Rabo Equity to raise $25 mn more for agri fund by Dec

Rabo Equity Advisors will float a second private equity fund focusing on the food and agribusiness sector in India in the second half of 2010, Chairman and Managing Director Rajesh Srivastava said today.

“Once we have invested close to 70 per cent of our existing fund, that is the time to start raising capital for the second fund. By the latter half of the next year, we should be up with that,” he said. While Srivastava did not share any details on the corpus of the second fund, he stressed that food and agribusiness will continue to be the focus of the company.

“There are a lot of opportunities in the food and agribusiness sector. It is our core competence. That will be the centerpiece (of second fund),” he said. Rabo Equity Advisors currently manages a single fund — India Agri Business Fund — which invests in food and agribusiness companies.

India Agri Business Fund, which has a committed capital of $95 million, is planning to raise another $25 million over the next four months.

“By November, we should be able to raise another $25 million,” Srivastava said. With blue-chip names like International Finance Corp, Dutch developmental financial institution FMO and Germany’s DEG as lead investors, India Agri Business Fund recently signed on UK-government owned CDC Capital Advisors as another major investor.