Mumbai, Aug 29 (PTI) Aditya Birla Capital, the holding firm of all the financial services businesses of the Aditya Birla group, today announced its entry into the asset reconstruction segment by sewing up a strategic partnership with the US-based alternative investment firm Vrde Partners.

The company did not offer details about the nature of the agreement such as equity holding structure and the quantum of fund both the partners will bring the table or the quantum of the initial corpus.

The statement also did not say by when it plans to begin operations expect saying Vrde expects to open its fifth Asia office in Mumbai later this year, subject to approvals.

It can be noted that the NPA pile has already crossed 11.6 per cent of the system and dozens of quality assets are up for bidding at various NCLTs. Already 35 large companies with a collective exposure of over Rs 5 trillion are at various NCLTs.

The NPA situation has become so serious that it has forced the government to toy with the idea of floating a public ARC/AMC.

Founded in 1993, Vrde has regional headquarters in Minneapolis in the US, London and Singapore and manages around USD 14 billion in alternative investments across an array of geographies, segments and asset types, including realty, corporate credit, mortgages, specialty finance, transportation and infrastructure.

Vrde has already invested nearly USD 500 million in the country over the past five years across corporate stressed, distressed, special situations and lending assets.

Operating through a joint platform, both the parties will evaluate investments across sectors, focusing on acquisition, restructuring and resolution of the substantial supply of non-performing assets in the country and special situations financings, Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL) said in a statement today.

Ajay Srinivasan, chief executive of ABCL said, "they see a large opportunity in the distressed asset space, especially in the mid-corporate segment. The expertise and experience of both ABCL and Vrde make this partnership a strong combination to capitalise on the opportunity that the country presents now."

Given the current landscape and further prospects in asset reconstruction business, ABCL and Vrde believe there is an attractive pipeline for strong capital deployment opportunities over the next several years, he added.

Ilfryn Carstairs, co-chief investment officer at Vrde said, "we see India as a core market and a critical part of our long-term Asia strategy.

"We are particularly excited to partner with ABCL to address what we believe will be a very large, multi-year opportunity. Our global restructuring expertise developed over the past 25 years will be complemented by ABCL's strong experience in Indian credit and asset markets," he said.

ABCL is present across the life insurance, asset management, private equity, corporate lending, structured finance, project finance, general insurance broking, wealth management, equity, currency and commodity broking, online personal finance management, housing finance, pension fund management and health insurance business.

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