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Tata Communications Ltd may sell a stake in its retail and broadband business to Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings , the Mint paper reported on Monday. “Temasek is leading the race for a stake in the new retail business of Tata Communications,” the paper cited a person familiar with the development as saying. Tata Communications will “hold the majority stake in the retail business venture and Temasek will be a financial investor”, it cited the person as saying. Tata Communications and Temasek were “working out the structure of the deal and should conclude it shortly”, it cited the source as saying. Several private equity firms had also held talks about buying a stake, the paper said. […]
Ahead of a proposed initial public offering (IPO), ICICI Securities Ltd, the broking arm of ICICI Bank Ltd, plans to sell about 3% of its equity to institutional investors through private placements, according to a person familiar with the development who did not wish to be identified. The person added that JPMorgan India has been given the mandate to manage the deal. This couldn’t be independently verified with JPMorgan over the weekend and the company did not respond to an email query. S. Mukherjee, managing director and chief executive officer, ICICI Securities, declined to comment. According to the person, the private placement is part of a larger plan that involves selling 10% of ICICI Bank’s equity in ICICI Securities. With 3% going to institutional investors, 7% will be sold to the public through a share sale. The person familiar with the development added that ICICI Bank is looking at a valuation of around Rs18,000 crore for ICICI Securities. This means a 10% sale will fetch it around Rs1,800 crore. In January, the bank’s board approved the listing of ICICI Securities. The bank has five other unlisted subsidiaries: ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co. Ltd, ICICI Ventures, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Ltd and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd. While it could take a few months for the share sale to hit the market, interest in the financial services sector does appear to be rising. […]
Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL), India’s fourth biggest developer by market value, will acquire its partner Dev Property Development (DPD) in an all-stock deal. Indiabulls has valued Dev Property at £138 million (about Rs 1,091.85 crore) and the share at 100 pence, based on the closing price of IBREL at Rs 654.40 on Wednesday (at an exchange rate of Rs 79.12 for every Pound Sterling). IBREL will issue new shares in the form of global depository receipts (to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF) equivalent to the valuation of DPD. Indiabulls is offering 0.12091 of a global depository receipt for each share of London-listed Dev Property, the Mumbai-based real estate company said. The offer matches the £138 million Dev Property raised when it sold shares in January 2007 in the Alternate Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. The stock has since fallen 24.5 per cent. The proposal to buy DPD was approved by the IBREL board at a meeting today. The deal is subject to The approval of shareholders and certain regulatory approvals. […]
Bangalore-based healthcare equipment manufacturer Opto Circuits India has announced that it will acquire US-based Criticare Systems in a deal valued at $70 million. Opto has signed a definitive agreement with the US company on the same, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange. US-based Criticare Systems, which posted sales of $31 million for the year ended June 2007, is in the business of manufacturing vital sign monitors, anaesthesia monitors and pulse oximeters. For the quarter ended December 2007, Opto Circuits posted turnover of Rs 127 crore. Opto Circuits’ product range includes pulse oximeters, pulse oximeter sensors, fluid warmers, cholesterol monitors and stents. It has a manufacturing and R&D facility in Bangalore. […]
The Dabur Group is learnt to be evaluating a range of options for determining the future direction of Dabur Pharma, the anti-cancer drug company, including a sellout. The options being considered include inducting a private equity investor or a strategic investor, as well as a strategic alliance with a foreign company. It is understood that Dabur Pharma has held discussions with a German pharma company for a partnership, where the possibility of an outright sale has also figured. While Dabur Pharma chairman Mohit Burman was unavailable for comment, CEO Ajay Vij said, “There is no move to induct any partner.” Asked if the company was in touch with any German company for a strategic alliance, he said, “We are in touch with many companies across the globe for hundreds of things, but this (induct a partner or selloff) is pure speculation.” However, a reliable industry source told ET that at present several options are being considered, though no final decision has been taken. A source close to the German company said discussions were at a somewhat advanced stage and the possibility of a total sellout was being actively considered. […]
Asian Development Bank (ADB) is likely to exit Petronet LNG Ltd by selling its 5.2 per cent holding in the country’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer possibly to promoters or billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. ADB and German Development Bank KfW had recently approved a loan of $169 million to Petronet for its expansion projects at Dahej and a new terminal at Kochi. However, ADB’s internal norms prohibit it from having both debt and equity exposure in a company. “In 2004, ADB had sanctioned a loan of $75 million to Petronet. But once it took a 5.2 per cent stake for less than $8 million, ADB could not disburse the balance of the loan due to its internal regulations,” Petronet CEO and Managing Director Prosad Dasgupta told the Press Trust of India. ADB norms also stipulate that it must divest its equity holding in a company three years from the date of the company going public. Petronet had an initial public share sale in 2004 and ADB was to exit Petronet in 2007, but it was persuaded to stay on for a year. […]
The recent market slump has claimed yet another casualty. Kishore Biyani promoted private equity fund Indivision India Partners, which had picked up a 4.9% stake in Zee's DTH arm Dish TV for Rs 250 crore, has now cancelled the deal. The reason: the Dish TV shares have crashed from a high of about Rs 175 in mid-December 2007 to end at Rs 62.95 on Friday. Dish TV is India’s largest DTH operator and commands about 67% market share in this space. ET has learnt that Zee had sent a legal notice to Indivision India Partners for backing out of a binding deal, following which both groups have now smoked the peace pipe. The deal was announced in December last year under which Indivision India Partners was supposed to be allotted 1.25 crore equity shares of Dish TV of Re 1 each at a price of Rs 100 each, aggregating Rs 125 crore. Further, the private equity fund was to subscribe 9,615,385 warrants — each convertible into an equity share — at Rs 130 per equity share, aggregating to Rs 125 crore. The deal, when signed also raised Dish TV’s valuation to over Rs 5,000 crore. This was about Rs 1,000 crore more than its valuation if the same was calculated based on the closing price of the company’s shares on December 6, 2007. […]
Taking a big stride towards its foray into commodities trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has decided to play an active role in the management of National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE), India’s first demutualised online commodity exchange. BSE has agreed to buy a 26% stake in the Ahmedabad-based commodity exchange, which is lagging behind its rivals MCX and NCDEX. BSE is in the process of finalising the transaction and will soon make a formal announcement to this effect, said BSE MD and CEO Rajnikant Patel. He, however, declined to comment on value of the deal because of the confidentiality clause. Market sources estimate the enterprise value of NMCE well below its peers, given its low trading volumes.BSE will be issued fresh shares, which will bring down the promoters’ stake substantially in NMCE. At present, Central Warehousing corporation holds a 26% stake while the National Agricultural Co-Operative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) and the Punjab National Bank hold around 10% each. Gujarat Agro Industries has a 5% stake. […]
It’s official: HDFC Bank will merge Centurion Bank of Punjab, a bank one-fifth its size in terms of assets, with itself in the biggest consolidation seen in private-sector banking in India in recent times. What such a merger does is help HDFC instantly augment its branch network by 50% or 400 branches. Centurion also has Reserve Bank of India’s permission to open another 30 branches. Suresh Ganapathy, analyst with Deutsche Bank, said Centurion’s branch-network was the main draw for HDFC Bank. “That’s because in India, getting a branch licence is becoming more and more difficult. HDFC Bank will certainly benefit from the move,” he said. Fee-based income has become crucial for banks as margins in their core business of lending are on a decline due to competition and interest rate pressures. Having a larger branch network helps distribute more products that bring in fee-based income, such as mutual fund schemes and insurance plans. The latter afford as much as 30% commission on premiums. […]
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Thursday said the company has acquired Uganda-based Anupam Global Soft, a company holding telecom service provider licence in the African country. RComm also announced an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years to set up telecom network in Uganda. RComm is planning to offer mobile, fixed line, internet, national and international long distance services, in addition to Wi-Max and Wi-Fi services in Uganda through the newly acquired company, a statement from the company said. Anupam Global Soft holds licences for providing public infrastructure and public services, issued by Uganda Communications Commission. The company has received spectrum and plans to launch mobile services by 2008-end. “RComm is targeting to invest up to $500 million (about Rs 2,000 crore) in establishing a high quality integrated telecom network in Uganda to capture the significant growth potential in the emerging African market,” the release said. Uganda has a population of about 30 million and in March 2007 about 10% of this population was using mobile phones. […]
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