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Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s plan to buy most of the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain for $10.7 billion may face challenges even before it begins its due diligence. India’s largest wireless company’s plan can’t include Zain’s Celtel Nigeria B.V. unit until an ownership dispute with Econet Wireless Holdings Ltd. on that business is resolved, Econet Chief Executive Officer Strive Masiyiwa said. “Zain Nigeria is not for sale,” Masiyiwa said in an interview in Johannesburg today. Bharti’s third attempt to enter Africa highlights billionaire Chairman Sunil Mittal’s ambitions to expand overseas as competition intensifies at home, where call rates have fallen to less than a penny a minute. Mittal has tried to gain access to other fast-growing markets, including a second failed attempt last year to buy South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. for about $23 billion. […]
Venture capital and equity (VC/PE) funds are likely to take up to two-years to regain their 2005-07 level, when fund-flow was at an all-time high, an industry official said. “The 2005-07 period was a great one as companies received maximum inflows through VC/PE funding. I think we will take another two-years to reach that level,” Indian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association President, Mahendra Swaroop, told. With India's economy bouncing back and the country on track to achieve an eight per cent GDP growth, interest in the Indian market is re-emerging, Swaroop said. […]
The board of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co. approved the sale of most of the company's African assets to India's Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile phone company by subscribers, for $10.7 billion, according to two people familiar with the deal. Bharti declined to comment Sunday. The Indian company is increasingly pursuing growth overseas in the face of price wars and regulatory challenges in the Indian cellular market. Bharti's bid for most of the Africa assets of the Kuwait company, known as Zain, which has over 70 million customers spread across Africa and the Middle East, comes after its talks with South Africa's MTN Group Ltd. for a deal valued at $24 billion fell through last year. […]
Tube Investments of India, part of the $3.14 billion Murugappa Group, has bought controlling stake in France-based 37 million euros Sedis Group, a leading manufacturer of industrial and engineering chains, for 6.8 million euros. This move is expected to help Tube Investments create its base in the European market. Besides, the acquisition will also enable Tube Investments access superior technology of Sedis for manufacture of special and engineering class chains and make products that are today being imported into India. Sedis Group has been associated with the Murugappa Group for last nine years. Tube Investments has acquired 77 per cent of equity of Sedis Group’s holding company, Financiere C10. TII acquired this shareholding directly from the financial investors in FC 10 (75 per cent) and a few other shareholders. The management shareholders will continue to hold the remaining shares in FC 10 and be associated with Sedis for a period of three years, according to a company statement. […]
The promoters of India's newest stock exchange are set to sell 45% of its equity to a consortium of three global stock exchanges and six global funds, a sale that will take the exchange one step closer to getting regulatory approval for equities trading and thus turn further the heat on the two warring incumbents, National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. A person with knowledge of the deal said the list of buyers include London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange-owned NYSE Euronext, US-based General Atlantic Llc, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital Management Lp, a fund owned by Fidelity International Ltd, and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd. The nine buyers will own 5% each of the stock exchange, the maximum allowed to them by local regulations. The deal will value MCX-Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) at Rs5,000 crore, exactly the same valuation during earlier share sales in 2009. […]
Pakistan’s largest private school chain, Beaconhouse School System, and Indian private equity (PE) firm New Silk Route Partners (NSR) have a unique relationship. The Lahore school, run by the Kasuri family, one of the oldest political families in Pakistan, raised money from NSR a couple of years ago and in turn gave the PE firm its first taste of investing in India’s troubled neighbourhood. NSR now wants to invest one-third of its $1.4 billion (Rs6,510 crore) corpus in firms in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh—the fear of risks bowing to the draw of higher returns. And with Sri Lanka more stable after ending decades of internal strife with the Tamil Tiger rebels, NSR is already evaluating potential deals with mobile phone companies and banks in the island nation. The Beaconhouse deal, in a way, set a trend for India-centric funds to look at the country’s neighbours and other developing nations in Asia for high-return deals. […]
Zain, Kuwait’s biggest phone company, received a formal $10.7 billion offer from Bharti Airtel Ltd. for most of its African assets, Al-Rai reported, without saying where it got the information. The offer, which does not include purchasing Zain’s operations in Sudan, is to be discussed soon in a Zain board meeting, the newspaper said. Zain spokesman Ibrahim Adel declined to comment on the report when contacted by Bloomberg News today. Bharti spokesman Senjam Raj Sekhar didn’t respond to calls made to his mobile phone. […]
Private sector lender Dhanlaxmi Bank plans to acquire about 70 per cent stake in a mutual fund, a top bank official said here on Thursday. “We plan to acquire 70 per cent stake in an existing mutual fund and expect approval for the same from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by next week,” Dhanlakshmi Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Chaturvedi told reporters on the sidelines of a press meet here. […]
As the Twenty20 format Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament draws closer, the buzz around team owners selling partial or even full stakes in their franchises gets stronger. Leading the pack are Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils, which are reported to be in advanced discussions with prospective investors. Although two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd officially denied Wednesday morning’s media report that it was buying out Kings XI Punjab for $260 million (Rs1,212 crore), the team—owned by a consortium of investors, including Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta and Mohit Burman—did not dismiss the possibility of a stake sale completely. “We are on the lookout for serious investors and have been in discussion with several interested parties, including two to three foreign entities,” said Burman, board member of Dabur India Ltd and director and co-owner of Kings XI. “But we have not finalized anything. There is nothing on paper.” […]
The promoters of Indian Commodity Exchange Ltd, (ICEX) the country's third-biggest bourse, may sell about 5% stake to an overseas exchange in the next six months, a top official told Reuters on Thursday. ICEX, whose owners include Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd. and MMTC Ltd, offers contracts primarily in metals and energy, and was the fourth bourse to begin operations in the country. “We are looking at divesting about 5% stake to a strategic partner, which helps us grow, we are looking at international exchanges,” Ajit Mittal, chief executive officer of ICEX, told Reuters in an interview. […]
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