|
|
Ports in India, a country with a coastline of around 7,600km, have attracted private equity, or PE, capital for some years. Now, the number of such deals is increasing and PE firms are moving beyond ports and shipyards when it comes to investing in marine infrastructure. With India’s cargo-handling capacity at ports expected to double to 1,500 million tonnes by 2011-12, PE experts say a network of strong ancillary businesses are required to promote trade and transportation activities as both ports and shipyards need accessibility and linkages to the main land. “We need to view marine infrastructure in a holistic manner. It requires a complete ecosystem around itself,” says Aashish Kalra, co-founder and managing director, Trikona Capital Ltd, a real estate investment company. “We are not only interested in marine infrastructure but also the real estate around it.” Trikona has invested in Pipavav Shipyard Ltd, which is expected to be the largest shipyard in India and among the largest in Asia. […]
Pune-based Kam-Avida Enviro Engineers Pvt Ltd (Kam-Avida), a manufacturer of waste management equipment, has announced that it has raised equity from Peepul Capital Fund II LLC (Peepul), one of the leading India-focussed private equity funds. Kam-Avida intends to use the funds to set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing, assembly facility which will help it ramp-up production capacity and to strengthen its sales and marketing presence. The company will also invest part of the capital to strengthen its balance sheet to foray into wet-lease services for large scale sewage cleaning and maintenance, said a press release. Kam-Avida manufactures and offers a range of highly mechanised equipment for large- scale garbage, waste collection and transportation, sewage cleaning and sweeping, cleaning machines. It specialises in design and system integration of equipment that optimise garbage collection and disposal for domestic and commercial waste. […]
Arthanomics, the Annual finance Seminar of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode was held on the 6th and 7th of September, 2008 at the institute’s scenic campus in Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala. The theme of this year’s seminar was “Mergers and Acquisitions – India Inc. on the prowl”. As has been the case with earlier editions of the seminar, Arthanomics ’08 too had an impressive line up of distinguished personalities which included the likes of Mr. Kamlesh Gandhi, Head of the Investment banking division of Religare, Mr. Manoj Gupta, Vice President at Nexus Capital Advisors, and Mr. Sadashiv Rao, Senior Director at IDFC. Each speaker shed valuable insights into the Private Equity scenario in India linking them with current economic conditions. While challenges faced by the Private Equity industry were recognized, a consensus emerged regarding the enormous growth potential in India for Private Equity firms. […]
After Anil Ambani group and Indiabulls, financial services major Kotak group is set to become the third leading corporate house to enter commodity bourse arena with plans for a majority stake in Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange. The regional stock exchange has sought clearance from the commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission for selling a majority stake to the Kotak group, sources said. “The Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange, which deals in castor seeds futures, has an average daily trading volume of about 5,000 tonnes,” exchange officials said. However, Kotak group’s plans would depend to a large extent on the release of FMC guidelines for the regional exchanges. “We are waiting for the guidelines from FMC and accordingly Kotak group will buy the stakes,” an exchange official said. Though Kotak is seeking to buy 51% stake in the exchange, it is ready to go for a smaller equity if FMC fixes a lower cap on the promoter holding. In its guidelines for national-level exchanges, FMC recently fixed a maximum limit of 40% for stake to be held by a promoter. The Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange has 212 members and the shares in the company will be distributed among them after the guidelines for regional exchanges come out, officials said. […]
Reliance Communications chairman and managing director Anil Ambani may have issued a statement sometimes back that he was not interested in buying English club Newcastle United. But the speculation simply refuses to die. According to the Times, it is becoming increasingly likely that the telecoms giant will seek formal talks with the Premiership club’s board with a view to a £220 million buyout on Monday. Ambani was first linked with the takeover last month but it seemed he was dissuaded by the £260 million tag and the fact that the Tyneside club had failed to strengthen the squad. But following the club’s latest tribulations, the exit of Geordie favourite, manager Kevin Keegan, Reliance believes the time is ripe to make a move. […]
