacturing deal

Hong Kong-based venture capital firm SAIF Partners has acquired a 6.6 percent stake in Jindal Poly Films, an Indian manufacturer of flexible packaging films, for approximately R56 crore ($12.5 million; €10.4 million).
 
Prior to the Jindal deal, the majority of SAIF Partners’ investments in India have had a technology focus, SAIF India representative Vibhor Mehra told PEO, stressing that technology remains a strong focus for the firm. “As technology has caught the fancy of investors across the board, it is hard to get a compelling valuation in the current bull market in India,” he said.
 
Mehra said the Jindal investment was not made “out of the blue”, adding that SAIF Partners has been evaluating the non-technology sector in India for almost a year and Jindal in particular for the past four to five months.
 
The Jindal deal, said Mehra, is “an important milestone for SAIF Partners, as it is our first investment in the manufacturing sector in the country. With expectations of high double-digit growth in the modern retail formats such as shopping malls, food processing and packaging, and consequently the flexible packaging industry, we believe that Jindal is poised for significant growth in the next few years”.
 
In separate news, SAIF Partners has appointed Babar Khan as an associate, expanding its India team to three.
 
SAIF Partners, which spun out of Softbank, closed a $643 million fund in June of last year. The firm’s debut fund, raised in 2001, is the $400 million Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund.