Lloyds shareholders approve HBOS takeover

Shareholders of British bank Lloyds TSB on Wednesday backed the takeover of troubled rival HBOS and a recapitalisation that will hand the British government a key stake. Lloyds TSB investors, holding an extraordinary general meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, voted almost 96 percent in favour of the HBOS takeover.

They also voted by a similar majority to approve plans to raise 5.5 bn pounds (6.5 bn euros, 8.3 bn dollars) of new capital. Under the recapitalisation plan, Lloyds will issue 1.0 bn pounds of preference shares to the British government and 4.5 bn pounds in new ordinary shares.

At the same time, HBOS also plans to raise 11.5 bn pounds of fresh capital with support from the state.Lloyds TSB Chairman Sir Victor Blank said the vote was an "important milestone" in the history of the group.

Lloyds TSB agreed in September to buy HBOS in a deal worth 9.8 billion pounds after its target was left facing collapse due to massive exposure to the US subprime mortgage crisis. Competition rules have been waived to allow the takeover to go ahead. HBOS shareholders will vote on the deal in December.

Imperial Energy has choosen OVL over Sinopec

UK-listed Imperial Energy today said it has chosen ONGC Videsh Ltd over Chinese competitor Sinopec to discuss a possible sale to the Indian company and an announcement is likely shortly. OVL, through its wholly owned subsidiary Jarpeno Ltd, has made a 12.50 pounds per share takeover offer.

OVL, the overseas investment arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had made a takeover offer last month and earlier this month China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) made a counter offer.Imperial, a relatively small British oil and gas company based in Leeds in UK, has oil producing blocks in Tomsk region of western Siberia in Russia and Kastanai in north-central Kazakhstan.It produced about 10,000 barrels of oil per day in December 2007 and is targeting to raise this amount to 80,000 barrels per day (4 million tons a year) by year-end 2011.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Govt approves Daiichi-Ranbaxy deal

India has approved Daiichi Sankyo's stake purchase in the country's top drug maker by sales, Ranbaxy Laboratories, the finance ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Japan's Daiichi has agreed to buy a 34.8 per cent stake in Ranbaxy and aims to take up to 20 per cent more from the open market in deals worth up to $4.6 billion. The Japanese drug maker will also make an open offer to buy up to 20 per cent of shares in another Indian firm, Zenotech Laboratories, which is 47-per cent owned by Ranbaxy.

Tata gets US antitrust OK for Jaguar, Land Rover

US antitrust authorities have cleared India's Tata Motors Ltd's purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co.Antitrust authorities completed their review of the $2.3 billion deal without taking any action to block it, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

In March, Tata announced it would buy Jaguar and Land Rover, giving the Indian automaker a line-up of products ranging from the world's cheapest car to some of the most expensive.

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Indian Overseas Bank to take over Pune bank

Indian Overseas Bank Ltd said on Monday its board has approved in principle the proposed takeover of Pune-based Shree Suvarna Sahakari Bank Ltd.

Reliance- Indian Petrochemicals merger becomes effective

Reliance Industries on thursday said the amalgamation of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) with itself has come into effect from September 5.

The certified copies of the orders of the Gujarat and Bombay High Court, sanctioning the scheme of amalgamation of IPCL with Reliance Industries, were filed with the respective registrar of companies yesterday.Earlier on September 3, the Gujarat High Court approved the scheme of amalgamation of IPCL with Mukesh Ambani- controlled Reliance Industries.

In June 2002, the government as part of its disinvestment programme sold 26 per cent of its equity in IPCL to Reliance Petroinvestments Ltd (RPIL), a Reliance Group company.
RPIL acquired an additional 20 per cent equity shares through a cash offer in terms of SEBI (Takeover Regulations) and currently holds 46 per cent of the company's equity.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Great Offshore close on Scandinavian co for $500 mn

Vijay Sheth-promoted Great Offshore (GOL) is close to taking over a Scandinavian offshore company for around $500 million. The move, which comes close on the heels of his takeover of GOL from his cousins a month ago, is aimed at making the company an international player in the offshore space.

The cross-border deal, being co-ordinated by Motilal Oswal, is expected to close in 2-3 weeks.Sources close to the deal said the Scandinavian company owns two jack-up rigs and that GOL is in the final stages of due diligence.

The GOL board, which met on July 30, discussed various fund-raising options ahead of the takeover. The sources said the boad has cleared a proposal to issue foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth $40 million.

GOL has also increased the FII investment limit from 24% to 49%. For this, the company could take the portfolio investment route or any other permissible mode. GOL recently issued 1.5 million redeemable optionally-convertible preference shares into equity at Rs 875 to the Exim Bank of India for about Rs 130 crore. A couple of weeks ago, the Carlyle group had picked up around 5% stake in GOL for around Rs 165 crore.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Alcan plans takeovers, joint ventures in India

Alcan Inc, fighting a takeover attempt by Alcoa, today said it intends to expand operations in India through acquisitions and joint ventures.

The announcement comes within a couple of months after Alcan decided to pull out of Utkal Alumina International, its joint venture with the Aditya Birla Group, by selling its 45% stake.

