Canada Pension Plan Invests in First India-Focused Fund

(April 16, 2010) — The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages C$123.9 billion in assets for Canada’s national pension fund, announced plans to invest up to $100 million in its first India-focused fund.

Toronto-based CPPIB, one of the largest of the Canadian pension fund administrators, said that it committed to Multiples Alternate Asset Management to invest across corporate sectors. According to a statement by CPPIB, the Multiples fund has a target size of $450 million and will make long-term growth investments in mid-sized Indian companies, management led buyouts, and spinoffs of divisions from large Indian groups.

“Multiples will be the first India-focused fund to be backed by CPPIB,” the board said in a statement. “The Fund is expected to announce another close shortly.”

Renuka Ramnath, who founded the Multiples fund about a year ago, said in a statement: ‘I am very excited and humbled that Multiples has received enormous support from investors in India and abroad. I look forward to building Multiples as a bridge between providers of long-term risk capital and the new generation of capital hungry entrepreneurs in India. I am confident that Multiples will become a firm of international repute with a strong team and an enviable track record’.