|
|
Blackstone, JC Flower, Fortress, Temasek and 3i in talks with LIC Global private equity investors Blackstone, JC Flower and Fortress of the US, Temasek of Singapore and 3i of the UK are in talks with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for buying a combined 15 per cent stake in the life insurer’s proposed credit card venture with US-based GE Money. The valuation of the proposed company is still to be worked out. LIC will own a 40 per cent stake, GE Money India 30 per cent and Corporation Bank, LIC Housing Finance and LIC Mutual Fund 5 per cent each. GE Money would lend its credit card expertise and technology platforms for the LIC credit card venture, while LIC will tap its 200 million customers to grab a share of the fast-growing credit card market. Payments via credit cards rose 22 per cent to Rs 41,361 crore in 2006-07. The total credit cards receivables outstanding at the end of March 2007 was Rs 13,316 crore, up 46.6 per cent from a year earlier. A senior LIC official confirmed that talks were on with these private equity players. Industry sources said Carlyle too had evinced interest in buying a stake in the venture. Consulting firm KPMG is advising LIC on it. […]
Reflecting the buoyancy in India Inc's quest for global mergers and acquisitions, the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank today said it will have a role to play in 70 per cent of the deals that are expected to be about 35 billion dollars in aggregate during 2007. “Indian companies made overseas acquisitions worth 20 billion dollars in 2006, a level crossed during the first six months of 2007 itself… this year even on a conservative note overseas mergers and acquisitions are expected to reach 30-35 billion dollars,” ICICI Deputy Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told a news agency in an interview. “ICICI Bank's involvement — be it advisory, lending or syndication of loans — accounted for 70 per cent of the deals in the first half of the year and we hope to maintain this market share,” she added. Kochhar, ranked 30th in Fortune list of world's most powerful businesswomen, said the Bank also helped companies raise 24 billion dollars in overseas borrowings last year. It was quite possible for ICICI to be counted among the top 25 global banks, she said. […]
My dollar has one price for everything, from American cosmetics to Chinese toys. And Future Capital's Kishore Biyani seems to love it. His private equity arm might buy upto 30% in this discount chain. Here, everything costs 99 rupees. And Kishore Biyani apparently wants to buy, not a few goodies, but a part of the chain. Sources tell CNBC-TV18, Future Capital's private equity arm, Indivision Capital is about to pick up between 26-30% in the master franchisee of My Dollar stores in India, Sankalp Value Retail Stores. The initial investment might be Rs 20-40 crore. But Future Capital and Sankalp Value Retail, are tight-lipped. My Dollar has 47 stores in 30 ciities and US-based Rex Mehta, the founder of this USD 50 million company, wants to boost that presence. Indivision's investments in Sankalp might help. […]
The Fortis group is acquiring 48% stake in Chennai-based Malar Hospital for around Rs 42 crore. This marks the group's first entry in the south. At present, Fortis has a network of 12 hospitals primarily in the north, and 16 satellite and heart command centres. The acquisition will be done through International Hospital Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis, and group company Oscar Investments Ltd (OIL). In the first tranche, International Hospital Ltd will buy the promoters holding of 28% at Rs 30 per share. The total equity of the company is Rs 1.39 crore. The hospital was promoted in 1989 by a group of doctor's headed by late Dr S Ramamurthy, and his wife now runs the hospital. Shivinder Mohan Singh CEO and MD, Fortis Healthcare told newspersons here on Friday, “Malar Hospital is well established in Chennai with a strong brand equity and is centrally located. We will follow the same strategy in Chennai of setting up hubs and spoke hospitals as we have done in Delhi”. […]
Under pressure from the Reserve Bank of India, promoters of private banks are bringing down their shareholdings. Promoters of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), the Tayals, who have held on to their stake for years, are finally giving in and will bring down their holding which currently stands at 44%. The promoter of another old private bank Dhanalakshmi Bank has also started offloading his stake to meet RBI guidelines. The new generation IndusInd Bank, which is promoted by the Hindujas, is also in talks with the RBI on the issue. The central bank has been putting pressure on private sector bank promoters to bring down their shareholding to the requisite 10%. In the case of BoR, the bank will now proceed with a preferential issue of up to 10% every quarter. In the first tranche, the bank is likely to place slightly below 5% stake to BNP Paribas for around Rs 150 per share. Bank officials are said to be in talks with a host of foreign banks and funds for preferential issuance. […]
