Carlyle merges growth, buyout verticals in India to streamline ops

MUMBAI: Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager with $170 billion of assets under management, is streamlining its operations in India by merging its growth and buyout investment departments as part of an effort to focus on more buyout transactions, according to two people aware of the development.

Contrary to the previous working model, the eight-members of Carlyle India’s senior management team will look at both growth and buyout opportunities in India, one of the two added, asking not to be identified.

“This unified investment team enables Carlyle to originate opportunities more effectively,” the second person said on condition of anonymity.

The Carlyle Group has invested more than $1.5 billion of equity in over 30 transactions in India across all Carlyle funds as of June 30.

Carlyle is in the process of raising its fifth Asia buyout fund worth $5 billion and another $1 billion under its new Asian growth fund that will focus on investing in India and China.

A Carlyle spokesperson declined to comment for the story. “Opportunities for control transactions are picking up in India, and Carlyle is seeing many attractive potential investments in the country,” MD Neeraj Bharadwaj said in an interview with Bloomberg last week.

Carlyle’s India team is headed by Devinjit Singh and Neeraj Bharadwaj who are both managing directors. Devinjit Singh, a former MD and head of M&A at Citigroup in India, spearheaded Carlyle’s investments in Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd, India Infoline and PNB Housing Finance Ltd.