The all-share merger deal valued at about Rs 8,500 crore between the two Mukesh Ambani group firms, RIL and RPL, has become probably the 10th-biggest ever for the country and the first billion-dollar deal this year. As per the merger deal approved by the boards of Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum, shareholders will get one RIL share for every 16 RPL shares – resulting into issuance of 6.92 crore new shares by RIL. The new RIL shares to be issued as part of the merger would be worth Rs 8,478 crore (about $1.69 billion) at the current market price. RIL shares today dropped 3.15 per cent to Rs 1,225.15. This is the only billion-dollar M&A deal announced by an Indian entity so far this year. Prior to this, the biggest M&A deal for the year was Quippo Telecom's 49 per cent purchase in Tata Tele's telecom tower arm for 533 milllion dollar. […]

Dish TV India Ltd is in talks with private equity firms for a stake sale, a top official said on Thursday. “The talks are on but I will not be able to declare anything for the next two months,” Managing Director Jawahar Goel told television channel NDTV Profit. The direct-to-home satellite services operator is also passing on the service tax cut to its consumers,”the 2 percent service tax we have passed on to the consumer.” Earlier this week the government reduced service tax by 200 basis points to 10 percent and trimmed the central excise duty to 8 percent to raise demand for Indian goods and services in an economy facing a slowdown.(Reuters) […]

With a view to have a pan-India footprint, hospitality major Panoramic Universal is planning to develop two exclusive properties in Hyderabad and Jaipur and is in talks with private equity players for raising Rs 50 crore. “We plan to raise Rs 50 crore and are in talks with private equity players and institutional investors. The deal should be sealed soon,” Panoramic Universal's Senior Vice President (Finance & Operations) Utpal Parekh told PTI here. Initial discussions with several investors have already been done, he said, adding, “We will dilute at the right valuation.” Panoramic Universal has adopted the inorganic route for expansion and recently acquired three hotels in the country taking its total chain to 11 across India, US and New Zealand. The company acquired a controlling stake of a semi-finished hotel in Hyderabad called Sri Vatsa Hotels for Rs 20 crore last year. It intends to convert this property into a 90-room four star hotel. […]

United Spirits, the Indian drinks giant controlled by flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya, may be prepared to sell a 15%-plus stake and give board representation to Diageo in a move aimed at reducing the Bangalore behemoth's debts, it emerged yesterday. However, both Mallya, often cited as India's version of Richard Branson, and Diageo, the world's largest alcoholic drinks group, insisted there was no certainty a deal would struck over talks that began between the two parties last year. In recent months, media reports have intensified claiming that Mallya would use the proceeds from the stake sale to reduce debts of around £835m largely from its near-£700m acquisi- tion of Glasgow-based distiller Whyte & Mackay in 2007. […]

Microsoft India has picked up 20% stake in Affle, a mobile application provider, its chief executive of Affle said. The company is also in advanced stages to close an acquisition deal with an Indian VAS player. “Microsoft's investment is important to us. We will be able to expand in regions like Europe, US and Australia where we don't have any presence,” Affle CEO Anuj Khanna told ET. Earlier, the company had received investments worth $10 million from Singapore based PE firms and some individual investors in India. […]