Leading foreign funds Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and billionaire investor George Soros’ hedge fund Quantum (M) have picked up stakes in Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) through a qualified institutional placement (QIP). The three global investors together bought four crore shares, roughly 26% of the 15.8 crore-share placement, for Rs 680 crore, according to disclosures filed with the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Morgan Stanley now holds 3.5% of IDFC’s diluted equity capital. Fidelity and Quantum (M) own a little less than 1% each in the company. IDFC shares have been rising over the past few weeks and are now quoting at a decent premium to the QIP price. The stock closed at Rs 195 on Friday, while the shares were placed with the institutional investors at Rs 168.25 apiece. […]

The Ruia Group, known for its buying spree, could acquire a European auto component company soon, chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia said. “We are trying to close a deal very soon in one of the auto component companies in Europe. In Europe, a lot of companies are up for sale. We are working on some projects,” Ruia told IANS in an interview here. The company, which is looking at two-three European companies, has acquired British auto component company Schlegel Automotive Europe Ltd and Germany's leading automotive sealing systems company, Henniges Automotive Grefarth GmbH, in 2009. “Both the companies in the UK and Germany are doing very well right now. Fortunately they are getting orders from the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).” […]

RSWM Ltd said it will divest its stake in Bhilwara Energy Ltd (BEL) to two foreign investors as part of its plan to fund its power projects in India and Nepal. This will reduce RSWM’s stake in BEL to 17.4% from 19.5% through divestment of 10.8% stake by BEL for Rs230 crore, it said in a regulatory filing. BEL will sell its 10.85 stake to two investors Washington-based IFC and India Clean Energy Fund for $50 million ($25 million each by both the parties) taking total foreign investment in the company to 17%. Other LNJ Bhilwara Group companies, HEG Ltd and RSWM hold 28.9% and 19.5% respectively in BEL before current round of dilution. The balance is held by the promoters directly. […]

As part of the growth plans, IT hardware and electronic firm Intex Technologies is planning to secure $65 mmillion from private equity investors in the next three-five years. The company is targeting a 100 percent growth in revenues for 2010-11 to Rs. 1,200 crore from Rs. 593 crore, reports Kirtika Suneja of Business Standard. The company has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 38 percent over the last five years. “We are looking at a five-year plan for PE funding and are in talks with six PE players as of now before we go for an initial public offering (IPO). We will also be ploughing back some resources. Also, we are looking for strategic PE investors and not only a financial investor,” said Ramesh A Vaswani, Executive Vice Chairman, Intex. As for the IPO, Intex plans to get listed on Indian stock exchanges in the first phase before it looks at other bourses. Moreover, the company is eyeing huge revenue growth from its small format retail stores, called Intex Square, which are 18 in number but will rise to 100 by March next year. […]

Healthcare major Fortis, along with the family of promoters including Malvinder Singh, has made a counter bid for Parkway Holdings, valuing it at $3.1 billion. This has been done so that they can stop the bid process of their Malaysian competitor, Khazanah for the Singaporean hospital chain. The step comes after Fortis was surprised by Khazanah bidding for the chain for $835 million as initial offer during May. Fortis is a stakeholder in Parkway and holds 25 per cent stake. Khazanah, on the other hand, is a majority stakeholder and owns 51.5 per cent in it. Some analysts believe Fortis is trying to test the market and that is why it waited for so long before making its own bid. […]