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Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro on Thursday said it would acquire Tamco Switchgear Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the de-merged switchgear business of Malaysia-based Tamco Corporate Holdings Bhd. In this regard, the firm entered into a share sale agreement with Tamco Corporate Holdings Bhd in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, according to a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange. However, the financial details of the deal were not disclosed. “Tamco has a strong presence in the medium voltage (MV) category. With this acquisition, L&T will be able to offer a comprehensive range of MV switchgears in the domestic as well as international markets. This deal meets our requirements on both fronts of technology acquisition and market access. “L&T's process improvement initiatives will help achieve cost efficiency and contribute to synergy benefits,” said L&T President (Operations) and Member of the Board R N Mukhija. Tamco is a major player in MV switchgear in Malaysia. The Middle East and Malaysia together contribute to over 50 per cent of its revenues. […]
Private equity has come a long way since the days of Technology Development and Information Company of India (TDICI), the first Indian company with a mandate to do venture capital, that was floated jointly by ICICI and UTI in the late 1980s. The quarter to September 2007 saw $3.52 billion worth of private equity deals in India – something TDICI's first president and chief executive officer Kiran Nadkarni could not have imagined in those in his wildest dreams. Nadkarni moved on and TDICI became ICICI Venture in the mid-1990s. But that's another story. Cutting to the chase, private equity is gaining juggernaut proportions in India. Private equity is a broad term which means shares of a company that are not listed on an exchange. So traditionally, those who buy such shares are called private equity investors, and, according to a recent study by Evalueserve, there are 366 of such entities operating in India. […]
A clutch of investors are understood to have evinced interest in the country’s largest urban housing project. Five Private Equity (PE) firms, including Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs and AIG, are mulling exposure in the Rs 62,000-crore Satyagriha project involving around 20 realty developers across 15 Indian cities, sources said. India’s biggest private sector housing venture is expected to develop 342,000 homes priced between Rs 7-75 to Rs 22. 25 lakh over the next six years. The project is being marketed and managed by Bangalore-based Asipac Projects, and is expected to kick off in Jaipur later this month. The total land under development for the project is 634 acres. Besides Warburg, Goldman and AIG, two other funds, Barings Asia and Lightspeed Ventures, have also shown preliminary interest in picking up stake in the master asset holding company of the project, sources added. Sources said some of the bigger PEs could take an exposure of around $300 million initially. It is believed that a relatively smaller fund like Lightspeed could look at sewing up a consortium play targeted at one segment of the project development. It is possible that the project with a unified procurement, marketing and sales strategy might have multiple asset management companies. For instance, procurement alone could look at big-ticket investors given its Rs 24,500 crore size over a six year period, sources added. When contacted, Asipac Chairman Amit Bagaria declined to comment. The first phase of the Satyagriha project will include 64,000 homes spread over 18 projects in 10 cities. […]
Private equity interest in microfinance institutions (MFIs) is reaching a crescendo with heavyweights such as Blackstone and Carlyle willing to invest in the sector. Both these groups have shown interest in putting money into MFIs, said a source close to the development. The quantum of investments may be upwards of $20 million. The target firms are not yet clear. “They are keen on making huge investments, but they are yet to decide on the MFIs. Since most of the big MFIs are saturated with funds, they may need to look at multiple investments in smaller MFIs,” the source said. There nearly 15-20 serious funds in the sector, but very few look at tier 2 and 3 categories of MFIs. While the Blackstone group refused to comment, a spokesperson at Carlyle was unavailable for comment. “PE investors look at hard growth numbers and these organisations throw up incredible growth figures, year after year. With a CAGR of 100%, this sector is very attractive,” he added. Of the 200 odd MFIs in the country, only the top 10 corner most of the funds. PE investors find it a daunting task to zero in on credible investments. […]
The Gujarat-based milk cooperative Amul, leading maker of ice-creams in the country, has expressed willingness to buy a stake in Vanilla India Producer Company Limited (Vanilco), a producer company based in Kochi that has about 2,500 farmers as members. Amul has also agreed to buy Rs. 3.10 crore worth of natural vanillin extract from Vanilco. The order, biggest in Vanilco’s history, will result in the off-take of the entire stock of cured vanilla beans with the producer company, said Paul Jose, managing director of the company here. The deal with Amul was clinched after discussions with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi, he added. Amul officials assured Vanilco that the subsidy the cooperative gets from the government will be used for promoting natural vanillin, said a communication from Vanilco here. It has also been decided that synthetic vanillin will be phased out from Amul ice-creams within one year, the communication added. […]
