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Bureaucrat-turned-entrepreneur Sanjay Gupta, who resigned recently as Executive Chairman of the Rs 22,000-crore Metro-link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) project to return to his own businesses, is floating a private equity (PE) fund.
Gupta will initially raise Rs 250-300 crore from India and abroad to fund his enterprises as well as those of others.
Gupta, who last week said he was following Narayana Murthy in returning to his businesses, told Business Line here that in his fresh endeavour to raise a PE fund, he was following the example of the Tatas — he would fund his own companies and those of others.
He is the promoter of business conglomerate Neesa Group with interests in a 1,200-room hotel chain, infrastructure, food and agri-tech, real estate, construction, IT and media business. Gupta has already approached the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in this regard and hopes to obtain regulatory approvals in the next couple of months.
The new PE fund, called Let India Fly for Ever, or LIFE, will focus on the media, hospitality, healthcare and lifestyle sectors.
This is being done with a vision to accelerate the growth of upcoming SMEs and profit-focused start-ups from different sectors.
The first scheme to be launched under the PE fund, India Aspiration Scheme, will focus on SMEs and industries with a turnover of Rs 20-200 crore.
LIFE falls under Category II–AIS SEBI regulations. Apart from offering financial support to SMEs, LIFE will also provide business intelligence and support network.
Gupta, an IAS officer of the 1985 batch, Gujarat cadre, had resigned after Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister in October 2001.
He joined the Adani Group as an advisor and later became an entrepreneur. He had joined MEGA, the special purpose vehicle for the Metro project, in April 2011.
“After its financial closure, achieved last week, anybody can now implement the project,” he said.
A consortium of 10 leading public banks, headed by Punjab National Bank, has sanctioned a debt of Rs 4,700 crore.
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