|
|
Steel baron Lakshmi N Mittal is in talks with financial institutions to buy out 50 per cent in Hindustan Petroleum Corp’s exploration arm Prize Petroleum, sources close to the development said. The size of the deal is said to be about Rs 200 crore. Mittal has made rapid advances in the oil business in India this year first with a 49 per cent stake in HPCL's Bhatinda refinery and then partnering the state-run firm for another refinery on the east coast. “He has looked at a few firms but nothing is finalised just now,” sources said. Besides Mittal, Essar Oil, Jaiprakash Associates and L&T are other firms interested in buying a 50 per cent stake in Prize Petroleum. […]
IT, manufacturing, banking and engineering undoubtedly are still the favourites as far as private equity investors are concerned. However, over the past nine months “shallow sectors” like agriculture, energy, hospitality, telecom and media are gaining importance among bulge-bracket investors. “A standing testimony to this aspect is the fact that even a slow-moving sector like agriculture has pocketed $29 million by way of three separate deals. Agro products and agriculture-based research companies are attracting investors,” said Arun Natarajan, managing director, Venture Intelligence, a Chennai-based PE research firm. Among other investments, in the energy sector, PE parties have invested close to $252 million across 11 deals over the past nine months. The $68 million joint equity placement of Citigroup and UTI Ventures in Ind Bharat Infrastructure, IFC’s $30 million investment in Gujarat State Petronet and the $24 million joint investment of NYLIM India and WIH Holdings are some of the major PE deals in the energy sector during the considered period. According to a sectoral outlook report put out by the International Energy Agency, China and India will account for around 45% of the increase in global primary energy demand through 2030. […]
NYSE-listed Lehman Brothers is set to pick up around 10% in Ramky Group for $100 million (Rs 407 crore), the latest instance of Indian realty benefiting from private equity (PE) funds. Ramky Group is a Hyderabad-based infrastructure and realty company promoted by Ayodhya Rami Reddy. It has a turnover of around Rs 1,600 crore. Lehman Brothers is a diversified, global financial services firm with branches across the world. Ramky Group is set to use part of the funds to expand the operations of its wholly-owned subsidiary —Ramky Enviro Engineers— in India and overseas. The balance will be used to finance overseas acquisitions. Ramky Enviro Engineers specialises in bio-medical waste management, oil recovery and metal recycling. “We are looking at expanding operations in the Middle East and Singapore, besides India. We are also open to acquiring mid-sized companies in Singapore and the Middle East,” said a company official. […]
Foreign private equity funds are betting big on India to cash in on the investment boom in sectors ranging from realty to technology. New York-based Baseline, a private equity firm, is the latest entrant after biggies such as Blackstone, Goldman. The PE firm is set to invest $ 50-100 million to fund realty, infrastructure, power, retail and technology companies. The investments are expected to flow in a year’s time. It is also open to picking up an equity stake in mid sized companies. “We are eyeing power generation, real estate, infrastructure, life science and technology based knowledge process outsourcing (KPOs) firms,” said Baseline, partner and founder, Brooks Schaden. Baseline will initially target medium sized companies that have a strong business model. […]
Swedish security services firm Securitas said on Friday it had signed a deal to buy a 49 percent stake in Indian peer Walsons as part of its strategy to grow in Asia. Securitas said in a statement on Friday it would pay 107 million Swedish crowns ($17 million) for the holding. “The Indian security services market is estimated to be worth about 3,000 million crowns and is expected to grow by at least 20 percent annually in the coming five years,” Securitas said in a statement. It said Walsons is the fourth largest Indian security services company with annual sales of 76 million crowns.(Reuters) […]
ICICI Venture seems to have got a toehold in Karvy Stock Broking, which, sources said, is most likely to have parted with a chunk of its equity in favour of the domestic private equity (PE) fund. While neither the value of the deal nor the size of the stake could be officially ascertained, it is learnt that Hong Kong’s Century Pacific Group, which had invested in Karvy in mid-2005, wanted out. Century Pacific had picked up a 20% stake in Karvy Stock Broking for Rs 83 crore, which had valued Karvy at Rs 415 crore then. Sources indicated that Karvy now values itself at around Rs 1,000 crore, which is probably one of the reasons why others opted out of the race. […]
US-based investment firm Wexford Capital LLC has entered India with a $100 million private equity fund through Baseline Partners Ltd, a new private equity firm that is eying investments in the range of $10-25 million in medium-sized companies over the next one year. Howard Endelman, Partner, Baseline Partners said Wexford, which has assets worth $7 billion under its management across the globe, has committed to India for a minimum 12 years and is willing to increase the corpus from $100 million if there are good investments. Wexford manages four hedge funds with $4 billion in assets under management. It also manages a series of PE funds and has invested over $3 billion in private equity, focusing mainly on energy and natural resources, transportation and life sciences companies. It has been active in the Indian stock markets through the hedge funds, but this is the first time it is getting into the private equity area. […]
Private equity firm Blackstone Group has invested $65 million for a stake in Indian engineering firm MTAR Technologies Pvt Ltd, the U.S. company said late on Wednesday. MTAR makes machined parts for nuclear, space and defense projects, as well as engine and structural components for aerospace and defense applications, it said. The funding is a mix of primary and secondary equity. The Economic Times newspaper said Blackstone had bought 26 percent in MTAR. “We are very enthusiastic about this investment as we foresee a huge growth opportunity for MTAR both in domestic and global markets,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman of Blackstone Advisors India Pvt Ltd. Blackstone has said it had a huge pipeline of deals in India, and has made a series of investments recently, including buying a majority stake in apparel firm Gokaldas Exports Ltd and $150 million in Nagarjuna Construction Co Ltd. First Securities was the advisor to the transaction.(Reuters) […]
Usha Martin Ltd. (UML) has decided to sell the entire equity in its subsidiary company, UM Cables, to the Manchester-based B3 Cable Solutions. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect has been signed and the ownership changeover is expected to take effect early next year, subject to due-diligence and necessary approvals. UM Cables, with its modern manufacturing facility at Silvassa near Mumbai, is among India’s leading manufacturers of optical fibre and copper telecom cables, with a strong domestic and international customer base. P. Bhattacharya, Joint Managing Director, UML, said the ownership change would allow the company to concentrate on its core business of minerals, speciality steel and wire rope, while creating good opportunity for the cable business. This acquisition will help B3 to strategically position itself in the resurgent optical fibre cable business and also in the fast growing Asian region. […]
The sale of a 26% stake in IFCI may be delayed till the end of the current fiscal since banks and FIs are yet to give a firm commitment on whether they would convert their debt into equity. Besides, at this stage it’s also unclear whether the Centre would want to convert its Rs 923 crore loan into equity. As a result the eight bidders in the fray do not have clarity on what exactly constitutes the 26% stake in IFCI. It appears that banks are in favour of converting a part of their debt into equity. This would, however, increase the number of shares and in turn impact valuation of the 26% stake. Last month, the IFCI board had decided to offer 30 odd banks and FIs, which had helped in restructuring its liabilities, the option to convert a part of their debt, worth Rs 1,479 crore, into equity. […]
|
Post your messages.Please refrain from posting offensive messages. IndiaPE accepts no liability for the consequences of your reliance on these postings and messages.
|