Chaired by Sir Peter Burt, the former non-executive chairman of ITV, and with members of the influential Burman family involved in managing its investments, Indian investment fund Promethean adopts a long-term ‘value activist’ strategy with regard to both private and public Indian companies.

In May, the company, which joined AIM in April 2007 having raised £50m through a placing of shares and warrants, released interim figures to February. These reflected a quiet period for the company, which refused to invest in businesses whose pricing expectations had become unrealistic.

With hindsight, this proved a canny move, given subsequent Indian stock market falls, which reduced unrealised investment portfolio gains of £5.3m (a 31% uplift on cost) at the half-year to only £2.8m by the end of April.

Nevertheless, the Promethean portfolio represents a canny play on a number of growing sectors, including construction, through Nitco Tiles, and tourism, via East India Hotels, one of the largest branded hospitality businesses in India.

Promethean is also helping California-based mobile payment technology star Obopay expand in India, having recently invested a further US$1m (£500,000) in a heavily oversubscribed financing round of up to $45m, completed at 2.7 times the valuation of previous rounds. Significantly, Indian telecommunications giant Essar is a co-investor in Obopay, which suggests there is huge growth and portfolio valuation uplift potential in this one investment alone.

Net asset value at the interim was £54m, equating to 108p per share, and the fund offers an intriguing way to play growth opportunities within both the public and private Indian growth company sphere.

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