Post the successful closure of three debt funds,
IFMR Investment Managers Private Limited (IFMR Investments), a subsidiary of IFMR Capital and a leading alternative investment funds manager, has launched two new funds specifically designed to meet investor appetite for participating in India’s growing financial inclusion sector. The funds are expected to attract investments from domestic investors such as life insurance, general insurance, banks, NBFCs and private wealth investors.
IFMR FImpact Long Term Credit Fund, the fourth fund launched by IFMR Investments is a 10 year debt focused AIF – a first of its kind. The fund size is INR 200 crores with an option to increase it to INR 350 crores.
The fund has been designed to facilitate long term debt investment opportunities for specific investor classes that require long term assets. The fund will seek to provide medium to long term senior and subordinated debt to high quality originators with the benefit of providing them the option of riding the interest rate cycle. The fund seeks to achieve attractive long term returns on a diversified debt portfolio, with the 10 year Indian Government bond as the benchmark.
IFMR Fimpact Medium Term Opportunities Fund, the fifth fund to be launched by IFMR Investments, is a 5 year debt fund which seeks to offer an attractive medium term debt exposure to investors. The portfolio of the fund is designed to have a high yield certainty even though the underlying portfolio will be churned with active management. The size of the fund is INR 250 crores with an option to increase it to INR 500 crores.
The two funds, set up as Category II Alternative Investment Funds, will take exposure to retail finance investee companies in sectors like microfinance, small business loan finance, affordable housing finance, commercial vehicle finance and agri-business finance, as well as in mid-sized corporations. Both funds, similar to the earlier ones, will draw strong support from IFMR Capital’s experience in these sectors spanning proprietary lending, investing and structured finance. The funds will also have at least 10% participation from the Investment Manager and IFMR Capital as subordinate investment giving adequate risk protection to other investors. Through its innovative fund structuring, IFMR Investment Managers seeks to promote alternative debt investments by providing an investment experience similar to investing in a credit mutual fund.
The launch of the two new funds comes close on the heels of IFMR Investments being awarded by Asia Asset Management’s Best of the Best Awards 2016 – for the most innovative product in India and for being recognized as the rising star for asset management in India. IFMR Investments had also received the most innovative fund in India in the 2014 edition of the awards.
Ms. Kshama Fernandes, CEO of IFMR Capital said “The new funds are being launched to cater to evolving market needs, both for Originators as well as investors. We believe that they will be able to address the longer term funding requirements of Originators to better address their asset-liability match. The funds are also a vehicle for long term investors to participate in the financial inclusion space.”
Mr. Vineet Sukumar, CEO of IFMR Investments, added “The two new funds are a continuation of our efforts to bring more capital and investors to India’s financial inclusion sector. The design of the funds has been carefully thought out taking into account the current investment climate and investor requirements. We extensively surveyed both investor and investee needs over a six month period prior to the launch. The 10 year fund was a market need towards providing an investment avenue for stable long term debt exposure while the 5 year fund is set up to provide attractive post tax returns with reduced risk. The new offerings will break new grounds in providing growth capital to the Indian financial inclusion space.
We have now crossed the threshold of being a new asset manager with the successful closure of three funds, which have been fully invested as well. With the new launches, IFMR Investments’ assets under management will cross INR 1,200 crores, and over the coming years, our funds will emerge as an important source of providing catalytic capital to the sectors we work in.”
