ChrysCap eyes hidden gems in smaller cos with new fund

Clarus Fund to invest primarily in publicly listed shares of small- and mid-cap companies

- Debjyoti Roy

Homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital expects to exceed the 1,100 crore target corpus for its newly launched public markets fund that will mainly seek to invest in "undiscovered gems" in small- and midcap publicly-listed companies, a senior executive said.

The PE firm will invest in large-cap companies as well through its Clarus platform, which informally started investing in July 2020 but was officially launched in March this year.

The fund's managers, which include five general partners of ChrysCapital, are more bullish on mid- and small-cap companies than on large-cap firms. While large-cap companies would make up around a third of the portfolio, mid-and small-cap stocks would account for two-thirds of the fund's allocation.

"Why we want to focus more on mid-and small-cap companies is because it is slightly easier to generate extra returns, because these are mostly uncovered companies," said Soumendra Lahiri, head of the Clarus Fund. "Beating the market becomes relatively easier for these undiscovered gems."