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The Bangalore-based QVC Realty Pvt. Ltd, India’s first venture capital funded real estate company is looking to raise around $100-$200 million (Rs390-780 crore) in a second round of funding from private equity firms. QVC raised $100 million of venture capital funding in April this year from IL&FS Investment Managers (IIML), the private equity arm of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. IIML raised $525 million in 2006 to invest in the Indian realty sector, and holds a majority stake in QVC. The company is now looking at raising more capital to fund its expansion plans. “We will look at raising capital in a second round of funding sometime towards the end of next year to fund our projects,” Prakash Gurbaxani, founder and CEO of QVC Realty said. QVC will use the capital to develop real estate assets including residential townships and commercial property including retail spaces and hotels. The focus will, however, be on developing large integrated townships. QVC plans to develop around 6-10 million sq. ft of property over the next five years in markets such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and tier 2 or smaller cities such as Kolkata, Chandigarh, Nagpur and Kochi. (Livemint) […]
UK-based Cookson Group Plc on Friday made an open offer to shareholders of Foseco India for acquiring a 20 per cent stake in the company for Rs 53.64 crore. Cookson Group Plc would acquire up to 1,277,292 equity shares, representing around 20 per cent stake in Foseco India, at Rs 420 per share. The offer would open on December 5 and would close on December 24, Cookson said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. […]
CNBC-TV18 learns that UK-based Capita likely to buy Prudential's Indian BPO. The deal size is about USD 80-100 million. Prudential's Indian BPO staff strength is 1,800. This news is entirely source-based and we do not have an official conformation from either of the two parties. Prudential said that they do not comment on market rumors or speculation and Capita did not offer any comments at all. Sources added that the deal value could be anywhere between USD 80-100 million and Prudential’s Indian BPO employees are about 1,800 people. Prudential has about 20 million customers worldwide and manages assets of about 250 billion pounds globally. So, that is the kind of business that the center does in India. Capita did have a JV with Mastek. It does currently have and owns about 90% of the JV. They have 42 centers globally and two centers again in India. (Money Control) […]
Partner may be international player with presence in developed markets. UTI Mutual Fund, owned equally by Life Insurance Corporation and three public sector banks, is likely to rope in a strategic partner by offering 15 per cent equity in the Asset Management Company, ahead of its Rs 2,000 crore ($ 500 million) initial public offering (IPO). The strategic partner is likely to be an international player, having a presence in developed markets, said sources. According to the plans, the country’s oldest fund house, which nearly collapsed at the height of the Ketan Parekh-scam of early 2000 due to bad investments in several penny stocks, plans to issue fresh shares to the strategic partner. The strategic partner would be offered a slot on the UTI AMC board with a view to bringing in technology expertise and international knowhow, among other things. […]
The Anand Jain promoted Jai Corp Ltd, which has been traditionally into manufacturing businesses like steel, plastic processing and spinning yarn, is planning to raise a venture capital corpus of Rs 40,000 crore through its wholly owned subsidiary, Urban Infrastructure Venture Capital (Pvt) Ltd. Jai Corp has already committed a capital of Rs 22,000 crore in 12 cities in India. The major investments would be in multiuse projects and townships (22% each), residential (15%) commercial (14%), industrial township (12%) and hospitality (6%). UIVCPL will be a venture capital company with a focus on the real estate sector. […]
ItzCash Card Ltd, the prepaid cash card company that is part of the Essel Group, has received a $10 million private equity (PE) investment from Matrix Partners and Intel Capital. Matrix Partners India is headed by Avnish Bajaj, the co-founder of Baaze.com, which was acquired by online and shopping website eBay. US-based Intel Capital is the venture capital organisation of Intel Corp and its investments around the world are worth $1.89 billion. Ashok Goel, chairman, ItzCash Card Ltd, told DNA Money that the funding was necessary to gauge the value of the company. He, however, did not divulge the current value of the company. “We thought this was the best way (PE funding) because the other alternatives were an IPO or a paid valuation research by companies like KPMG,” Goel said. When asked about how this funding would be utilised, Goel said: “We plan to use this investment to expand from the online space to the physical space.” […]
