Vatika sells 10% to 3 PE funds

Vatika Group, a Delhi-based realty firm, has divested 10.75 per cent for raising $250 million (Rs 1,000 crore) as private equity investments from Wachovia Bank, Baer Capital and Goldman Sachs. The deal estimates the valuation of the privately held Vatika at around Rs 9,302 crore.This is the first private equity investment in Vatika, which is planning its maiden public issue in 2009.

Vatika’s valuation at Rs 9,302 crore is higher than the market capitalisation of some listed bigwigs such as Bangalore-based Sobha Developers (Rs 6,269 crore) and Purvankara (8,284 crore); its Delhi peers such as Parsvnath Developers (Rs 6,398 crore), Omaxe (Rs 7,111 crore) and AnantRaj (Rs 8,557 crore) and the Mumbai-headquartered companies such as Akruti City (Rs 7,705 crore).

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Bharti arm to buy Jataayu for $20 mn

Bharti Telesoft is close to acquiring the Bangalore headquartered Jataayu Software, a provider of technology solutions for the mobile handset and value added services (VAS,), for an estimated $20 million.

Sources said Bharti Telesoft, the VAS arm of mobile telecom player Bharti Enterprises, has already entered into an initial agreement with Jataayu and an announcement is likely to be made shortly.

It was widely reported that Jataayu was close to a sell-off. It is believed that Bharti Telesoft was in talks with Jataayu for several months and now has an agreement in place eventhough the latter received proposals from others including overseas suitors.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Valuemart Info buys 74% stake in Datatalk

Valuemart Info Technologies, an information technology and business process outsouring company, has acquired a 74 per cent stake in Bangalore-based IT-BPO company, Datatalk Services (India) Pvt Ltd, for an undisclosed amount.The acquisition will partly be funded by money raised earlier this year by Valuemart through a preferential issue.

Datatalk will become a subsidiary of Valuemart. The acquisition will help the company acquire premium clients and broadbase its services in the BPO segment.Valuemart offers ERP and business process management solutions, with focus on banking, financial services, insurance, legal and manufacturing verticals.

Shaw Wallace to merge with UB Group

The Rs 4,000 crore United Spirits will be merging Shaw Wallace with itself. United Spirits, a part of the UB Group, had acquired Shaw Wallace for around Rs 1,300 crore in mid-2005 .

UB Group President and Chief Financial Officer Ravi Nedungadi said that the merger would begin soon. The move will add another Rs 60 crore to United Spirits’ bottomline of close to Rs 500 crore and around Rs 350 crore to the topline.He also said that Whyte & Mackay, which was recently acquired for around $1.2 billion, would stay on as a subsidiary.

United Spirits is currently the third-largest distiller in the world with sales of over 66 million cases powered by 15 millionaire brands. Brands from Shaw Wallace, which operate in the volume segment, have contributed to this growth.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

DE Shaw to invest $60 mn in Gemini Inds

DE Shaw, one the largest global providers of alternative assets, is investing close to $60 million (Rs 240 crore) in Gemini Industries and Imaging, Chennai, one of the oldest media houses in the country.

The Gemini Group has its interests in film production, equipment hiring and lab processing for the motion picture business.The group has over 75 per cent market share in the equipment hiring business and over 50 per cent market share in the processing lab business for motion picture across Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industries.

The Gemini group equipped with this equity infusion, plans to set up the exhibition business in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh over the next 24 months.The first of 11 multiplex screens will kick start their operations by the end of 1st quarter of 2008 in Chennai. By 2011 they are expected to control over 300 screens.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Orient Global picks 22.5% in India Info arm for $77m

India Infoline has inked a $76.7 million equity deal by selling stake in its consumer finance subsidiary India Infoline Investment Services (IIIS) to Singapore-based Orient Global. The latter has picked up a 22.5% stake in IIIS.

As per a company release, the capital would be primarily utilised for the expansion of IIIS’s subsidiaries, Moneyline, dealing with personal and auto loans and India Infoline Housing Finance.

Moneyline will leverage the group’s 600-branch network to provide credit to a wide clientele which does not have access to organised credit. Moneyline plans to have an active presence in 60 cities by the end of next year.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Sequoia Capital invests Rs 100 cr in GVK Bio

Global private equity player Sequoia Capital has invested Rs 100 crore in Hyderabad-based contract research organisation GVK Biosciences. The company plans to use the money to fund acquisitions in the CRO space and also add to its existing capacities.

The investment comes close on the heels of Sequoia picking up an 18% stake in Hyderabad-based CRO SAI Advantium, signaling the PE major’s interest in the contract research space.

Part of the funds raised will also be used to finance the company’s new campus being built at Mallapuram near Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 60 crore. The investment would be made in a phased manner. The plan is to expand capacities in chemistry and informatics on the drug discovery front.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Indiabulls to Open 30 Hypermarkets

After consumer finance and real estate, the Indiabulls Group is set to step into the retail business. Indiabulls Wholesale Services Ltd, a subsidiary of listed firm Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd, will set up 30 hypermarkets across as many smaller cities in the country in the next 15 to 18 months with an outlay of Rs 1,500 crore.

The first of these stores is expected to come up by March/April 2008 in one of the three cities the company is targeting simultaneously, confirmed Indiabulls director Gagan Banga.

These large-format stores, spread over 100,000 to 150,000 square feet, will be modelled on the lines of Costco Wholesale stores in the US, which operates the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

India Info to sell 26% stake in arm for $100 mn

Leading foreign investors like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are in final stages of negotiations to buy 26% stake in India Infoline Distribution Co (IILD), the distribution subsidiary of the brokerage firm India Infoline. The investors are willing to offer $100 million for the strategic stake in IILD.

The Mumbai-based broking firm’s move to offload stake comes after the proposed deal with Merrill Lynch fell through. Merrill Lynch, which had shown interest to invest in the subsidiary, later backed off citing technical reasons.India Infoline vice-president (planning and strategy) Harshad Apte confirmed that they are in talks with some funds.
However, he refused to divulge any further details. “We cannot give any specific names,” he said. On Friday, shares of India Infoline rose 2.50% to close at Rs 1,114.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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IFCI raises bar for strategic investor

IFCI Ltd, the troubled term lender that has started the process of inducting a strategic partner, has agreed to its creditor banks’ demands to convert all their debenture holdings into equity shares.

This formula, which is expected to be ratified at a board meeting on December 1, could jeopardise the prospective partner's attempt to gain management control at the New Delhi-based institution.

The short-listed bidders for a stake in IFCI include Blackstone Group, General Electric Capital Corporation, billionaire Wilbur Ross along with Goldman Sachs Group, Standard Chartered and HDFC, Cargill Financial Services Corporation, Natixis and Newbridge Asia. Their bids will be considered after the conversion issue is resolved.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

25 foreign investors line up for UTI AMC stake

Private equity firm Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup, National Australian Bank and Shinsei Bank are likely bidders for an equity stake in India’s oldest fund house, UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC).

Close to 25 overseas institutional investors have evinced interest in picking up a stake in the country’s third largest mutual fund. UTI AMC plans to offload 20% stake through a private placement and 29% through an initial public offer. However, no single investor would be able to hold more than 5%.

The private placement is expected to be completed by January while the initial public offer is slated for February-March. The listing process has to be completed before March 31, 2008. The fund house could raise about Rs 6,000-8,000 crore through the combination of private placement and initial public offer.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Balaji may offload 15% in motion pictures arm

Balaji Telefilms, Ekta Kapoor-promoted production house, plans to offload 10-15 per cent stake in its wholly owned subsidiary Balaji Motion Pictures. Sources said the company is valued at Rs 1,000 crore. Centrum Finance is said to be the financial advisor to the company.

Sources added that the company is in talks with private equity investors. It is considering roping in only one private equity, instead of a cluster of investors. However, the plan is at a nascent stage.

