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An Isle of Man incorporated business established to invest in land development companies in India has joined AIM. Naya Bharat Property Company placed 60 million ordinary shares which have been bought by institutional investors at 51p each, raising £30.8 million before expenses.

Naya Bharat’s investment manager is Charlemagne Capital, which specialises in managing public and private equity funds in emerging markets, including Magna India Fund. As at December 31, 2006, Charlemagne managed funds worth some £2.3 billion.

Four non-executive directors, led by chairman Shankar Dey, have been appointed to the board. They will be advised by the manager on proposed acquisitions and divestments of investments.

Naya Bharat’s portfolio adviser, KC Reddy, said: “We are finding attractive investment opportunities, with companies trading at substantial discounts to their current NAVs. These inefficiencies exist due to the lack of research available on these companies.” The IPO was managed by Panmure Gordon, Naya Bharat’s nominated adviser and broker.

The Isle of Man legal issues were handled by Andrew Baker, a senor lawyer within the funds group at Cains, who said the firm was selected to work on the deal by Anderson Whamond of Charlemagne.

“A principal benefit of using zero tax Manx companies as admission vehicles for closed-ended funds is the ease of incorporation for such vehicles, there being no Manx regulatory pre-approvals required. In addition a real benefit for the on-shore London legal advisers is the similarity of Manx company law to English company law.

“Naya Bharat is yet another example of the Isle of Man being a conduit for the flow of first class international business to the City of London,” he added.

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