True North

TRUE NORTH INVESTS IN HOME FIRST FINANCE

Home First Finance Company India Pvt Ltd (HFFC) is a dedicated housing finance company that was set up in 2010. HFFC aims to serve the housing loan needs of low and middle income customers who are purchasing their first homes. HFFC was founded by former MphasiS Chairman – Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao and former Citibank Consumer Banking Head – P.S Jayakumar. The company has disbursed housing loans worth more than Rs 1,000 crores to over 10,000 families across 30 cities in the country.

HFFC has raised capital from Bessemer Venture Partners and Tata Capital Growth Fund in earlier rounds. The Company has been in discussions with prospective investors for raising around US$ 50 million for its growth. The Company and its shareholders are now in advanced stages of discussions with True North, a leading private equity fund to invest around US$ 100 million and acquire a majority stake in HFFC.

HFFC

Commenting on the deal, Mr Jerry Rao said “HFFC has emerged as an outstanding company that leverages technology intelligently in order to ensure a quality customer experience at the base of the pyramid. My association with Home First has been and remains a source of great personal pride”

Commenting on the deal, Manoj Viswanathan, Chief Executive Officer of HFFC, said “HFFC has built a strong presence in the affordable housing finance segment in the country. We want to continue our bias towards using technology to create innovative products and processes for housing finance customers in India. True North has a great reputation for investing in mid-sized entities like HFFC and nurturing them into industry leaders. We are pleased to partner with them as we embark on this journey”

Divya Sehgal, Partner at True North commented “We have been keen to participate in the massive opportunity being offered by the Indian affordable housing sector. Towards this, we had an opportunity to evaluate many affordable housing finance companies in India. We believe that HFFC has a unique team and culture of doing business in a very transparent and socially responsible manner, which is a philosophy that resonates very well with True North. Since inception, the HFFC team has been able to grow the business at 50%+ CAGR in a profitable and prudent manner by leveraging latest technological tools. We are very excited about the prospect of supporting the HFFC team in building a leading and socially responsible affordable housing finance business in India.”

TRUE NORTH TO ACQUIRE RELIGARE HEALTH INSURANCE

(Single largest investment ever in the history of health insurance industry in India)

New Delhi/Mumbai, April 9, 2017 : Religare Enterprises Limited (“REL”) has entered into a definitive agreement with a consortium of investors led by True North (formerly India Value Fund) to buy out its entire stake in Religare Health Insurance Company Limited (RHI). The consortium includes domestic investors such as Mr. Gaurav Dalmia and Faering Capital. This transaction values RHI at INR 1,300 crores and REL currently has c.80% shareholding on a fully diluted basis in RHI. The transaction marks the single largest investment in a standalone health insurance company in India. The transaction is subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

Since commercial launch in July 2012, RHI has reported steady progress and emerged as a leading standalone health insurer in India. The business reported a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of Rs. 503 crores for the year ended March 31, 2016.

religare

Commenting on the transaction Vikram Nirula, Partner of True North said, “We have been closely evaluating the health insurance space and have been impressed by the quality of RHI’s management team and business. We believe that RHI would be an excellent platform for building an enduring health insurance franchise in India.”

Vishal Nevatia, Managing Partner of True North said, “We are delighted to add RHI to True North’s portfolio of financial services businesses and look forward to supporting the RHI management team in building the most admired health insurance business in India.”

Mr. Maninder Singh, Group CEO, Religare Enterprises Ltd. said, “We are confident that RHI will continue on its high growth trajectory under the new ownership. This sale is a continuation of REL’s strategy to consolidate and focus on its core businesses”

Mr. Anuj Gulati, CEO & MD, Religare Health Insurance Limited said, “We shall continue to deliver best in class health insurance products and services to our customers and partners, and remain committed to our core objective of – ‘building an institution that is relevant even beyond a hundred years’. We sincerely appreciate the faith reposed in us over the years by our founding promoters and are equally thankful for the belief that the new shareholders have vested in us.”

About Religare Enterprises Limited

Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) is the holding company for one of India’s leading diversified financial services groups. REL offers an integrated suite of financial services through its underlying subsidiaries and operating entities, including loans to SMEs, Affordable Housing Finance, Health Insurance and Capital Markets. REL is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) in India.

As a group, Religare caters to almost every segment of the market from mass retail to affluent, HNIs, UHNIs, mid-size corporates, SMEs to large corporates and institutions. With over 7,000 employees, the group has a presence across more than 1,450 locations pan India.

KIMS GROUP RECEIVES INVESTMENT OF US$200 MN FROM TRUE NORTH

Mumbai, March 29, 2017: In one of the largest healthcare transactions in India, the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) will partner with True North, a leading private equity fund. True North will invest over USD 200 million in the KIMS Group. This investment will be for the stake held by Ascent Capital Advisors India Pvt. Ltd & OrbiMed Advisors Llc and as a primary capital infusion to fund the growth plans of the KIMS Group across India and the Middle East. True North will hold around 40% stake in India. Dr. M. I. Sahadulla, Chairman of the KIMS Group, and his management team, with a board majority, will continue to run the Company both in India and the Middle East.

Commenting on the deal, KIMS Chairman, Dr. M.I. Sahadulla said, “Started by a group of professionals including Doctors and Management experts, our aim at KIMS has been to provide ethical, high quality healthcare with a focus on patient safety. Our goal is to ensure that the best facilities and expertise of international standards are made available to the people we serve. When considering the choices of an equity partner, we sought to join with a group that maintained high ethical values similar to ours, and with whom we could work with collaboratively to provide the best of healthcare facilities at an affordable cost. Our interactions with Vishal Nevatia, Founder of True North and Satish Chander, Managing Director of True North coupled with their impeccable record along with positive feedback from their existing portfolio companies gave us great confidence to partner with the firm. Together, with a shared value system, we hope to continue our growth and to become one of the largest Healthcare providers in India and the Middle East in the next 3 to 5 years.”

