CCI approves $500 million investments in Ola by Temasek, Warburg Pincus, Bhavish Aggarwal

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday approved the proposed $500 million investment in ride-hailing platform Ola by Temasek, Warburg Pincus and Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of shares by MacRitchie Investments (Temasek), Fort Canning Investments, Plum Wood Investment Limited (Plum Wood) and certain voting rights by Bhavish Aggarwal in ANI Technologies, explained two Ministry of Corporate Affairs releases issued on Friday evening.

ANI Technologies is engaged in operating an internet and mobile technology platform, which provides taxi and auto-rickshaw aggregation services under the brand name Ola. ANI through its subsidiaries is, among other things, engaged in the businesses of manufacturing and selling food, digital payments, etc. Bhavish Aggarwal is the executive director of ANI.

Plum Wood is an investment holding firm whose shareholders are certain private equity funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC. Warburg Pincus is headquartered in New York, United States. It acts as a manager to certain private equity funds.

MacRitchie is an investment holding company and is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited. Singapore-based Temasek is an investment firm. Fort Canning is also an investment holding company.

On July 9, Ola had announced that Temasek, Warburg Pincus and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal have invested $500 million (Rs 3,733 crore), ahead of the firm's proposed IPO.

"This is among the largest investments in the Indian consumer internet space by these funds," a statement said. Investment deals above a certain threshold require approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

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