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India’s national commodity exchanges are trying to go global through equity route. Global commodity exchanges are queuing to pick up equity stakes in Indian commodity bourses. After India’s largest commodity bourses—the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX)—divested stakes to foreign bourses, now it is the turn of the National Multi Commodity Excahnge (NMCE) to sell minority stake. NMCE, based at Ahmedabad in Gujarat and known for launching rubber futures in India for the first time, is in talks with the Singapore Commodity Exchange (SICOM) to divest stake. SICOM officials confirmed to Commodity Online that NMCE officials have held two rounds of talks with the exchange in the recent past. NMCE is said to be keen to divest 5% equity stake to SICOM as the exchange is mainly powered by futures trading in rubber. […]
Indivision India Partners, the private equity arm of the Future Group, is close to picking up a stake, which could be in the range of 40%-50%, in food & beverages (F&B) entity Blue Foods, which operates a chain of restaurants across the country. The company’s flagship brands include Copper Chimney, Bombay Blue, Noodle Bar, Gelato Italiano, Spaghetti Kitchen & Cream Centre. It also has a franchiseee agreement with California-based coffee chain Coffee Beans & Tea Leaf. Sources said the new promoters will merge Pan Foods Solutions — a JV between Pantaloon Retail and Blue Foods — with Blue Foods and pick up stake in the merged entity. […]
Star India is looking to buy a stake in Asianet Entertainment and add a Malayalam and Kannada channel to its bouquet. It announced the launch of its Bengali general entertainment channel, Star Jolsha, on Friday. The company recently called off its joint venture with Balaji and plans to buy out of the company with whom it planned to launch regional channels. Asianet owns three Malayalam channels, two Kannada channels under the Suvarna name, and radio channels. The company reportedly also had plans to launch a Telugu general entertainment channel. […]
Private equity (PE) firms favour clubbing when it comes to striking deals. Unlike in the past, when PE firms were single investors in a company, they now prefer to join hands in putting money in firms. Early this year, Temasek Holdings, an investment arm of the Singapore government which is the only foreign institutional investor in Tata Teleservices, seemed to be content being one of the investors in an eight-way deal to invest close to Rs 4,800 crore in Bharti Infratel. If eight is fine, then consider Idea Cellular’s transaction. The telecom company struck a nine-way deal with private equity funds, which is probably the largest ‘club deal’ in India by private equity firms. Similarly, Reliance Telecom roped in seven foreign institutional investors including New Silk Route, Galleon, Fortress, GLG, Quantum, DA Capital and HSBC Principal Investments. Although there is nothing unusual about PE firms adopting the group approach, what is striking this time is the coming together of a varied number of investors. […]
Ahead of its proposed initial public offering (IPO),SRL Ranbaxy Ltd, a diagnostics firm owned by the promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, might integrate itself with group drug retailer Fortis HealthWorld Ltd. The move aims to increase the valuation of the merged entity before it hits the capital market, said a person familiar with the development. “While Fortis HealthWorld was brought under the Religare brand recently (by changing its name to Religare Wellness Ltd last week), a decision to extend the same to SRL Ranbaxy will be announced soon,” he said, requesting anonymity. A Religare spokesman, however, said, “Though there are synergies between the two businesses, there are no merger plans as of today.” SRL, which runs a chain of pathological laboratories, plans to raise Rs200-250 crore through an IPO. It is part of the Religare group that has interests ranging from technology services and business process outsourcing to health care and financial services. […]
A host of private equity (PE) firms have joined the race to acquire STAR’s stake in Balaji Telefilms. New Silk Route (NSR), 3i and Kotak are learnt to be in talks with the television production house to buy 25.99% stake, originally held by STAR. The promoters will now have to buy back the stake at Rs 190 per share within the stipulated time frame of 240 days. ET on Friday reported that ADAG and Eros International are also in the fray to acquire the STAR stake. A source told ET: “With the current slowdown in export-oriented sectors such as IT and ITeS, PE firms are increasingly looking at expanding their media investment portfolio. Especially with the emergence of addressable distribution system (DTH & CAS), content creation would witness increased PE fund infusion.” The source added that Balaji being a successful television content production house will be an attractive opportunity for PE players. […]
Vijay Kirloskar is set to unveil a German acquisition for his flagship Kirloskar Electric. Sources said KEC has clinched the bid for Lloyd Dynamowerke & Co (LDW) which manufactures motors, machines and drive systems for Siemens, Alstom, ThyssenKrupp and Gottwald in a deal estimated at around 50 million euro ($70 million). The acquisition, to be announced later this week, will be effected through a newly-floated subsidiary in Netherlands called Kirsons BV. Sources said a definitive deal to acquire LDW could be signed as early as Thursday. However, the exact deal size could not be ascertained with KEC working on a debt facility with multiple lenders. […]
Alok Vajpeyi, vice-chairman and managing director of Dawnay Day AV Financial Services, has sold his 25% stake in the company to private equity firm New Silk Route Advisors, according to two persons familiar with the deal. The private equity firm, co-founded by former McKinsey chief Rajat Gupta, bought the entire company for about Rs200 crore, acquiring Dawnay Day International’s 50% stake in the Indian venture and the employee trust’s 25% holding as well. Vajpeyi, who set up Dawnay Day AV in 2005 in a joint venture with Dawnay Day International, the financial services unit of UK-based Dawnay Day Group, would only say: “I cannot comment at this point.” A subsquent email sent to him remained unanswered. […]
Venture capitalists were eager to back advertising start-ups in India during the second quarter of 2008, according to the Quarterly India Venture Capital Report released today by Dow Jones VentureSource ( http://venturecapital.dowjones.com ), which found that $89 million-nearly 37% of the region's quarterly investment total-went to five advertising/marketing companies, more than any other sector. Overall, India attracted $238 million in venture investment with 17 deals closed in the second quarter, a 120% increase over the $108 million invested in 12 deals during the same period in 2007. The data showed that India saw seven second-round deals completed in the second quarter, garnering a record $161 million and exceeding the $118 million that was invested in second rounds in all of 2007. Ten seed and first round deals were also completed during the quarter, accounting for nearly $77 million in investment. No later-stage deals were completed. […]
After its divorce from STAR, Balaji Telefilms is learnt to be in conversation with a clutch of investors to park the 25.99% stake held by Rupert Murdoch’s media firm. The potential investors may include Reliance ADAG, sources say. The other name doing the rounds is film distribution company Eros International. While the negotiations are on, the promoters of Balaji are still unclear whether to buy back a part of the stake or a new investor would buy the entire 25.99%. While the Balaji spokesperson refused to comment, a senior ADAG official strongly denied any plan to pick up Balaji stake. Eros CEO Sunil Lulla could not be reached. It is possible that private equity investors may also be interested, but their names could not be ascertained. In the event, Reliance BIG Entertainment picks up even 15% of this stake, it will trigger an open offer for another 20%. […]
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