While the ban on future trading in wheat, rice and pulses continue, the country’s oldest financial stock exchange — BSE has received centre’s nod to take 26 per cent equity control in the state-owned National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE). Highly placed government sources informed The Indian Express that the union consumer affairs and food minister Sharad Pawar had approved the move last week. The tie up envisages to create a robust agricultural commodity exchange, which can rival the other two private commodity exchanges — MCX and NCDEX. NMCE will now have access to the large BSE trading platform network besides its expertise in running a large exchange. In addition, the tie-up would also leverage the vast network of agricultural warehouse of the government-owned central warehousing corporation (CWC), which holds 26 per cent control in NMCE. The Ahmedabad-based commodity exchange, which has a strong presence in rubber and spice trading, is promoted by the government-owned CWC, while another 25 per cent stake is owned by one of the NMCE founder companies – Neptune Overseas Ltd. NMCE’s other promoters include National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, Gujarat Agro-Industries Corp Ltd, Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board and National Institute of Agricultural Marketing. […]
Sarovar Hotels is exploring the option of going in for an initial public offer (IPO) or a second round of private equity funding to raise Rs 250-300 crore for funding its domestic expansion plans. The hospitality company, in expansion mode, is setting up 23 new properties at an investment of over Rs 500 crore. Sarovar's own commitment has been to the tune of Rs 150 crore. Anil Madhok, managing director, Sarovar Hotels, told DNA Money, “At the moment, we have Rs 200 crore of investible funds. But, we are weighing the option of an IPO or private equity placement to raise Rs 250-300 crore.” More than a year-and-a-half ago, the company had raised $8.5 million from US-based Bessemer Venture Partners and New Vernon through an equity dilution of about 24 per cent. […]
Ajay Piramal-controlled real estate private equity fund Indiareit will raise close to $750 million overseas to invest in the real estate sector. The company is managing a real estate fund with a corpus of Rs 1,300 crore. Global private equity firms have already committed over $3 billion worth of investments in the Indian real estate space. “This will be our second overseas fund raising. We are going to raise about $500 million and will have a greenshoe option of $200-250 million,” Ramesh Jogani, managing director and chief executive officer, Indiareit Fund Advisors, said. […]
TATA Power Company (TPC) has decided to pick up a stake in the spot power exchange being planned by the leading commodity exchange NCDEX and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The board has given an in-principle approval to become one of the promoters of the exchange. TPC may pick 15% stake in the exchange. Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) have decided to become strategic promoters of the exchange. Both the companies have given their in-principle approval letters to become part of the consortium, which also includes National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), said sources. “We have got the board approval to become one of the promoters in the spot power exchange being planned by NCDEX and NTPC. We understand that initial promoters will take equal shares and the exact percentage is under finalisation,” said a senior TPC official. The NTPC and NCDEX-led power exchange has filed its application before central electricity regulatory commission (CERC) and the hearing is likely to take place by September-end. […]
The financial crisis triggered off the by the US subprime mortgage meltdown, is already impacting Private Equity (PE) investing in North America and Europe. And depending on how our public equity markets react, it will impact the PE scene in India too. But, the nature of the impact is likely to be very different from that in the US and Europe. Because, PE in India is quite different from Private Equity in the Western world. While (unfortunately) there are many definitions of Private Equity, PE in the US and Europe is commonly used to refer to buyout investments and especially, leveraged buyouts (LBO) which involve taking on significant portions of debt to acquire (often) publicly listed companies – with a view to improving profitability and taking them public again (or selling them off) a few years later. With the sub-prime crisis raging, PE firms will find it very difficult to access cheap debt from banks – and reports have emerged on how the financing for several mega deals in the US and Europe have been placed on hold. In India, on the other hand, buyouts (let alone large LBOs) form a very small part of the PE market. Out of the 302 PE investments in India that Venture Intelligence had tracked in 2006, only 14 investments (i.e., less than 5%) were of the buyout variety. And only one of these deals – the KKR-led buyout of Flextronics Software – was valued at over $100 million. Even without including the 22% of PE investments which went to listed companies, an overwhelming 75% off all PE investments in India went into unlisted companies in various stages of their growth. […]
|
Post your messages.Please refrain from posting offensive messages. IndiaPE accepts no liability for the consequences of your reliance on these postings and messages.
|