Satish Chander, Managing Director of True North commented: “We believe that private equity has a key role in funding Indian healthcare services to address the sector’s supply-demand gap. True North has played an active part by investing in the sector and it continues to be a key focus area for us. We have had the opportunity to evaluate numerous organizations in this space and have made nine investments across our different funds. We have known Dr. M.I. Sahadulla and his team for several years and we truly admire their pursuit to build a healthcare service enterprise of the highest caliber. We see their flagship Trivandrum facility as a testimony to their focus on pursuing excellence in clinical care as well as customer service. We also respect the approach that they have taken to build this enterprise on a foundation based on the highest values and ethics and we feel that this philosophy resonates very well with our principles. True North is very excited at the opportunity to partner with and support KIMS in its future growth aspirations. We are excited about the healthcare potential in India and the Middle East and believe that KIMS would be a good addition to our healthcare portfolio.”

About KIMS

Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) is a Healthcare Group providing quality healthcare services across India and the Middle East. KIMS was founded in 2002 by the Chairman Dr. M.I. Sahadulla and founding promoters, who leveraged their vast international healthcare experience to deliver high quality clinical care with courtesy, compassion and competence at an affordable cost. KIMS is the largest corporate hospital chain in Kerala and has over 1,500 beds across 6 hospitals. KIMS’ first and largest hospital in Trivandrum is a 650-bed multi-specialty quaternary care hospital. KIMS has emerged as one of the leading providers of medical services, research and academics in South India. The Group has a presence in the Middle East across 5 countries, with 2 hospitals and 6 medical centers, as well as one managed hospital. The Group’s combined turnover is in excess of INR 11 billion with a profitability of 11.5% and employs more than 6000 healthcare providers including 600 doctors.

About True North

True North (formerly known as India Value Fund Advisors – IVFA) was established in 1999 with a focus on investing in and transforming mid-sized profitable businesses into world-class industry leaders, built on the strong foundation of True North Values which are embodied within the principles of ‘The Right Way’.

Steered since its inception by Vishal Nevatia, True North has built deep knowledge and skills in the Indian markets and has successfully launched five separate investment funds with a combined corpus of over US$ 2 billion. True North’s insights and understanding of India has been sharpened over the last 17 years by investing over US$ 1 billion in more than 30 Indian businesses. It has successfully guided these companies in making the transition into well-established and large businesses that are valuable, enduring, socially responsible and is creating immense wealth for all stakeholders.

The True North team has been structured with a balanced mix of 9 Investment and 16 Business Managers, who bring with them several hundred man-years of industry experience to achieve the above objective.

THE FOUR KEY SECTORS OF TRUE NORTH

True North has now restructured its business and investment management Teams as per sector specialisations:

1 – Financial Services

2 – Consumer

3 – Healthcare

4 – Technology products and services

The firm over the years, has developed deep-rooted expertise in sectors like healthcare, consumer focused industries (like media and entertainment, radio taxi, retailing, food services) and financial services. It will now add technology products and services to its portfolio.

INDIA VALUE FUND ADVISORS REBRANDS AS TRUE NORTH (MANAGERS)

From: Live Mint E-Paper

Private equity firm India Value Fund Advisors has unveiled a new brand identity, renamed itself True North (Managers), and plans to expand its investment focus to technology products and services, it said on Wednesday.

“Our name has changed but our values remain intact which defines the core values and principles that have moulded the functioning of our company for more than a decade,” said Vishal Nevatia, managing partner of True North.

“One of the reasons for this rebranding is that we have a very unique business model whereby we are combining the business nurturing skills of a conglomerate with the sharpness and focus of a private equity group. Nobody has done that before in India, and even globally there are very few examples,” added Nevatia.

Along with the change in identity, it also announced a realignment of its sector focus. It has restructured its business and investment teams in line with sectoral specializations— financial services, consumer sector, healthcare, and technology products and services.

On 20 September, Nevatia said in an interview that the company is looking to move beyond the healthcare, financial services and consumer sectors and will add technology and services companies to its investment portfolio.

He added that India Value Fund saw opportunities in mid-sized information technology firms, start-ups and other digital businesses, and companies operating in hi-tech areas such as cloud computing and analytics. Over the past year, the PE firm has developed expertise in sectors like healthcare, consumer-focused industries (like media and entertainment, radio taxis, retailing, and food services) and financial services.

“We will become sector-focused. We decided that it’s better to do few things, but do them best. We feel that India has now evolved so even if we are sector-focused, there are enough things to do. We feel that there is enough depth in sectors. We are adding a fourth sector, which we haven’t looked at in the past—technology product and services. We believe that in the next 10-15 years, 80-90% of our investments will be in these four sectors,” he said, adding that the company is now in the process of hiring a senior executive to lead the vertical.

True North, one of the early movers in Indian private equity, and is largely known for executing control transactions in India’s mid-market.

In the last 17 years, the firm has worked with over 30 businesses and invested over Rs8,000 crore of equity capital.

Currently, it is investing out of its fifth fund, Indium Fund V, and has deployed more than a third of the $700 million (Rs 4,471 crore) corpus.

The fund’s investments include deGustibus Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates restaurant brands Indigo and Indigo Deli, non-banking financial company Magma Fincorp Ltd, and seed company SeedWorks International Pvt. Ltd.

The fund also invested in Atria Convergence, in which India Value Fund had invested previously.

True North has $500 million in dry powder from the latest fund and an additional $500 million of co-investment commitments from limited partners, or investors in PE funds.