For a deep impact fund that has recently invested $4.14 billion in the little-known Chennai-based Ram Charan & Co for just a 46 per cent stake or has an investment of $20 billion in Cambodia apart from investments in Europe and China, very little is known about TFCC except the fact that it is headquartered in New York.
Its Chairman Chris Curtis is very economical in sharing information on the fund. He told BusinessLine in an e-mail interview that the fund focusses on emerging markets for investments in clean tech, housing and logistics segment.
When asked about other companies the fund has invested in, his response was, “we have a confidentiality agreement with our investee companies and the value of investments in other locations.” There were no such constraints when TFCC decided to invest in Ram Charan & Co. Curtis, in fact, held a press conference to make the announcement.
What are TFCC’s investments in other countries? “In the emerging market of Cambodia, we have invested $20 billion in infrastructure and housing. We are investing in modern agricultural production in Europe, into logistics farms in China, besides planned investments into India,” he said.
Investor base
“We have an investor base of institutions and family offices, based in Europe, the UK and the US. We use our experience of identifying the right investee companies based on various opportunities, growth potential and earnings potential and plan the investments,” he said when asked about the people who have invested in TFCC.
When asked about the status of the Ram Charan investment, Curtis said: “TFCC is yet to get relevant approvals from Indian authorities on the investment. From our understanding, the signed equity agreement must be submitted to the Reserve Bank of India, and we will have to get approvals to remit funds to India, based on the end application. The legal representatives of the company – ALMT Legal, Mumbai and AMA Associates at Chennai, are involved in the process of getting the process completed,” he said. TFCC's investment values Ram Charan at $9 billion.
The $4.14-billion investment will go towards setting up manufacturing facilities and a scaled-up lab to fine tune the technology. The company last week announced that it has an order for $2 billion in Ghana for its technology and products which it claims convert unsegregated waste into energy without leaving any residue.