New Delhi, June 18 -- Motilal Oswal Alternates, the alternative investment arm of the Motilal Oswal Group that currently invests in real estate and private equity asset classes, on Wednesday announced the launch of its private credit vertical with the appointment of former Modulus Alternatives' chief investment officer Rakshat Kapoor.
Kapoor has joined MO Alts as the head of private credit business and CIO. He will lead the fundraising initiative for the firm as it plans to float a $250-million private credit fund.
"Given its vintage, track record and performance in other asset classes, it is (MO Alts) best placed to capitalise on this private credit opportunity in India," Kapoor said on his appointment.
In his last stint, Kapoor spearheaded the fundraising and deployment of Centrum Group-backed Modulus' maiden fund and successor vehicle - both performing private credit vehicles. In January, VCCircle reported that the investor had fully exited its maiden performing credit fund -Centrum Credit Opportunities Fund-after making 15 investments from the Rs 1,790-crore capital pool. It launched the fund about five years ago. The latest vehicle, India Credit Opportunities Fund II, which has a target corpus of Rs 750 crore and a greenshoe option of Rs 500 crore, is still in fundraising mode. In his earlier stints, Kapoor held key positions leading the private credit verticals at Nomura and Deutsche Bank.
MO Alts did not specify the private credit segment it aims to focus on. Queries shared with the company were unanswered till the publishing of this report.
"Private Credit is a key focus area in our alternates business," said Motilal Oswal, group managing director and chief executive of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
Currently, the real estate and private equity alternatives business have combined assets under management valued at $1.8 billion across four private equity vehicles, and six real estate investment funds.
The private credit asset class has attracted interest among financial services players looking to diversify into newer asset classes for their clients. A recent report quoting JPMorgan Chase's Asia Pacific credit head said that the US-based bank sees significant growth potential in Asia Pacific's private credit market, focusing on countries across Asia and including Australia and India. Among large private credit deals announced recently, global private equity firm KKR earlier in June said it had extended $600 million in credit financing to the Manipal Education and Medical Group to help the Ranjan Pai-led business house accelerate growth. This is KKR's largest credit investment in India.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.