New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- ValueQuest, a public market investor that forayed into the private markets launching its private equity fund ValueQuest Scale fund last year, has hit a jackpot from a fifteen-month old investment.
The firm, which has backed companies such as Rentomojo, TBO Tek, Sabine Hospitals, among others from the fund, first invested in solar panel manufacturing and installation company Waaree Energies back in 2022.
The company's red herring prospectus indicates a share price of Rs 225 for the shares issued in 2022 in other transactions.
ValueQuest later backed Waaree through the PE fund in 2023, investing Rs 50 crore in the company, according to the information available in the Waaree's RHP filed with Securities and Exchange Board of India. The fund bought 0.91 million shares at the price of Rs 550 each.
ValueQuest's promoter Ravi Dharamshi also invested in his own capacity in this round.
Since then, Waaree's shares have appreciated more than 4.4X in value. The company also made a bumper debut on the stock exchange earlier this week.
Hitesh Doshi, chairman and managing director of Waaree Energies, said ValueQuest investment enabled the firm to expand manufacturing capabilities and scale operations.
In fact, the firm doubled down on its investment in Waaree Energies in the anchor round prior to its initial public offering. It invested another Rs 40 crore, buying another 2.7 million shares of the company at the price of Rs 1,503 per share.
"The company is capitalising on two concurrent global megatrends - the accelerating shift towards renewable energy and the ongoing reconfiguration of global supply chains. These trends are reshaping industries and presenting Waaree with substantial growth opportunities while contributing to the domestic and global supply chain realignment," said Ravi Dharamshi, founder and chief investment officer of ValueQuest.
On a weighted basis, the average cost price so far for ValueQuest Scale fund comes down to Rs 251.59 per share.
Waaree Energies raised about Rs 4,321 crore through an IPO earlier this month that was subscribed by over 76 times. This included a fresh issue of Rs 3600 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of Rs 721.44 crore at the price of Rs 1,503 per share. The OFS saw promoter Waaree Sustainable Finance Pvt. Ltd and shareholder Chandurkar Investments Pvt. Ltd sell shares.
The company listed on the exchange on 28 October at Rs 2,550, with a premium of over 70% over its IPO price.
With the share of Waaree Energies trading at Rs 2,442 at the end of Wednesday's trading session, ValueQuest is sitting on average returns of over 9.7X on its investment.
"Our increased investment in Waaree Energies, along with other recent commitments, reflects our strong belief in the sector," said Pushkar Jauhari, managing director and head - private equity at ValueQuest.
Founded in 2010, ValueQuest, promoted by Dharamshi, has over $2 billion in assets under management (AUM) and manages a long-only India dedicated fund, besides the PE fund. It appointed Jauhari, a former director of investments at mid-market OIJIF-MC, to lead its PE vertical in September.
In August, VCCircle reported the firm had raised about Rs 1,300 crore (around $155 million) in limited partners (LPs) commitments for the PE fund. It marked the first close in March 2023, and reached the Rs 500 crore milestone in September. Later, it increased the corpus to Rs 1,000 crore, reserving another Rs 350 crore in the greenshoe option.
The fund invests primarily in growth-to late-stage opportunities, aiming to take advantage of the funding slowdown. A crucial part of its strategy involved focusing on late-stage bets along with growth style investments. Its investments include Jupiter International, Zaggle, RR Kabel, Rentomojo, Unimech Aerospace among others.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.