The company is dabbling with movie distribution business as well, and has distributed Bhool Bhulaiya and Darling, among a few others.Going forward, the company plans to produce, co-produce and distribute around 12 films a year. Balaji will look at distributing films overseas for which it will licence individuals in the US, the UK and West Asia who will facilitate the business, instead of setting shop in these places.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

PE, hedge funds take 10% in Argentum

Argentum Motors a company floated by B V R Subbu, former president of Hyundai Motors India, Ajay Singh, promoter of budget airline Spicejet, and Ashish Deora, who runs a broadband company has offloaded 10% of its stake to three leading private equity and hedge funds D E Shaw, Rand Corporation of South Africa-promoted proprietary fund Satwa based in Hong Kong and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS).

Argentum took over the Daewoo Motors India factory near Delhi, which shut shop four years ago, for Rs 800 crore and is planning to set up one of the country’s largest auto ancillary units and function as a third-party manufacturer for auto companies.

The three funds have collectively forked out Rs 200 crore for the 10 per cent stake and have also provided the company a loan worth Rs 100 crore.The company is also looking for a fresh investment of Rs 500 crore to upgrade the facility and might look at more equity investors to finance the project.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

PE funds invest Rs 600cr in Godrej Inds

Godrej Industries has alloted 27.9 million shares for Rs 215 each to various entities raising about Rs 600 crore, a company statement said.

Of the shares alloted 13.95 million shares to State Bank of India (Equity), 5.3 million shares to Quantum, 3.14 million shares to Sloane Robinson and 2.3 million were issued to Deutsche Securities Mauritius.

HT Media buys social networking site

Firefly eVentures Ltd, a wholly owned Internet subsidiary of HT Media Ltd has acquired social networking site Desimartini.com in an attempt to enter one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Internet space. Terms were not being disclosed, though HT Media said it was for less than $10 million (Rs 39.3 crore).

HT Media plans to launch online portals in jobs, matrimonials, real estate and auto verticals — areas where the classifieds pages of newspapers currently dominate and where the Hindustan Times has a strong presence in some markets.

Desimartini.com, launched by Pahwa Knowledge Based Services late last year, is funded by the Pahwa group of companies and has a membership base of 250,000. It attracts around 2.5 million page views a month. Apart from global social networking sites such as Google Inc.’s Orkut and Facebook (in which Microsoft Corp. has recently acquired a stake), Desimartini.com competes with homegrown players such as the Bangalore-based Minglebox.com, which connects students across school and university campuses, Ibibo.com, Indyarocks.com, and Bigadda.com, a site launched by Reliance Entertainment, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Read more in The Hindustan Times article.

DLF offloads 49% in 8 housing projects

DLF, the country’s largest real estate developer by market value, today said that it has sold 49 per cent stake in eight residential projects to private equity players for Rs 1,675 crore.

The development takes place five months after the company raised over Rs 9,000 crore from its initial public offering.

The realty firm has sold the stake in seven residential projects to a Merrill Lynch entity for Rs 1,480 crore, making this as one of the largest foreign direct investments in the Indian real estate sector.

These housing developments, classified as mid-income by the company at a price point of Rs 55 lakh an apartment, are located at Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi and Indore. All these projects are expected to be developed in about seven to eight years.

DLF has also sold 49 per cent stake for Rs 194 crore to Brahma Investments in another residential project at Panchkula, Haryana.

Read more in The Business standard article.

Plethico buys US company for $81 mn

Plethico Pharmaceuticals, a leading Indian herbal and nutraceutical (a combination of drug and food products) company, has agreed to acquire Natrol, a nutritional products company in the US, for $81 million (Rs 318 crore).

The acquisition will make the Rs 440-crore company one of the largest herbal and nutraceutical manufacturers in India.

Natrol has about 550 products and eight top-selling nutraceutical and dietary supplement brands in the US market, including hair nourishing products and Prolab, a fast moving body building brand.

Natrol has a network of about 54,000 outlets and its products are sold through leading US stores such as Wal-Mart. The company also has operations in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

Read more in The Business Standard article

Gitanjali acquires US jewellery retailer

Gitanjali Gems has acquired US retail jewellery chain Rogers for $18.5 million to boost the company’s retail presence in abroad.The acquisition will enable Gitanjali to leverage Rogers’ existing retail infrastructure and access US consumers.

