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.

UTI VF invests $10 mn in Shriram EPC

UTI Venture Funds has invested $10 mn in Shriram EPC. Shriram EPC operates in the high-end engineering services sector and offers multi-disciplinary design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services to sectors such as power, metallurgical, pipelines for water system and cooling towers.

Shriram EPC had earlier received Rs. 30 crores and Rs. 100 crores from ChrysCapital and Bessemer Venture Partners, respectively.

UTI Ventures had previously invested in this sector by way of investing Consolidated Construction Consortium which is into urban infrastructure.

UTI Ventures has been furiously investing from its Rs. 700-crore fund. During November itself, the company invested around $30 mn in 3 companies including Koutons Retail, VKL Spices and Laqshya, an outdoor media company.

Read the Business Standard article for more details.

SIDBI Venture to invest Rs. 30 crores in V&S International

SME Growth Fund of SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd. has invested 30 crores in Gurgaon-based textile manufacturer and exporter, V&S International Pvt. Ltd. The company supplies textiles and ready-made garments to retail chains in the US and Europe. SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd is the venture capital arm of the Small Industries Development Bank of India. It invests out of two funds, the SME Growth Fund and the Rs. 100 crore National Venture Fund for Software and IT Industry.
Of late, the private equity firms have shown a lot of interest in the textiles and apparels sector. KPR Mills, Koutons Retail are some of the firms that have received a round of PE funding.