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With the Sensex touching stratospheric levels private equity (PE) investors are adopting a cautious approach towards investment in listed companies. With valuations of listed companies becoming steeper, deals in the unlisted space are likely to find favour with PE investors in the next few months, say PE majors. “At these valuations, some funds are likely to become cautious and may take a stand to be more circumspect. PE funds may reduce investments in public companies,” said the India head of a European PE fund. Though this year has witnessed record PE inflows in Indian companies, PE funds say the next few months are likely to see a slowdown in the number of deals. In the first seven months of 2007, India received more PE funding than both Singapore and Hong Kong markets put together. […]
Japan's largest brokerage house, Nomura Securities, is understood to have backed out of a deal to pick up a strategic stake in India’s leading brokerage, Enam Securtites. Nomura, which has been negotiating with the promoters of Enam for the last few months, seems to have had differences over valuations. “Nomura’s top management team came down from Tokyo to Mumbai last week and held final round negotiations with Enam officials. Nomura finally decided to withdraw,” a source close to the development said. Officials from both Nomura and Enam were unavailable for comment. With an eye on the booming Indian brokerage and investment banking industry, Nomura had earlier said it was in talks with Enam for a potential merger or a strategic stake. The Japanese firm's executive vice-president Hiromi Yamaji had told international news agencies that it was talking to Enam. […]
Gujarat-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals is close to buying an European company that specialises in neurology and opthalmology medicines. The deal, said to be valued at $80 milllion (about Rs 320 crore), will be announced soon. A Cadila executive said that the acquisition would enhance the company’s marketing capabilities in Europe. This will be Cadila’s second overseas facility. Last month, the company had invested $15 million (about Rs 60 crore) to set up a joint venture facility in Ethiopia. As a part of its agressive growth plans, Cadila will develop a state-of-the-art medicine production facility at its pharma special economic zone (SEZ) coming up near Ahmedabad. […]
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. […]
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