The privately held Rogers is headquartered in Middletown, Ohio and operates 46 retail stores under brand names Rogers Jewelers and Andrews Jewelers. Rogers revenues this year stood in the region of $80 million.

Gitanjali was looking at raising capital for its acquisition and expansion plans. It has proposed to garner around Rs 320 crore by issuing 10 million convertible equity warrants to the promoters on a preferential basis.

In December last year, the company bought US-based jewellery chain Samuels, marking its maiden acquisition in the gems and jewellery space. Samuels has 100 stores in the US, with sales of Rs 500 crore and a back-end capacity for 150 new stores.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Kubera Fund to seal five deals by year-end

Kubera Cross-Border Fund, a close-ended private equity fund listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), will seal four to five deals in India by the year-end.

The average size of the investment will be $20-40 million. The fund raised close to $225 million for investment in cross-border companies.

Cross-border companies are those West-based companies that seek to leverage Indian resources for lower cost and talent availability and Indian companies that seek to expand in other global markets through acquisition etc.

The fund has invested $20 million in two companies — Adayana Inc and Kejriwal Stationery. US-based Adayana Inc, an e-learning services company with offshore development operations in Hyderabad, caters to vertical markets including automotive services, defence, food, agriculture and life sciences.On the other hand, Kejriwal Stationery manufactures and distributes stationery products to customers in the US, European and Indian markets.The PE fund is likely to raise another $225 million next year by issuing more shares.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

ICICI arm plans Jaypee stake buy

ICICI Venture Funds Management Co. Ltd, the private equity arm of ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s second biggest lender, is planning to invest about $800 million (Rs3,148 crore) to pick up a stake in Jaypee Infratech Ltd, a unit of the cement-to-construction conglomerate Jaypee Group, said a person familiar with the matter.The size of the proposed stake could not be ascertained. Jaiprakash Associates and ICICI Venture declined to comment.

Jaypee Infratech is a fully-owned unit of the Jaypee Group and was floated to implement the Taj Expressway project, a 165km highway connecting the cities of Noida and Agra in Uttar Pradesh along the banks of the Yamuna river. The company has also got the right to develop 25 million sq. m of land along the expressway, according to annual report of group company Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, which won the rights to build the road. The rights will be transferred to Jaypee Infra-tech, the report said.

Read more in The Livemint article.

Unitech owners plan an NBFC

The owners of India's second-largest listed real estate firm, Unitech Ltd , plan to set up a non-banking finance unit to sell home loans in the fast expanding market."We are looking at within a year to start the business," the paper quoted Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra as saying.

The NBFC will provide services related to real estate finance, possibly mortgage finance.The financial services business would be managed by an unlisted group company and the funding would come from the Chandra family's personal wealth, the paper said.It also said Unitech was in talks with international insurance firms to offer general insurance in India.

Lodha Developers plan Rs 8,000cr IPO

Lodha Developers, a Mumbai-based realty firm, plans to raise between Rs 6,000-Rs 8,000 crore through a public issue within the next 12-months and off-load 10-15% stake in the process.The realty major, which has an ambitious and massive expansion plan of around Rs 10,000 crore, will use the proceeds of the IPO to fuel this expansion.

The IPO plans are expected to be fine-tuned over the next 3-4 months. "The promoters are expected to off-load around 10-15% of their stake," a source said.

The Mangal Prabhat Lodha-spearheaded group plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund expansion, which include residential and commercial projects in Tier I and II cities. This includes up-market residential projects of around Rs 2,000 crore at Walkeshwar and Prabhadevi in the metropolis.

Lodha group had recently acquired a 12.9-acre plot in Eden Square, Hyderabad, for Rs 255.42 crore, to develop a high-end commercial complex in about three million square feet area.

