Private equity firm Henderson Equity Partners said on Monday it has completed a $21.5 million investment in Sharda Worldwide Exports Pvt Ltd, an Indian agrochemical company based in Mumbai. Founded in 1987, Sharda registers and markets off-patent agrochemicals in 50 countries and across the herbicide, fungicide and insecticide sectors. "The Henderson team has spent a lot of time reviewing the agrochemical sector and we believe that the sector and Sharda will be strong beneficiaries of increasing regulation of agrochemicals and increasing crop acreage," said Vishal Marwaha, a partner of Henderson Equity Partners.   more »

Yatra Capital, the Euronext-quoted India-focused real estate fund, is in final round discussion with Parsvnath Developers (PDL) to pick up 30% stake in latter’s bus-terminal-cum -commercial complex project in Mumbai for around 220 crore. Sources said the fund has valued the Mumbai project at over Rs 700 crore. In 2006, PDL bagged the real estate project from BEST, the state government-owned transport and electric supply utility, to develop its surplus land in Kurla as a bus terminal-cum-commercial complex. The project has over of 40,000 sq ft developable area.   more »

Deutsche Bank has picked up close to 40% stake in Ramprastha Promoters and Developers, a group company owned by Delhi-based Ramprastha Group for $80 million. Ramprastha Promoters and Developers has been primarily engaged in developing housing projects in the national capital region(NCR). Confirming the deal, Ramprastha group director Arvind Walia told ET, “We signed the agreement with Deutsche Bank recently.” Mr Walia didn’t specify the stake Deutsche Bank has bought, but he said it was less than 40%. Ernst & Young advised Ramprastha on the deal. In the largest private equity deal in real estate sector, Deutsche Bank had picked up around 25% stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by Mumbai-based developer Lodha Group for Rs 1,700 crore, last year. Currently, Ramprastha Promoters and Developers is developing a 200 acre township in Gurgaon. The land for the project has already been acquired.   more »

Tano Capital LLC said Tuesday it made a $7.4 million investment into Anil Printers Ltd. on behalf of Tano India Private Equity Fund I. San Mateo-based Tano said India-based Anil is a printing company that manufactures prepaid scratch cards, pin mailers, airline tickets, cargo bills, and carbon-less stationery for the telecommunications, banking, courier, and logistics industries. With this investment, APL plans to manufacture smart cards and RFID labels in technical collaboration with Mühlbauer High Tech International of Germany.   more »

Fund manager Trikona Capital Ltd is exploring various options to raise funds to invest $1 billion annually in India over the next ten years, a top official said. "Trikona intends to raise the money through public and private equity from institutional investors. We are evaluating options. We will also pump money from sell downs back into the deal pipeline," Managing Director Aashish Kalra told Reuters. Trikona is an India-focussed fund management firm and manages the 250-million-pound Trikona Trinity Capital Plc fund listed on London's Alternative Investment Market. The funds go into India's real estate and infrastructure sectors.   more »

Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank are set to make a combined investment of $500 million in an SPV floated by India’s second-most valued real estate developer Unitech, according to a person close to the development. The two PE players are learnt to be in advanced talks with Unitech to pick up a minority stake in the SPV formed to execute two commercial projects in Mumbai. The two projects, located in Santa Cruz, are likely to have a combined developable office space of 2 million sq ft. The deal is likely to be closed in the next three weeks, according to a source. Unitech declined comment on the issue.   more »

Nalanda India has picked up a 5.25% stake in US-listed BPO firm WNS (Holdings). The fund acquired 2.2 million shares of the BPO firm, which is listed on the NYSE, according to an SEC filing by WNS. Though the transaction size was not disclosed, going by the scrip price on March 14-the day of the transaction- the deal value would be about $32-34 million. The BPO firm has a market cap of $667.6 million and is majority owned by Warburg Pincus. Institutional investment, including that by asset management firm Fidelity Management & Research and Tiger Management, in WNS totals 38.01%.   more »

Global investment banking giant Merrill Lynch has invested Rs 400 crore into a special purpose vehicle (SPV) floated by Hyderabad-based logistics player DRS Group. This is said to be the largest single round of equity funding into this sector. "We have signed a deal with Merrill Lynch," confirmed A K Agarwal, director (marketing) of DRS Group. The SPV will fund the development of over 3.5 million sqft of warehousing space across the country in the next two years as well as other projects planned by the DRS Group. The logistics firm is looking to set up a Rs 70 crore Logistics Park, spread over 43 acres on the Hyderabad-Nagpur highway. The company has plans to diversify its logistics services into shipping, railways and air cargo.   more »

Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), the country’s largest infrastructure financial intermediary, has increased its stake in institutional brokerage house SSKI Securities by another 14 per cent to about 80 per cent, and plans to list it at a later stage. A senior company official confirmed the development and said, “IDFC recently made an offer to the employees of the brokerage firm to buy their shares and the move is aimed at consolidating their holdings in the company. IDFC will look at unlocking the value of the company in the future by floating an initial public offering.” The rest 20 per cent stake is held by senior employees of SSKI.   more »

Baring Private Equity has bought a 12 percent stake in Indian brokerage ShareKhan for 2.4 billion rupees ($59 million), the Economic Times said in an unsourced report on Wednesday. The deal involved a mix of a stake sale by ShareKhan's biggest shareholder, Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC), and fresh shares, the paper said, adding the deal valued the brokerage at 20 billion rupees. CVC India country head Ajay Relan confirmed ShareKhan had inducted new investors but declined to comment on valuations, the paper said. CVC owns 75 percent of the brokerage and lender Infrastructure Development Finance Co owns 10 percent.   more »