SampR advises on Jacab Ballas Rs 200 crore investment in Religare Finvest

Private equity fund NYLIM Jacob Ballas has invested Rs. 200 crore ($ 39.65 million) in Religare Finvest, an NBFC focused on small and medium enterprises and a wholly owned subsidiary of Religare Enterprises.

S&R Associates advised Jacob Ballas with a team led by Partner Uday Walia along with Mohit Gogia and Radhika Agrawal.

Religare Finvest was advised by its in-house team.

According to VCCircle, the investment will be done through compulsory convertible preference shares. This is the second PE fundraising by Religare Finvest within the past two months. In November 2011, it had raised Rs. 150 crore from Avigo Capital Partners, a mid-market private equity firm. Avigo also invested through compulsory convertible preference shares.

Jacob Ballas specialises in growth capital investments. The fund seeks to invest more than 50 per cent of its capital in infrastructure and typically invests between $15 million and $60 million per deal.

Last year, Hyderabad-based Vivimed Labs had raised Rs. 67 crore ($13.5 million) from private equity firm NYLIM Jacob Ballas. S&R Associates advised Jacob Ballas

Religare Finvest provides debt capital to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) in form of loans against property, working capital loans, loans against plant and machinery, vehicles and construction equipments and loan against marketable securities,, among others.

The company has more than 25,000 MSME accounts and its loan book stood at Rs. 11,380 crore as on September 30, 2011. The PE funding is expected to help the company meet its growing capital requirements, reports Business-Standard.