EIH.L Regulatory News (EIH)

23 Mar 2007 08:00

Evolvence India Holdings PLC23 March 2007 Evolvence India Holdings Plc Announces First Day of Dealing on AIM following successful fundraising of $65 million Evolvence India Holdings Plc ("EIH" or "the Company"), a fund of funds holdingcompany that focuses on India, today announces its flotation on the AlternativeInvestment Market ("AIM") under the ticker symbol EIH.L. The placing raised $65 million and will represent the first UK publicly quotedfund of funds that exposes investors to the Indian Private Equity Market. Fundraising Statistics Placing Price $1.00Number of new Ordinary Shares being placed on behalf of the Company 65,000,000Estimated net proceeds receivable by the Company $60.4 millionGross proceeds of Placing $65.0 millionNumber of Ordinary Shares in issue immediately following Admission 65,000,002Market capitalisation following the Placing at the Placing Price $65 million About EIH EIH is promoted by Evolvence Capital Ltd ("Evolvence Capital"), a Dubai based,B.V.I. incorporated, alternative investment firm established in 2000 with aprimary investment focus on Gulf Co-operation Council countries and India. • EIH is an Isle of Man incorporated, private equity fund of funds holding company focused on India. The admission of EIH will give investors access to a diversified Indian private equity portfolio while mitigating issues usually associated with private equity investments, such as lack of liquidity and relatively large minimum investment size. • EIH intends to invest the net offering proceeds, directly or indirectly, approximately as follows: • 70 per cent of the net offering proceeds in the Evolvence India Fund ("EIF"); • 10 per cent of the net offering proceeds in the Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund ("EILSF"); and • 20 per cent of the net offering proceeds in direct investment opportunities in India. • In contrast to the so called, "blind pools", EIH intends to invest up to 70% of the net offering proceeds in EIF, an established private equity fund of funds with a co-investment pool focusing on growth capital in India. Through this shareholding investors will: • invest in a diversified portfolio of Indian companies through underlying private equity funds held by EIF; • participate in the potential future uplift in the performance of private equity funds that have been investing in Indian companies for the past three years and generated superior returns • gain exposure to co-investments to be made alongside the private equity funds in individual Indian companies. EIF has to date made four co-investments and the pipeline for such investments remains robust; and • EILSF is a new fund that has been created to make private equity investments in life sciences businesses that are either based in India, or have material business activities in India. The target fund size is US$150 million.The Life Sciences sector in India has annual revenue of approximately US$8.8 billion and is growing rapidly. The three main market drivers are: - generic drugs - the Indian generic industry accounts for 22 per cent of thegeneric world market. Low cost production gives India an edge over othergeneric-producing nations.- domestic demand - in a society with a fast growing, emerging middle class,healthcare expenditure is growing rapidly.- R&D outsourcing - India is expected to be a leading player in the field ofoutsourcing of certain aspects of the R&D process to lower cost countries. • EIH will also make direct investments into high growth sectors in India such as Financial Services, Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Retail. EIH has access to proprietary deal sourcing through its investment advisors based in India. The Company intends to distribute a substantial portion of its distributableprofits as dividends. The Company's longer term target is to provide investorswith a dividend yield of six per cent per annum. Management team • The Board of directors of the company (the "Board"), the EIH Investment Manager and the intended Investment Advisors have considerable experience in private equity, venture capital and hedge fund portfolio management, corporate transaction structuring and fund analysis. This experience was typically obtained whilst working for leading US, UK and Indian financial institutions. In addition, due to the established business networks in India that the Directors believe they have, the Directors expect the EIH Investment Manager and Investment Advisors to provide EIH with the required deal flow, thereby allowing it to execute EIH's Direct Investment strategy. The Indian Market • EIH believes private equity offers an attractive way of leveraging on India's growth story. The Indian economy is among the fastest growing economies in the world, with an average GDP growth of over six per cent per annum over the last ten years and the Asian Development Bank expects the Indian economy to continue to grow over the next decade. • Private equity investments in India in 2006 amounted to approximately US$7 billion, according to research produced by Venture Intelligence. Further enquiries: Evolvence Jay V. Jegannathan M: +971 50 4574197 Sabine Schaffer M: +971 505596729 Shilpa Mathai + 9714 3324033 M: +97150 346 3979 Fairfax I.S. Jonathan Brown 0207 598 5368 Cardew Group Tim Robertson 020 7930 0777 M: 07900 927 650 No offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for shares of the Company isbeing made at this time. Any such offer will be made in or by reference to theAIM admission document published by the Company and any acquisition of ordinaryshares of the Company should be made only on the basis of the informationcontained in the AIM admission document. The price and value of, and incomefrom, shares may go down as well as up. Persons needing advice should consultand independent financial adviser. The contents of this announcement have been prepared and issued by the Companyand has been approved by Seymour Pierce Limited solely for the purposes ofsection 21(2)(b) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The distribution of this announcement outside the United Kingdom may berestricted by law. No action has been taken to permit its distribution, otherthan in the United Kingdom. Persons into whose possession this announcementcomes are required to inform themselves about, and to observe, any suchrestrictions. In particular, this announcement is not for publication,distribution or release, in whole or in part, in or into the United States ofAmerica, Australia, Canada or Japan, or their respective territories orpossessions. Any person in the EEA who acquires any shares of the Company in any offer or towhom any offer is made will be deemed to have represented and agreed that it isa qualified investor within the meeting of Article 2(1) (e) of the ProspectusDirective (Directive 2003/71/EC). This document does not constitute an offer to buy or to subscribe for, or thesolicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, ordinary shares of EIH in anyjurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The shares have not been and will not be registered under the United StatesSecurities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"), or under the securitieslegislation of any state of the United States of America, nor under the relevantsecurities laws of Canada, Australia and Japan, and may not be offered or soldin the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan except pursuant toan exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registrationrequirements of the Securities Act and in compliance with any applicable statesecurities laws. Neither the United States Securities and Exchange Commissionnor any state securities commission or other regulatory authority has approvedor disapproved of these securities or determined if this announcement istruthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence.There will be no offering of shares in or into United States of Amercia, Canada,Australia or Japan or in any country, territory or possession where to do so maycontravene local securities laws or regulations. This announcement (or any partof it) is not to be reproduced, distributed, passed on, or the contentsotherwise divulged, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States ofAmerica, Canada, Australia or Japan or in any country, territory or possessionwhere to do so may contravene local securities laws or regulations. Certain statements contained in this announcement are, or may be deemed to be,'forward-looking statements'. In some cases, these forward-looking statementscan be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms'believes', 'estimates', 'anticipates', 'expects', 'intends', 'may', 'will' or'should'. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risks anduncertainties and may be based on a number of assumptions and readers arecautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of futureperformance. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, theforward-looking events described in this announcement may not occur and theCompany's actual results and performance may differ materially from theimpression created by the forward-looking statements. Due to such risks,uncertainties and assumptions, readers should not rely on such forward-lookingstatements, which speak only as at the date of this announcement. The Companyexpressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to publicly update or revisethese forward-looking statements after the date of this announcement, except asrequired by applicable law or regulation. No statement in this announcement isintended to be a profit forecast or to be relied upon as a guide to futureperformance. 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