Temasek's India Head Ravi Lambah on the firm’s FY27 strategy

[00:00:03][music] Hello and welcome to Money Control. My name is Ashwin Moan and you're watching a brand new edition of Deal Central where we get you the views that matter from the world of mergers and acquisitions, equity capital market deals and private equity. On the hot seat today is Ravi Lamba, head strategic initiatives and head India at Singapore investment giant Tamasc. Ravi, thank you so much for taking our time. Always a pleasure catching up with you.

[00:00:31]>> Thank you.

[00:00:32]>> Ravi, let's straight dive into the uh sentiment currently as far as the Indian IPO market is concerned.

[00:00:39]>> Uh it's been a rather tepid start to the year. Uh we've seen a few issuers playing it conservatively and deferring their IPOs. Very recently, we had one of the largest issues of the year by SBIMF.

[00:00:51]Uh making a healthy debut, not an explosive, but a healthy debut.

[00:00:55]>> [snorts] >> uh what's your take of the current state of affairs in the Indian IPO market and what's the investor feedback?

[00:01:02]>> I think it's a good uh a good checkpoint. I mean look, we look at the IPO market as one more event in a company's life cycle from our perspective. As you know, we're long-term investors. So, uh we've had many situations where companies in our portfolio have gone public. Uh you know, we had Lenskard go public recently. We had Dr. Agravals before that. We had uh Pine Labs go public. And these are all IPOs that at a a point in time there's a particular market environment that affects the IPOs but over a longer term the the value of the equity trades down gets up to what the intrinsic value deserves and and we are long-term investors so we don't really care so much for this volatility that may exist from time to time and I think right now there is obviously an impact of the macro and more uh shocks outside of India which are affecting sentiment uh the the war in Iran has clearly had an impact and the pricing of oil has had an impact. So these are these are what we would call current events and they will pass and over time we think the pricing will come down to what you know what the stock deserves and and we will hold in our situation we will hold stocks long-term we still invested in eternal we invested more than 10 years ago for example so these are for us these are not events that we worry us too much >> right you know post SBMF the other large issue that market observers are eagerly looking at is of course the crown jewell in your portfolio. That's Manipal uh hospitals right uh set to be India's biggest ever healthcare IPO uh we we understand that a listing could be around the corner now you're a majority shareholder and when you came in it was a big deal in the healthcare space uh as a controlling shareholder and I'm aware that there are a few more regulatory steps uh and therefore you might have your limitations but what are your expectations from from this market debut? Yeah, I look I think it's not fair for me to comment on any particular company and it's specifically not something that is uh as current as what is happening with the uh with the possible IPO of the of Money Pal. But again like I would say the IPO for us is just one more event in this in Moneyipal's timeline. We are not uh you know we're not u we're long-term shareholders of Moneyipal. We like the space. We like healthcare. we will stay invested uh because we believe there's a latent demand in healthcare services and money power is very well positioned uh in the Indian healthcare space to continue to be a a leader in in this space. So from our perspective the IPO will happen when the timing is right uh the timing has to be right for the market as well as for the company and from our perspective we are we continue to be shareholders in Manipal uh for the long term. All right, point noted.

[00:03:41]Sticking to the healthcare segment, you also back u Cloud9 Hospitals which is which is in the maternity and pediatric segment along with TPG Newest. Uh give us a sense of uh uh you know the expansion plans for that particular firm and uh are you also looking at inducting new investors to broaden the cap table uh ahead of a potential IPO just like Manipal? Again I it's not fair for me to comment on any particular company but but again this is the same theme Ash that we've talked about for many years but we really like healthare services in India because we think clinical excellence is important scale is important and then at the same time it's important to be invested for the long term to derive the benefits and that is what we've done in Dr. Agarval, we've done that in Madanta, we've done that in Manipal. Cloud9 is no different. So this is all part of our thematic on healthcare and uh like I said scale is important. So growth will come organically and inorganically both and as you've seen that's happened uh you know in Manipal we've done inorganic and organic growth. Midanta has done a lot of organic growth oral has done both. Uh cloud is no different. I think in order to get scale in a country that's as large as ours and to make sure you can derive the benefits of scale you have to grow. uh and that's really where capital will be required over time and you know we will be a part active participant uh in cloud like like we have been in other investors investments as well >> right moving away from healthcare you know correct me if I'm wrong but I've noticed a sudden shift or a crossover strategy if I may call it and that's uh Tasc's recent focus on preipo bets you made a a significant preipo bet in cleanmax that's in the infra space in fact you were a part of the anchor book as well You also then later made a pre-IPO bet in milky mist that's in [clears throat] the consumer segment. Uh is this a fundamental change in your investment philosophy in India or are these just blips on the radar?

[00:05:33]>> I think you're correct. We have typically not played so much in the preipo space. That's a good observation.

[00:05:38]But look, I think ultimately we are agnostic to the way we do our investments. We can do public, private, preipo, post IPO, public listed companies. We can come in early stage, late stage. So that's the benefit of the flexibility we have as part of our mandate. But there are times it's such for example you know that the the examples you mentioned where coming in preipo can get you certain benefits. It can get you the benefit of acquiring a reasonable amount of equity which may not be available post IPO easily.

[00:06:08]>> It gives you the ability to build your stake to the level you want to be in that particular company over a period of time. So you start >> uh and you get the benefit of going in at different price levels which also helps you to manage your your your average entry cost in a company where there's significant growth because of what's happening to the sector. So we we kind of bundle all these things in and then we make these investment decisions.

[00:06:31]Uh at the end of the day we're focused on intrinsic value when we when we invest and when we divest. So these are just these are the steps in us getting to that level of shareholding we want.

[00:06:42]Ravi, more of a big picture question.

[00:06:44]Uh, and sticking to the topic of preIPOS, uh, do you think, uh, more private equity players like you could attempt to perhaps uh, uh, take up the space that has been seated by mutual funds because now according to Seboms, they are no longer allowed to participate in preipo placement. So, do you think you'll see more of that?

[00:07:01]>> It's it I don't think I can comment on what other folks will do, but >> but I think the ability to play public and private doesn't exist across all mandates.

[00:07:11]So we may have I mean traditional private equity is usually not playing in this space. Uh yeah of course private equity can hold once a company lists but typically they're not uh in the typically this space has been done by funds institutional funds or or folks like us who have that flexibility. Will it open up more opportunities? I hope so because if the opportunity is good then like I said before it gives you the ability to time and build a stake at the right in the right way and it's something that we should always be open to because we don't we're agnostic to deal structure like I said we can we can play across that entire gambit >> right now let's talk about the farmer segment you recently made an exit from integrace domestic pharma player along with uh true north we had a new investor wuk pink is coming in I'm curious to understand is tamasc open to platform strategy say in the pharma space uh that you have seen uh being exhibited by some of your other peers like PG like Carlile uh not even the far not even the pharma space but for other sectors as well platform strategy is that something that you may look at >> absolutely I look Manipal is a platform for us as you may recall we uh we in fact folded our shares operating platform into money manipal when we invest when we increased our stake in manipal >> and we will do that again because platforms make a lot of sense >> beyond healthare Beyond healthare. Yes.

[00:08:31]When the opportunity presents us, we will