Warburg Pincus Backs Telecom Venture With $300 Million for Deals
Assets in India, China, Mexico, Brazil sought by new platform
(Bloomberg) -- New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus is investing as much as $300 million to help a new telecommunications, media and technology infrastructure platform make acquisitions.
Princeton Growth Ventures, led by former Tata Communications Ltd. executive Rangu Salgame, will focus on assets such as data centers and digital media services, according to a statement Tuesday. The company is looking to acquire assets in large developing markets including India, China, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Brazil, said Salgame, chairman and chief executive officer of Princeton GV.
“There are opportunities for strong leaders and capital to come in and look for transformative opportunities where existing assets are under-performing and under-invested,” Salgame said in an interview.
Warburg Pincus, which oversees more than $44 billion in assets, has a track record of financing seasoned executives in their breakout endeavors. In December it backed a new beauty venture from the former CEO of Revlon Inc., Alan Ennis. to help fund its first three acquisitions. Warburg Pincus agreed in August to invest as much as $125 million in Indian supply chain and logistics company Stellar Value Chain Solutions, a startup led by the former CEO of one of the country’s largest supply chain providers.
“In the developed market we are finding it hard to put capital to work at valuations that we are comfortable with,” said Chandler Reedy, a managing director at Warburg Pincus. “We think the growth rates are higher, discount is higher and the opportunities are bigger and more exciting in the developing markets. We’ve been looking for the right management team.”
Princeton GV is seeking to acquire majority ownership of assets as well as partnering with telecom and media companies, Salgame said.
To contact the reporters on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net, Kiel Porter in New York at kporter17@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha