Even as initial public offerings (IPOs) as an exit opportunity are drying up in India, exits via the secondary sale route are still possible, said homegrown private equity firm True North’s partner Satish Chander in a virtual session at DealStreetAsia’s Asia PE-VC Summit 2022.
“There’s just one form of exit that has dried up, which is IPOs. It was anyway a very small part of overall exits, but became big for a brief period,” said Chander.
True North is one of the oldest homegrown private equity firms in India and manages about $3 billion in assets across six funds. Its investments are focused on four sectors — healthcare, financial services, consumer, and technology. The firm is also reportedly on the road to raising its seventh fund as it looks to ramp up investments in the digital space.
“It is a difficult time to raise money, but also the best time to invest. We have an investable runway in our fund six, but we are still on the road because investing opportunities in the market are so perfect right now that we can do many larger deals,” said Chander.
Edited excerpts of Chander’s chat with Paramita Chatterjee, editor, DealStreetAsia: