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Pawan Kumar Ruia, who owns Dunlop and Jessop & Company, has finally achieved his goal of making an overseas acquisition. Ruia has bought 30% in Malaysian firm Industronics Berhad for an undisclosed sum. Industronics manufactures display boards, rail and traffic signalling systems. It is a listed outfit in Malaysia, has subsidiaries in China, Singapore and Vietnam, and has undertaken electronics projects globally. “We acquired the company three months back but did not disclose it for technical reasons. The group has formed a SPV called Bloom Billions to buy Industronics shares. Bloom Billions is owned by two investment outfits belonging to the group,”Ruia said. The Malaysian firm’s existing promoters would hold 21% even after the Ruia stake buy. The rest of Industronics is owned by the public. Ruia said the decision to buy into Industronics was prompted by the synergy of operations with Jessop. “Jessop is an engineering giant, while Industronics is best known as a total solutions provider for state-of-the art public information system under Olympex brand and has expertise in traffic and ail signalling systems. So, it will be a win-win situation for both,”he added. […]
ICICI Bank is leveraging its size and international clout to grab a big chunk of private equity investments, by launching a fund of funds — the first by any Indian entity. The country’s second-largest bank, which has successfully sold the ICICI Bank story abroad by raising $11 billion through debt and equity during the current fiscal, is seeing an unsatiated appetite for Indian paper. Although the size is yet to be finalised, the bank is looking at eventually a multi-billion dollar fund to invest in other India-related funds — an area which has been the domain of multinational institutions. FoFs are essentially investor groups that invest in private equity funds in order to provide investors with a lower-risk product through exposure to a large number of investment vehicles across sectors and even geographies. It would also help investors to route investments in some funds, which could be closed to them. An ICICI Bank official confirmed the move, which is still in its early stages, adding that the fund will be launched by ICICI International Mauritius, a subsidiary of the bank. The Mauritius subsidiary is an investment and fund management company of the group. Both the $2 billion infrastructure fund, which is in the pipeline, and the fund of funds are being launched by the same entity. […]
Hyderabad-based emarketing solutions company Ybrant Technologies is looking at three more acquisitions — in the lead generation space, search engine marketing and a ‘different domain’ — to consolidate its position in the digital marketing arena. The company is “poised to sign letters of intents (LoIs) with two US companies for acquisition in a month”, according to M Suresh Reddy, CMD of Ybrant. He, however, declined to speak on the deal size and timeframe for the buyouts. An announcement with regard to the acquisition would be made once the company is close to reaching a definitive agreement with the target companies, he added. “The proposed acquisitions would be made at an investment of $5-10 million,” a source close to the company said. […]
Mumbai-based Metropolis Health Services, which operates one of India’s largest path lab chains with over 45 facilities, is in advanced talks to acquire a 60% stake in a London-based path lab chain. The target company, it is learnt, operates eight path laboratories across the UK. It is learnt that the Rs 100-crore Metropolis will shortly start the due diligence exercise and the deal could close as early as December. The deal size is pegged at around £3 million. Confirming the development, Metropolis Health Services chairman Sushil Shah told ET: “We are in fairly advanced acquisition-related talks with a UK-based path lab chain. We cannot share further details now.” Incidentally, Metropolis Health Services also proposes to offload about 10-12% to raise nearly Rs 80 crore to part-finance growth plans. It is in talks with two overseas private equity firms in this light. “This is one of the options we are evaluating. However, we may also raise debt from banks in case we do not get the desired valuation,” said Mr Shah. Metropolis expects to come to a decision on the private equity deal in two months. Last year, ICICI Ventures had invested Rs 35 crore in Metropolis and holds nearly 18% in the company. Metropolis is currently on an overseas expansion drive. At present, it runs six overseas facilities in Sri Lanka, UAE and Seychelles. “All our overseas path labs are run in partnership with a local player. In line with this strategy, we are interested to acquire majority ownership in the UK lab chain,” said Mr Shah. The company is also finalising plans to enter the US market. It is in talks with two hospital chains in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to roll out facilities. “While the US plans are yet to mature, we will soon set up four labs in South Africa, a network of labs in Thailand and facilities in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait,” Mr Shah said. […]
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