The Venture Intelligence Blog

Venture Intelligence recently spoke to Christopher Nicholas, Head of JP Morgan’s Global Special Opportunities Group , the firm’s principal investment unit. Nicholas has spent 22 out of his 27 years of professional experience working in Asia. He joined the JP Morgan in 1998 as part of the Emerging Market global franchise. Until June 2004 he was responsible for leading JP Morgan’s credit business in the Asian region, with responsibility for sales, trading, syndication and research. Since then, Nicholas has focused on the firm’s growth in the distressed debt and principal investment arenas. Venture Intelligence: While JP Morgan has recently exited its proprietary PE and hedge fund businesses in other parts of the world, the Asia PE unit was retained. What was the thinking behind making this exception? Christopher Nicholas: JP Morgan has looked at the opportunities today and adjusted its business model to keep moving forward. The Asia unit has been in operation for 11 years, with good inv...

Between March 2006 and Nov 2008, SKS Microfinance received investments of $111 million from Private Equity – the largest by any company in this sector. PE investors in the company (not including pre-IPO placements) include Unitus, Sequoia Capital India, SVB, Sandstone Capital, Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures and Kismet Capital. March-2006 Unitus and Vinod Khosla invest $0.5 million each for a total stake of 30.18%. Company Valuation : $3.3 Million March-2007 Sequoia Capital India, Unitus, Vinod Khosla and Odyssey Capital invest as part of a $12 million round. Shares are issued at Rs.49.77 per share. Of this, Sequoia invests $6.2 M for 20.38% stake, while Unitus and Vinod Khosla invested $1.5 million for 4.95% each; Odyssey Capital invests $1 million for 3.35%. Company Valuation : $30.3 Million January-2008 Sequoia Capital India, SVB, Unitus, Kismet Capital and Vinod Khosla invest $23 million for a 28.86% stake. Shares were issued at Rs.70.67 per share. Of this, S...