Reliance Venture exits Sequans Communications

Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Venture Asset Management today announced its exit from France-based 4G chipmaker Sequans Communications which got listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this Monday.

While, Reliance Venture did not specify its investment or returns from the same, sources said that returns are almost three times of the original investment.

The investment was to the tune of nearly $2 per share of Sequans, and the shares were sold in the US listing at just below $8, giving a return of close to $6 a share, sources said.

This is the first initial public offering (IPO) on NYSE of a company funded with Indian Venture Capital.

Reliance Venture invested in Sequans in 2007, along with Tier 1 investors like Alcatel Lucent, Motorola, Societe Generale Asset Management, SwissCom, CDC Enterprises, Add Partners, Cap-Decisif, Kennet Venture Partners, Vision Capital and I-Source Gestion.

"Over the years Sequans has established itself as a clear leader in supplying 4G LTE and WiMAX chips and forging excellent customer relations with leading OEMs and MNOs globally," Reliance Venture CEO Harshal Shah said.

"It has been a great experience working along with Sequans and we are proud to be associated with them for all these years in leading the 4G revolution globally," he added.

Sequans is Reliance Venture's first portfolio company to go for an IPO on NYSE and the company also expects to see several more investee companies taking a similar route in the near future.

"This has been a yet another multi-bagger investment for Reliance Venture," Shah said.

"We are open to discussing financial information after observing a limited quiet period for 25 days after the IPO," he added.

Reliance Venture recently exited Dhama Innovations through a secondary sale and is also in talks for several of its portfolio companies as well.

"Our relationship with Reliance Venture is of strategic importance to us as Reliance brings us the operator perspective on the deployment of WIMAX in Asia," Sequans CEO Georges Karam said.