Kotak Special Situations Fund (KSSF), a part of Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd. (KIAL) has invested $502 million of its $1 billion initial corpus in eight companies.
As a per a top official of the company, it will search for a similar amount to raise from investors in late 2021 or early next year. KSSF was launched by KIAL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Group) in February 2019 as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with a $1 billion corpus.
It had received $500 million from UAE’s sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, $250 million from Singapore’s GIC and the remaining between Premji Invest and Kotak Group.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KSSF Eshwar Karra told PTI, “We have so far deployed $502 million of our $1 billion fund in eight companies. The first investment of ₹500 crore was made in January 2020 in Jindal Stainless (JSL).” He added that the company hopes to pick up more assets by investing ₹1000 crore by the month of September.
By September, it aims at completing deals worth 65 per cent ($650 million) of its corpus. Generally, funds like KSSF shore up capital as soon as they utilize up 75 per cent of the existing capital. In the matter of resolving stressed asset issues, they are sector-and-instrument-agnostic. When it comes to the stressed asset category, the fund has invested $195 million in three companies so far.
According to the CEO, they have an exit time of two to three years along with a lock-in period of two years for any investment.