Koutons files DRHP with SEBI

The retail garment brand Koutons has filed its draft red herring prospectus, DRHP with SEBI and intends to enter the capital market with an IPO as reported on Moneycontrol.

This comes after a round of PE funding from Passport India, UTI Ventures & Argonaut. Passport India Investments (Mauritius) has picked up 6,00,000 equity shares in Koutons Retail India for an investment amount of Rs 210 million. Passport has been allotted the equity shares at a fixed price of Rs 350 per equity share. With this infusion Koutons Retail India has raised an aggregate amount of Rs 1,216 million as private equity since June 2006. The earlier investors were UTI Venture Funds Management Company Private Limited and Argonaut Ventures.

As on February 28, 2007, the company had 26 manufacturing and warehouse facilities in and around Gurgaon, and a network of 674 retail outlets across India.

Argonaut leads $80 million funding of Cordy’s

Cordys Holding B.V., provider of industry-leading business process management suite (BPMS) enterprise software, announced the successful completion of $80 million equity financing representing the singlw largest round of funding for an independent, private BPMS vendor.

Argonaut Private Equity led the round with an investment of $67 million securing a ‘significant minority stake’ in the company, which could be anywhere between 20 and 33 percent.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Cordys is a global company with over 520 employees in offices in the Americas, Europe, China and India. Cordys currently employs 250 people at its Asia development centre in Hyderabad which is the key to its ability to compete with larger incumbents,

With more than $2 billion under management, Argonaut Private Equity is a diversified global private equity fund. ‘This investment in Cordys demonstrates Argonaut’s commitment to investing in high potential business with strong ties to India,’ said Gagan Kapur, vice president, Argonaut Private Equity. With the investment in Cordys, the total investment by Argonaut in India has reached $170 million in diverse markets.

BMPS’ are the next generation of BPM software. BMPS’ pull together a broader set of tools to provide end-to-end lifecycle support of the business process all within a single model that is shared by all its enabling technologies.

UTI Ventures and Argonaut Private Equity invest Rs. 44 crores in Chennai-based IT company Zylog Systems

Private equity firms UTI Ventures and US-based Argonaut Private Equity are investing around Rs. 43.8 crores (around $10 mn) in Chennai-based Zylog Systems Limited (ZSL). The investment will be done through preferential share allotment. ZSL is a 12-year old IT services and outsourcing solutions company with around 750 employees in India, the US and Europe, offering services in web application, mobile computing and enterprise infrastructure management. It has a specialized product called DP Online, a depository operations and a financial accounting system.

The investments will facilitate the company’s access to clientele in new target markets. For the year ended March 2006, ZSL’s revenues stood at Rs. 257.8 crores, a 75% growth over the previous year, and its post-tax profits were at Rs. 37.13 crores.

Argonaut Private Equity has a corpus of over $2 bn and is present in India since 2003. It has invested over $75 mn in Indian companies, predominantly in the IT and other technology sectors. UTI Ventures has substantial investments in the technology and IT services sector, including Subex Systems. This is the second time that the two private equity firms have come together to invest in a single entity. Earlier, the two funds invested a total of $16 mn (Rs. 72 crores) in Koutons Retail, a Rs. 450 crore-menswear retailer.

Read The Economic Times article.

Peterson Partners invests $3 mn in Coimbatore-based KPR Mills

Peterson Partners, a US-based private equity firm, has made a $3 mn investment in KPR Mills Limited. KPR Mills is a Rs. 450 crore-integrated textile and apparel company and owns spinning, knitting and garment making facilities. It was established in 1975. It has a global presence in the garment exporting industry including cotton yarn, fabric and knitted apparel.

KPR Mills is also the recipient of the largest PE investment in the Indian textile sector. In December 2006, Blue River Capital along with partners Brandot Investments and Argonaut Private Equity had invested Rs. 105 crores in the Coimbatore-based company.

Peterson Partners is based in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA. Peterson specializes in small to mid-sized companies. It was founded in 1995 and has over $300 mn under management through four funds.

Read the press release here.