Blackstone: Ex Blackstone MD’s fund buys into defence supplier Data Patterns

MUMBAI: Florintree Capital, owned by Mathew Cyriac – the former India private equity co-head of Blackstone, has acquired about 20 per cent stake in Data Patterns, Chennai based defence supplier Data Patterns (India) Private Limited.

Florintree acquired the stake held by existing investor Oman India Joint Investment Fund (OIJIF) in a secondary transaction. OIJIF, which is a Joint Venture between Oman Investment Authority (Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Sultanate of Oman) and

, had invested Rs 55 crore for a 20 per cent stake in the company in 2012.

Veda Corporate Advisors is the exclusive advisor to the transaction.

Data Patterns, a home grown Defence & Aerospace Electronics Systems Company, develops systems for land, sea, air and space platforms.

Established in 1985 by S. Rangarajan, Rs 200 crore Data Patterns has a workforce of over 700, currently.

Data Patterns has domain expertise in development and designing of radars, communication, avionics, fire control systems, missile electronics, naval systems and satellite systems for predominantly Indian Defence and Space establishments and exports to the United Kingdom, South Korea and Europe.

The company’s client list includes DRDO, MoD, BEL, , ECIL and ISRO. Data Patterns has a dedicated research, design and manufacturing facility in Chennai.

With Government of India’s emphasis on increasing local sourcing of defence equipment and components, the domestic supply eco-system is set to benefit from significant opportunity in the next few years.

India spends over Rs 1 trillion on defence capex, which has been growing at a steady pace over the years. There is increased participation from private sector in the defence supply chain owing to government policies such as Defence offset programme, Make in India initiatives and policy changes in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) which is oriented towards procuring from Indian Industry, indigenous development and Indian Strategic Partners to build large Systems / Platforms in India.

The Mumbai based Florintree Capital is founded by Mathew Cyriac, who was earlier a Senior Managing Director at The Blackstone Group and served as its Co-Head of Private Equity at Blackstone Advisors.

Cyriac, who held about 33 per cent stake in MTAR Technologies, reaped a 15 times gain after listing of the company in March. Cyriac’s other investments include garment exporter Gokaldas Exports, CMS IT Services, insurance broker OneInsure, subway sandwich chain Bread Basket, loan provider CASHe, and fintech startup City Cash.