Blue Lotus Capital launches third offshore vehicle, targets $100 mn corpus

Blue Lotus Capital, a global asset management and advisory firm, has launched a new offshore vehicle to target Indian midcap companies.

The fund -- India Emerging Giants Fund (IEGF) -- is Blue Lotus’ third offshore vehicle and will follow a private investment in public equities (PIPE) strategy.

It is targeting a corpus of $100 million (around Rs 725.78 crore), the firm said in a statement. Its launch comes after Blue Lotus last year closed a  multi-asset global arbitrage fund.

IEGF will deploy capital in companies that operate in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, and consumer. 

Blue Lotus managing partner Harikrishnan S said the fund will take advantage of two trends -- structural reforms being made to formalise India’s economy and changing supply chain behaviour as businesses look for alternatives to China.

“India is one of the few large countries in the world that has been able to successfully manage the Covid-19 crisis and the economy is seeing a V-shaped recovery,” he added.

S Harikrishnan had quit mid-market focused PE firm Avigo Capital in mid-2015 to float Blue Lotus. He had originally planned to raise around $100 million for the maiden PE fund that aimed to follow the PIPE strategy.

According to a 2018 Mint report, Blue Lotus Capital raised $35 million (Rs 240 crore) for its Blue Lotus Capital Multibagger Fund.

The PIPE fund, which made its first close at Rs 110 crore in September 2017, focused on listed small and medium enterprises (SME) with a market capitalisation of up to Rs 5,000 crore, said the report. 

It raised capital from several institutional investors, fund of funds and a couple of large family offices from the Middle East. Some of the investors in the 2018 fund were Trans Atlantic Partners, Safra Sarasin, Vernalis Capital, Tamara Investment Holdings.