New Delhi, May 2 -- Private equity firm WestBridge Capital, which backs unlisted companies and also makes private investments in public equities (PIPE), has pressed the sell button on one of its single biggest bets in the country.
The PE firm that typically invests in the $25-50 million range in a single company but has signed some big cheques in the past for TVS Motor, CEAT, Aptus Value Housing, Yes Bank, Star Health Insurance, Freshworks and Zscaler, has trimmed its holding in India's biggest airline, IndiGo.
It has sold a tenth of its 3.4% stake in the budget carrier harvesting around Rs 400 crore or just a shade under $50 million in the process, it is gathered.
The PE firm, led by managing partners Sumir Chadha and Sandeep Singhal, had initially picked up a 1.41% stake in IndiGo for Rs 558.7 crore ($74.7 million), VCCircle reported in August 2020. In October 2020, VCCircle reported that WestBridge bought additional shares of the airline and shelled out about Rs 440 crore.
Last year, it had bumped up its stake further by shelling out an estimated Rs 740-780 crore ($90-95 million then) in IndiGo.
Based on a first-in-first-out principle, WestBridge would have churned out nearly 3x on its three-and-a-half-year-old investment. The PE firm had picked the stock after it crashed during the early period of the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
It would have generated an internal rate of return (IRR) of around 35-37%, much above the 20% benchmark.
Its remaining stake is currently worth Rs 4,810 crore or $580 million.
In February, VCCircle reported that WestBridge made one of its single biggest investments in Freshworks Inc. It also went a step further betting nearly $250 million on Zscaler.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.