Citi Venture invests Rs.1,500-mn in SVIL Mines

New Delhi: Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI), a private equity investor, has invested Rs 150 crore in SVIL Mines Ltd, a company engaged in mining and processing of marbles.

The investment has given a near 20 per cent stake for CVCI in SVIL Mines, which is part of the Rs 1,600-crore turnover Floriana Group. SVIL Mines has set up a marble processing plant in Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with GEO SRL, Italy, The plant has a capacity to produce 5.9 million square metre of marble slabs per annum, Mr Sanjay Jain, Chairman of the Floriana Group, said.

“We are investing in the company for the long term. We are not looking at 1-2 year exit. Normally, we invest in well established companies. Rarely do we invest in start-ups. In this instance, we are backing up a management team in a start-up whose success is guaranteed. It is well-positioned to emerge as a dominant player in the marble industry over the next few years,” Mr Ajay Rehlan, Managing Director, CVCI-India, said at a news conference to announce the investment transaction.

Mr Rehlan said the Rs 150-crore investment has been made by Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership Fund through the Mauritius route. The fund has corpus of about $4.5 billion.

So far, the fund’s exposure stood at about $400 million in India and plans are afoot to increase the level of investment to $1.6 billion over the next two years.

Mr Rehlan indicated that CVCI may look at exiting the company when it goes in for an initial public offering (IPO). The SVIL Chairman, Mr Sanjay Jain, said the company has no immediate plans to go in for an IPO.

Mr Jain also said that SVIL Mines plans to launch the ‘Floriana Concept Marble’ product range on October 4 at a marble event in Verona, Italy. Company officials said that the amount invested by CVCI would be used for brand building and establishing distribution network.

Plans are afoot to launch company-owned retail outlets in four metros. SVIL also wants to have over 300 franchise-owned company operated retail outlets in the coming months.