ICICI Venture seen in talks to buy out Shalimar

Shalimar paints is rumored to be in discussions with ICICI Venture for a possible majority stake sale to the latter.The PE major was working on tabling a possible offer valuing the company at around Rs 450 crore.The company, with three plants at Sikandrabad, Nashik and Howrah, has an annual capacity of around 43,000 tonnes.

When contacted, ICICI Venture declined to comment. Sandeep Sarda, executive director & CEO, Shalimar Paints, said: “If there is a proposal, we might examine it. But as of now, there is nothing before us. And we are unaware of any such developments.”

However,it is rumored that talks have taken place between ICICI Ventures and Shalimar on a possible deal. It is learnt that for the promoters, Jindals and Jhunjunwalas who have diversified interests, the paint business may not be core any longer, triggering a possible sale .

Recently, the company informed the exchanges it would undertake development of its real estate assets through a JV. Around 35% of the domestic paint market is still in the unorganised segment. Asian Paints is the leader with about 27% stake, while Berger and Nerolac are locked in the second slot with 12% each. ICI, in which Asian Paints is a stakeholder, follows with roughly 9% share.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

ICICI Venture, Baring PE set to buy 32% in Karvy for Rs 500 cr

Leading private equity investors ICICI Venture and Baring Private Equity Asia are set to invest around Rs 500 crore to pick up around 32% stake in Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KRBL), an arm of the Hyderabad-based Karvy Group.

The deal puts the enterprise value of the securities firm at around Rs 1,500-1,600 crore. MAPE Advisory Group advised Karvy on the transaction. The valuation, however, is lower than that of other established stock broking and investment banking players like Edelweiss Capital, Indiabulls, Motilal Oswal Securities and India Infoline which took PE route in the past and raised funds from the primary market.

ICICI Venture and Baring Private Equity are buying the 20% equity held by existing investor Pacific Century Group (PCG), while an additional 12% stake will be offered to them in the form of fresh equity, according to sources. The Hong Kong-based PCG had acquired the stake for Rs 83 crore in 2005, which had valued Karvy at around Rs 415 crore then.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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GE Energy takes indirect stake in KSK Power

GE Energy Financial Services has picked up 26% stake in Sayi Power Energy, a majority shareholder in KSK Power. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

"This transaction reinforces GE Energy Financial Services’ growth in India's power market," said Raghuveer Kurada, managing director of GE Energy Financial Services’ India operations. "KSK's pioneering leadership in mid-sized captive power generation and access to dedicated low-cost fuel reserves creates opportunities for sizeable additional investment in new power projects. We will play a strategic role in helping KSK to carry out its growth plans."

KSK, which develops and owns downstream energy assets throughout India, is the country’s first power generation company to be listed overseas - its shares trade on the London Stock Exchange Alternate Investment Market.

KSK's portfolio of existing and future power generation assets is diversified across fuel types. The company has eight projects in operation or under construction representing 875 Mw. KSK’s pipeline of future projects total 3,200 Mw, and is expected to come online by 2012.

ITC acquiring Parle's unit-Sources

It is speculated that ITC Foods is in an advanced stage of discussions with Parle for acquiring the latter's confectionery arm. However, when contacted, both ITC divisional chief executive (foods) Ravi Naware and Parle chairman Ramesh Chauhan denied that a deal is brewing.

"We do not comment on market speculation," Naware said, while pointing out that the company is continuously on the lookout for acquisitions in the foods business."If we get a good opportunity, we will buy." Chauhan said he has not been approached by anybody, including ITC. "Even if there is a proposal, I will not sell," Chauhan said.

ITC has been looking for buyouts in the foods space for the last couple of months. Since ITC entered the foods business in 2001, it has only acquired one brand, 'Mint-O', which is one of the leaders in its segment.

The foods business accounts for a major portion of the over Rs 1,800 crore revenue of ITC's new FMCG businesses. Its brands include 'Kitchens of India', 'Sunfeast', 'Candyman', 'Bingo' and 'Aashirvaad'.

Read more in The Times of India article.

