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MCX-SX promoters to sell 45%

The promoters of India's newest stock exchange are set to sell 45% of its equity to a consortium of three global stock exchanges and six global funds, a sale that will take the exchange one step closer to getting regulatory approval for equities trading and thus turn further the heat on the two warring incumbents, National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. A person with knowledge of the deal said the list of buyers include London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange-owned NYSE Euronext, US-based General Atlantic Llc, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital Management Lp, a fund owned by Fidelity International Ltd, and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd. The nine buyers will own 5% each of the stock exchange, the maximum allowed to them by local regulations. The deal will value MCX-Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) at Rs5,000 crore, exactly the same valuation during earlier share sales in 2009. […]

Indian private equity ventures into the neighbourhood

Pakistan’s largest private school chain, Beaconhouse School System, and Indian private equity (PE) firm New Silk Route Partners (NSR) have a unique relationship. The Lahore school, run by the Kasuri family, one of the oldest political families in Pakistan, raised money from NSR a couple of years ago and in turn gave the PE firm its first taste of investing in India’s troubled neighbourhood. NSR now wants to invest one-third of its $1.4 billion (Rs6,510 crore) corpus in firms in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh—the fear of risks bowing to the draw of higher returns. And with Sri Lanka more stable after ending decades of internal strife with the Tamil Tiger rebels, NSR is already evaluating potential deals with mobile phone companies and banks in the island nation. The Beaconhouse deal, in a way, set a trend for India-centric funds to look at the country’s neighbours and other developing nations in Asia for high-return deals. […]

Bharti bid for Kuwait's phone company

Zain, Kuwait’s biggest phone company, received a formal $10.7 billion offer from Bharti Airtel Ltd. for most of its African assets, Al-Rai reported, without saying where it got the information. The offer, which does not include purchasing Zain’s operations in Sudan, is to be discussed soon in a Zain board meeting, the newspaper said. Zain spokesman Ibrahim Adel declined to comment on the report when contacted by Bloomberg News today. Bharti spokesman Senjam Raj Sekhar didn’t respond to calls made to his mobile phone. […]

Dhanlaxmi Bank plans to acquire 70% in a fund

Private sector lender Dhanlaxmi Bank plans to acquire about 70 per cent stake in a mutual fund, a top bank official said here on Thursday. “We plan to acquire 70 per cent stake in an existing mutual fund and expect approval for the same from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by next week,” Dhanlakshmi Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Chaturvedi told reporters on the sidelines of a press meet here. […]

IPL teams become hot commodity

As the Twenty20 format Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament draws closer, the buzz around team owners selling partial or even full stakes in their franchises gets stronger. Leading the pack are Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils, which are reported to be in advanced discussions with prospective investors. Although two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd officially denied Wednesday morning’s media report that it was buying out Kings XI Punjab for $260 million (Rs1,212 crore), the team—owned by a consortium of investors, including Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta and Mohit Burman—did not dismiss the possibility of a stake sale completely. “We are on the lookout for serious investors and have been in discussion with several interested parties, including two to three foreign entities,” said Burman, board member of Dabur India Ltd and director and co-owner of Kings XI. “But we have not finalized anything. There is nothing on paper.” […]

ICEX founders to divest 5% stake to internatinal bourse

The promoters of Indian Commodity Exchange Ltd, (ICEX) the country's third-biggest bourse, may sell about 5% stake to an overseas exchange in the next six months, a top official told Reuters on Thursday. ICEX, whose owners include Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd. and MMTC Ltd, offers contracts primarily in metals and energy, and was the fourth bourse to begin operations in the country. “We are looking at divesting about 5% stake to a strategic partner, which helps us grow, we are looking at international exchanges,” Ajit Mittal, chief executive officer of ICEX, told Reuters in an interview. […]

Tikona raises Rs 500 cr from PE cos

Tikona Digital Networks, the wireless Internet broadband service provider, said on Wednesday that it has offloaded a 70% stake to three private equity investors, including Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Indivision India Partners and Oak India Investments, and has secured funds to the tune of Rs 500 crore to fund its expansion plans. The broadband service provider will use the funds to expand its network coverage to 50 cities by 2010 from 10 cities, currently including Mumbai and Hyderabad. Tikona was founded in 2008 by former Reliance Communication management members — Rajesh Tiwari and Prakash Bajpai. While Bajpai was serving as the president and CEO at Reliance Communications’ broadband division, Rajesh Tiwari was the group director at Reliance-ADAG. Both quit the firm in late 2007 to started their own venture. […]

GMR looks to raise Rs 1,500 cr from PE cos

Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure is in advanced discussions with a couple of private equity funds to raise nearly Rs 1,500 crore for its power subsidiary GMR Energy, to enable it to fund its planned expansion. Refusing to close the names of the PE firms and the exact quantum of funds, citing a non-disclosure agreement, group chairman GM Rao told ET that the deal would be closed in the next two weeks. Kotak Mahindra Capital and Rothschild are advising the group on the fund-raising. A source close to the development said the instrument for fund-raising would be a combination of equity and debt and not plain vanilla equity financing. […]

Nalanda Capital gets Rs 2.86 bn from Sun TV stake sale

Singapore-based Nalanda Capital has sold most of its stake in Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV Network Ltd for Rs 2.86 billion. On Wednesday, Nalanda Capital sold 7.73 million shares for a price of Rs 370 per share, more than double of what it had invested to pick up the stake. The bulk deal was executed at the BSE. […]

Education to get boost on govt reform

India's education sector is likely to see heavy investments from private equity funds over the next couple of years betting on increased government spending and as private players plan expansions, officials said. The sector, pegged at USD 86 billion, is seeing fresh interest from foreigners and large funds who are pumping in money in services, technology and infrastructure, they added. “The education market in India is roughly worth USD 50 billion in the private sector and all parts of the educational value chain are offering good investment opportunities,” said Rajesh Singhal, managing partner of private equity firm Milestone Religare Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd. […]