Carlyle Group picks minority stake in Delhivery

Asset management firm Carlyle Group picked a minority stake in supply chain services company Delhivery Private, with existing investor Tiger Global also upping its exposure, for a combined investment of more than $100 million.

The group today said "it has acquired a significant minority stake in Delhivery Private Limited, India's largest third-party supply chain services company focused on digital commerce".

"Tiger Global, one of the existing investors of Delhivery, also invested additional capital. The combined investment is more than $100 million," the Carlyle group said in the statement.

The investment is a pointer to a likely boom in the logistics sector as the government moves ahead with its plan to introduce GST from July 1 and on the back of burgeoning retail sales.

Founded in 2011, Delhivery provides express logistics services in over 600 cities in India and more than 8,500 pin codes and operates 12 fulfillment centres for B2C and B2B fulfilment services.

"We are delighted to partner with the management and expect to leverage our global experience in the logistics sector to assist the company with operational improvements and business expansion. We see significant potential for technology-enabled logistics in the country with the growth of e-commerce as well as increasing customer focus on on-time delivery and service levels," Neeraj Bharadwaj, MD of the Carlyle Asia buyout team, said.

Carlyle has invested more than $1.4 billion of equity in over 30 transactions in India across all Carlyle funds as of December 31, 2016.

"We are excited to partner with Carlyle as we continue to grow our business to meet the surging demand from our e-commerce clients, small businesses and enterprises that are rapidly digitising their supply chain operations. We believe that Carlyle's global network and industry expertise will enable us to expedite our growth strategy," Sahil Barua, CEO and co-founder of Delhivery Private, said.