Affirma Capital completes $1bn mgt buyout of Stanchart’s PE biz
Affirma Capital, with assets under management (AUM) of $3.6bn and over $700m for new investments, has been spun out of Standard Chartered Bank after a complex three-year process
Affirma Capital, the newly formed emerging markets private equity platform, has completed its management buyout (MBO) from Standard Chartered Bank, led by its seven partners and backed by Intermediate Capital Group’s (ICG) strategic equity funds through the acquisition of a majority of the bank’s private equity portfolio.
Affirma Capital, which has assets under management (AUM) of $3.6bn and over $700m for new investments, has been spun out of Standard Chartered Bank after a complex three year process involving over 50 investments across six regions (China, India, South East Asia, South Korea, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East), and a team of 52 investment professionals.
Credit Suisse were the advisors on the transaction.
During the past three years, the private equity team that now constitutes Affirma Capital has deployed over $650m in thirteen market-leading companies across its core markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These investments represent a diverse range of sectors and geographies, such as the leading crane rental operator in South East Asia, a leading beef distributor in Korea, and a travel services provider in India.
During the same period the team has also created strong exit momentum across its markets and has delivered several landmark asset disposals across its geographies and sectors. Together, these exits represent over $1.2bn of exit proceeds to investors with capital gains of nearly $500m.
Through its 17-year history of investing in emerging markets, the team has deployed over $5.5bn in more than 90 companies across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and has already returned over US$5bn in cash proceeds to its investors at highly attractive rates of return.
The first new investment announced by the Affirma Capital platform is a $50m investment in Tirupati Medicare, a manufacturer of nutraceutical supplements in India.
Affirma Capital’s list of investors constitutes some of the world’s leading institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, developmental financial institutions and family offices.
Commenting on the completion of the MBO, Nainesh Jaisingh, CEO, Affirma Capital, said: “The spin out of Standard Chartered Private Equity into Affirma Capital is a landmark transaction and the largest ever MBO of an emerging market private equity business. This team has earned its right to independence, having delivered a record amount of distributions to our stakeholders, our third-party LPs as well as Standard Chartered Bank,” he said.
“We will continue our proven and successful strategy of backing emerging national and regional champion companies in our footprint. We are thankful to ICG’s Strategic Equity team for backing us, and to both our existing LPs and the Bank for their continued support in enabling the launch of Affirma Capital,” Jaisingh added.
“This deal marks the Strategic Equity team’s first transaction in Asia, and is evidence of the scale and global nature of the investment opportunities available in complex private equity secondary transactions. We are proud and excited to back Nainesh and his partners in this spin-out, and wish them great success in their future as an independent manager,” said Commenting on the transaction, Ricardo Lombardi, Managing Director, ICG Strategic Equity. Source: Business Standard
