Mayfield Ventures to invest $15 mn in domestic i-bank Avendus Advisors

Mumbai-based investment bank Avendus Advisors has received a private equity investment of around $15 mn, for a stake of 20%, from US-based venture capital fund Mayfield Ventures. The fund is being infused as fresh equity, and the term sheets would be signed in a week’s time. Other details of the deal have not been disclosed. Avendus, founded in 1999, has been valued at around Rs. 330 crores. Before the equity sale, the three initial promoters, Ranu Vohra, Gaurav Deepak and Kaushal Aggarwal, and the employees of Avendus held around 70% stake, while Spanish institutional investor Americorp held 20% and entrepreneur-investor from California, Anil Godhwani held the remaining 10%. Once the deal is finalized, there will be corresponding reduction in the stake held by each promoter.

Mayfield has already partnered Avendus to raise a $200 mn offshore fund which would invest in Indian projects, and is expected to be set up by July-August. Avendus has seen a strong growth over last couple of years. Its annual revenues are expected to cross $12 mn in 2006-07. The organisation employs approximately around 40 professionals.

The investment bank focuses on wealth management, institutional broking and debt solutions. It is also offering private equity syndication, advice on M&As, and strategic advisory services to corporates and funds. It is now in the process of expanding its operations abroad by opening offices in New York and Munich. Avendus focuses on industries where Indian companies have a strategic growth advantage including IT services, IT-enabled services, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, media and consumer products and services. The most recent deal cracked by Avendus was to help AnandRathi Securities to dilute around 20% stake in favour of CVC International, for around Rs. 100 crores (See Related Post).

Read The Economic Times article.
Related Posts:
Avendus Advisors to divest 20% stake to Old Lane and Mayfield Ventures
Avendus Advisors forms $200 mn PE fund with Mayfield Fund; to invest in the outsourcing sector

NYSE-listed Indian BPO major WNS acquires Bangalore-based KPO Marketics Technologies for $65 mn

NYSE-listed WNS Holdings, one of India’s leading Indian outsourcing companies, will acquire Bangalore-based analytics services firm Marketics Technologies for $65 mn in an all-cash deal to consolidate its position in the fast-growing knowledge processing arena. The acquisition will supplement the knowledge business of WNS which provides market research, business and financial research, and analytics services. The existing clients of WNS are in the travel, banking, financial services and insurance industries. With the Marketics acquisition, WNS will add capability in the consumer goods, retail, and media and entertainment sectors. Marketics was started in 2003 by a group of young professionals with backgrounds in marketing, market research and information technology.

WNS will pay $30 mn at the closing of the deal and an additional earn-out payment of up to $35 mn over a 12-month period, financing the acquisition off its balance sheet. WNS has already made three acquisitions: Town and Country Assistance, an auto claims collection firm; ClaimsBPO, the India-based healthcare BPO business of GreenSnow from the US; and an Arizona-based mortgage BPO firm called Trinity Partners. Leading domestic investment bank Avendus Advisors was the advisor to the transaction.

Read more in FinanceAsia.com.

Fidelity National Information Services picks up Second Foundation

Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a provider of core processing solutions for financial institutions, has acquired Second Foundation, an IT services company headquartered in California, for close to $20 mn. The buyout is in line with Fidelity’s expansion plan in its offshore presence in India. Second Foundation is a provider of offshore global information technology services. With this FIS’ wholly owned subsidiary, Fidelity Business Solutions now gets a foothold in Bangalore and Chandigarh, where Second Foundation has significant presence.

Avendus Advisors was the exclusive advisor to Second Foundation. The company has extensive experience in a multitude of areas, including outsourced product development, quality assurance and business intelligence services as well as implementation services of third-party software applications. The Second Foundation team will continue to support its existing clients and augment current global delivery capabilities.

Prior to the acquisition, FIS operated in India, through its Indian partner Covansys Corporation, an IT services company. FIS will continue its relationship with Covansys Corporation, which will be primarily dedicated to internal software application management. Also, since the operations of Covansys were essentially BPO oriented, FIS wanted to look at an IT services company that has expertise in other areas as well. Currently, FIS has processing and technology relationships with 35 of the top 50 global banks, including nine of the top 10. Approximately 50% of all US residential mortgages are processed using the FIS software.

Second Foundation, which was incepted in 1997 has reached significant scale, and is looking and getting on to the global platform, leveraging on FIS’ international presence. The company specialises in business intelligence, software security, and web services solutions. Last year, the company embarked on a major expansion in Europe and established development centres and sales offices in Prague, and Liverpool. The company has projects underway in major corporations in the UK, Czech Republic, France and Norway.

Read The Economic Times article.

