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Arysta, the target, is a leading crop protection and life sciences firm. Another big-ticket global acquisition by an Indian company is brewing. United Phosphorus and Tata Group enterprise Rallis India are in the race to acquire the world’s largest privately held crop protection and life sciences firm, Arysta LifeScience Corporation, from private equity firm Olympus Capital Holdings. Sources close to the development said these two Indian companies were among the six contenders for the Tokyo-based firm. The acquisition is expected to cost nearly $2 billion (Rs 8,200 crore), or nearly double Arysta's turnover of 124.1 billion yen (Rs 4,400 crore) last year. Other bidders include an Israeli firm, Australia’s Nufarm and Blackstone, the global private equity fund. “Six companies have been invited to submit their non-binding bids. A decision on the sale of Arysta is expected by the end of October,” said a banker in the know of the developments. […]
India ranks second in capital market inflows and fourth in merger and acquisition deals in Asia Pacific (including Japan), as deals worth $65.033 billion were reported in the first eight months of calendar 2007. The data compiled by Thomson Financial revealed that 121 Indian firms mobilised $23.96 billion, while there were 697 M&A deals worth $41.069 billion. The strong inflows saw India’s share in capital markets in Asia Pacific region increase to 17.3 per cent from 9.7 per cent in calendar 2006. With Indian firms making overseas acquisitions and placing shares to private equities, its shares in merger and acquisition deals have increased to 10.3 per cent from 7.9 per cent in calendar 2006. The Indian firms have heightened activities in equity market and mergers and acquisitions mart in the last four years. The equity markets snapshot shows that 56 firms mobilised 9.27 billion in 2004, 14.39 billion in 2005, $16.1 billion in 2006 and 23.96 billion in the first eight months of the current calendar year. On the M&A platform, the total cross boarder deals registered $4.3 billion in 2004, $12.58 billion in 2005, $34.72 billion in 2006 and $54.48 billion in the eight months of 2007. […]
The publisher of southern editions of The Indian Express newspaper, Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd, plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) sometime soon. Before that, it plans to sell stake to a private equity firm. The company is working on an aggressive expansion plan and the funds raised through these will help it bolster its operations and expansion. The company is known as The New Indian Express group because it was carved out from the old group in 1999 following a family litigation that started after the death of the founder of the group, Ramnath Goenka; the other part became The Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai). The company has appointed YES Bank to look for private equity investors. “Private equity is the logical route for the group to take,” said Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, chairman and managing director of Express Publications. The New Indian Express is published from 14 centres in the South. Apart from The New Indian Express, the group also publishes two vernacular dailies, Kannada Prabha and Dinamani, a Tamil daily, and claims a combined circulation of around 5,50,000 for all its publications. Though the split between The New Indian Express Group and The Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd, is complete, the two still share content and advertisement. However, both companies have dismissed the possibility of a merger. […]
U.S.-based private equity group Blackstone is likely to join the race to acquire a 26 percent stake in state-run financial lender IFCI Ltd , the Economic Times said on Tuesday. Blackstone could come in as a standalone strategic investor or as the lead partner in a consortium, the report said citing sources. Company officials were not immediately available for comment. Other firms that are likely to submit their bids for IFCI include Standard Chartered Bank, Citigroup, Reliance Capital , Barclays and Swiss UBS Securities, the report said without citing sources. Earlier media reports have indicated that Punjab National Bank , Life Insurance Corp of India and IDBI Ltd are also likely to bid for the stake. Last month, the lender had invited expressions of interest for the 26 percent stake. The last date for bid submission is September 14 and the shortlisted candidates will be named on September 25, the report added.(Reuters) […]
In its bid to expand its footprint in the entertainment business, Anil Ambani-controlled Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is negotiating a buyout of India’s largest online movie rental company Seventymm Services Pvt. Ltd, which delivers video compact discs and digital video discs to homes of around 25,000 customers. Reliance Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, part of ADAG, is already into movie rentals under the brand of Big Flix. Seventymm chief operating officer Subhankar Sarkar denied buyout talks, but two senior ADAG and Seventymm executives, both of whom did not want to be identified, said negotiations were at an advanced stage. Terms of the potential acquisition were not immediately available. An ADAG spokesman said in an email that the group does not comment on speculation. An executive at venture fund Matrix Partners India, a local arm of US-based firm Matrix Partners, which is one of the key investors in Seventymm with a $7 million (Rs28.7 crore) investment, too declined comment. Other backers of Seventymm include venture capital firms such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson and ePlanet Ventures. […]
