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Kotak Private Equity Group and Kotak Realty Fund are together looking at investing $300 million in firms in India by the end of this financial year, reports Nishita Saxena in Hyderabad. “Our focus will be on infrastructure, domestic consumption & consumer spending plays besides global manufacturing opportunities. […] Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is picking up a 70% stake in Aadhaar, Godrej Group’s rural retailing initiative. Sources said Aadhaar, a part of Godrej Agrovet, will be spun off into a special purpose vehicle. Godrej Group will hold a 30% stake in the entity. The deal, likely to be done through Pantaloon Retail, is likely to be sealed in a fortnight. The Future Group will initially scale up Aadhaar on the lines of ITC’s e-choupal, as a supply-chain of commodities and agri-produce. Aadhaar may also become a distributor of the group’s financial products like consumer finance and insurance in the rural markets. Sources said the move makes sense for the Godrej Group which may not have been able to allocate the kind of investment required to make the rural retailing business commercially viable. For the Future Group, the move dovetails with its ambitious rural retailing plans. […] Private equity and overseas venture capital investments in Indian Companies could soon be included in foreign direct investment (FDI) caps for each sector. That’s the proposal of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a draft paper issued on Monday, which includes several new entities under the definition of FDI. If implemented, it would be another major step to monitor the flow of foreign capital into the country. The broadening of the class of investors under FDI nomenclature comes at a time when there is growing debate over the role of sovereign wealth funds and the influence they wield on economies, globally. […] Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art has signed an agreement to sell an approximately 9.4 per cent stake to Abraaj Capital, Dubai-based private equity firm, for Rs 80 crore. Osian’s valuation, going by this transaction, is Rs 840 crore. Arif Masood Naqvi, vice chairman and group chief executive officer of Abraaj, will join the Osian’s board. Starting with its first auction in 2000, Osian’s, founded by Neville Tuli, has grown into a unique private-sector art institution straddling various sectors of art, films and lately, sports. There is Osian’s archive of visual and textual material which includes rare etchings, lithographs, maps of India, British Indian photography, popular art, cinema publicity material. In 2004, Osian’s acquired film journal Cinemaya, and took over the organising of Cinefan, the film festival. […] MokshaYug Access (MYA) has received funding of Rs 8.35 crore ($2 million) from a private equity fund Unitus Equity Fund L P (UEF). The investment will enable MYA to build supply chain and infrastructure for dairy farming and healthcare centers, continue to create key market linkages between the rural community and upstream players, strengthen its technological platform to gear the business for volume- driven activities and expand its microfinance arm. MYA will concentrate on developing a franchise model around client-operated healthcare centers and dairy farming units and rolling it out to rural households. MYA will explore partnerships with healthcare service providers and dairy firms to roll out operations in these two verticals. Once a robust business model in dairy and healthcare is in place, MYA plans to roll out an entire range of verticals across rural India to reach one million households by 2010 and five million households by 2013, the company said. […] Future Capital Holdings announced today that the company acquired 50.1% stake of the paid up equity share capital of Centrum Direct and Centrum Wealth Managers, respectively, on Mar. 12, 2008. Future Capital Holdings, a subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail India, is the financial services arm of the Future group registered as a non-banking financial company. In agreement with PRIL, the company provides financial products and services at malls, stores and retail outlets in India which are owned, controlled or managed by PRIL and its subsidiaries. It has an agreement with ICICI Bank for marketing and distributing credit cards offering loyalty points to customers and is finalizing corporate agency terms with group companies for general insurance products and life insurance products. […] Investment firm Quantum Equity Advisors said on Monday it has launched a $500 million private equity fund focused on infrastructure in India. Q India Fund will focus on investments in infrastructure projects and companies in India, it said in a statement. India will need $500 billion to $515 billion up to fiscal year 2011/12 to upgrade its infrastructure, a finance ministry report said recently. It said 30 per cent of the total spending is expected to come from private firms. “This has created a tremendous opportunity for private equity in infrastructure over the coming years,” the statement said. (Sify) […] Global premium lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger, controlled by buyout private equity Apax Partners, is looking at direct ownership of its India operations by bringing in the maximum permissible 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) allowed in single brand retail. Sources said the Amsterdam-based Tommy Hilfiger Europe BV, which has effectively become the global headquarters for the original American designer brand following the Apax takeover, was considering buyout of the perpetual India rights, currently with the Murjani Group. The Murjanis were the investors behind a young Tommy Hilfiger when the American designer introduced his first signature collection back in 1985, just like Gloria Vanderbilt, another global brand the Murjanis helped build around the same time. The Mohan Murjani-led group, after exiting their investments in Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, sewed up a deal to keep the perpetual brand rights for India as well as control over sourcing operations from here. The Murjanis ceded sourcing operations back to Tommy Hilfiger sometime back, but scripted the brand’s retail foray into the country in 2004. […] Cairn India will raise approximately Rs 2,534.60 crore ($625 million) through a private placement with Petronas and Orient Global Tamarind Fund. The investors have agreed to purchase a total of 113 million shares of Cairn India at Rs 224.30 per share. The net proceeds of the private placement will be used to fund capital expenditure and for general corporate purposes. According to a release issued by Cairn India to the BSE today, the company board has approved the placement through a preferential issue of 63.30 million equity shares of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 224.30 per share to Petronas. Orient Global Tamarind Fund will be issued and alloted 49.70 million equity shares at the same price. These shares will be locked in for a period of one year from the date of allotment. Following the private placement, Petronas will own approximately 12.7%, of the equity share capital of Cairn India as enlarged by the private placement and Orient Global Tamarind Fund will own approximately 2.6% of the enlarged equity share capital of Cairn India. […] The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the nodal body for clearing foreign direct investment proposals, has rejected a proposal by Red Fort India Realty Fund (Trust), a registered venture capital fund for real estate investments, to bring in investments from offshore corporate entities owned by non-resident Indians. The FIPB, at its meeting held on March 7, 2008, also deferred a proposal by Singtel Australia Holding to set up a joint venture company with foreign equity up to 74 per cent for offering telecom services. This proposal attracts Press Note 1 of 2005 series as SingTel has a joint venture with Bharti Tele-Ventures. Finance Minister P Chidambaram has approved 18 foreign direct investment proposals amounting to Rs 1,553 crore, based on the FIPB’s recommendations. […] |