Gitanjali Gems is betting big on the US retail market. After taking over Samuels Jewellers in December 2006, the firm is now close to acquiring another leading jewellery retailer for around $100 million. Sources close to the deal said the due diligence process is almost complete, and the company is going ahead with the transaction. “It’s one of the leading jewellery retailers having over 100 outlets across the country. The deal will be completed in two months,” said sources. The company is being advised by Keynote, a Mumbai-based boutique investment bank. Gitanjali shares rose marginally to close at Rs 361 on Thursday. The Mumbai-based company has also lined up plans to raise capital for its proposed acquisition and domestic expansion. The firm wants to raise $100 million through a global depository receipt (GDR) issue. It has also proposed to issue 10 million convertible equity warrants on preferential basis to the promoters and raise around Rs 320 crore. An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) has been called on November 3 to consider the fund-raising plans. […]
Tourism Finance Corp. of India, which has funded the world's top-rated spa, plans to sell shares and set up a $100 million private equity fund to buy stakes in hotels catering to domestic travelers, the chairman said. The money for the seven-year fund will be raised from banks and high-net-worth individuals, Archana Capoor, chairman and managing director, said in an interview in New Delhi, where the company is based. Tourism Finance plans to sell new shares to select investors to more than double its equity capital. A doubling in India's middle class, estimated at 50 million by McKinsey & Co., has in the past decade spurred demand for hotels and resorts, driving an almost threefold rise in Tourism Finance's shares this year. ITC Ltd., the Indian partner of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., is expanding its brand of cheaper lodgings to 100 to tap demand in smaller towns. “The future growth is not in the eight big cities, the growth is in the smaller towns,'' Capoor said yesterday. “If someone wants to set up a chain of hotels, it's one of the best models. You can't have all your eggs in one basket.'' […]
Sabre Capital Worldwide, backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings, is in talks with Cholamandalam DBS Finance Ltd to buy the latter's fund firm, the Economic Times said quoting unamed sources on Thursday. The deal to acquire DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management was likely to be worth around 4 billion rupees, the paper said, adding a few other investors were also in the fray. Sabre Capital, founded by former Standard Chartered chief executive Rana Talwar, and Fullerton Fund Management, a unit of Temasek, jointly own Lotus India Asset Management which managed 64 billion rupees at September-end. If the deal goes through, the 38-billion-rupee DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management could be marged with Lotus mutual, the report said quoting sources. Spokesmen at both fund houses could not be reached for comment immediately. (Reuters) […]
India's pharmaceutical major Lupin Ltd on Wednesday said it had acquired a majority stake in Japan-based generic drug company Kyowa Pharmaceutical Industry for an undisclosed amount, news reports said. “This is a very significant part of our strategy to tap leading global markets. It establishes a beachhead in the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world,” Lupin Chairman Desh Bandhu Gupta was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency. Lupin did not give any financial details, but CNBC-TV 18 network said the company paid 60 million dollars for the buy-out. Kyowa has strengths in product development, manufacturing and marketing of its products in Japan. The product range of the company varies from psychiatry to cardiovascular and digestive portfolio, and comes under the brand name Amel. […]
The infrastructure funding story is getting better and better. After raising $192 million and $440 million for its first and second funds respectively, IDFC Private Equity, the PE arm and wholly owned subsidiary of Infrastructure and Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), is expected to raise $700 million for its third fund. According to industry information, the company is expected to take a call on the size of its third fund by the end of December 2007, when 75 per cent of its second fund will be committed. A spokesperson could not be contacted for official comments. IDFC PE was set up in 2002 and in a span of five years has entrenched itself in the PE sector by funding notable deals such as Manipal Group’s education and healthcare expansion, Gujarat Pipavav Port, GMR Infrastructure besides Hotel Leelaventure. Industry information further indicate that global Fund of Funds as Thomas Weisel is expected to have shown further interest in the third fund being planned by IDFC PE. In addition to this, NEA Ventures, an existing investor is also expected to come back. […]
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