|
|
An investment arm of global private equity firm Warburg Pincus Llc. plans to sell a portion of its equity stake in DB Corp. Ltd, which owns India’s second largest Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, less than two years after it first invested in the company. Cliffrose Investment Ltd, the Mauritius-registered affiliate of Warburg Pincus, is planning to sell only to a so-called third party, or one not associated with the promoters of DB Corp., before the company goes for a proposed sale of shares to the public. Cliffrose, which currently holds a 7.14% stake in DB Corp., has said this in a letter to the company. This information is present in the filing DB Corp. has made to India’s stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, in the run-up to an initial public offering (IPO) of shares. It’s not unusual for private equity firms to cash out of investments ahead of a share sale or even after it, either to make good on their gains, or hedge their bets should the market turn weak. “Such a move does raise the question of why an existing investor wants to sell out if the future of the company is bright. However, I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact. At the end of the day, it all boils down to the price band, or at what valuation the IPO is being offered. If the firm’s fundamentals are strong, just because a foreign investor sold a bit of their stake, the IPO is not going to be adversely impacted,” said Hitesh Agrawal, head of research, Angel Broking Ltd. […]
The US-listed hedge fund manager GLG Partners is set to join the gold rush for deals in China and India, after buying a 29 per cent stake in a local private equity group. The alternative asset manager yesterday announced it had paid £17.1m for the holding in Origo Sino-India, an investment and strategic consulting company focused on the private equity markets in the two emerging markets. It is GLG's first move to establish a presence in the region. The groups have signed a memorandum of understanding to target asset management and advisory opportunities in China, India and other emerging markets. One source close to the group said it was the sensible move for GLG, despite the relatively small size of Origo: “These guys have an impressive network in China and India – their contacts are top notch. It means GLG don't have to enter the markets and build a business from nothing.” […]
Helion Venture Partners, an India-focussed venture fund, on Tuesday announced the closing of its second fund of $210 million. The company had raised its first fund of $140 million during late 2006. Helion also announced that it would now expand its focus sectors to include companies in the consumer services space. This would include high-potential companies in sectors like retail services, education and financial services. “Helion will continue its focus on technology-powered businesses even as we expand our focus into consumer services. Factors like the rapid increase in mobile and Internet penetration in India are further paving the way for innovative technology products and services that to cater to the domestic market. In addition, domain-focused outsourcing and technology products continue to be focus sectors,” said Ashish Gupta, managing director, Helion Venture Partners. […]
Piramal group firm Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt Ltd plans to raise up to $800 million through a second global fund before April, a top official said on Tuesday. UK’s 3i has already committed $250 million to the fund which will invest in the Indian real estate sector, he said at a conference to launch the group’s new corporate identity. “Since it is a global fund … we need approvals to launch in different countries,” said group chairman, Ajay Piramal. “It should not be more than April, I guess.” Indiareit currently manages about $450 million raised through two series of funds in the domestic market and one in the overseas market. Separately, he added analysts had valued the pipeline of drugs under development at the research entity, which was recently spun off from group flagship Nicholas Piramal India Ltd at $480 million to $540 million. The research unit, to be called Piramal Life Sciences Ltd, is expected to be listed on the stock exchange by June. Piramal has said the founders could dilute about 10% stake in the research unit to private equity players or strategic investors, including international drug companies, over the next 12 months. Top Indian firms including Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Ranbaxy have chosen to spin off their research into separate units to help lower risk from high drug development costs and unlock value. Piramal group has decided to bring all its group companies under the Piramal brand name, subject to shareholder and central government approvals. Flagship Nicholas Piramal India will be renamed Piramal Healthcare Ltd and Gujarat Glass Ltd will now be Piramal Glass Ltd. […]
A group of institutional investorsand a start-up firm run by country's top B-school IIM-A alumni, Educational Initiatives Pvt Ltd (EI), have entered into a strategic tie-up for a project on school education and assessment. A consortium of investors including Footprint Ventures, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, the ICICI Bank-supported IFMR Trust and industrialist Gautam Thapar have joined hands with EI to fund the latter's project. EI's ASSET test, which is expected to be taken by hundreds of thousands of students in India this year, is the company's core initiative. EI executes large scale assessment and research projects with contracts from agencies such as the World Bank, UNICEF, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. “In the schools, efforts to shift from rote to learning by understanding makes for a great starting point,” said EI's managing director, Sridhar Rajagopalan. […]
