Samena Capital has launched the Samena Special Situations Fund with $200 million of seed capital from the founders of the fund management company. It aims for a $250 million close at the end of October.

They will be looking for special situations investments in the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and North Asia, chiefly growth capital deals, but taking distressed deals selectively. They will be looking mainly at listed and unlisted equity, but will go for other parts of the capital structure opportunistically.

The backers include an array of businessmen from that part of the world, including Atul Punj, Samir Fancy, and Value Partners' honorary chairman V-Nee Yeh. Samena hopes that these executives will help to zero-in on some attractive deals in the region.

Managing the portfolio will be the founder of Samena Capital Shirish Saraf, who previously set up Abraaj Capital. Alongside him are Ramiz Hasan, formerly of Invicta Investment Management and Hermes Pension Fund, and Simon Wong, a CLSA veteran and a partner at Lancea, a private equity and hedge fund boutique. The three men met long ago in the late-1980s as students at the London School of Economics.

Target returns are 25%, and the management fee is 2% with a performance fee of 20%.

Additionally Samena plans to allocate $50 million to buying stakes in other asset management companies (although not seeding their funds).

For this fund, Goldman Sachs is the prime broker, custodian and administrator. Auditors are Ernst & Young.