The exit caps a 2014-vintage fund that delivered a gross inside charge of return of about 25% and returned greater than ₹7,500 crore to buyers, underscoring Samara’s monitor report because it seeks to shut its third fund within the coming months and faucets home capital for the primary time.
The second fund, raised in 2014 with a corpus of ₹3,000 crore together with co-investments from restricted companions, made ten investments, all of which generated optimistic returns, the agency mentioned.
“We may have waited longer to extract considerably greater worth, however it’s equally essential to return capital to our buyers in a well timed method whereas nonetheless optimising worth,” Anchit Gupta, managing director on the agency, mentioned in an interview. “The Ebitda a number of we achieved is in step with or marginally greater than listed friends and comparable business-to-business firms,” he defined.
Fundraising push
The timing of the exit is critical as Samara works in the direction of closing its third fund over the following two months. Traditionally, the agency has raised capital largely from abroad buyers, however Fund III has additionally drawn curiosity from home entities.
“Round three years in the past, the window for home buyers in personal fairness opened up meaningfully for high-quality funds,” he mentioned. “We noticed this as a strategic alternative. These buyers, usually giant household homes with working companies, create a robust flywheel for us throughout deal circulation, ideation, and diligence.”
Whereas Samara’s world fund has accomplished its closing shut, the home sleeve of Fund III is anticipated to shut by March or April. “We now have already been actively investing from each swimming pools of capital over the previous couple of years,” Gupta famous.
A few of Samara’s distinguished exits from the second fund embrace the sale of Spoton Logistics to Delhivery; a stake sale in AIG Hospital to Quadria Capital; the sale of Lotus Surgicals to Tube Investments and Premji Make investments; and the sale of a stake in Oaknet Healthcare to Eris Lifesciences.
The agency additionally offloaded stakes in Sahajanand Medical Applied sciences (SMT) Ltd, First Meridian Enterprise Companies Pvt. Ltd and Paradise Meals Court docket Pvt. Ltd by way of a $150 million continuation fund led by TR Capital in 2023.
Samara invested within the amenities administration area in 2017, betting on the formalisation of a fragmented business dominated by family-run companies. The agency additionally noticed tailwinds from rising workplace penetration, elevated outsourcing, and the entry of multinational firms, alongside digitization of labour legal guidelines.
On the operational entrance, Samara initially pursued an aggressive consolidation technique. “Our intention was to aggressively purchase firms within the first 18 months and construct one of many largest amenities administration platforms in India,” Gupta mentioned. “We diligenced almost a dozen property, however the sector was largely unorganised and family-run. In lots of circumstances, enterprise high quality and earnings weren’t aligned, so we selected to not pursue acquisitions the place requirements didn’t meet our threshold.”
That self-discipline was examined throughout the pandemic.
Operational turnaround
Halfway by way of the funding interval, the covid-19 pandemic created extreme headwinds as purchasers shifted to distant work and amenities administration operations remained depending on on-site exercise. “Throughout covid, our major focus shifted to staying resilient,” Gupta mentioned. “We have been coping with an almost 30% decline in revenues, and navigating that interval efficiently laid the muse for the restoration and exit we ultimately achieved.”
As a part of the turnaround, Samara appointed Tarun Ramrakhiani as chief govt in 2021 and repositioned SMS as an engineering-led, technology-enabled platform, introducing new choices throughout security, sustainability, vitality administration and amenities operations. The agency additionally employed youthful expertise and realigned management.
SMS now provides housekeeping, safety, hospitality and choose technical and value-added providers. Its acquisition of Awfis Care, the amenities administration arm of Awfis House Options, additional supported income progress. The corporate competes with gamers comparable to Quest Corp, ISS Facility Companies, UDS (Updater Companies), BVG India Ltd and Compass Group.
Samara ran a broad and aggressive sale course of for SMS, however strategic consumers emerged because the strongest contenders given working and scale synergies, Gupta mentioned.
The agency acquired slightly over 90% of SMS in 2017 and scaled the enterprise to roughly 2.5x its entry degree, with Ebitda tripling over the identical interval. The corporate is monitoring about ₹700 crore in income within the present fiscal 12 months after reporting ₹522.5 crore in income and a revenue of ₹10 crore in FY25.
SILA, which acquired SMS, was included in 2009 by brothers Sahil Vora and Rushabh Vora and gives amenities administration, venture administration and common contracting providers throughout company, industrial, residential and hospitality segments.
The corporate operates in additional than 125 cities and employs over 22,000 individuals, with revenues of about ₹913.9 crore as of March 2025, in accordance with an Icra report. Traditionally, SILA has funded acquisitions by way of promoter capital and fairness raised from Norwest Enterprise Companions, which holds a major stake within the firm.