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United Spirits (USL) the flagship company of Vijay Mallya has entered into exclusive talks with the world`s largest drinks company, Diageo, for a partnership including a minority stake sale, reports Economic Times. It is learnt that a top Diageo`s team arrived in Mumbai for talks with Mallya and the United Spirits honchos. Diageo could buy 14.99% stake initially and enter the USL board with two representations, besides a distribution partnership in the Indian market. […] Japan’s largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, has announced the acquisition of a 26% stake in Tata Teleservices (TTSL), the Tata group’s telecom arm, which offers CDMA-based services, for $2.7 billion (around Rs 12,770 crore). This marks the Japanese giant’s entry into the world’s fastest-growing telecom market, which has over three times Japan’s subscribers. ET had first reported the possibility of a deal between the two companies in its September 10 edition. The transaction is part of a strategic alliance between DoCoMo and the Tatas, the two companies said on Friday. DoCoMo will also make a joint open offer with Tata Sons to acquire up to 20% of outstanding equity shares of Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML), TTSL’s listed subsidiary. […] Early stage venture capital firm Accel India Venture Fund has closed its second fund of $60 million (Rs292 crore) against its previous fund of $10 million. It is the first new venture fund announced since the market collapse two months ago. The Bangalore-based firm, earlier known as Erasmic Venture Fund was acquired by Palo Alto, California-headquartered Accel Partners in July this year. “The bar was high, but people are convinced that in the long run, they have to be in India,” says Prashanth Prakash, partner, Accel India. A majority of backers for its new fund come from Accel’s global network of limited partners (institutions that back equity funds) in the US, Europe and Asia. They are mostly institutional investors, unlike its previous fund which had several individual angel investors as LPs. Internet search firm Google Inc., which had backed the first fund is not a repeat investor this time. […] The country's largest bank, State Bank of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman's State General Reserve Fund, for a $100 million Indo-Oman joint investment fund, during Prime Minister dr Manmohan Singh's visit to the West Asian Sultanate. The Indo-Oman Joint Investment fund will be used for making investments in infrastructure, tourism, health, telecom, utility and urban infrastructure and other sectors. The fund will have an equity contribution of $100 million or in equivalent currency contributed by both parties equally on mutually agreed terms and conditions. The fund can be enlarged in size to a maximum of $1.5 billion, through long-tenor debt and equity capital in several tranches over the next few years. The agreement also allows both investors to invite other investors to participate in the fund. […] TeleDNA Communications Pvt Ltd, a US and Bangalore-based mobile VAS solution provider, has raised $10 million from Hyderabad based private equity firm Peepul Capital. TeleDNA plans to venture into managed services/MVNO offerings for mobile network operators (MNO), especially in areas like MMS and cell broad cast. It also plans to create revenue generating VAS applications with mature VAS infrastructure products. TeleDNA will also expand its existing sales and support functions. “Company will also venture into Managed Services/MVNO offerings with technologies where operators have not made any significant revenues. For example, MMS and CellBroadCast has not been a success story for network operators due to lack of compelling applications, complications around service subscription, device settings and billing plans,” said Praveen Nallapothula, Managing Director and CEO TeleDNA. […] Super Religare Labs, promoted by the Singh brothers, has acquired Dubai-based Mena Healthcare for $20 million. This is the group’s second acquisition after the promoter’s sold their stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories. Super Religare Labs, formerly SRL Ranbaxy CEO Sanjeev Chaudhry told ET, “We have acquired Mena Healthcare facility in Dubai for $20 million. This is the company’s first overseas acquisition.” In August, Religare Wellnness, (formerly Fortis Healthworld) the pharma retail arm of the group acquired rival firm CRS Health. Malvinder Singh, the joint promoter of the group had earlier said that the group would aggressively pursue expanding in the financial and healthcare services space — both through organic and inorganic route. It is learnt that Super Religare, Religare Wellness and Fortis Healthcare are all scouting for acquisitions in the healthcare space in the domestic market also. The rapid expansion of the group marks a distinct change in the company’s business strategy. Religare has rechristened all its group companies, except Fortis Healthcare, under the Religare brand. […] Ansal API’s 2,500-acre township Megapolis in Dadri, Greater Noida, might see another round of stake dilution in the very first month of the project’s launch. According to sources, State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman is planning to pick a 24.5% stake in the upcoming township, which pegs the total value of the project at Rs 26,500 crore. The total investment in the project was reported at Rs 13,000 crore of which 8.5% was picked up by HDFC AMC for Rs 1,105 crore recently. Another 15% is reportedly being eyed by PE firm Warburg Pincus, and Citigroup. Though sources involved in the discussions confirmed the deal, Ansal API president international marketing Kunal Banerji said: “Two years back, SGRF wanted to make an investment in our SEZ project but nothing materialised. Currently, we are not dealing with them for any new project.” Sources said a big Delhi-based law firm is giving finishing touches to the MoU. […] The financial meltdown has dampened the merger and acquisition spirit in India with companies and private equity (PE) players adopting “extreme caution” in dealmaking. The sudden market crash in the face of a liquidity crunch has impacted M&A plans with some deals even falling apart. Experts at top consultancy firms told TOI that the current sentiment in the M&A space was of “wait and watch” with no company in a hurry to rush through deals. “There are a lot of people who are sitting on cash. But most are in a wait-and-watch mode and are taking time to decide,” Pankaj Karna, Head M&As at Grant Thornton, said. Karna said while good companies are generating interest among suitors, the meltdown had seen the collapse of many deals-in-the-making. “There has been a good excuse for investors to re-negotiate… We have come across situations where due to the changed market conditions, people got cautious and held off (from previously negotiated deals),” Karna added. […] The world's leading private equity firms are reassessing how they invest in India after racking up huge paper losses buying stakes in listed companies. Firms have struggled to deploy capital in India in recent years because of the unwillingness of familyrun companies to sell control, and limits on leverage. The situation led to a huge increase in private investments in public equity, or so-called “Pipe” deals, as private equity firms sought exposure to companies that were among the world's fastest growing. However, the amount invested in Pipe deals has fallen sharply amid the collapse in company stock prices in the wake of the global financial crisis. […] CarWale.com, an automotive Internet portal on Wednesday announced receiving $ 7 million of funding from a venture capital company Sierra Ventures. The company said this funding will be used to fuel it's growth strategy including, expanding sales distribution, increasing marketing efforts, and continuing investment in product activities. Tim Guleri and Vispi Daver of Sierra Ventures will join the company's Board of Directors. CarWale had earlier received seed stage funding from an early stage fund –Seedfund. Pravin Gandhi, Managing Partner Seedfund, represents the firm on the company's Board. […] |