Varde, Aditya Birla to Create $1 Billion Joint Venture

  • U.S. firm to acquire 50 percent stake in one of Birla’s units
  • Varde called India bad-loan opportunity one of world’s biggest
Kumar Mangalam Birla

Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg

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U.S.-based investment firm Varde Partners Inc. and Indian financial services provider Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. are creating a joint venture to invest in “stressed and distressed” assets in India. Birla Capital’s shares rose.

Minneapolis-based Varde will take a 50 percent stake in Birla Capital’s asset reconstruction business for 980 million rupees ($13.9 million), the Indian firm said in a filingBloomberg Terminal, which didn’t specify the size of planned investments. People familiar with the matter had said earlier that the venture plans to put as much as $1 billion into Indian distressed assets over three years.