INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 1st - APRIL 15th - 2008
PE FIRMS FIDELITY AND SEQUOIA BUY 20% STAKE IN HYDERABAD-BASED COASTAL PROJECTS
Private equity firms Fidelity International and Sequoia Capital have bought about 20% equity stake in Hyderabad-based Coastal Projects, an engineering, procurement and construction company, for Rs 160 crore. Coastal will use the proceeds to build its portfolio of hydropower BOOT projects and to purchase construction equipment, chairman S Surendran said. “The financing in the current market scenario demonstrates investors’ confidence in our management team, our strategy and our road map,” he added.
Coastal is involved in excavation, tunnelling and building hydro-power projects, irrigation tunnels and MRTS tunnelling systems. “We feel this is the right time to invest aggressively and scale up our business to the next level and build a larger BOOT hydro power portfolio,” Mr Surendran said. Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors were the financial advisor to the company. Infrastructure companies in Hyderabad have been potential investment targets for PE firms over the past year. It is estimated that around $550 million of private equity was invested in 2007 in Hyderabad companies alone. Some of the firms that have seen PE investment include GMR, GVK, Soma Enterprises.
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