Tano Capital, LLC has invested $15m in Mumbai-based ABG Motors, a newly created arm of ABG Engineering & Construction, through its affiliate in a private equity transaction. ABG Motors is part of India’s largest private sector shipbuilder, ABG Shipyards, which is owned by entrepreneur Rishi Agarwal. ABG Motors applied the $15 million investment towards its $37m acquisition of Cemp, an Italian manufacturer of flameproof electric motors. ABG Motors will also use some of the proceeds to finance a manufacturing facility for Cemp in Bangalore. The Italian acquisition is partly leveraged with debt coming from Italy’s Interbanker.
The deal is unique in that Tano Capital acted both as a private equity investor and as a merchant banker. Tano Capital originated the proposal to form a private company in India to acquire Cemp, marketed the proposal to ABG Engineering and invested $15 million of its own funds in the deal.