Reliance Industries Limited, a leading energy and chemical group in India, will acquire Hualon Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, the polyester producer in Malaysia which is under receivership. Ernst & Young Malaysia (E&Y) was appointed the receivers and managers of Hualon effective Nov 30, 2006 with the appointment of Lim Tian Huat, Adam Primus Abdullah and Stephen Duar, all of E&Y. The acquisition, when consummated, would be Reliance's second international acquisition in the polyester sector of Reliance after the successful takeover of Trevira in Germany in 2004, E&Y said in a statement here today. Reliance said it reached an agreement with E&Y to acquire the assets of Hualon, which is a leading polyester (fibre, yarn and resin) manufacturer with a capacity of half a million tons per annum. This includes its downstream textile manufacturing capabilities spread over two locations in Malaysia namely, in Nilai and Melaka. Reliance Industries is India's largest private sector company on all major financial parameters with a turnover of US$25.51 billion (US1=RM3.51). Reliance said the acquisition of Hualon, one of the largest exporters in Malaysia, would consolidate its position further as the world's largest polyester manufacturer with 2.5 million-tonne capacity, 25 percent increase from the current capacity and increase in revenue by around US$1 billion. […]
Kishore Biyani’s real-estate investment arm is all set to launch a hospitality fund that will invest in hotel projects. The details of the hospitality fund, including the entire corpus, are not being made public. But the market buzz is that it should be somewhere around $350 million. Promoted by Future Group, Kshitij Investment Advisory Co Ltd (KIAC) is developing/managing 56 properties across the country. It currently manages two retail-focused real estate funds: Kshitij Venture Capital (KVC) Fund ($80 million) and Horizon International Fund with a corpus of $350 million. While the KVC corpus is fully committed its capital to develop 13 retail projects across metros, mini-metros and tier-2 towns, the Horizon International Fund has already committed over 70% of the $350 million for various real estate projects.Shishir Baijal, CEO, Kshitij Investment Advisory Co Ltd, refrained from making any comment. Another reason being cited was them being in the silent phase as Biyani’s financial arm Future Capital is all set to hit the market in the near future. A reliable industry source said: “The fund should be in a position to hit the market anytime. In fact, if everything goes as per the plans the announcement can be expected within the next 30-45 days,” said the source. The source also said the hospitality fund will not only invest in the hotel projects being partnered by group companies but also consider those being developed by others. […]
Private equity's (PE) big fish are finding it hard to crack deals in India that are respectable by their standards. Last month saw Blackstone striking it big with investments in Gokaldas Exports ($170 million) and Nagarjuna Constructions ($150 million). But that was an exception. Such big-ticket transactions have not been easy to come by, especially for those with a mandate to invest only giant sums. Data compiled by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on PE and venture capital activity in India, shows that 77 per cent, or 232 of the 302 PE deals in India in 2006, were in the sub-$25 million range. Of these, 104 were in the $10-25 million range, 55 in the $5-10 million band, and 73 were of the sub-$5 million variety. The biggest PE deal in India so far has been one by Carlyle – a $650 million investment for a 5.6 per cent stake in Housing Development Finance Corporation. General Atlantic's $18 million investment in Daksh eServices in 2002 was among the lowest. As a result, some PE firms are viewing India as a different market and are willing to scale down their minimum threshold levels here. […]
SCOTLAND's largest call centre operator has been bought by Hero Group in a deal worth £40 million. Telecom Service Centres, the Isle of Bute-based operator with more than 3,000 staff, mainly in Scotland, has been sold to the New Delhi-based Hero Group, and will now form part of the Hero ITES company and be renamed TSC Hero. TSC chief executive Ken Hills yesterday insisted the move would not lead to any jobs being shifted offshore, and that the company's UK operations were targeting more growth. There would be very little change in the day-to-day activities of the company, he said. “The change I'm looking for and the reason we wanted to do the deal was to get access to more capital from a longer-term strategic investor to help us on to the next level of growth, but day to day I don't think the guys will see a huge amount of change,” Hills said. While UK companies have outsourced thousands of call centre jobs to countries such as India, recent years have seen many return the jobs to the UK, with research showing customer retention rates are much lower for companies that use foreign call centres. Some companies now promote the fact they use “UK only” call centres. […]
Although 2007 is likely to be another landmark year for private equity (PE) in India, the level of PE activity, currently estimated at around $10 billion, could increase and needs to increase multifold given India’s current GDP growth. To achieve this, regulations and taxes need to improve and the PE community needs to project itself in the market that it is a source of finance that contributes to the growth plans of entrepreneurs, helps generate employment and improves corporate governance. Having said this, PE financing is steadily gaining more acceptability amongst Indian promoters. This indicates a ‘leap of faith’ for closely-held traditional Indian family-owned and managed businesses, which until a few years ago, had viewed private equity financing as a possible interference in their business. The recent investment by Blackstone in Bangalore-based garments company Gokaldas Exports demonstrates this leap of faith. Blackstone has acquired a controlling stake from the owners. This transaction symbolises a traditional promoter-family run business partnering with a large private equity fund to accelerate its growth plans. This transaction demonstrates that Indian promoters are recognising the value that a PE brings to the partnership and PE investors are being viewed as ‘partners’ to the business. […]
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