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Acquisition to help dairy major gain toehold in South, access natural vanilla for ice-cream. Cooperative dairy products manufacturer Amul plans to buy Kochi-based Vanilla India Producers Company (Vanilco), which processes and markets natural vanilla. The acquisition will help the dairy major gain a foothold in the southern markets and secure natural vanilla stocks ahead of a launch of natural vanilla-based ice creams in March. Vanilco Managing Director Paul Jose said the companies had received in-principle approval for equity participation. Further rounds of discussion will take place after the launch. “There is strong possibility for the equity participation leading to a merger of the two companies. The amount of investment and other details will be decided later. I don’t think that there are many hurdles to this as Amul is one of India’s top consumer companies,” Jose said in a telephonic interview. Vanilco, a company formed in 2003 by 2,500 vanilla growers, already has an agreement with Amul to supply it 20 tonnes of natural vanilla essence annually, mainly for the Real Vanilla ice cream range. […]
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications is looking for a possible takeover of French IT services group Capgemini, a report in the online edition of The Times on Thursday said. When contacted by media, a Reliance Communications spokesperson declined to comment. The report said that Reliance Communications has held early-stage talks with Capgemini. Quoting sources, the report said, “Times Online can reveal the French-based group has met with Reliance Communications, the technology and telecoms arm of Anil Ambani's Reliance ADAG group in recent months.” “The initial discussions failed to make progress after the parties could not agree on a price,” it added. According to the report, Reliance Communication's interest confirms Ambani's hopes to build a significant IT business. “A move on Capgemini would give it access to a client base in continental Europe and catapult it among the world's top ten IT groups by market share,” it said. In recent months, there were also reports that Capgemini had held talks with India's leading IT firms Wipro and Infosys on a possible takeover. However, the rumours were denied by Wipro and Infosys later. […]
A Bangalore-based startup Aujas Networks Pvt Ltd, has recieved $3 million funding from IDG Ventures India. Aujas, a provider of digital security services, plans to utilise the investment to build its sales presence in India, Middle East, Europe, Asia Pac, and North America, and to enhance its service offering development initiatives. Aujas offers security services across a range of technologies, including core wireless networks, VoIP and cyber forensics. It also offers specialised domain specific security services in telecom and BFSI sectors. “The successful closure of this deal with a keenly short listed A-grade founding team validates the potential of our Entrepreneur-In-Residence model. Aujas is our second investment in the promising information security space. The company has hit the ground running with a channel partnership MoU already inked with iViZ, our first investment in information security software product sector from India,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder, chairman and managing director, IDG Ventures India. […]
The New York Stock Exchange will buy a 5 percent stake in the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., the nation's biggest commodity bourse, the Economic Times reported, without saying where it got the information. The stake acquisition may be announced later this week and comes after the government's decision last month to cap foreign investment in commodity exchanges at 49 percent, the newspaper reported. Joseph Massey, deputy managing director of the Multi Commodity Exchange declined to comment. The exchange will hold a news conference to announce a global strategic initiative, an e- mailed invitation from the company said late yesterday. MCX is the world's third-biggest gold bourse and accounts for more than four-fifths of gold futures traded in the South Asian nation. Fidelity International Ltd. has a 9 percent stake in the exchange, while Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. own 5 percent each. (Bloomberg) […]
Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and Farallon Capital Management LLC invested a combined $399 million in a power unit of Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd., India's fourth- biggest developer by market value. The developer, partly owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., said it sold 37.5 percent of Sophia Power Company Ltd. Farallon will buy 23.4 percent and Mittal will buy the rest, the company said in an e-mailed statement from Mumbai. Indiabulls is investing more in electricity as the nation seeks funds to bolster power generation, roads and ports to sustain a 9 percent target for economic growth. The world's fastest-growing major economy after China faces a peak electricity shortage of 13 percent and plans to add 78,577 megawatts of capacity in the five years to March 2012. The combined stake bought by Mittal and Farallon will drop to 28.6 percent after a proposed merger between Sophia Power and Indiabulls Power Services Ltd., a fully owned unit of Indiabulls Real Estate, said Ajit Mittal, head of investor relations at Indiabulls Real Estate, in a telephone interview. Indiabulls Real Estate may raise $1.2 billion selling shares in a proposed investment trust to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, two people familiar with the sale said earlier this month. […]
