Sterlite Industries on Saturday agreed to buy the operating assets of bankrupt copper miner Asarco for $2.6 billion, the latest in the series of overseas acquisitions by Indian firms. Tuscon-based Asarco, the third largest copper maker in U.S. had total revenue of $1.9 billion in 2007, Sterlite, a unit of Vedanta Resources Plc said in a statement. "Asarco is a strategic fit with Sterlite's existing copper business," the Indian firm said in the statement. On Friday a lawyer close to the deal had told Reuters in New York that Vedanta had signed a $2.6 billion deal to buy the assets of Asarco. Asarco, formerly known as American Smelting and Refining Co, produced 235,000 tonnes of refined copper in 2007 and its mines have an estimated reserve of 5 million tonnes of contained copper. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 after it was sued for $1 billion over environmental and asbestos claim. Sterlite, is India's top non-ferrous metals and mining firm with interests in aluminium, copper, zinc and lead.   more »

Sujana Metal Products Limited has announced the acquisition of 3 steel units namely Saritha Steels, Glade Steels and Sree Ganga Steels. Mr YS Chowdary chairman of Sujana Group of companies said that "These acquisitions will enable Sujana Metals to cater the fastest growing realty and infrastructure markets in southern part of India." The latest acquisitions by Sujana Metals are in line with the company's strategy to enhance the capacity to 1 million tonnes per annum by 2010 through acquisitions and expansion plans. It had earlier acquired Kamini Steels and Handum Industries.   more »

The Emami Group has acquired 27.51% stake in ayurvedic products major Zandu Pharmaceutical Works, taking its total stake in the company to over 31.41%. An open offer will follow the acquisition. The personal care products firm may not be done yet: it is looking at more buyouts both in the domestic as well as international markets. Harsh V Agarwal, director, Emami Group, told DNA Money that talks are on with at least 3-4 more companies. “We are interested in the personal care, household and healthcare sectors.” Emami already held a 3.9% stake in Zandu. On May 28, the company acquired another 14.81% stake and on Friday, topped this up by buying 12.7% from one of the promoter groups. That makes it mandatory for Emami to make an offer for 20% according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations.   more »

Carzonrent India, the top Indian franchisee of the world’s largest car rental company Hertz, is expected to close a $25-40 million private equity deal over the next three months to fund its expansion plans, its chief executive Rajiv Vij said on Friday. Carzonrent, which operates radio taxi service under the Easy Cabs brand, is planning to more than quadruple its fleet size to 30,000 by 2010. It has lined up investments of over Rs 100 crore for this year. In two earlier rounds of fundraising, the company raised $7.5 million in private equity from Citigroup and Sequoia Capital. It is the largest personal ground transportation company in India with a fleet of 7,000 vehicles. Carzonrent operates radio taxis, chauffeured and self-driven cars, and leased fleet for corporates. Easy Cabs began from Chandigarh two years ago with 50 cars. Today, it has expanded to Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad with a total of 1,400 cars.   more »

Topsgrup, an Indian security services company, today said it bought a British security company for Rs 125 crore and plans to buy a $300 million company in the US. Topsgrup bought a 51 per cent stake in the UK-based Shield Guarding Company, which provides specialised security services to over 350 clients, including Walt Disney, Fujitsu, Nokia and Porsche. ‘'We were losing out on the global tender contracts of these multinationals in India. Shield's clients include some of the biggest brands in the UK. This (stake buy) will also help us grow Shield's business in the UK as we have been doing business with clients such as HSBC for 15 years,'' Rahul Nanda, Global CMD, Topsgrup told Business Standard after announcing the deal in Mumbai. Nanda plans to outsource all the back-end work for Shield, including making uniforms and accounting, to India, and is targeting a saving of Rs 8 crore (1 million pounds) in three years by exploring the synergies. The savings target for the first year is 300,000-40,000 pounds. "The strategic partnership of the two security brands augurs well for the rapidly-growing global security industry, which is estimated to cross the $230 billion mark by 2015,'' said Gerry Paxton, executive chairman of Shield. The UK company had a turnover of Rs 484 crore and profit before tax of Rs 18 crore in 2008-09.   more »

