Nalanda Capital has hiked its holding in steel tubes and pipes maker Ratnamani Metals beyond 5%. The Singapore based firm that invests in listed Indian companies has been slowly building its exposure in Ratnamani since early this year which shows the private equity firm is going long on the stock.

Nalanda had been gradually increasing its stake in Ratnamani and figured among those with over 1% stake starting quarter ended June’10. As of June 30 it had 1.24% stake that went up to 3% as of September 30. With small tranche of share purchases including the latest round last week, Nalanda now holds 5.06% in the company.

Ratnamani that grew its business size ten fold between 2003 and 2008 has seen its financials affected by the momentary slowdown that affected India Inc and specially the petrochemical industry over the last two years. For the year ended March’10, the firm had revenues of INR 852 crore with net profit of INR 81 crore.

Investments in Ratnamani marks yet another portfolio firm in which Nalanda Capital, the USD 400 million fund headed by former Warburg Pincus India MD Pulak Prasad, is putting in more money.

Nalanda Capital had recently increased its holding in power transformer maker Voltamp Transformers Ltd through market purchase of shares since mid October for INR 26 crore. It took an exposure in Voltamp between April-June quarter (arguably around the same time as its initial investment in Ratnamani) and held 1.6% stake as of June 30, but has continued buying since then. With the latest deal, Nalanda India Fund has upped its holding by 2.8% to 8.75%, as per a disclosure.

(Sourced from www.moneycontrol.com)