Investment Value Creation
KPEG believes that a truly valuable investor is a source of skills, know-how, experience and support that complements the entrepreneur's resources and acts as a catalyst in company's growth.
Our approach of partnering to build leaders of tomorrow has two cornerstones. First is to provide capital with a long term view. And second, to create a functional partnership in which Kotak Group's counsel and operational support help amplify the entrepreneur's skills and experience.
In this equation, the entrepreneur brings in leadership, operational management, specific industry know-how and experience together with the vision, concept and ambition. For its part, besides capital the KPEG provides:-
- Expertise in business growth
- Strategic Inputs
- Problem solving competency
- A committed sounding board and
- A broad domestic and international network of business contacts
Strategic Support
We adopt a partnership approach in dealing with our portfolio companies. Our Investment philosophy is based on actively working with the management teams of the portfolio companies to help them become leaders in their respective fields. As "Partners in Progress", portfolio companies find us helpful and resourceful in multiple ways.
- Strategy: Through active Board participation, we help the portfolio companies fine tune their business strategy and growth plans.
- Budgeting: We actively work with the management teams to prepare realistic budgets and create an execution plan and systems to monitor the variances.
- Systems and processes: We strongly believe that the companies need to manage growth and not let growth manage them. We help the companies in building robust internal systems and processes and an effective management reporting system.
- Financial engineering: Our portfolio companies benefit from our significant expertise in financial engineering and structuring optimal financing instruments.
- Technical assistance: We organize external technical assistance for our portfolio companies on issues such as supply chain management, inventory control, channel management etc., though our partner's access to international network of consultancy organizations.
- Assistance in hiring senior management team: We use our extensive domestic network of relationships to help broad base the Board and hire senior talent.
- Network development / Access to markets: We help our portfolio companies in providing market research and global trend analysis and actively work with them to develop a regional and/or global market strategy that requires insights that go well beyond the local market. We use our network to introduce these companies to newer markets, customers and suppliers.
- Provide visibility: The association with Kotak and access to the various resources within the group provides our portfolio companies with the necessary platform to generate visibility and presents lucrative opportunities to enhance its profile and outline their vision.
- Preparation for an IPO: We assist our portfolio companies in establishing good corporate governance standards. Our team, with its rich experience in the domestic capital markets, collaborates with the management of the portfolio companies to help them plan the timing of its IPO, attract and select the investment bankers, strategize the public positioning of the company within its industry group and help attract investor research coverage.
International Support
In addition to the above, KPEG through its association with SEAF Management LLC, a US headquartered Venture Fund Management Company is in a position to provide extensive post-investment business development assistance to increase sales and improve operational efficiency of portfolio companies. The business development assistance for SEAF is managed through SEAF's Head Office at Washington DC and SEAF's London and Brussels presences, besides it’s office in Mumbai. SEAF's network of internal specialists, as well as external experienced consultants and industry advisors seek to provide KPEG and its portfolio companies with access to new customers and global market opportunities, insight into industry best practices and advanced training and strategic planning skills.
SEAF's global network of 15 sponsored funds in countries like Eastern Europe, South America, Central Asia, China and Vietnam provide KPEG and its portfolio companies access to significant customer and market opportunities besides providing with valuable industry feedback, global consolidation trends, and latest comparable analysis developed through their continual business development efforts with regional and multinational corporations across these regions.
SEAF also has an in-house expert in "margin improvement" who has been instrumental in working with portfolio companies in SEAF sponsored funds to focus on controlling costs and improving profitability.
All the above Business Enhancement Support activities are co-ordinated by SEAF through its Business Development Unit (BDU) which has offices in Washington DC, London and Brussels where it leverages the talents in particular of Tom Drum (a 28 year veteran of Procter & Gamble and an expert in marketing), Jim Jaffe (a successful former principal in a successful US based buyout firm with a managerial experience in a US Stock Exchange listed entity, who is an expert in margin improvement and MBO’s ) and Phillippe Leroux, a London based ex banker from J. Henry Schroder's with managerial experience of running Norton's Motorcycles in the UK, together with a number of other dedicated past investment professional and research analysts.
About SEAF Management LLC
SEAF Management LLC is a Delaware (US) corporation and investment Fund Manager headquartered in Washington DC specializing in the sponsorship and management of investment funds in 15 countries across Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia. SEAF Management LLC is a co-sponsor of "India Growth Fund" and its wholly owned subsidiary in India, SEAF India Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd., is the Investment Advisor to Kotak Mahindra Bank, the Investment Manager of the India Growth Fund.