Sabarmati Gas Ltd, a joint venture of Bharat Petroleum and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, today said it has concluded a shareholders agreement with four firms for private placement of equity worth over Rs 79 crore.The Gandhinagar-based company signed a shareholders and investment agreement with India Infrastructure Fund, IFCI Venture Capital Funds, UTI Asset Management Company and Indian Infrastructure Development Seed Asset(IIDSA) of Mauritius on July 1, a press release said.   more »

Norwest Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-headquartered firm with an office in Mumbai, has invested more than INR1.2bn ($24.6m) into publicly listed Shriram City Union Finance through a secondary market block purchase of shares in Shriram City. NVP will own an equity stake of over 8 per cent in Shriram City, the retail finance arm of the Shriram Group. Shriram City Union Finance was established in 1986, and is part of the three decade-old Chennai-based Shriram Group. It is a deposit-accepting non-banking financial company which offers financing for consumer durables, two, three and -wheeler finance (both new and pre-owned, passenger and commercial), personal loans, small business loans and retail gold loans.   more »

Tata Teleservices is in final talks with Matrix Cellular, a international mobile roamins service provider. Talks with TTSL started when Matrix’s talks with Essar Group failed. According to a source, TTSL will take up 15 % stake in the JV and gradually raise it to 75%. Matrix is reportedly values at Rs.350 crore, but this valuation is likely to drop looking at the dip in sale of international travelling cards as the downturn called for lowered number of international travellers.   more »

Singapore's Changi Airports International (CAI) has picked up 26% stake in Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), the specialist company developing Aerotropolis projects in India. The stake has been picked up by Changi Airports India, the 100% subsidiary of Changi Airports International. CAI CEO Wong Woon Liong and Deputy CEO Eugene Gan have been inducted as directors on BAPL board.   more »

Investments from venture capital (VC) firms have fallen by 72 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, a study by Chennai-based Venture Intelligence and Global India Venture Capital Association reveals. VC firms committed $117 million in 27 deals as compared to $413 million in 67 deals for the first half in 2008. ''The uncertainty in global financial markets over the past six months has affected VC investing in India as well,'' said Global India Venture Capital Association director Sudhir Sethi.   more »

Tata Steel Global Minerals Holdings Pte Ltd, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel Ltd has today acquired additional shares of Riversdale Mining Ltd, Australia through market purchases taking its total holding to 19.38%. Riversdale Mining Ltd (RML) is a mining Company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). RML has acquired coal exploration tenements in Mozambique with the combined tenement size now in excess of 250,000 hectares in the Tete-Moatize area. Within the Tete province, the Benga Coal Project is being developed as a joint venture between Riversdale Mining Ltd (65%) and Tata Steel Global Minerals Holdings Pte Ltd (35%).   more »