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State-run Allahabad Bank plans to buy stake in a small bank in Africa to establish presence in the growing market, a top executive said on Monday. The bank would like to invest $15-20 million at the upper limit to buy about 74 per cent stake in a bank in Africa, chairman A.C.Mahajan said over telephone. “We will shortly appoint merchant bankers to find the possible target,” he told Reuters. “African economy is growing and we want to tap the potential there,” he said. Besides its operations in India, the bank has offices in Hongkong and Shangem (China). […]
Traditional liquor powerhouse The House of Khodays is planning to acquire a winery in Australia. The deal, which is likely to be valued at around $50 million, would probably make it the biggest overseas wine hunt by an Indian company till date, a company official said. The move has surprised industry observers, as Khodays has been trying hard to revive its once-mighty spirits business that boasts of brands like Peter Scot and Red Knight whiskies. “We have kept aside Rs 1,000 crore for acquisitions and expansion over the next two years,” Khoday Group of Industries MD L Srihari Khoday told ET. He, however, declined to divulge more details. The share price of Khodays’ spirits flagship, Khoday India, has ballooned in the past one year from Rs 35 to a Friday closing of Rs 262, taking its market cap above Rs 1,000 crore. […]
ACK Media, an entertainment and education company has acquired a controlling stake in Amar Chitra Katha and the Tinkle family of magazines. Sources put the deal at over Rs 10 crore and the stake was well over 90 per cent. Anant Pai will continue to be Editor Emeritus and Chief Story Teller for ACK Media, while Samir Patil would take over as chief executive officer. Samir Patil, said, “If ACK Media can reach out to a fraction of India’s 300 million+ youngsters with content that stimulates the imagination and encourages critical thinking, in ways that complement the formal educational system and contemporary family upbringing, I would consider it a great success.” ACK Media is planning to tap licensing opportunities that lay in the popular characters and content of the both the popular magazines for different media like television and mobile phones. […]
Firefly eVentures Ltd, the wholly owned Internet subsidiary of HT Media Ltd, has acquired social networking site Desimartini.com in an attempt to enter one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Internet space. HT Media said the transaction was for less than $10 million. “Localisation is the norm all around and as broadband penetration improves, we can see phenomenal opportunity and growth in the Internet in India. This acquisition in the social networking space is the first step towards expanding our Internet base. We are exploring other new online businesses such as gaming, e-commerce and classifieds,” said Amit Garg, Business head – Internet, HT Media. Garg said HT Media plans to launch online portals in jobs, matrimonials, real estate and auto verticals – areas where the classifieds pages of newspapers currently dominate and where the Hindustan Times has a strong presence in some markets. Desimartini.com, launched by Pahwa Knowledge Based Services late last year, is funded by the Pahwa group of companies and has a membership base of 250,000. It attracts around 2.5 million page views a month. Desimartini.com competes with homegrown players such as the Minglebox.com, Ibibo.com, Indyarocks.com, and Bigadda.com. […]
Capital18, the venture capital and private equity arm of the Network18 Group, has picked up an undisclosed stake in interactive marketing and technology services agency Webchutney. Sidharth Rao, CEO, Webchutney, “We at Webchutney will look for growth through capital investment. The investment by Capital18 will be used to make for rich interactive applications, for which we are looking at key partnerships and hiring and developing our own creative studio in future.” Sarbvir Singh, Managing director, Capital18, says, “The digital advertising agency business is rapidly scaling up and the future for digital advertising is bright in India. We feel that Webchutney is the right kind of agency to partner with and will drive the business together.” Webchutney was founded in 1999 and has about 100 employees. The agency serves clients such as Airtel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, MakeMyTrip, Zapak and Bookmyshow.com. The company is looking at expanding the operations to Chennai and Hyderabad.(Television Point) […]
New York-based JC Flowers, one of the world’s largest private equity firm focused solely on the financial services sector, has picked up 36 per cent stake in the State Industrial Corporation of Maharashtra (Sicom), the investment arm of the Maharashtra government, for close to Rs 350 crore. The deal values Sicom at Rs 972 crore. Sources said JC Flowers won the bid for the stake, which was put up for sale early this year by the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI or UTI-1). SUUTI had invited bids from financial and strategic investors for selling its stake in Sicom. The other two contenders for the stake were L&T Infrastructure and another US-based private fund. Sources said for JC Flowers this was a good investment as Sicom, as an NBFC (non-banking financial company) had the rights to confiscate assets in case of defaults. […]
Subhash Chandra's Essel Sports is looking at raising up to Rs 200 crore by divesting 25 per cent to private equity companies to finance its troubled Indian Cricket League (ICL) and other domestic cricket projects. Confirming this, Asish Kaul, executive vice-president of Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd and Essel Group spokesperson, said: “Several companies have come forward to associate themselves with Essel Sports. Indian and foreign institutional investors have also shown interest in being equity partners.” He added that no decision has been taken yet since “the company’s focus has been to get ICL off the ground”. The move comes at a time when the high-profile ICL is to begin from December 1 in Chandigarh with six teams playing against each other. […]
India''s Fortis Financial Services Ltd said it has a acquired a 76 pct stake in Australia-based capital market software provider, Capital Market Solutions Pvt Ltd, for an undisclosed sum. Fortis said it made the acquisition through two special-purpose vehicles, Regius Infotech Pvt Ltd and Regius Overseas Holding Co, created specifically for this purpose. The company also said it had settled its court case against Netherlands-based Fortis NV for using the word ''Fortis'' for all its activities except for financial products and services. (Euro Today) […]
The Board of Directors of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), the second largest housing finance company in the private sector in India, on Tuesday announced the approval of 19.9% stake in Wadhawan Food Retail Pvt. Ltd. Wadhawan Food Retail is the retail arm of the Wadhawan Group which operates more than 90 food and grocery stores and 6 home decor stores across India. “The food and grocery segment accounts for 63% of the total retail expenditure. Out of this, 11% is organized retailing. This represents a big opportunity for us to invest in Wadhawan Food Retail, which has huge expansion plans of opening 1,500 stores in the next 4-5 years,” said Kapil Wadhawan, Vice Chairman and MD, DHFL. […]
Jewellery maker and retailer Gitanjali Gems Ltd has bought US-based jewellery chain Rogers for $18.5 million, its top official said on Monday. “A further investment of $20 million will be made,” Chairman Mehul Choksi said. The Indian firm bought the entire stake in Rogers, which operates 46 stores and had revenue of about $80 million, it said in a statement. In December 2006, Gitanjali had bought a 97 per cent stake in another US-based retailer, Samuels Jewelers Inc. (ET) […]
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