Mumbai,Raghunath A Mashelkar, a leading scientist and for many years chief of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is getting ready to wear a new hat - that of a private equity fund manager.
He will lead a private equity initiative of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL), according to sources. Ambani, the richest Indian, is likely to get involved in the project in his personal capacity.
It is still not clear to what extent RIL as a corporate entity will be involved or whether it will be housed under other Reliance group ventures like Reliance Foundation or Reliance Innovation Council.
Sources said the mandate of the fund is to invest in next-generation technologies and innovations, and nurture entrepreneurs. The corpus of the fund could not be verified.
When asked, Mashelkar said: I cannot comment on the subject.
Mukesh Ambani is no stranger to the private equity business. His privately held company, Reliance Life Sciences, had in April 2007 teamed with MPM Capital, one of the worlds largest healthcare funds from the US. In his personal capacity, Ambani was to co-invest in the $650 million MPM BioVentures IV fund for investment opportunities in emerging biotech ventures. So far, the fund has not made any investment in India.
The MPM Capital-Reliance Life Science strategic alliance brings about a new framework for fostering innovation by synergising enterprise and discovery capabilities outside India with people and development competencies in India. With MPM, we will look in the U.S. and locally for co-investment opportunities, Ambani had said, while announcing the alliance.
Reliance Industries, say investment banking sources, as part of their treasury operations, had also invested in Axis Bank Private Equity in 2008
Notes to Editor
The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is Indias largest private sector enterprise, with businesses in the energy and materials value chain. Groups annual revenues are in excess of US$ 44 billion. The flagship company, Reliance Industries Limited, is a Fortune Global 500 company and is the largest private sector company in India.
