October 2007
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ICICI arm plans $2 billion real estate fund

ICICI Venture Funds Management Ltd, private equity arm of ICICI Bank Ltd, is floating a $2 billion real estate fund next month, reports quoting its chief executive said. The new real estate fund will have a tenure of 10 years and the money will be invested in projects within three years, the report quoted Renuka Ramnath, managing director and chief executive of ICICI Venture, as saying. ICICI Venture manages assets of more than $2 billion and had raised a $550 million real estate fund earlier. It has a strategic long-term joint venture with Tishman Speyer Properties in India.(Domain B) […]

Peterborough Holdings to buy 5% of Future Capital

Future Capital, the financial services arm of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, is making a private placement of shares constituting 5.1% of its equity to Peterborough Holdings for Rs 53.4 crore. Peterborough, a Mauritius-based firm, is promoted by former Goldman Sachs executives Atul Kapur and Alok Oberoi. Future Capital, in which Pantaloon Retail is the majority equity holder, is also coming up with an initial public offer(IPO) constituting 10% of its equity capital. The pre-IPO placement of 3 million shares with a face value Rs 10 each to Peterborough is being made at a price of Rs 178 per share. This is also the price at which hedge fund Oz Management picked 9.8% stake in Future Capital early this year. This puts the valuation of the company at Rs 1,047 crore. […]

3i Infotech signs a deal to acquire J&B Software Inc., USA and its subsidiaries

IT Solutions company 3i Infotech has penned an agreement to buy J&B Software Inc., USA and it subsidiaries. For the deal, Infotech would be paying USD 25.25 million during the conclusion of the transaction. The acquisition will be EPS accretive. V. Srinivasan, Managing Director and CEO, 3i Infotech said, “The acquisition of J&B Software Inc. is a strategic one and will enable 3i Infotech to strengthen its positioning in BFSI segment globally”. “We believe that through this partnership we will be able to take J&B Software solution offerings globally,” said Bala Balasubramanian, Chairman and CEO, J&B Software. […]

Merrill arm buy 5% in Religare

Global financial services player Merrill Lynch has bought a five per cent stake in Religare Enterprises, a Delhi-based financial services-cum-brokerage outfit, for about Rs 60 crore through its subsidiary Indopark Holdings. The deal values Religare Enterprises, which has filed a draft document for an initial public offering (IPO), at about Rs 1,212 crore. The IPO is likely to hit the market by this month-end. Indopark Holdings will get 37,88,050 shares post-IPO and these shares will have a lock-in period of one year, as stipulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rules. […]

Azure Styx close to buying 49 percent stake in US mortgage firm

Knowledge and finance BPO firm Azure Styx Infosoft is close to buying 49 percent stake in Philadelphia's Citizen Financial Mortgage (CFM) for Rs 100 crore. “The deal, signed two weeks ago, is worth Rs 100 crore and it is a combination of cash (to be raised through internal accruals and private equity participation) and support services”, Azure Styx Infosoft's Chief Executive Officer Dushyant Joshi told PTI here today. CFM, set up five years ago, has licence to function in 16 states of the US. In its 45 branches, it employs 290 workers and has a turnover of USD 200 million. The US subprime crisis created an opportunity, he said. […]

Food processing gets Rs 600 cr PE investments in 2007: Report

Country's food processing industry, which is attracting the foreign investors, has received a record of 106.4 million euro (about Rs 600 crore) investments from private equity firms this year so far, a latest report says. The food and beverage sector which got PE investments of a mere 4.2 euro million in two deals last year, saw the funds soar to 106.4 million euro through 11 deals already this year, consultancy firm KPMG and industry chamber FICCI said in a joint report released here today. The report also said foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals in food processing sector more than doubled to 98 million dollar in 2006-07 from 42 million dollar in 2005-06. It also said the FDI in the F&B sector is likely to cross 2.1 billion euro in 2007-08. […]

State-backed venture funds set to privatize

State government-backed venture capital firms, once among the few sources of seed and early-stage capital for Indian start-ups before the current round of venture investing got under way less than two years ago, have started privatizing themselves in order to remain relevant in the changed environment. Their moves come ahead of a Rs1,500 crore fund-raising exercise—the largest aggregate corpus such funds have raised in the last 15 years. The new funds in the pipeline will see private asset management teams being brought in to invest and manage them. Some of this is already under way. Punjab Infotech Venture Fund (PIVF) and Kerala Venture Capital Fund (KVCF) have plans to privatize, while Hyderabad Information Technology Venture Enterprise Ltd (Hitvel), which is increasing its current fund corpus from Rs50 crore to Rs150 crore, recently entered into a partnership with Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd. Srei holds a 76% stake in Hitvel. Other state government-backed outfits that are in fund-raising mode currently are those from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The last two are pioneers in the public-private partnership model and have set the rules of the game. […]

Glenmark to enter Europe with Rs 100-crore buy

Leading mid-sized pharma company Glenmark Pharmaceuticals would soon enter the European market by acquiring a front-end pharmaceutical company for about Rs 100 crore. Glenmark MD and CEO Glenn Saldanha told ET that the target company is in Central Europe and the deal is likely to be through before the end of March. It has a strong marketing force and some approved products, Mr Saldanha said without disclosing the company’s name. Glenmark now has just an office in UK for business development. Merchant bankers said there are many small and medium-sized family-owned pharma firms in Europe that have a low profitability and are up for sale. They would suit the needs of Indian companies planning to enter the EU market, they said. Glenmark has presence in over 80 countries, including the US, in the business of finished products and key ingredients called APIs. It is strong in therapeutic segments such as dermatology, internal medicine, paediatrics, gynaecology, ENT, diabetes and oncology. […]

Accentia Tech acquires 3 US BPOs for Rs 80 crore

Mumbai-Based business process outsourcing company Accentia Technologies has acquired three US-based healthcare BPO companies for about Rs 80 crore, sources close to the deal said. It bought Florida-based GSR Physician Billing Inc and GSR Systems Inc and Oregon-based medical transcription services provider DenMed Inc, in cash-cum-stock deals. Confirming the development, Accentia director Pradeep Viswambharan said the stock portion of the deals would be issued in the form of global depository receipts. Sources said the company plans to go in for a $15-million GDR issue to be listed in Singapore. This issue would involve raising cash of $2.5 million and issuing GDRs worth $12.5 million to the promoters of the acquired firms.On Tuesday, the shares of Accentia Technologies rose by 5%, or the maximum gain allowed in a day, to Rs 221.90 on the BSE. […]

Bessemer sets aside $350 m for India

US-Based Bessemer Venture Partners, which recently closed its seventh global fund at about $1 billion, has earmarked $350 million for Indian investments, especially in companies that cash in on the rise of consumer spending, infrastructure development and intellectual property-based opportunities, a senior official said. The investment house is also in advanced talks with one company each in construction, power and renewable energy sectors, as part of a plan to increase its portfolio by as many as 25 investments through the India-specific fund from the current 17, BVP India managing director Devesh Garg said. The proposed investment in the construction firm could be in the order of $25 million while that in the other firms could be up to $15 million each, he added. “The consumer class in the country is definitely on the move up. Hence, we are more interested in investing in branded products and services,” Garg told ET in an interview. “Secondly, the country’s government looks dead serious about infrastructure development. Hence, there is scope for companies involved in construction, roads, power generation, which is why this sector also attracts us in India. Finally, we would like to invest in companies involved in exports of skill-based products, taking advantage of India’s excellent base of intellectual capital.” […]