DLF to buy ultra-luxury Amanresorts for $250 mn

DLF, the country’s largest realty firm by market capitalisation at over Rs 1,48,527 crore,is acquiring the privately-held super luxury resorts and spa chain Singapore-based Amanresorts for around $ 250 million.The company had announced a month ago that it intends to raise $750 million overseas for acquiring and developing properties abroad. Part of the proceeds would be used for funding the Amanresorts acquisition.

Sources close to developments said at $250 million, the deal is being concluded at an extremely conservative valuation. In addition to this payout, DLF will assume debt of approximately $220 million as part of the deal.This will be the first overseas acquisition by India's largest real estate company, which recently went public.

The 20-year-old Amanresorts has 18 operational properties under its belt in Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Bhutan, India, the Philippines, the United States, French Polynesia and France.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

HDFC AMC hikes stake in Biocon to 5.15%

HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) has hiked its stake in Biocon, a Bangalore-based biotech company.The company in a release to NSE, said it has hiked its stake to 5.15% from existing 4.97% through market purchase from Edelweiss Securities executed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The HDFC Mutual Fund comprising of HDFC Capital Builder Fund, HDFC Equity Fund, HDFC Children's Gift Fund - Investment Plan, HDFC Growth Fund, HDFC Top 200 Fund, HDFC Long Term Advantage Fund, HDFC TaxSaver, HDFC Core & Satellite Fund, HDFC Premier Multi-Cap Fund, and HDFC Long Term Equity Fund has made investments in Biocon.

Panoramic Universal acquires stake in Hi-Flyers

IT and hospitality company Panoramic Universal has acquired a controlling stake in Hi-Flyers Travel Services, a travel agency.Hi-Flyers is a full service travel outfit providing international and domestic ticketing, package tours to popular destinations world-wide and forex services, among others.

“Panoramic has plans to launch a travel portal of its own very shortly. We intend to offer a comprehensive travel solution to our customer right from travel arrangements to staying in our own hotels,” Chairman of Panoramic Universal Sudhir Moravekar said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Apart from India, the company also owns and operates hotels in USA and New Zealand.
Panoramic Universal is looking for hotel projects in places like Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kumarakom (Kerala), Durgapur (West Bengal) and Panvel (Mumbai), the filing stated.

Calsoft to acquire US consulting firm

Chennai-based California Software (Calsoft) is acquiring a 100% equity stake in technology consulting firm International Innovations Inc., to strengthen its enterprise offerings in the analytics and business rules management space. The target company’s valuation will be capped at a maximum of $1.32 million (approximately Rs 5.3 crore).

The letter of intent (LoI) to purchase the Mountain View, California-based, company will culminate in a definitive share purchase agreement, the process of which is expected to be completed by December 31 this year. The deal envisages phased payments by Calsoft over a period of one year from the conclusion of the share purchase agreement and will also be based on certain performance parameters, Calsoft said.The acquisition is expected to add $2.3 million with PAT of $300,000 to Calsoft’s cash kitty over the next 12 months.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

PEs to take a sip of Cafe Coffee Day for $95 mn

The VG Siddhartha-led Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading (ABCTL)is to expand and develop ABCTL’s retail business, the key component of which is Cafe Coffee Day, the country’s largest chain with 480 cafes in India.It is closing a $95 million (Rs 340 crore) fund-raising from Deutsche Bank and Templeton Darby International for the expansion.

The transaction, which has been in the making for a while, is likely to be wrapped up soon. Mr Siddhartha, is a pioneer of India’s coffee cafe culture and won ET’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003.

The two private equity investors together are expected to take a little over a 10% stake in ABCTL’s retail business, whose enterprise value is close to $600 million with debts included, sources say. It is believed that Deutsche Bank will invest $70 million with Templeton Darby International bringing in the remaining $25 million.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Indiaco Ventures buys 20.83% stake in Laser Cosmetics

Private equity player Indiaco Ventures Ltd on Monday said it has acquired 20.83 per cent stake in Laser Cosmetics Pvt Ltd.The company has also subscribed 25 per cent in preference shares of Laser Cosmetics, Indiaco Ventures said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company now holds 1.5 lakh shares of Rs 10 each out of the total 7.20 lakh shares and 12,500 preference shares of Rs 100 each out of the total 50,000 preference shares of Laser Cosmetics Pvt Ltd.

