Mumbai: The highlight of the Asian Private Equity & Venture Forum 2007 on Day 2 (December 5) will be a session on and with limited partners. The speakers will be Kenneth M. Shimberg from Brown University Investment Office, Doug Coulter from LGT Capital Partners Ltd, Patricia Dinneen of Siguler Guff & Co. LLc, Lindel Eakman of University of Texas Investment Management Co. and E. David Ellington from San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System Board.

Three out of these five limited partner firms – Brown University, University of Texas and LGT Capital – are supposedly at the conference as part of a larger agenda to ’feel’ the market here. “None of them are investors here yet, but are evaluating the market ahead of any entry,” said an executive at a Mumbai-based limited partner firm who did not want to be named. Staff Writer

Mumbai: Ravi Lekhrajani, an adviser of Bollard Strategic Advisors Pte Ltd, who invests out of US-based Wayzata Investment Partners Llc. $3 billion (Rs11,820 crore) distressed asset fund, made a $6 million investment in June in a specialty chemical intermediate.

The investment approach will be to seek out distressed companies with strong assets and merge them with a profitable company in the same sector. “There is a legacy right— 40 years of distressed assets being created,” he said. The fund will invest across the US and Asia, excluding China, Japan and Korea. Competitors in this market include Clearwater Capital Partners LLc, ADM Capital and Spinnaker Capital Group. Staff writer

Mumbai: Anvil Global Partners, a New York-based firm that was recently formed with $250 million to be put into China and India, has recently set up its Mumbai office.

The fund, which is in the process of raising its corpus, will invest $10-15 million across sectors. Anvil also has offices in Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, but also has interests in North Africa and West Asia. Staff Writer