Fortis Global Healthcare Holdings will acquire a 30 per cent stake in Australia’s leading dental clinic chain Dental Corporation for about Rs 450 crore. This is the second acquisition for the company, a family venture of Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, the billionaire brothers who own majority stake in India’s second-largest private healthcare provider, Fortis Healthcare Ltd. The company, set up recently to drive the overseas healthcare expansion plans of the Fortis group, completed the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Quality Healthcare in November. Malvinder Mohan Singh said the acquisition was in tune with his objective to build a global integrated healthcare platform. Fortis will have two representatives on Dental Corporation’s board and will be part of its expansion plans in Australia and New Zealand. […]

Welspun Group's privately held company Welspun Infra Projects will acquire 35% stake in Leighton Contractors (India) for Rs 470 crore to pursue infrastructure development projects in India and neighbouring countries. “Leighton Contractors has the technical eligibility and with this arrangement we will have opportunity for participation in infrastructure development projects,” a Welspun Group official told ET. The transaction is subject to customary statutory, regulatory and other corporate approvals which may be completed in 90 days, Welspun said in a statement. Leighton Contractors is a part of Malaysia-headquartered civil engineering and infrastructure Leighton Holdings. […]

The long-speculated parting of ways between the Indian Hero group and Japanese Honda Motor Co. was made official this week, though key financial details of the deal remained elusive for investors. The initial announcement did, however have a few positive implications for them. One, it clarified that it was the Indian promoters, and not a clutch of PE firms, that were to buy out Honda's 26 per cent equity stake in the bike maker. This means that investors need not worry about a “floating” population of institutional investors picking up sizeable stakes in their company and threatening to offload it from time to time! Two, the announcement that royalty would be on current lines, or even lower, allays market fears that the Indian company would be forced to shell out out-sized royalty payments over the next few years. Besides, Hero can use Honda technology and brands until 2014. […]

State owned Bank of Baroda on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to sell 51% in its existing credit card subsidiary Bobcards to Spain based BBVA for €34 million, both banks said in a media release. The venture is subject to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Bank of Spain’s approval and is the first foray for the Spanish lender in the Indian retail market. Manuel Galatas, Managing Director, Asia , BBVA said, the alliance “is consistent with their strategy of entering new markets through relationships with a leading local partner […]

Videocon Industries Ltd., India’s biggest consumer-electronics maker, plans to combine its energy assets and sell a stake in the business to help pay debt and fund purchases of oil and gas areas. The company, led by billionaire Venugopal Dhoot, is in talks with investors including Chinese companies for the stake sale, said Suresh M. Hegde, the group’s finance chief. Aurangabad, India-based Videocon may also sell as much as 25 percent stake in the energy unit in an initial public offering within six months “to monetize oil and gas assets,” he said. Videocon is betting state-run Chinese companies, which bid a record $38.8 billion this year to acquire energy assets overseas, will extend their purchasing spree. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who is visiting the South Asian nation this week, said China will seek to boost commerce with India while reducing his country’s $18 billion trade surplus. Chinese investors “give better value than any other investors,” Hegde, said in an interview in his office in Mumbai yesterday. “Chinese demand for oil assets is huge.” He didn’t name the investors. […]