Multiples Alternate Asset Management has closed India’s largest multi-asset continuation vehicle (CV) at USD 430m, but the deal is also notable for featuring zero syndication. Four lead investors, Hamilton Lane, HarbourVest Partners, LGT Capital Partners, and TPG NewQuest, took everything.

“When we started the process in September last year, we thought 50% would be taken by the lead investors and the rest would go into a syndication process. But even as we went in, at an early stage, it was more than 2x oversubscribed,” said Sudhir Variyar, a managing director at Multiples.

“We thought it was best to close with the leads and achieve a quick completion because we knew after that we would have to wait for regulatory approval.”

AVCJ asked two secondary investors – one a participant in the Multiples deal, the other not – what this lack of syndication said about the dynamics of an Asian market in which plenty of GPs want to launch CVs but relatively few get traction. The answer was the same: a shortage of assets compelling enough to pass muster with global investment committees.

Global GP-led secondaries reached a record high of USD 84bn last year, according to Greenhill. Asia jumped from USD 1.6bn to a still-small USD 2bn. India’s largest single-asset CV was a big contributor as ChrysCapital partners raised USD 700m for a position in National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). UBS Private Funds Group advised on the ChrysCapital and Multiples deals.

NSE appealed to investors, even though the deal involved a minority stake, because it is large and seen as a nailed-on IPO. Similarly, in the three-asset Multiples CV – each a minority stake – most of the value sits in Vastu Housing Finance, another likely listing candidate in the near term.

The other two assets are APAC Financial Services, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) in a similar vein to Vastu, and Quantiphi, an artificial intelligence-enabled digital engineering business that straddles India and the US. Variyar believes the former may follow Vastu onto India’s public markets, while the latter operates in an industry with multiple proven exit routes.

Vastu’s rise

All three come from Multiples’ 2015-vintage second fund, which closed on USD 690m, comprising a core pool of USD 500m and a co-investment sidecar of USD 135m. With the completion of the CV, the fund has achieved distributions to paid-in well over 2x, according to Variyar. Its largest outstanding position is Vastu – because only half of the 40% stake went into the CV.

The asset is unusual for its size and the private equity firm’s relative exposure. Multiples seeded Vastu in 2016, having built up conviction around the quality of the founding team and the relatively underpenetrated affordable housing finance space that had been largely ignored by banks focused on the salaried segment and larger mortgage loans.

“Small ticket mortgage finance is operationally intensive, and there was an opportunity for a new set of companies that were more technologically adept. We could take a controlling stake and set the governance processes, and then rely on the entrepreneurial energy of the team to grow the business,” said Variyar.

Vastu has grown to become one of the top 10 players in its segment, with 226 branches across 15 states as of March 2025. It has disbursed over INR 149bn (USD 1.75bn) to date – chiefly home loans and loans secured against property. Low and middle-income households, defined as those with INR 300,000-INR 1.8m in annual income, account for 70% of assets under management (AUM).

In the 2025 financial year, consolidated AUM totalled INR 91bn. Revenue and net profit were INR 14.5bn and INR 3.2bn, respectively, up from INR 160.3m and INR 4.5m in 2017.

A 90% stake became 40% as Multiples introduced new equity investors, raising more than USD 600m across several rounds. Other backers include Norwest Venture Partners, Creation Investments, 360 One Asset, Faering Capital, International Finance Corporation, TA Associates, and Prosus.

Stick or twist?

Fund II could have held Vastu through IPO, but exiting via the public markets can be time-consuming. For example, EQT spent 2.5 years exiting its 70% stake in Coforge via eight block trades, while Blackstone took two trades, and nearly two years, to realise its 34% holding in Sona Comstar. Vastu might be smaller, but the challenge of the systematic exit still applies.

“Given the Indian regulations place limits on fund extensions, there was a lot of merit to getting liquidity on 20% and retaining 20% to get a further value creation opportunity as it grows to IPO,” said Variyar, who declined to disclose the pricing as a discount to net asset value (NAV).

“We had complete support from the Fund II LP base, and some of those investors rolled over, which is a strong statement of the strength of the asset and Multiples as a GP.”

Multiples is currently investing its fourth fund, which closed on USD 885m in early 2024 and is about 35% deployed. Returning to market in three years with Fund V, it can expect to be judged on exits made in the interim – not only Vastu, but also much of its USD 685m third fund. Secondaries may play a role here as well, should they follow the expected trajectory in India.

“Last year, India private equity exits reached about USD 25bn. Around 60% of that was IPOs or post-IPO sell downs and most of the rest was sponsor-to-sponsor,” said Variyar. “Continuation funds have just begun to develop, but look like they could become a fairly significant source of liquidity.”