“You will be hearing about more acquisitions in the next two to three years,” said Steve Henning, director (strategy) at Alcan Composites. He was addressing a press conference to announce the acquisition of 76% stake in Alukbond India, maker and seller of agricultural facades, for an undisclosed amount. The company posted sales of $5 million last year.

He, however, didn’t give details of the proposed expansion plans in India. Analysts said the expansion plan of the Montreal-based aluminium maker would depend on the future ownership of the company which had recently rejected a $27.6 billion takeover bid from Alcoa.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Cosmos Bank set to acquire 3 banks

Pune-based, Cosmos Co-operative Bank Ltd (Cosmos Bank), the multi-state scheduled co-operative bank plans to acquire three more co-operative banks by July-end this year.

Cosmos will acquire two co-operative banks in Ahmedabad and one in Ankaleshwar. All the three co-operative banks are single branch banks.

Bugde, MD, Cosmos Bank, informed that the three banks are profitable and none of them were sick. Though the names of the banks are not known it is learnt that Ankaleshwar Taluka Mahila Bank and Naroda Industrial Co-operative Bank reportedly approached the Cosmos Bank with an intention to merger with it.

Bugde declined to give the name of the targeted cooperative banks it is planning to acquire as it is yet to secure clearance from the state co-operative bank registrar.

Last year, Cosmos Bank acquired two co-operative banks — the Unatti Co-operative Bank and Bank of Ahmedabad.

Bank of Ahmedabad was a sound financial bank with 16 branches in Ahmedabad and two in Mumbai. While Unnati Bank had six branches in Vadodara.

Hindalco shares rise 4% on takeover buzz

The Aditya Birla group-promoted Hindalco industries, the country’s largest aluminium producer, surged by about 4 per cent on the bourses to Rs 146.60 on market buzz that it could be a takeover target of the Alcan-Sterlite combine.

On a dull trading day, the scrip was the top gainer among the 30 Sensex stocks. It hit a day’s high of Rs 156.25, before profit-booking saw the counter shedding early gains.

The Birla Group holds about 30 per cent stake in Hindalco with foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and institutions holding 20 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. About 10 per cent is in GDRs, while the remaining is with retail investors.

Sources in the Birla Group said the consolidation in the metal industry was taking place across the world where an identifiable promoter is not present. In Hindalco’s case, there is an identifiable promoter who holds 30 percent stake and would not sell under any circumstances.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Indian firm to buy 50% of an Israeli company

Indian agriculture conglomerate Jain Irrigation Systems is buying 50% of Israel’s Na’an Dan Irrigation at a company valuation of about $35 million, a media report said on 25 May.

The two firms will be entering a memorandum of understanding on the transaction next week, daily Ha’aretz said. The Israeli firm chose the Indian company despite having a better offer from a local irrigation company, Netafim, the report said.
Jain irrigation is likely to transfer the production lines to India resulting in layoffs, it said. Sources told the daily that Na’an Dan rejected Netafim’s offer because it demanded a controlling share in the company, raising concerns that it would take steps to integrate the management activities of the two companies, sending the Na’an Dan’s management home.

Naan Dan recently announced a $2 million deal relating to sell of technology and equipment to a tea plantation in India. It is not known whether the deal is connected with the Jain takeover.

Petrobras, Petroplus in race for Cairn

Interest from Malaysia’s Petronas in Cairn India and Swiss Petroplus in Cairn India’s parent, Cairn Energy, saw the shares of both the companies gaining on the bourses.

Petronas, which already owns 10 per cent of Cairn India through a pre-IPO placement, was now looking to buy out Cairn Energy’s 69 per cent stake in Cairn India, sources said. The takeover talks pushed Cairn’s share price on the BSE to Rs 144.30 on Friday, up 2.3 per cent on Thursday’s close of Rs 139.85.

This was 4.85 per cent higher than the Wednesday’s close of Rs 134.05. At the current price of Rs 144.30 a share, Cairn Energy’s 69 per cent stake would be worth around Rs 17,700 crore.

Finacial Times report that Swiss refiner Petroplus is planning a bid for Cairn Energy, sent the Cairn Energy stock higher by 3.5 per cent to £17.93 a share on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

Following the news, Citigroup changed its status on both Cairn Energy and Cairn India to “buy”. The research group revised the price target for the Cairn stock from Rs 145 to Rs 185.

W&M tells Mallya to pay $1.3 bn

UB Group, the world’s third-largest spirits maker, has been asked to pay £700 million ($1.38 billion) for Scotland’s Whyte & Mackay, the Indian distiller’s owner, Vijay Mallya, said today.

Bangalore-based UB will decide how much it’s willing to pay within two weeks, he said. In March, UB Chief Financial Officer Ravi Nedungadi said United Spirits Ltd, a unit of the Indian distiller, would buy Glasgow-based Whyte & Mackay, owned by Chairman Vivian Immerman and his brother-in-law Robert Tchenguiz. While Nedungadi didn’t disclose the price, media reports of a £550 million acquisition were not “off the mark,’’ he said.

Mallya, who runs a low-cost airline named after his biggest selling beer brand Kingfisher, is adding international brands and a global sales network to compete with rivals such as Seagram Co and Bacardi Ltd. The acquisition would extend a record year for takeovers involving Indian companies

Read more in The Business Standard article