India Agri Business Fund invests USUSD 10 mn in Global Green

Kolkata, Mar 12 : Rabo Equity Advisors, Investment Advisors for India Agri Business Fund (the "Fund") and Gautam Thapar's Avantha Group Friday announced an investment of USUSD 10 million into "The Global Green Company Limited" by the Fund.

The Shareholders' Agreement was signed on Friday in the presence of a distinguished gathering.

The Global Green Company Limited is the foods division of the USUSD 4 billion Avantha Group, and is one of the sunrise companies within the Avantha Group's investment portfolio.

Vineet Chhabra, Managing Director and CEO of The Global Green Company Limited, said, "Global Green has successfully developed into a multinational food company through acquisitions. As we have aspirations of building our Brands and develop a more robust India business, we believe Rabo Equity's knowledge pool will work to our advantage in the next phase of growth."

Global Green cultivates, processes and markets gherkins, jalapeņos, pearl onions, capers, peppers, sweet and sour cherries, and sweet corn. The company has its customer base in 50 countries around the world and already is at USUSD 150 million sales turnover.

Global Green has rapidly grown to one of the largest suppliers of processed fruits and vegetables out of India, with processing facilities in India, Hungary, Belgium and an associated facility in Turkey.

The Avantha Group is one of India's leading business conglomerates.


Gautam Thapar, Chairman and CEO, Avantha Group, commented, "The Global Green Company is amongst India's pioneering leaders in the agribusiness, with expertise and control over the entire value chain - from sourcing and processing to exports and retail. This partnership with Rabo will give us the benefit of leveraging on the experience and resources of the team led by Rajesh, who is so well entrenched in the food and agri space."

India Agri Business Fund is a USUSD 120 million Private Equity Fund targeted at expansion/growth of Indian food and agribusiness companies. It is sponsored by Rabobank with IFC, FMO, DEG and CDC Group being the other investors. Additionally, Capvent AG and affiliates have committed USUSD 20 million recently to the unique sector Fund.

Rabobank also has a majority shareholding in the management and advisory companies, while the Fund has a long term "Knowledge Sharing Agreement" with Rabobank.

This is the first investment by India Agri Business Fund in the calendar year 2010 which is the first fund of its kind in Asia. The Fund has already invested in Geepee Agri Private Limited (edible oils), Sri Biotech Laboratories (agri inputs) as well as LT Foods and Daawat (both in the rice sector).