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Herbal and nutritional products maker Plethico Pharmaceuticals is picking up around 20% stake in a UAE-based pharma retail chain with operations in the CIS region for around $20-22 million. If the deal goes through, it will be also the first overseas acquisition by an Indian company in the pharma retail space. While the details of the deal are not known, industry sources say the Indian company has been in talks with several retail chains and finally zeroed down on a privately-held firm which has around 300-350 stores across the CIS countries. This will help Plethico to sell its over 1,000 products directly across almost all the CIS countries. […]
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is once again warming up to aviation entrepreneur Capt GR Gopinath after losing out on acquiring Air Deccan last year. ADAG’s private equity arm, Reliance Equity Advisors, is holding talks to invest over $50 million (Rs 250 crore) in Gopinath’s new venture — Deccan Cargo — in return for a significant minority stake in the start-up airline, sources said. Gopinath’s new dream of linking India’s distant hinterlands to the mainstream markets is expected to take off in January next year with fleet of Airbus aircrafts. Others in the fray to pick up a slice of Deccan Cargo include US venture capital major New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Intel Capital, which is seen working out a consortium play to make one of its rare investments outside technology space. […]
A fund sponsored by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which had invested $200 million (Rs980 crore today) in DLF Assets Ltd, a firm owned by the promoters DLF Ltd, has divested its stake to a unit of its co-investor, London-based Symphony Capital Partners Ltd. DLF Assets buys and holds completed commercial assets of DLF, India’s largest listed developer. It received $1.15 billion in total from Symphony ($450 million), DE Shaw and Co. Lp. ($400 million) and Lehman Brothers ($200 million) over the last two years. Sales of commercial real estate projects to DLF Assets made for 46% of DLF’s profit before tax in the quarter to September. DLF Assets owes Rs4,804 crore to DLF as payments for assets bought. […]
Deccan Chargers—the Hyderabad franchisee of the Indian Premier League (IPL)—is learnt to be in final stages of discussions with KKR, the New York-based PE fund, for divesting a significant minority stake. It is leant that KKR has submitted a term sheet for picking about 47% stake in the team at a pre-money valuation of $20 million (Rs 100 crore). Deccan Chargers is promoted by a Hyderabad-based media group. An email sent to Deccan Chargers CEO Tim Wright did not elicit a response. Repeated attempts to contact him on his mobile also failed. It is leant that while an investment banker has been appointed by the company to find suitors, KKR is the only fund that has submitted a term sheet to the company. If accepted by Deccan Chronicle, it will be the first instance of an IPL team getting PE investment. This will also be the first instance of an Indian team in any sport getting PE funds. Globally, Och Ziff owns a significant stake in Manchester United. […]
Bharti Enterprises and French insurance major AXA are planning to launch a private equity (PE) fund in India. Currently, both companies are working out the fine print of the JV. A source in Bharti Enterprises (the holding company for all Bharti businesses like telecom, retail and financial services) confirmed the development, but said it was too early to spell out the details such as the shareholding pattern of the two partners in the JV and the amount the promoters would put into this PE fund. Once operational, this will take the number of JVs between Bharti and Axa to five. At present, Bharti and AXA have a 74:26 JV for life insurance and a similar JV for general insurance. Both companies have also jointly launched an asset management company (AMC) to tap the mutual fund segment in India with AXA holding a 75% stake. The two companies have also agreed to set up a real estate fund, but they are yet to formalise the joint venture agreement for the same. […]
Religare Enterprises proposes to acquire a majority stake in Lotus India Asset Management Company from its majority shareholders Alexandra Fund Management and Sabre Capital. ''The board of directors of the company at its meeting on 4 November 2008, approved the proposal to discuss, negotiate and finalise the terms for acquiring 100 per cent or majority equity shareholding of 'Lotus India Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd' and delegated authority to sign all necessary documents, MoUs and agreements in this regard,'' Religare Enterprises said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Lotus India AMC, which had under managements assets in excess of Rs7,937 crore as of end-September, saw its net asset value decline 31 per cent to Rs5,457.7 crore in October. […]
Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) is in talks with GE Commercial Finance, the financial arm of GE, to acquire about 35% stake in the latter’s construction equipment finance business in India. Sources close to the development said that GE is looking at hiving off its construction equipment finance business into a joint venture company. IDFC will hold about 35% stake in the JV company and GE Commercial Finance will hold the remaining 65%. At a later stage, a third investor may also be inducted, sources said. Although the exact quantum of investment could not be verified, industry sources said the valuation of the JV company would be around Rs 650-800 crore. […]
State Bank of India said it intends to start a private equity fund of $1 billion to $1.5 billion for infrastructure financing with Australia’s Macquarie Group and World Bank’s private sector financing arm International Finance Corporation. Saying there was “no point keeping funds idle”, SBI chairman OP Bhatt said the bank was awaiting regulatory clearance. The three partners signed a joint venture agreement last month to give final shape to a memorandum of understanding signed in April this year. The original plan was to operationalise the fund, which will eventually have a corpus of $2 billion, by the end of the second quarter. […]
The merger and acquisition (M&A) spree of corporate India seems to have hit a low, as India's share in the global M&A tally, which touched a whopping $3 trillion, is less than even one per cent. Till September this year, corporate India has announced merger and acquisition deals worth $26.43 billion, which is around 0.8 per cent of the total global M&A kitty. Commenting on the current market situation, KPMG Executive Director (Corporate Finance Group) Gaurav Khungar said: “The environment is plagued with conservatism and a wait-and-watch approach with absence of decision making or aggression… And questions on prospective bankruptcy risks are abound.” […]
Zee News India Ltd, the media and entertainment company has acquired a 26 per cent stake in Sky B (Bangla) Pvt Ltd, West Bengal’s media player, according to a statement released by Zee News to the Bombay Stock Exchange. As per the partnership agreement between the two media and entertainment companies, Zee News will also handle marketing, advertising sales and programming initiatives of Sky B’s Akash Bangla, the 24 hour regional infotainment channel in Bengali. Already, “24 Ghanta”- a Bengali news channel – is owned by Zee Akash News Pvt Ltd, which is a 60:40 joint venture between Zee News Ltd and Sky B Pvt Ltd. Sky B (Bangla) Pvt Ltd is in the business of broadcasting of general entertainment and news channel aimed at West Bengal market.(Business Standard) […]
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