BIC SA, the eponymous French maker of pens and lighters, said on Thursday it was buying a 40 percent stake in India's Cello Pens for 124 million euros ($160 million), giving it a foothold in the growth market. BIC could raise its stake to 55 percent in 2013, it added in a statement. Cello Pens had 2007/08 sales of 64.5 million euros and a 30 percent operating margin. BIC said the deal would boost earnings per share from 2009. Cello was founded in 1995.(Reuters)   more »

Private equity (PE) funds may revive their interest in the real estate sector this year, after a lull of six to nine months, as valuations of properties have dropped by a third, making them attractive for investors, say realty funds and investment advisors to these funds. Most of the funds have not signed any deals in the past few months as realty prices fell sharply and economic slowdown deepened across the world, which slowed the flow of funds significantly. “The amount of money available today is one-tenth of what it used to be. But India-specific funds, which have already raised money, will deploy more in the current quarter than they have earmarked in the last quarter,” said Subhash Bedi, partner of Red Fort Capital, a India-focussed realty fund that has invested nearly Rs 1,500 crore in the property market so far.   more »

Fall in the capital market mirrored itself in the corporate India's private equity transactions, which registered a 23 per cent decline during the year 2008 at $10.59 billion, thanks to the effects of the recent economic downturn. There were 312 deals in 2008 with a total announced value of $10.59 billion compared with 405 deals with an announced value of $19.03 billion in the year 2007, according to Grant Thornton's latest annual issue. Though there has been a decline in PE deal s but still India Inc braved the downtrend and managed to attract decent number of such deals. The report further said that the average PE deal value fluctuated from $46.99 million in 2007 to $33.93 million during 2008. There were 28 deals of over $100 million in 2008, while in the year 2007 there were as many as 53 such deals.   more »