Samara Capital, a mid-market private equity company, is scouting for acquisitions in the range of ₹500-1,500 crore in consumer-facing sectors after closing three deals in the last few months.
It is keen to invest in sectors such as consumer retail, healthcare, pharma, financial services, business services and technology companies to drive growth.
In August, Samara Capital bought a majority stake in Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers through its alternate investment fund Edme Services for ₹252 crore.
In March, Samara Capital along with Convergent Finance acquired majority Agro Tech Foods for ₹650 crore. The Gurugram-based company’s diverse product portfolio includes various types of popcorn, extruded snacks, cereal snacks, chocolate products, sweet corn, mass and premium edible oils and others.
Additionally, Samara is scaling up its portfolio company Marengo Asia Hospitals, which has been actively expanding its footprint in the healthcare sector.
Abhik Mitra, Managing Director and Head of Operations Group, Samara Capital, told businessline the mid-market private equity firm is scouting for buyout of companies gearing up to the next phase of growth in the consumer-facing industry.
How it operates
“We take controlling stake in a company and then onboard the CEO / CXO teams who operate the company in line with Samara operational and governance standards. Right from day one, we bring in all the corporate governance stipulated by the regulators for facilitating the exit, typically either through IPO or a strategic sale,” he said.
After gaining the confidence of the existing management, Samara Capital delegates the job of running the company to the CEO reporting directly to independent board of directors who are experts in the field.
“Samara does not manage the day-to-day operations. Instead, the companies are run by independent CEOs who report to the board, which includes Samara members — typically the deal partner, the operating partner and sometimes additional external board members,” Mitra said.
After acquiring More Retail from Aditya Birla Group, Samara Capital and Amazon have pumped in ₹700 crore and will invest another ₹145 crore during this fiscal to enter new markets, sources said. More Retail acts as the fulfilment point of Amazon’s grocery business under Fresh and plans to enter quick commerce segment. More Retail runs a chain of hyper and supermarkets across India with 777 stores.