Kotak Mahindra Group: Kotak Investment Advisors raises $1.25 billion as first close of Strategic Situations Fund II

Kotak Investment Advisors, the alternate assets management and investment advisory business of Kotak Mahindra Group, has raised $1.25 billion or Rs 10,274 crore as the first close of its Kotak Strategic Situations Fund II IFSC (KSSF II).

The fund with targeted $1.6 billion or Rs 13,150 crore corpus has received commitments from key global investors including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds. It will provide strategic solution capital across growth and value companies. The sector-agnostic fund will provide equity, debt, and hybrid capital.

“Riding on the success of the first Special Situations Fund, our Investors have reposed faith in us by re-upping their large commitments in the second fund,” said Eshwar Karra, CEO-Kotak Special Situations Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors.

Apart from a Kotak group entity, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and family office Premji Invest, that were among the key investors in the first fund, are believed to have committed money in this second fund too.

According to Karra, in line with the changing market, the fund is positioned to provide strategic solution capital for unique circumstances and to finance the impending capex growth cycle that is expected to play out over the next couple of years.

“Global capital availability and the return parameters that meet a relative value proposition for India have changed in the last six months. Domestic capital availability will also recalibrate basis the latest budget announcements,” Rahul Chhaparwal, Executive Director, Kotak Special Situations Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors.

In February, Kotak Investment Advisors achieved the first close of Kotak Data Centre Fund. This India-dedicated data centre fund raised $590 million of the targeted $800 million corpus and will invest in building data centre capacity across the country.“In FY23, Kotak Alternate Asset Management has successfully closed five large value funds aggregating $3.6 billion of dedicated global capital targeting investment across industries and sectors like infrastructure, real estate and data centres. This close of KSSF II will take the aggregate funds raised to over $8.7 billion,” said Srini Sriniwasan, Managing Director, Kotak Investment Advisors.

Set up in early 2005, Kotak Investment Advisors has raised, managed, advised funds across different asset classes including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, special situations, and listed strategies.