Dempo Group, one of the biggest players in iron ore in India, is planning to raise around Rs 1,500 crore for expanding its petroleum coke business. The company plans to divest stake in flagship mining company — VS Dempo — to support its expansion plans. The Rs 2,000-crore group is believed to be in talks with three PE firms and the deal would be sealed by the end of the month, sources close to the development said. The company plans to invest funds in its Goa Carbon petroleum coke business. According to sources, the group is looking at setting up a plant in Gujarat near Vadodara with additional funds. When contacted VS Dempo chairman Shrinivas V Dempo told ET: “We would need around Rs 1,200 crore for supporting our petroleum coke business. We would sell stake in our iron ore business to support this.” There were also talks that the company would be selling off the iron ore business all together. But later on, it is believed, the company instead decided to sell a substantial share in the iron business. […]
Buyout private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) is chasing probably its first pure-play India deal, eyeing BT’s stake in the Indian telecom services company Tech Mahindra, sources close to the development said. KKR is preparing a potential bid, even as four other global PE peers — Apax Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Temasek and Carlyle — have also shown early interest in a formal process which will start in 10 days. ET had reported on the possibility of PE firms entering the fray for the stake. BT is putting an over-$800 million tag on its 31% stake, valuing Tech Mahindra at nearly $3 billion. The current market cap of the company is around $2.2 billion. The Tech Mahindra scrip closed at Rs 757.70 on the NSE on Friday. The 22-year-old Tech Mahindra, with a focus on the telecom vertical, is a joint venture between BT and Mahindra & Mahindra, with latter owning 44.25%. The company reported a revenue of $934.7 million during FY08, a 44% year-on-year growth. It employs some 24,000 workers. In 2006, KKR paid $900 million to acquire an 85% stake in the software unit of Singapore-headquartered Flextronics, with operations in Bangalore and New Delhi. The other big fund actions in India’s IT/ITeS sector include Blackstone’s buyout of Intelenet and Warburg Pincus’ play in back-office firm WNS Holdings. […]
Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt. Ltd on Sunday said it has acquired majority stake in the US-based Willow TV Inc. (www.willow.tv), a portal for live Internet streaming of important cricket events from across the world. Willow TV, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, has more than a million registered users worldwide, predominantly in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. In 2007-08, Willow TV streamed all major cricket events live, including the Indian Premier League, Australian, South African and English international cricket. “The acquisition of Willow TV is in line with our strategy to strengthen our presence in the global markets and reinforce our group’s presence in new media,” said Rajesh Sawhney, president, Reliance Big Entertainment.(Livemint) […]
News that Anil Ambani-controlled Adlabs Films has engaged itself with Fame India for a possible takeover put on fire the shares of Mumbai-based multiplex chain. From Wednesday to Friday, shares of Fame India shot up 12.18 per cent as its shares closed at Rs 42.50 a piece on speculation that Adlabs Films was willing to pay a significant premium to the current market price. The buzz was that Adlabs would pay Rs 80 per share, almost double from the prevailing market price. When contacted by Televisionpoint.com, officials of both the companies denied the market speculation. Adlabs spokesperson Anjali Malhotra said, “This is the rumour that has been going on for the last one year. It is absolutely baseless.” Shravan Shroff, managing director, Fame India, said, “There is no truth in the matter. It is just speculation.” […]
The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed to increase the shareholding limit for strategic invesors in stock exchange to 15% from the present 5%. Certain categories of investors such as other stock exchanges, depositories, clearing corporations, banks and insurers can now raise their holdings in Indian stock exchanges. The 5% limit will, however, continue to apply for other investors like individuals and companies. As reported by FE earlier, the regulator had been receiving requests from certain quarters that the present limit of 5% is acting as a deterrent for attracting long term anchor, or strategic, investors in stock exchanges. And that it had begun exploring the idea for increasing the stake. […]
|
Post your messages.Please refrain from posting offensive messages. IndiaPE accepts no liability for the consequences of your reliance on these postings and messages.
|