What is rising besides the Sensex and real estate prices? The answer could be valuations of retail broking houses. Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC) has bought a 12.5% stake in Angel Broking, a Mumbai-based stock broking firm, for around Rs 150 crore. IFC is the investment arm of World Bank. The deal, managed by Rothschild, pegs the enterprise value of the broking firm at around Rs 1,200 crore. Angel Broking has already finalised the deal, and the company board is expected to meet soon to approve the IFC’s investment proposal, according to sources involved with the development. Industry sources pointed out that Angel’s valuation is much higher than that of Sharekhan, a retail arm of SSKI, which is estimated to be in the region of Rs 650-700 crore. SSKI promoters are believed to have sold a majority stake in Sharekhan to Citigroup Venture Capital International. While a total of 12 investors had participated in Angel’s bidding process, three of them were shortlisted for final round of negotiation. The highest bid was 10-12% higher than what IFC offered to pay, said sources. However, the promoters of Angel decided to go ahead with IFC. […]
Escalating interest rates, perception of a real estate asset bubble and aftershocks of US subprime credit defaults have not dampened the spirits of overseas funds looking to invest in the Indian realty sector. In the past nine months, overseas funds have raised around $2.4 billion towards investment in real estate projects; and if estimates are to be believed another $1.1 billion will flow in before the end of this year — taking the grand total to a whopping $3.5 billion. Real estate fund-raising continues to boom in 2007 following strong returns from real estate firms. According to the London-based Private Equity Intelligence (Preqin), 88 new funds have raised an aggregate $59 billion this year as compared with $72 billion by 116 new funds in the whole of 2006. Although firms are raising record amounts of capital, there are now more funds on the road than ever. Over 200 funds are looking to deploy an aggregate $105 billion in the sector across the world in 2008. This is thrice the amount raised as recently as January 2007, and a massive six times increase from January 2006, says a Preqin study. […]
When it comes to project financing, realty-focused private equity funds are churning out the dollars. JP Morgan's USD 360 million India-focused fund has made its largest investment so far in an IT park in Navi Mumbai. This 40-acre plot, near Patni Knowledge Park in Airoli, in Navi Mumbai, will soon host a sprawling IT park. JP Morgan's realty fund will cash in on demand from it and ITES companies to shift to such cheaper locations. The fund will invest Rs 100 crore or over USD 25 million in the development. We hear JP Morgan's property fund will buy 40% in the 4.5 million-square-foot IT park, to be developed on this plot by the B Raheja Group. Although the Rahejas and JP Morgan have refused to comment on the deal, according to sources, B Raheja will consider applying for an IT SEZ notification for this development. The B Raheja Group recently received an investment of USD 45 million from US-based investment banker Wachovia, for two projects in Bangalore. And JP Morgan's realty fund has invested USD 10 million each in Hyderabad-based Modi Developers and Chennai Based Arihant Foundations for middle-income group housing. The fund is also about to finalise an investment in an IT-cum-residential complex in Kolkata's new town Rajarhat with Unicon Builders.(Money Control) […]
Hyderabad-based venture capital investor Ventureast Funds, the former joint venture with Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corp. Ltd (APIDC), plans to raise new funds worth $150 million (around Rs590 crore) by March. The firm, which currently manages $150 million, “plans to double the capital under management”, said Sarath Naru, managing director, Ventureast. Among the funds planned, two will focus exclusively on life sciences and information technology (IT), respectively. The life sciences fund will be branded under the APIDC umbrella and the IT-focused fund under the Ventureast brand. The firm, formally registered as APIDC Venture Capital Ltd, manages funds under both brands. While it is still working on the details, the IT fund will be managed out of its Chennai office, while the life sciences fund will operate from Hyderabad. The new funds will have repeat investors, Naru said. Current investors include domestic investors such as Andhra Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Life Insurance Corp., and overseas investors such as IFC Washington, Saudi Economic and Development Co. (Saudi Arabia) and Norfund (Norway). Ventureast, an outfit that Naru founded, set up its first fund in the country in 1997 as a joint venture with APIDC, when the state government outfit decided to partially privatize its venture capital operations. At the time, APIDC owned a 49% stake in APIDC Venture. […]
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