Ontario Teachers' weighing $100-million investment in India's Xpressbees, sources say

financialpost.com:

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board is considering making a US$100 million investment in Indian e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian pension investor may buy a stake in the firm at about a US$1.4-billion valuation, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is confidential. The funds would potentially be used for purposes including acquisitions, one of the people said.

Discussions are ongoing and details of the fundraise could change, the people said. Representatives from Xpressbees didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while Ontario Teachers didn’t respond to a query sent outside regular business hours in Canada.

Founded in 2015 in Pune, India, Xpressbees offers business to business, business to consumer, cross-border and third-party logistics, according to its website. It has more than 3,000 offices and service centres across the country and handles over three million shipments per day.

Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. invested US$40 million in Xpressbees in April, according to a press release from Avendus Capital, financial adviser to the transaction. The startup’s backers also include Blackstone Inc., TPG Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the press release shows.

With more than US$3 billion invested in India, Ontario Teachers has picked the country as one of its key strategic countries to reach US$300 billion invested by 2030, its website shows. Its bets include a roughly 18.6 billion rupee (US$225 million) stake in the National Highways Infra Trust, a vehicle sponsored by the National Highways Authority of India, according to a statement.

Bloomberg.com