Everstone Capital buys stake in Transpole Logistics

Transpole to expand offices in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea with the new funding

The logistics sector in India continues to see investments from large private equity investors. In a latest event, Everstone Capital Advisors, the PE firm With assets under management (AUM) of $1.5 billion, has acquired a significant minority stake in Transpole Logistics. The deal size is learnt to be around Rs 220 crore.

Headquartered in New Delhi, Rs 500-crore Transpole has a presence across India, China, Hong Kong, Korea and South East Asia. Founded in 2004 by logistics professionals-Anant Kumar Choudhary, Vivek Shukla, and Praveen Chand Rai, Transpole is one of the leading freight forwarders in India with providing logistics services in areas of freight forwarding, transportation, customs clearance, project logistics, warehousing and distribution.

According to persons in the know, Transpole plans to expand its international offices at China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea with the new funding. Also, It will also explore opportunities in VAS business like and warehousing and distribution.

Through this second round funding, existing PE investor Fidelity Growth Partners will make a part exit from Transpole. Fidelity had invested about Rs 60 crore in April 2011.

Confirming the development, Dhanpal Jhaveri, CEO and Partner at Everstone Capital said, “The company is led by a highly entrepreneurial team and is at a very promising phase. We like the sector and are confident that we will be able to scale up Transpole’s business in India and overseas.”

Year 2012 has witnessed about 14 deals worth $281 million in logistic space in India, against 10 deals worth $195 million in 2011, according to data from VCCedge. The sector has witnessed 88 deals worth $1.4 billion since 2007.

Everstone, which runs two PE funds, has made its investment in Transpole through the second fund-Everstone Capital Partners, a $580-million fund. Other investments from second fund include YLG Salon, S Chand Publications, Sohan Lal Commodities and Crystal Crop Protection. The first fund- Indivision India Partners (IIP), a $425-million fund raised in September 2006, made investments in companies such as Tiokna, VLCC, Tops Securities, Sula Wines, Lilliput, Capital Foods and Centrum Capital.

According to a recent Deloitte and Indian Chamber of Commerce study, the market size of the logistics sector in India to be between $90-125 billion, and is growing at the rate of 15% with sub-sector growing at even 30-40% per annum.

The largest PE deals in Indian logistics space include General Atlantic's $104-million investment in Fourcee Infrastructure, Warburg Pincus' $100-million investment with Chennai-based Continental Warehousing, KKR & Goldman Sach's $53-million deal with TVS Logistics and Blackstone's investment in Allcargo Logistics.

Also read: Tata Capital, Everstone in race for Transpole Logistics' stake