Indiaco provides capital (investment), direction and operational expertise in distinct asset classes for select identified industry verticals. The company has been recognised by various multilateral agencies and is supported by InfoDev, a World Bank initiative.

Laser Cosmetics Pvt Ltd has clinics operating which are stand alone centres to cater to spectrum of cosmetic surgery services under the brand name of "MAAYA", the company plans to expand across major Indian cities.

Diageo may buy into United Spirits

Global drinks leader Diageo is said to have evinced interest in picking up a minority stake in Vijay Mallya’s liquor flagship United Spirits (USL). Sources said talks exploring the possibility of Diageo buying around 10-13% in the Indian spirits behemoth, the world’s third-largest by volume, for $500-600 million have taken place.

Sources said Diageo was interested in buying into USL with the latter’s enterprise valuation pegged at over $5 billion. It is believed that the domestic giant may be open to placing a small stake with Diageo without ceding management control. This could see Diageo entering as a financial investor, for now, at least. In many ways, observers say, the move is reminiscent of Vodafone’s buy into Airtel some years back.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Walt Disney on prowl for Indian acquisition

It could be the mother of all deals in the media and entertainment sector in India. And it involves none other than global media and entertainment giant Walt Disney.A year after Disney bought a 14.85% stake in UTV,it is reported that Disney is on the prowl again.

As for names, sources said that it could possibly be UTV because Walt Disney already has 14.85% stake in UTV which they bought last year for Rs 65 crore and that they maybe interested in hiking that stake. If they do want to hike the stake, they would have to buy it from the promoters and the promoters, led by Ronnie Screwvala, have 30% stake in UTV. Out of this 17% is locked in which means that technically they can sell 13% in UTV to Walt Disney.

Read more in The Moneycontrol article.

mChek plans to raise $15m PE funds

Mobile payments and security company, mChek is all set to expand its operations in the country and is now looking to raise $5-15 million in its second round of funding. Earlier funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the company is likely to rope in another private equity player for its second round of expansion.

Rolling out its third expansion plan, mChek is now launching its services with four merchants — indiatimes.com, futurebazaar.com, sify mall and yatra.com. All that mChek users have to do is put in their mobile numbers and authenticate the transaction SMS with their mChek pin. Earlier, mChek tied up with Bharti Airtel for bill payment across the country.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

ICICI Ven buys Karvy stake:Sources

ICICI Venture seems to have got a toehold in Karvy Stock Broking, which, sources said, is most likely to have parted with a chunk of its equity in favour of the domestic private equity (PE) fund.

While neither the value of the deal nor the size of the stake could be officially ascertained, it is learnt that Hong Kong’s Century Pacific Group, which had invested in Karvy in mid-2005, wanted out.

Century Pacific had picked up a 20% stake in Karvy Stock Broking for Rs 83 crore, which had valued Karvy at Rs 415 crore then.Sources indicated that Karvy now values itself at around Rs 1,000 crore, which is probably one of the reasons why others opted out of the race.

Karvy chairman C Parthasarathy, however, denied the closure of any deal with ICICI Venture.

Read more in The DNA Money article.

Blackstone to invest $65 mn in MTAR

The Hyderabad-based MTAR, a privately-held company promoted by P Ravindra Reddy, Satyanarayana Reddy and P Jayaprakash Reddy,has sold 26% stake to Blackstone for about $65 million, which is in one of the first PE deals in the defence and nuclear science space.MTAR Technologies makes critical components and products used for nuclear and space projects.

The funding is through a mix of additional issue of shares and equity sale by the promoters. MTAR will continue to be led by the founders, who will hold 74% cumulatively. After the deal, Blackstone will have three representatives on the 12-member board of the company.