After life insurance and property services, $4.5-billion Old Mutual is planning to invest in retail-related real estate assets in India through a property fund. The property arm, the South Africa-based Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI) and a Mumbai-based real estate company ICS Realty, have promoted a $500 million property fund, which is expected to close by March 31. The fund, called Triangle India Real Estate Fund, is aiming at investors (both high net worth individuals and institutions) in Europe, West Asia and South Africa. ‘‘We are targeting returns of 20 per cent to 30 per cent,’’ said Deep Kantawala, director of Property Zone, the advisor to the fund in India. The fund has an eight-year term, with an option to extend it by two years. Though the fund has a mandate to invest in retail, commercial and hospitality sectors, it would put 60 per cent of its corpus in the retail sector to take advantage of the merchandising boom in the country. […]
Brokerage firm Religare Enterprises has entered into a partnership with Vistaar Entertainment Ventures to launch India’s first regulated film fund — Vistaar Religare Film Fund (VRFF). It has filed for approval with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as a Venture Capital Fund (VCF). The close-ended fund is expected to have an initial corpus of about Rs 200 crore, with a 5-year lock-in period. The plan is to look at funding and green-lighting various films, and each film will have a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the stakeholders being the fund along with the producer, director and writer. The attempt is to provide a platform for new directors, talent and writers. […]
With the growing attention on climate change and perceptible impact of global warming, the launch of Carbon funds is the order of the day. The latest to join the bandwagon is Green Ventures International, with its $300 million India Carbon Fund I. The fund happens to be the first of its kind in India. It will buy CERs (carbon emission reductions) or carbon credits from companies operating under CDM (clean development mechanism) and then sell them to buyers in Europe. On the other hand, most green funds generally invest in clean-tech companies. The fund has a five-year duration and the LPs (limited partners in the fund) are mostly institutional investors and fund of funds (FoFs) from the US. The Indian LPs have not been roped in, according to Vinay Bharthwaj, director, Green Ventures India, as “there is hardly any awareness in India about such funds and the carbon credit market. So it is better to have informed investors”. However, the fund is in talks with some well-known wealth management companies in India for future investments. It is expecting a return of 25 per cent from this fund and plans to launch another billion dollar fund focussed on the Indian market. […]
Larsen & Toubro, the diversified engineering to IT company, is entering the private equity space with a staggering Rs 4500 crore ($1 billion-plus) fund that will invest in real estate-related infrastructure projects. L&T is the latest industrial house to set up a realty fund for investing in the country’s booming real estate sector. Modeled on the lines of Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Capital’s Kshitij, L&T’s real estate fund has an anchor investment of about $200 million, through its subsidiary L&T IDPL (Infrastructure Development Projects), a source familiar with the plan said. India’s largest industrial house, the Tata group has also floated a realty fund with the Xander Group, a global private equity company. L&T’s head of mergers and acquisitions practice N Sivaraman is driving the initiative. The company has reportedly raised the money from US and European markets. […]
What could have been one of the largest private equity deals in India has come unstuck. ICICI Venture and Jaypee Infratech have terminated negotiations for the PE player buying close to 10-15% stake for $800 million in the infrastructure company, which is developing project worth Rs 1 lakh crore. The deal could have given Jaypee Infratech a valuation in excess of Rs 30,000 crore. “ICICI Venture is not investing in Jaypee Infratech. We were looking at getting a strategic investor in the firm, but have put our plan on hold for now,” Jaiprakash Associates (JAL) executive chairman Manoj Gaur told ET. Jaypee Infratech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JAL and the original plan was for investors to acquire 44% stake in the company through allotment of new shares. But now JAL plans to invest up to Rs 440 crore to acquire 44 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each at par, in one or more tranches in Jaypee Infratech. The additional shares JAL is subscribing were originally meant for strategic investors, Mr Gaur said, adding that “since the strategic investment has been put on hold, JAL has initiated action to subscribe to these shares.” […]
|
Post your messages.Please refrain from posting offensive messages. IndiaPE accepts no liability for the consequences of your reliance on these postings and messages.
|