Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group has invested US$32.8 million to acquire a 54.85% stake in Chennai, India-based Newgen KnowledgeWorks Private, a provider of publishing and technical services for many of the world's largest publishers, particularly in the US, the UK and Europe. Equity for the transaction comes from First Carlyle Ventures III, an investment fund advised by The Carlyle Group.

Carlyle acquired the stake held by Franklin Templeton Private Equity Strategy, Aureos South Asia Fund and ePlanet Capital in Newgen. Carlyle had earlier invested in Newgen in 2004 and exited its investment in 2011.

Prabhakar Ram, founder & CEO of Newgen said: "Newgen has emerged as a preferred service provider for its clients due to its high service quality, efficiency and focus on automation. We are extremely happy to partner with Carlyle again, which engaged in numerous value creation activities and acted as a catalyst in the growth of the company during its previous stint with Newgen."

Newgen offers publishing and technical services for books and journals - from content creation till marketing - such as content sourcing, content creation, project management, author liaison, development editing, copyediting, design, artwork and permissions, typesetting/composition, XML creation, ebook delivery, EPUB conversion, bespoke publishing, backlist conversions, mobile app creation and distribution and discoverability solutions for content through their production centers in India, UK and US.

Since 2000, Carlyle had invested approximately US$1.1 billion of equity in approximately 30 transactions in India as of September 30 2014.