Currently, the company has an order book of Rs 250 crore executable over two years. While MTAR’s revenues are undisclosed, the management is aiming to raise it four to five times by 2010.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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Amtek Auto buys UK's Triplex-Ketlon

Auto parts maker Amtek Auto Ltd said on Wednesday it had acquired UK-based precision machining firm Triplex-Ketlon Group for an undisclosed sum.With this, Amtek's revenue from international operations will rise to $770 million a year, and it expects to cross $1 billion per annum within the next two years.

Triplex Ketlon was acquired by the UK-based Barr family in September 2003. According to the company’s website, Triplex, it has three manufacturing sites — at Hereford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Paddockwood. The company supplies fully-machined components and sub assemblies to passenger car makers, commercial vehicle makers and tier-I manufacturers.The auto component sector has seen some aggressive deal making in recent times with Bharat Forge, M&M and Amtek being the most active in the deal space.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Tata Sky plans to raise up to $200 mn

Tata Sky a DTH major which is a 80:20 JV between the Tata group and television network Star is considering a second round of funding of $150-200 million and is in conversation with various private equity players such as Providence, Carlyle, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Apax Partners.

By law, a DTH operator in India has to be have a minimum holding of 51% by an Indian entity. Singapore-based PE player Temasek had bought about 10% for about $56 million. The valuation of the company in three months has risen more than two-fold.

Tata Sky is looking at diluting about 10% stake. The current holding structure of Tata Sky looks like this: 20% with Star (FDI), 10% with Temasek (FII) and 70% with the Tata’s. Tata Sky’s fund-raising is timed to coincide with the proposed launch of Reliance Communications and Bharti’s DTH operations. In order to face the threat from Reliance and Bharti, Tata Sky needs to ramp up in terms of infrastructure and technology.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Related Post:
Tatas offload 10% in Tata Sky to Temasek

PE firm to invest in Leela

Hotel Leelaventure, the parent company of one of India's leading hotel chains - Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts is getting private equity investment from a US-based private equity (PE)to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore.The PE firm is most likely to be Blackstone.

Chairman of the Leela Group, Capt C P Krishnan Nair confirmed the investment but he declined to divulge the name of the PE firm or state how much equity dilution had taken place.

Leela also has plans to diversify into an altogether untapped market - religious destinations, in which the organised sector constitutes only 10%."We will launch a second chain of 5-star luxury hotels called Leela Gardens, which would come up in religious/devotional cities," said Capt Nair.

Read more in The Times of India article.

Ess Dee Aluminium to pump in Rs600 cr in acquisitions

Aluminiums packaging firm Ess Dee Aluminium has set aside about Rs500-600 crore most of which would be spent over next one year primarily in acquisitions.The company is striving for huge growth through the inorganic route earmarking Rs500-600 crore for acquisitions in the domestic and international markets.

The company is eyeing Kolkata-based India Foils currently under the Sterlite Group.
Confirming the development, Sudip Dutta,managing director Ess Dee Aluminium said the company was in the fray for India Foils currently under the Sterlite group.

India Foils has three units of which two are closed.Ess Dee had sought state government assistance like electricity subsidy and sales tax waiver for the turnaround.The company has also bid for Alcan’s packaging business which could be valued at $1 billion.

Read more in The Livemint article.

Apollo to offload 15% for $70 mn

Apollo Health Street (AHS), the healthcare business process outsourcing subsidiary of Apollo Group that runs India’s largest hospital chain, plans to raise $70 million from the capital market by offloading 15% of its equity. The Hyderabad-based company has been valued at nearly $470 million. The company will come out with its initial public offer (IPO) in the first quarter of 2008.

AHS is also looking to get outsourcing contracts worth several millions of dollars from private equity player Apax Partners, which runs 45 hospitals in Europe. Apax Partners picked 11% stake in parent company Apollo Hospital Enterprises for $100 million last month.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

L&T signs JV with US firm for pipelines

Engineering and construction firm, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, said on Friday it had signed a joint venture for pipelines with US-based Gulf Interstate Engineering Co."The joint venture company will augment L&T's offering in pipelines," L&T said in a statement to the National Stock Exchange.