Infrastructure finance company Srei will soon be raising a USD 500 million venture capital fund from global investors, to be deployed in domestic projects, a top company official has said. “We will be embarking on roadshows to raise up to USD 500 million from across the world in the next two months,” Srei chairman and managing director Hemant Kanoria said. Srei expects to finish the fund-raising by mid-2012 and will be targeting high networth individuals, pension funds, endowment funds and fund of funds to raise the money, Kanoria said. In spite of the negative buzz in the country following a scams and lack of positive policy measures as well as good governance, Kanoria sounded confident of achieving the targeted amount citing the benefits of the infra sector and the company's deep-rooted presence in it since 1989. […]

India Infrastructure Development Fund (IIDF), an investment arm of UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd, is in advanced talks to purchase a minority stake in IOT Infrastructure and Energy Services Ltd, according to two persons with direct knowledge of the matter. IOT is a joint venture between Indian Oil Corp. Ltd and Germany’s Oiltanking GmbH, the second largest independent tank storage provider for petroleum products, chemicals and gases worldwide. “We are in talks to purchase around 7-8% stake in the company,” said one of the two persons cited above. He declined to reveal the exact investment amount as the deal is yet to be signed, but said it would be less than Rs.150 crore. IIDF declined to comment. […]

Private equity investors Franklin Templeton Private Equity Strategy, a fund managed by Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd; Aureos South Asia Fund and ePlanet Capital have taken up a majority stake in Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based unlisted e-publishing outsourcing firm, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. According to Balaji Srinivas, managing director, Aureos India Advisors Pvt Ltd, the company was convinced about the opportunity in the outsourced publishing space, specifically in the opportunity that presented itself in the digitisation of books. […]

IDBI Bank has bought 10% stake in Universal Commodity Exchange (UCX), which is yet to start operations, for Rs 10 crore, a newspaper reported. The commodity exchange is promoted by IT People, a company that provides software solutions to capital and commodity markets. “The idea behind acquiring equity is to push agricultural loan through this venture,” said the bank's Chairman and Managing Director RM Malla, confirming the development to the newspaper. Moreover, IDBI will be the only bank among promoters and therefore all transactions of the exchange will be routed through IDBI, he said. UCX officials were not immediately available for a comment for this report. […]

Zovi, an online clothing brand in India, has raised $5.5 million from PE firm SAIF Partners and angel investors like MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra. Kalra has also joined the board of the company. The fund will be utilized for the expansion of its supply chain, inventory and product range. Satish Mani, former senior vice-president of Cleartrip, founded Zovi. Its senior management includes Kavindra Mishra and Sartaj Mehta, both from Benetton India. Setup as an entrepreneur-inresidence project (EIR) where the venture fund picks an entrepreneur to execute a pre-conceived idea, the company will showcase men’s apparel designed in-house, such as formal shirts and belts. Mani will drive operations at the company aiming at broadening its product range to club in women’s apparel by end of this year. […]