Avendus Advisors forms $200 mn PE fund with Mayfield Fund; to invest in the outsourcing sector

Domestic investment bank Avendus Advisors will invest in the outsourcing sector in knowledge-oriented and outsourcing companies in the areas of legal processes, financial services and equity research. The boutique bank will invest out of its $200 mn fund which was formed in December 2006 in association with US-based venture capitalist Mayfield Fund. Avendus is still tying up the finances.

Investments will be done in companies with revenues of Rs. 80 crores to Rs. 100 crores and with a track record of 3-5 years.

Avendus is also advising on mergers and acquisitions for software technology and auto component companies. It has recently announced a tie-up with European investment bank and management consulting outfit goetzpartners (See Related Post).

Read The Financial Express article.

Avendus Advisors ties up with leading European i-bank goetzpartners

One of the fastest-growing domestic investment banks in India, Avendus Advisors, has entered into a JV with goetzpartners, a leading European corporate finance advisory and management consulting firm. The JV will assist Indian companies for M&A opportunities in Europe.

Avendus is ranked in the top tier of investment banks for M&As, is steadily increasing its share in the M&A business emerging out of India. It has also opened its IPO and corporate debt services divisions in order to provide a one-stop solution to its client’s investment banking needs.

The partnership with goetzpartners will enable Avendus to grow its business faster in countries like Germany, UK, France, Spain and Central and Eastern Europe. The JV would focus on high-growth verticals such as IT & ITES, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, media, automotive and knowledge manufacturing. The deal will help Indian companies wanting to expand in Europe and for European companies wanting to set up a beachhead in India.

Read the complete article in DNA Money.

Avendus Advisors to divest 20% stake to Old Lane and Mayfield Ventures

Hedge fund Old Lane Partners and venture capital firm Mayfield Ventures may buy around 20% stake in leading boutique investment bank Avendus Advisors for a sum of Rs. 80 crores. This puts the valuation of the bank at around Rs. 400 crores. Avendus is expected to gross annual revenues of $12 mn in 2006-07. The organization has grown from 16 professionals to 40 in 2006.

Avendus was founded in 1999 by Ranu Vohra, Gaurav Deepak and Kaushal Aggarwal. They and employees of Avendus hold around 70% of the bank’s equity stake. Americorp, a Spanish institutional investor, holds 20% and the rest is held by Californian entrepreneur-investor Anil Godhwani. A minority stake earlier held by Infinity Venture, a venture capital fund, had been bought back by promoters around 2 years back.

Recently, Avendus has inducted two senior officials as vice presidents. Kishore Srinivasan, former joint GM and Head, Closely Monitored Assets (CMA) at ICICI Bank, joined Avendus as vice president and is now heading its corporate debt services. Also, Rajiv Shukla, former director, business development, at Pfizer, has joined Avendus as vice president, heading its life science vertical. Mr. Shukla is known to have played a leadership role on 5 acquisitions at Pfizer totaling $63 bn. Just a couple of days ago, Avendus was in the news for the exit of some of its high-profile employees, notably, Deepesh Garg, Assistant Vice-President, Consumer Products and Services Team, and Shiraz Bugwadia, Assistant Vice-President, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare.

Avendus focuses on wealth management, institutional broking and debt solutions. It offers private equity syndication, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), and strategic advisory services to corporates and funds. Currently, it is in the process of expanding its operations abroad by opening offices in New York and Munich.

Read The Economic Times article.
Related Post: Key senior people exit Avendus Advisors to float boutique investment bank

Key senior people exit Avendus Advisors to float boutique investment bank

A major “personnel crisis” is being witnessed in one of India’s leading boutique investment banks. Avendus Advisors is seeing key senior management people exiting the company to start on their own.

Shyam Shenthar, partner at Avendus, has left the company to start his own investment advisory that aims to target a largely untapped market for mergers and acquisitions and private equity in mid-cap companies. He was supervising the Capital Markets and Broking activities of Avendus. He is being joined by Deepesh Garg, Assistant Vice-President in the Consumer Products and Services Team, and Shiraz Bugwadia, Assistant Vice-President in charge of Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare from Avendus, and TR Srinivas of Taib Securities. The yet-to-be-named start-up will operate from Mumbai and Bangalore.

Avendus has been one of India’s ten top investment advisory companies and has completed deals worth well over $ 532 mn (Rs. 2300 crores) in the last two years. The company has declared 34 deals in the same period.

The development follows a shake-up in the company that resulted in restive executives looking for fresh opportunities. The new company plans to focus on the booming mergers and acquisitions space in India and intends to work with private equity players and the capital markets. The company would also look at wealth management services and financial services space.

Read the article in the Hindustan Times.