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India's Jet, Kingfisher eye SriLankan stake

India's top private carrier, Jet Airways Ltd , and Kingfisher Airlines are eyeing the stake held by Emirates [EMAIR.UL] in SriLankan Airlines, the Economic Times said, citing unnamed industry officials. Emirates, the largest Arab airline, said earlier this month it was interested in selling its 43.6 percent stake in SriLankan Airlines and wanted around $150 million for it. The Sri Lankan government already owns 51 percent of the airline and has said it may buy Emirates' stake. The management of SriLankan Airlines will revert to the government on April 1. […]

Rolta India acquires US-based TUSC

The consideration for this transaction is about US$45mn, including escrows and earn-outs. Rolta expects this deal to be immediately accretive Rolta India Ltd. on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Broech Corporation, doing business as “TUSC”, an IT consulting company specialising in ERP applications as well as Database and Business Intelligence solutions based on Oracle technologies. The consideration for this transaction is about US$45mn, including escrows and earn-outs. Rolta expects this transaction to be immediately accretive to shareholder value in the current fiscal year ending in June 2008. As a part of its systematic and aggressive growth plans, the company has adopted a clear acquisition strategy of taking over companies that provide a synergetic mix of Technology and IPR, enabling it to move up the value chain for addressing complementary markets, Rolta said. This is the second acquisition by Rolta in a span of six months and will bring a strong portfolio of products and customers; improved access to complementary markets and industry service lines; and strengthen its global delivery mode; while continuing to leverage its existing core competencies in the GeoSpatial and Engineering domains. […]

Baer Capital Partners invests in Vatika

Baer Capital Partners on Monday, said that it has successfully arranged a $150-million investment in Vatika Ltd, the flagship company of the Vatika group. This is Baer Capital's single largest transaction to date in the country. The investment was made by Beacon Vatika Holdings Ltd, a Mauritius-domiciled investment company. The largest investor in BVHL is an investment group led by Beacon India Private Equity Fund, which is sponsored by Baer Capital Partners. The other major investor in BVHL will be Goldman Sach, the media reported. BVHL will be represented on the Board of Vatika Ltd by Alok Sama, President and Founder, Baer Capital Partners, and Jean de Pourtales, Managing Director and Head of the Developing Markets Real Estate Principal Investment for Goldman Sachs. BVHL will be jointly managed by Baer Capital and Goldman Sachs. […]

GIC & JP Morgan to acquire 21% stake in Ballarpur Paper Holdings

GIC, the investment arm of Singapore government, and JP Morgan are together picking up 21% equity stake in Ballarpur Paper Holdings (BPH), a Dutch step-down subsidiary of paper producer Bilt, in a deal valued at $175 million (Rs 700 crore). With this, BPH, intended to be the holding arm of the entire commodity paper business of Bilt, would be valued at $825 million or around Rs 3,300 crore. Significantly, this would be higher than the current market capitalisation of Bilt, which is valued at Rs 2,640 crore. Besides commodity paper, Bilt has exposure in consumer-focussed retail products and higher value-added paper products. The PE deal for BPH is part of the corporate restructuring plan announced a few months ago where Bilt said it would hive off the commodity paper business in India into a separate wholly-owned subsidiary. This business would raise resources for retiring the debt on the books of Bilt, apart from raising funds required for the capital restructuring programme. […]

India Private Equity Fair 2008 Attracts 50 Companies in Less Than 2 Weeks

Less than 2 weeks after Yen Expo Pvt. Ltd. announced that it would be holding India's first ever Private Equity Fair, the company has received a very strong response from companies wishing to take part. 50 companies have submitted or are in the process of submitting their applications. The companies, from all over India, come from sectors as diverse as beauty and power generation to IT and logistics. Funding requirements vary from US$3 million to US$250 million. […]

California co acquires city ERP firm

Pune-based provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Oracle database administrator Spider Systems Pvt Ltd has been acquired by California-based Infogain Corporation, which is in the business of CRM, ERP, integration and business intelligence solutions and services. With the acquisition of Spider, Infogain has expanded its Oracle ERP business. The amount of the deal was not disclosed by the company. […]

NDTV to sell 26 pct in unit to NBC, NBCU

New Delhi Television Ltd said on Tuesday it has entered into a preliminary deal to sell 26 percent of an overseas unit to NBC Universal Inc and a subsidiary of NBCU for $150 million. The overseas unit is the parent of NDTV Imagine, NDTV Labs, NDTV Lifestyle, NDTV Emerging Markets and also the joint venture partner of NGEN Media Services, the Indian firm said in a statement. NBC, 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent by Vivendi, also has the option to raise the stake to 50 percent in the third year, it said.(Reuters) […]

Make it easier for PE funds to invest : ET

The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council‘s report is, as these reports tend to be, a methodically compiled snapshot of the Indian economy at a point in time. Its recommendation that private equity flows be treated as portfolio flows though does appear a little odd. The government’s seeming obsession with classification stems from the fact that India’s foreign exchange reserves, in contrast to those of China and the oil rich economies, originates due to capital, and not trade, flows. These, the policymakers fear, are likely to be more volatile. However private equity, which India has been attracting in copious amounts, is hard to classify. In some cases private equity firms such as Blackstone, ICICI Ventures and Actis have taken over companies and are running them. All private equity firms, of course, eventually exit but the time horizons range from three to five years. Plainly, these cannot be characterised as portfolio flows. Even pre-IPO placements to FIIs are subject to one year lock-ins. […]

SBI buys 8% stake in ARSS Infra

In a private equity (PE) deal, the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public sector bank of the country, has picked up 7.79 per cent equity in the Orissa-based ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited. The deal was for 10 lakh shares out of the company’s total equity base of 1, 25, 54,000 shares of Rs 10 each. Sources said SBI was keen on acquiring more stakes but the company restricted it to 8 per cent as it intended to go for an initial public offer (IPO) soon. “We are planning to file the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the IPO before January 30, 2008,” Sunil Agarwal, Director, ARSS Infrastructure, told Business Standard. He, however, did not disclose the value of the deal with SBI, saying it will affect the company’s forthcoming IPO. […]

ICICI Venture lines up three funds

ICICI Venture, the private equity arm of ICICI Bank, is planning three fund offerings as part of its plans to raise its assets under management to $10 billion by 2010 from $2 billion now. It plans to come out with a $2-billion real estate fund, a diversified equity fund valued at around $1 billion and another $500-million mezzanine fund. Among these, the real estate fund will be one of the largest in the country. Besides these plans, an entry into new asset classes such as hedge funds is also on the cards. ICICI Venture, which has built its portfolio across segments such as pharmaceuticals, media, information technology and logistics, wants to take a greater exposure in infrastructure in this fiscal. It is also looking at the prospect of setting up a hedge fund. Sources said that at a recent presentation before analysts, such a possibility was hinted upon. […]