Renaissance Jewellery, a diamond jewellery manufacturer, has acquired the business and assets of JBR, a jewellery wholesaler based in New York for a total consideration of $40 million through its subsidiary “Renaissance Jewelry New York” in US. JBR having a total annual sales of $70 mn is likely to add to the company's turnover and net profit substantially. “As of now we were selling directly to our retail customers in the US like Walmart from India. But, the acquisition of JBR will give us a competitive edge in addition to help us consolidate our business in the world's largest jewellery sales market,” said Sumit Shah, managing director of Renaissance Jewellery. (Business Standard) […]
Clear Trade, a US-based private equity firm with Indian roots, has floated a $12 billion fund in association with leading US private equity companies to exclusively invest in upcoming power and infrastructure projects over a five year period. Philip Ho, managing director of the US PE firm Cornell Capital, Axis Bank-promoted Axis Private Equity, Morgan Stanley and other leading US funds, including one of the largest PE players in the hospitality sector are participating in this fund. Clear Trade is also talking to some leading European pension funds to join the fund. Power Finance Corporation (PFC) is likely to pick up 20 per cent and has given a letter of intent to join the “Clear Investments Power and Infrastructure Fund”, Deepak Kavadia, managing director of Clear Trade told Business Standard in a telephonic interview from the US. The initial corpus of the fund — set to kick off in the first week of April — will be $1 billion. “We will close this fund within 18 months and raise $2.5 billion. Majority of the investments will be in the power sector, especially thermal projects” he said. Clear Trade has identified about 11 power projects for investments in the first phase, including two projects of over 1000 mw promoted by two leading corporate houses based in Hyderabad and Mumbai, besides two hydro-electric projects coming up in the north east. […]
Chennai-based EID Parry India, a part of Murugappa group, said on Thursday that Pune-based Phytoremedies Biolabs has become a subsidiary of the company consequent to the acquisition of 51% stake. Phytoremedies Biolabs is a company engaged in the business of Nutraceuticals. EID Parry India swung to loss of Rs 233.30 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, compared with a profit of Rs 35.30 million in the same quarter, last year. Net sales for the quarter climbed 30.78% to Rs 1,972.80 million when compared with the corresponding quarter, a year ago.(My Iris) […]
AIG Global Investments, the private equity arm of American International Group (AIG), is putting in close to $20 million in Uniparts, a Rs 500-crore company that specialises in making machinery for the construction and agricultural equipment sector, a niche segment within the auto ancillary sector. This is AIG’s third investment in the last three months and second in the auto sector with Kinetic Engineering being the other investment. Mr Ashish Kumar of AIG will sit on the board of Uniparts. Paramjit Soni, founder and managing director of Uniparts, confirmed about the deal to ET. AIG’s investment in the sector is a bit counter-intuitive because the entire auto component sector has taken a beating over the last year. A slowdown in consumer demand (especially trucks) has affected the domestic market while the rising rupee has hit the exports market. But Uniparts, say industry experts, operates in a niche that makes it different and more profitable. […]
Markets may have crashed, justifying some recent high-profile exits by leading private equity players from Indian companies, but their pullouts may have cost them a few billions, at least notionally. Some number crunching by ET shows that although global PE majors like Warburg Pincus, Baring, ChrysCap and Citigroup Venture Capital have made big profits from their Indian investments, they would have pocketed a few billions more had they held on to their shares for a little bit more. And this is exclusive of the dividend money which would have accrued to them while they were holding the stock. Given the spectacular bull run over the last couple of years in the Indian stock markets, the value of the listed firms rocketed sky high. While some PE funds timed the market right by exiting at a price with a fair degree of profits in Actis-Punjab Tractors, IDFC Private Equity-Hotel Leela Venture, many others made huge losses from their early exits, notionally speaking. Take Warburg Pincus’ investments in Bharti Airtel. This has been the most valuable exit by any PE firm in the country till date. The PE firm had invested Rs 1,300 crore in 1999 in the telecommunication company. Subsequently, through various partial exits, it made a phenomenal Rs 8,496 crore, or $1.9 billion, at the time of the final exit, taking home more than six times its original investment. […]
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