As part of its backward integration plans, Sujana Metal Products Ltd (SMPL) is planning to diversify into iron ore mining. The company, which is on an expansion spree, is looking for another spate of acquisitions to take up its capacity to one million tonne per annum (tpa) by 2010, from the current 7,28,000 tpa. V S R Murthy, group director, Sujana Group of Companies, said, “We are very close to acquiring a Hyderabad-based company, which has a sponge iron manufacturing facility of 67,000 tpa.” He said the Hyderabad-based company, whose name he refused to divulge, already has iron ore linkage at Bellary in Karnataka, has a total capacity of up to 30 million tonne. SMPL would close the deal in the next three months. After acquisition, it would expand the capacity of the acquired company to 1,00,000 tpa. […]

After nearly a month’s speculation the mystery buyer of a troubled Scottish fashion chain has been revealed to be the Indian textiles giant S Kumars. Around 1,000 workers were celebrating after an unnamed overseas buyer was reported early May to have purchased Internacionale, which had been put up for sale after its parent company collapsed earlier this year. The future of the chain became uncertain when the Glasgow-based parent company Ossian Retail Group sold its £25 million debt to an investment company, Agilio. There were rumours the group would be broken up, threatening the livelihood of workers at Internacionale’s 105 stores in Britain, including nearly 30 in Scotland. Although the buyer was not named there was some speculation that it was from India. Now the Glasgow-based Herald newspaper has revealed the buyer as S Kumars Nationwide Limited (SKNL) – a household brand in India. However, the sale price is not yet known. […]

Goldman Sachs and India's Shriram Credit have called off an agreement, which would have given the U.S. investment bank a 20 percent holding in the Indian firm, the Times of India said on Monday. Goldman had signed the deal in March to buy the stake for 3 billion rupees in the non-banking financial services company that would have given Goldman an indirect entry into the equity and commodity brokerage business in India. “Goldman Sachs is among those assessing the losses they would incur because of the subprime issue. They were delaying things here and we said drop it,” the newspaper quoted Shriram group Chairman R. Thiagarajan as saying. A spokesman for Goldman declined comment on the report, while Shriram was not immediately available. Citing sources familiar with deal, the newspaper said the deal failed after Goldman wanted to scale down the valuation. Under the deal the Shriram group was to transfer the brokerage and distribution services business to Shriram Credit, the paper said.(Reuters) […]