Personal care products maker Emami Ltd is likely going to announce this week, the sale of a 10% stake to foreign institutional investors. The company, which in October acquired a 72% stake in herbal healthcare firm Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd for around Rs750 crore, is looking to raise around Rs300 crore through the share sale, according to chairman R.S. Agarwal. “Some of the best institutional investors in the world have evinced interest in acquiring shares of our company,” Agarwal said. “We connected with them by conducting roadshows in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.” The money raised is likely going to be spent on expanding Zandu and Emami’s production facilities, to pay down debts and to introduce new products under the Zandu brand, according to Agarwal.   more »

Reliance Power Ltd (R-Power), part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group, is in talks with five leading global power companies to sell 15 per cent equity stake in the company. Preliminary talks have started with three Chinese power companies, which include China Light and Power Holdings (CLP), and French and Canadian companies. Sources said Anil Ambani was in China last week to hold discussions with Chinese power companies for a possible stake sale. The company is willing to place the equity to one or two power companies.   more »

India’s United Spirits, the world’s third largest spirits maker, has received term sheets from private equity firms Blackstone, KKR and Capital International interested in buying a stake worth $250-300 million in the company, the Economic Times said on Wednesday. The company’s talks with financial investors were proceeding along with other plans to raise cash and pay down a part of its debt, the report said citing people familiar with developments. The three private equity firms were doing a due diligence and a possible transaction with any of them would happen at a slight premium to the prevailing market price, some time soon, the paper said. The deal could see 10% of the firm changing hands, it added. United Spirits has a current market capitalisation of around $1.82 billion.   more »

Mirroring unrelenting investor demand for exposure to China and India, Carlyle Group, a US-based private equity firm, has raised $1 billion for its growth fund targeting smaller Asian companies, reported Financial Times. Carlyle said that the size of the latest Asian growth capital fund, which is almost 50% larger than its previous fund, had taken the firm’s aggregate amount raised in Asia, to $2 billion. Carlyle may invest 40% of this fund into India.   more »