Piramal Life Sciences (PLSL), the recently spun off new drug research arm of pharmaceutical major Nicholas Piramal debuted in the stock exchanges. "Pure drug discovery companies are a new development in India and it will take some time for our investors to realise the worth of such companies," Ajay Piramal, chairman of Nicholas Piramal told Business Standard. He said the company was planning to dilute about 15-20 per cent of the equity to further infuse capital into PLSL. The company is also exploring various options such as private equity investment in the company, which may happen within the next 12 months, said Piramal. PLSL's strategy would be to take the drugs under development till the final commercialisation stage, than outlicensing the drugs to external parties, he added.   more »

The Bangalore based GMR Group with interests in several infrastructure businesses such as airports, energy and highways has sold its ferro alloys business to the Dubai-based Cronimet Mercon Invest Ltd (CMIL) for Rs22.55 crore. The promoters of GMR signed a share purchase agreement with Cronimet on Monday to sell almost their entire holding in GMR Ferro Alloys and Industries Ltd (GFAIL). According to the details of this agreement submitted to Indian stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, the GMR group’s promoters are selling 86.57 lakh shares out of the 87.08 lakh shares they hold in the ferro alloys company. The Dubai entity has agreed to pay Rs26.04 per share to the GMR promoters and will come out with an open offer to the shareholders of GFAIL to acquire 20% holding from them at the same price of Rs26.04 a share in keeping with Indian stock market laws. The ferro alloys company was created by GMR Industries Ltd (GMRIL) by spinning off its metallurgical division in April 2006. GFAIL has a high carbon ferro-chrome manufacturing facility located at Tekkali in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.   more »

Parsvnath is likely to buy 30 per cent stake for Rs 555 crore in the high-profile Nano City project, The project cost is pegged at Rs 1,850 crore. However, officials from Parsvnath refused to comment on the development. Sabeer Bhatia, chairman, Nano Work Developers, holds 90 per cent stake in the Nano City project, a joint venture of Nano Work Developers with Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIIDC), and rest is lying with HSIIDC. The much-hyped project will be set up near Panchkula in an area over 11,000 acres. The land acquisition for the project would be done in two phases. In the first phase, 5000 acres of land would be purchased and the remaining would be purchased in the second phase.   more »

Anil Nanda Group company Akme Projects Ltd on Tuesday announced a joint venture with German-Swiss based private equity firm MPC Synergy Real Estate to develop seven premium housing projects with an investment of about Rs 1,000 crore. MPC Synergy Real Estate chairman Jay Oberai said the German PE firm is planning to invest $1 billion in Indian real estate sector within a year. Oberai said the company is also in talks with developers in Mumbai and Hyderabad, where it is willing to invest up to $ 400 million. The 50:50 joint venture, named Akme Rhine River Projects will develop seven projects at Ludhiana, Mohali, Greater Noida and two each in Bangalore and Gurgaon by 2012. MPC Synergy Real Estate is a JV between Geneva-based private equity investment fund Synergy Asset Management Fund and MPC Capital, the largest listed fund in Germany with over $18.5 billion assets under management.   more »

Aiming to become a global player, country's one of the leading tyre cord manufacturer SRF Ltd on Tuesday announced the acquisition of a Thailand-based firm Thai Baroda Industries (TBIL) for Rs 100 crore. Formalising the takeover, the domestic firm has signed a definitive agreement with the Thai firm. "The acquisition will cost SRF approximately Rs 100 crore for the fixed assets and other transaction costs," the SRF said. In addition, the company would also finance the working capital of TBIL as would be required on the date of the completion of the transaction, it added. "We have always aspired to become a global leader in our business space and this acquisition is a significant step in that direction. Post the financial restructuring and subsequent take over of the management of TBIL, we are confident that we will be able to turn the company around in a very short time-frame," SRF Ltd Managing Director Ashish Bharat Ram said.   more »