WestBridge Capital ups stake further in SKS Microfinance

WestBridge Capital is among the group of investors termed as promoters of SKS and is its second largest shareholder

WestBridge Capital, the public markets and private equity investor with a corpus of $500 million, has increased its stake further to 8.44 per cent in SKS Microfinance, India's only publicly held micro-finance company.

WestBridge Capital, which was one of the early investors through the private equity route nearly three years before SKS went public, is among the group of investors termed as promoters and is the second largest shareholder in the company. SKS Trust Advisors, which is locked in a bitter battle against the Board of SKS Microfinance calling for re-instatement of SKS Microfinance founder Vikram Akula is currently the single largest shareholder with 12.6 per cent.

WestBridge Capital, co-founded by K P Balaraj with three of his partners, is one of the early movers in the Indian private equity space, which merged with Sequoia Capital and later parted ways during 2012 by launching a $500 million evergreen fund to invest in Indian public markets in a major way.

WestBridge team of partners besides K P Balaraj includes Sumir Chadha, S K Jain and Sandeep Singhal and the team over the past decade backed spectacular success stories in India including Cafe Coffee Day, Just Dial, Mannapuram Finance, Naukri.com, Paras Healthcare, Vasan EyeCare, Dr Lal Pathlabs among various others.