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UK-based Prudential PLC may be exploring opportunities to sell its business process outsourcing unit in India. The captive — Prudential Process Management Services (PPMS) — is located in Mumbai and has an employee strength of 1,800 people. Sources in the industry say, the company is in initial discussions with investment bankers for a possible deal. “The company is looking to sell its BPO operations in India and has already started talks with bankers. The deal is, however, yet to be struck as discussions are initial,” said an industry source. The exact size of the transaction is not known. When contacted by ET, a Prudential spokesperson said, ”We don’t comment on market speculation. All that I can say is that we are undertaking a review of the work that has been done by the team in Mumbai but this was mentioned in our last results event.” PPMS services not just the operations of its parent in UK but is also supporting operations in Prudential Asia. The company is setting up an additional 300 member facility in Mumbai where actuarial and market analysis will be done, in addition to back office work of insurance policies that is currently being done. The company’s spokesperson added that nearly one third of the company’s customer services are done out of its India captive. PPMS is the back office of Prudential PLC — an international retail financial services group which provides annuities, corporate pensions, with-profits and unit-linked bonds, savings and investments products, protection policies, equity release and health insurance products. It is present in India through its joint venture with ICICI— ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company for providing life insurance. […]
India's Reliance Communications Ltd. is in talks with American Tower Corp. to sell a stake of up to 21 percent in its telecom towers business for at least $1.8 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. Reliance Communications values the whole unit, Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd. (RTIL), at 350 billion rupees ($8.7 billion), about a third more than the company said the business was worth last month, the source added. Expectations that Reliance Communications may float off its towers business — which is set to benefit from rapid expansion in the world's fastest growing mobile services market — has boosted shares in India's second-largest mobile services firm after Bharti Airtel . “This time it will be a strategic investor. And American Tower seems to be very much interested. Reliance Communications is in talks to sell 15 percent or 21 percent in the towers business,” the source said, adding the deal could be announced in the next 4-8 weeks. In July Reliance Communications said it had sold a 5 percent stake in the unit to seven institutional investors for 14 billion rupees, which it said valued the whole business at 270 billion rupees. […]
Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday said it was still in “advanced stage” of talks with Securities Trading Corporation of India (STCI) to buy a stake in its broking arm UTI Securities. “We remain interested in it (UTI Securities) and continue to talk,” Standard Chartered Bank India CEO Neeraj Swaroop told reporters here. The foreign bank can pick up about 49 per cent stake in the company as UTI Securities is not allowed to sell more than 50 per cent, he added. The deal will help the bank to enter the retail stock broking market as UTI Securities offers institutional broking, retail broking and online broking. In February 2006, STCI had bought 100 per cent stake in UTI Securities for Rs 265 crore from the Specified Undertaking of UTI. […]
India's Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance Communications Ltd. and the Tata Group are bidding for 51 percent in state-owned Telkom Kenya, the Economic Times and Business Standard said on Wednesday. Representatives of the Indian companies are in Nairobi to participate in a bidders' conference, the Economic Times newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. A spokesman for Bharti, India's top mobile services operator, said the company was interested in international opportunities but would not comment on speculation. A spokesmen for Reliance Communications, the No. 2 operator, did not immediately return a call. A spokesman for Tata's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. said Africa had been identified as an important market. […]
Wipro Ltd, the country's third largest software exporter, on Monday achieved the distinction of making the largest overseas acquisition in the information technology space when it announced the acquisition of US-based, Nasdaq-listed outsourcing firm Infocrossing for approximately $600 million (around Rs 2,430 crore) in an all-cash deal. The acquisition will be conducted through a tender for all the outstanding shares of Infocrossing, followed by a merger of Infocrossing with a Wipro subsidiary. Institutional members have a majority holding (close to 10 per cent) in the company. Wipro is making an open offer at $18.70 per share, which — if fully subscribed — will cost close to $600 million. Wipro currently has cash reserves of $750 million and expects to close this acquisition by December 2007. The $232.44 million Infocrossing, with a net income of around $10 million, and its wholly-owned subsidiaries provide IT outsourcing solutions to companies, institutions and government agencies in the US. The company's enterprise value is around $510 million (on August 6) and its enterprise value/revenue (trailing 12 months) was 2.18 times. Founded in 1985, the New Jersey-headquartered Infocrossing went public in 1992. […]
India`s biggest lender State Bank of India is mulling selling up to 10% stake in its proposed holding company for its life insurance and mutual fund businesses to institutional investors, reports Business Standard.
SBI is planning to set up this holding company in next two-three months and even plans to list it in this financial year. The 10% stake, valued at about Rs 20 billion, would be sold to as many as four investors.(Source : My Iris)
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The IFCI Board on Saturday decided to invite expression of interest (EoI) for shortlisting a strategic investor. A large number of financial big-wigs like Barclays, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and other Indian banks are understood to be interested in picking up 26% equity in the company. The process of receiving EoIs would begin on August 13 and the last date for submitting EoIs would be September 14. The company expects the process of selection of a strategic investor to be over by January, a company official said. The lender has appointed Ernst & Young to look for the strategic investor. E&Y has been asked to suggest names of strategic investors and will help IFCI in carrying out modalities related with stake sale. […]
After losing its bid for a stake in South African government-owned telecom network operator Infraco, Tata-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd is planning to invest in the submarine cable projects of the state-owned entity. VSNL may invest close to $200 million for the cable project, group sources said. “Currently, it is in the very early stages of negotiations. Just now, they came out with an idea of inviting partners for the submarine projects. We are interested in partnering in that,” a top company official said. Infraco, South Africa's third network operator, which has been formed to lower the broadband costs, is planning to invest close $700 million to build an undersea cable network. The cable network will connect Africa, America and Europe. “VSNL has a stake in SA's second national operator, Neotel. Now the company is interested in equity participation in the undersea cable projects of Infraco,” sources said. […]
In a move to secure raw material for its Corus facilities in UK and Europe and other global businesses, Tata Steel Ltd has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Riversdale Mining Ltd, an Australian Stock Exchange listed company. Through this pact, the company will become a strategic investor in Riversdale’s Mozambique coal project by acquiring a 35 per cent stake for A$100 million (around Rs 345 crore). The Mozambique coal project includes the coal tenements of premium hard coking coal in Benga and Tete, located in the Tete province in Mozambique, which are fully owned by Riversdale through its subsidiary. The Benga and Tete tenements together cover an area of 24,960 hectares. “The Riversdale management expects that the potential mineralisation of the area will be substantially high,” it said. The two companies are likely to develop the project. Riversdale is presently conducting a scoping study which is likely to be completed in August 2007. The definitive agreements are expected to be finalised and executed by November 30, 2007. […]
The Television Eighteen Group (TV18) is picking 50% equity stake in MTV Networks India (MTVI) for Rs 200 crore. MTVI, which is part of media giant Viacom, is engaged in marketing and distribution of TV channels — MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon. This is one of the rare instances of an Indian company picking up equity in a hitherto wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign major. The deal is part of the strategic alliance between Viacom and the TV 18 Group announced in May this year. That TV18 would directly pick up equity in MTVI was not disclosed at that time. As of now, the existing TV channels are being uplinked from Singapore. According to the plan, MTVI would uplink and broadcast Viacom branded TV channels apart from a new general entertainment channel in Hindi and a bouquet of non-news and non-current affairs channels. However, it will not set up any uplinking facility in India and will outsource it to a third-party service provider. […]
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