L Capital Asia, the Asia-situated corporate venturing unit belonging to consumer goods conglomerate LVMH, is looking to raise a larger fund this year, according to comments made by L Capital Asia’s managing director Ravi Thakran to news agency Reuters.
Thakran did not enter into specifics as far as the fund’s size is concerned, but mentioned that he expected L Capital Asia to invest up to $1bn in total – L Capital Asia is currently investing from a $635m fund which closed in December 2010 – and that the bulk of the funding would be directed towards China, particularly in the garment and alcohol markets.
This would seem to be borne out by L Capital’s most recent moves, which include heading up a consortium that acquired a 10% stake in Trendy International Group for a reported $200m.
The deal followed investments in women’s fashion company Xinhe and diamond supplier Ming Fung, both of which are based in mainland China. L Capital’s portfolio stretches to India and Singapore, and Thakran mentioned a desire to expand the fund’s activities into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and the rest of South East Asia, but the focus for now is to consolidate L Capital’s Chinese presence.
Thakran explained: “International expansion is really secondary to the whole play. The primary purpose is to protect the mainland market, protect market share, build brand equity further, be ready to take on this competition.”
Although no concrete deals were divulged, Thakran did drop a clue, stating: “We are also looking at a fairly large garment maker for international brands. We are looking at that because it is part of the value chain we are trying to build.”
It is possible that Thakran was making reference to India-based garment distributor Fabindia, in which L Capital Asia acquired an 8% stake on Wednesday from Wolfensohn Capital Partners, the venture capital fund founded by ex-president of the World Bank James Wolfensohn. Wolfensohn paid a reported $10m for its stake in 2007.