Investcorp

Fund Registeresd ID: IN/AIF2/15-16/0183

About

Investcorp is a global manager of alternative investments with six lines of businesses, including: private equity, real estate, absolute return investments, infrastructure, credit management, and strategic capital.

In 1982, they began as a pioneer in private equity, acting as a bridge between the Gulf and the rest of the world with a strong service ethos that demanded deal-by-deal investments.

Key staff

Mohammed Alardhi, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN – Mohammed Bin Mahfoodh Alardhi is the Executive Chairman of Investcorp, leading the Firm’s activities across its global office network in New York, London, Switzerland, Riyadh, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Mumbai, Beijing and Singapore. Prior to his appointment as Executive Chairman in 2015, Mr. Alardhi was a Board Director on Investcorp’s Board since 2008. Mr. Alardhi is a retired Air Vice Marshal having joined the Royal Air Force (RAFO) of Oman in 1978 and was subsequently appointed as Chief of the Omani Air Force. In 2000, he was awarded the “Order of Oman” by the Late Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said. Mr. Alardhi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Military Science from the Royal Air Force UK Staff College in Bracknell, UK and a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a graduate of the Royal Air Force Military Academy in Cranwell, UK, and the National Defence University in Washington D.C..

Rishi Kapoor, CO-CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – Rishi Kapoor is Investcorp’s Co-Chief Executive Officer. He oversees the Firm’s Private Equity businesses in North America and India, as well as the Real Estate, Credit Management, Absolute Returns and Strategic Capital businesses globally. Prior to his appointment as Co-CEO, Rishi had held several leadership positions within Investcorp including as Chief Financial Officer between 2003 and 2015. He joined Investcorp from Citigroup in 1992. Rishi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, CO-CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – Hazem Ben-Gacem is Investcorp’s Co-Chief Executive Officer with over 25 years of experience in successfully leading private equity investments across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Today, he chairs the investment committees of the firm’s Private Equity activities in Europe, Middle East and Asia. In addition, he oversees the firm’s client and investor relationships globally, including its recently launched global private banking operation. Amongst others, Hazem sits on the Investcorp Group’s Executive and Operating Committees. Prior to joining Investcorp in 1994, Hazem was a member of Credit Suisse First Boston’s mergers and acquisitions team in New York. Hazem holds a bachelor’s degree with honours from Harvard University and is the founder of the Harvard Office in Tunisia, the first formal presence for Harvard University in the Arab world. In addition, Hazem serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Oxford’s Middle East Center.

Girish Nadkarni  – Girish Nadkarni joined Investcorp when Investcorp Group acquired IDFC Alternatives in February 2019. Prior to Investcorp, Girish worked as a Partner with IDFC Alternatives overseeing their Private Equity Business. He has a total of over 26 years of experience across Buyouts, Private Equity, M&As, managing large companies, business strategy, corporate finance and treasury. Girish has deep expertise in the consumer, food & agriculture, financial services and telecom sectors.

Gaurav Sharma – Gaurav Sharma joined Investcorp when Investcorp Group acquired IDFC Alternatives in February 2019. Previously, Gaurav joined IDFC Alternatives in 2015. He has over nineteen years of experience both in the US and India across entrepreneurship, private equity, M&A, corporate finance and investment banking.

Ritesh Vohra – Ritesh has been a financier, advisor and entrepreneur over the course of his real estate career, and has been associated with a number of property developments across India.

He moved to Investcorp in early 2019 as a result of its acquisition of IDFC Alternatives’ Real Estate platform, and heads the real estate funds management business for India. His primary focus is on building and managing the real estate asset class at Investcorp India. He is also responsible for overseeing the investment, asset management and divestment processes for the portfolio.

Media

In this interview they talked about the healthcare sector and Real estate sector in India. As Co. Investment thesis was to invest in assets that serve the primary purpose of providing the good quality, well priced product & services. The healthcare sector was partly part of it, so they believe in single- speciality Healthcare as they have experience in their prior investment outside India. For India, general hospital is not a good solution for a mass market, as affordability and quality combination is crucial therefore single-speciality is more suitable. 

They also said that there is a good opportunity in India to invest in the financial sector and they are already investing in this sector.

They also talked about Real Estate in India not performing well. As there was a crisis of NBFC and due to that there was an issue of liquidity. Where Rishi said that for Real Estate, if we separate the sector fundamentals with the balance sheet of that sector then we can know what the issue was. As from sector fundamentals, it can be seen that there is a lot of demand but from the balance sheet it can be seen that there is a scarcity of financing for the developers in whatever stage there are in. So they invest in the Real Estate where they find good fundamentals even if the balance sheet is not good. And they invest on project levels, where they decide which project and developers to select.  

Analyst questions

1. Under SEBI Investcorp was registered in 2015 as Investcorp Score fund in AIF2, but why there is no information available for this fund.
2. What was the new growth strategy that Mohammed Alardhi announced in 2015 that aim to double the AUM
3. In India are they looking for an opportunities to invest in healthcare
4. After acquisition of IDFC Alternatives’ Private Equity and Real Estate businesses what all changes they are going to make

Prepared by Kanan Agrawal.