Private equity firm Advent International will be returning around a record ₹25,000 crore this year to its limited partners (LPs) from gains on its India portfolio, aided by a couple of large ticket, profitable exits, sources said.
“That’s a huge return, I think, in a single year for a private equity firm in such a short span of time. It will be like a record of sorts,” said a source with knowledge of the matter.
Advent International declined to comment on the matter.
Sources said returns have been generated across its portfolio in India. Two of its high profile exits this year have been Bharat Serums and Vaccines, which it sold to Mankind Pharma for around $1.6 billion and the more recent divestment of stake in packaging firm Manjushree Technopack for close to $1 billion.
It made absolute returns of around 3-4x in its exit from Manjushree and over 3x in its exit from Bharat Serums.
Advent International has been present in India since 2007 and has committed over $6 billion in that time, spread across 19 companies. This year in September it invested about $297 million in Apollo HealthCo. It acquired Suven Pharma in 2023 and merged it with another portfolio company Cohance Lifesciences earlier this year.
Other prominent companies in its portfolio include KreditBee, YES Bank, and Eureka Forbes, in which it sold a 10 per cent stake in February this year.
Private equity firms have been making phenomenal returns from their Indian investments in the range of 3x-5x with public markets buoyancy spilling over into private market valuations as well. They have been making exits either through IPOs or through outright sales to other PE firms or strategics.
Advent, along with the other investor in KreditBee, TPG are planning to take the company public and are preparing for a pre-IPO round, according to reports.
Blackstone, which acquired International Gemmological Institute in 2023 for $570 million has guided it to an IPO with a valuation of around $2 billion. While numbers are not available, the world’s largest alternates asset manager has admitted in the recent past that its investments in India have yielded it some of the highest returns.
