Notz Stucki in race for ICICI’s 63% stake in Infomedia

Notz Stucki, one of the largest asset managers in Europe, has joined the race for ICICI Venture’s 63% stake in Infomedia (formerly Tata Infomedia). Private equity funds such as General Atlantic, Blackstone and Warburg Pincus have also shown interest to buy out ICICI Venture’s stake in the media firm.

The buyer of ICICI Venture’s stake will have to make an open offer, and shell out upwards of Rs 400 crore. On Thursday, Infomedia’s shares closed at Rs 233.90 on BSE, taking the market capitalisation to Rs 461crore.

In India, Notz Stucki is managed by a team led by Anil Singhvi, former managing director of Ambuja Cements. “Notz Stucki is one of the serious contenders for Infomedia,” sources close to the development said.

ICICI Venture acquired Tata’s 50% stake in Infomedia India in 2003 for Rs 123 crore. It later acquired an additional 13% through an open offer.Infomedia publishes the popular business directory Yellow Pages and some well-known niche magazines.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

General Atlantic invests $60 mn in IBS Software

Private equity (PE) investor General Atlantic Llc. (GA), headquartered in New York, has stepped up its pace of dealmaking in the country. It has closed three deals worth more than $175 million (about Rs744 crore) in the first seven months of the year, including the $60 million investment in Thiruvananthapuram-based transportation and logistics software firm IBS Software Services that was announced on Wednesday. The change of pace, in terms of the number of deals, is significant when seen in the context of the six deals the $17 billion PE firm had concluded till December 2006, five years after it started investing here in 2002.

IBS marks GA’s ninth investment in India and its fourth in the information technology services sector. The firm has invested more than $700 million in the country till date and its largest investment here has been $250 million in Gurgaon-based business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Genpact Ltd in 2004 for a 30% stake. The BPO, which was spun off from General Electric Co., will make an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange soon and expects to raise $731 million. GA is expected to partially exit Genpact at the time of the listing.

The PE investor has taken a minority stake in IBS Software Services, but the percentage was not disclosed. IBS Software Services plans to use the funding to boost its sales and marketing teams, increase its business consulting services and make two acquisitions in the US or Europe.

Read more in The Livemint article.

ICICI Holdings plans $500 mn stake sale

ICICI Holdings, ICICI Bank’s subsidiary which owns its insurance and asset management businesses, is selling 5 per cent stake to private equity investors and foreign reinsurers for $500 million.

The private equity investors likely to buy the stakes are General Atlantic, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Private and Temasek.

Sources indicated that all investors would be allotted equal stakes in ICICI Holdings. The company has sought regulatory clearance and appointed JP Morgan as the financial advisor for selling the stake. The two Singapore-based private equity players, GIC and Temasek, have stakes in ICICI Bank.

ICICI Bank when contacted declined to comment. ICICI Bank was looking at valuing ICICI Holdings at $10 billion, the sources said.

ICICI Holdings’ 74 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is valued at $6 billion and in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company at $3 billion. The bank’s 51 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential Asset Management is valued at $1 billion.

The private placement is just the beginning. ICICI Holdings is planning to list its equity shares at an appropriate time to meet a part of its further capital requirements for ICICI Life and ICICI General.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Citi to exit, captive BPO units no longer attractive

The captive outsourcing story is turning sour .. or so it appears with the latest market buzz that Citigroup is on its way to pull out of its local business process outsourcing (BPO) unit Citigroup Global Services (formerly eServe).

While Citigroup continues to maintain that "the bank's policy is not to respond to market speculation," industry sources say "it makes logical sense for Citigroup to exit the business since it's not core to its operations".

The BPO currently has close to 8,000 people spread over two centres in Mumbai and Chennai. Some of the names floating to acquire the business include IBM, Automatic Data Processing (ADS), Infosys, EDS, Genpact, Capgemini and private equity players like Blackstone and General Atlantic.

When contacted, Genpact denied comment saying that it is in silent period. While IBM and Capgemini, too, maintained the no-comment stance, a senior Capgemini official, on condition of anonymity, said: "We have studied Citi Global services, it seems to be a decent company and has a good set up." The official, however, was concerned about the valuation of the Citi's BPO arm, which market rumours pegged at $1-1.2 billion.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

IBM, ADP, Genpact, Infy in race for Citi’s BPO biz

The first round of bids for Citi’s business process outsourcing operations — Citigroup Global Services (formerly known as e-Serve) — is likely to be completed this week. A host of global IT companies and also private equity firms are said to be in the initial race. However, Citi is likely to look at selling part of its operations only to a strategic partner, given the sensitivities involved in the deal.

According to sources, IBM, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Genpact, Infosys and private equity firms such as Blackstone and General Atlantic are in the race for Citi’s BPO business.

Citi is likely to follow the Genpact model, where it is likely to sell off over 50% stake in the BPO firm. It is, however, likely to retain a part of the stake in the firm so that they can not only get the benefits in case of a future listing but would also handhold the firm. According to sources, one of the main reasons that the group is looking at bringing in a strategic partner is to bring down the overall costs and not monetising the stake.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Citi, 3 others lead race for Sharekhan stake

Citigroup’s private equity arm Citigroup Venture Capital International, Baring Private Equity, TPG and 3i are the front-runners to acquire an equity stake in Sharekhan, the retail brokerage arm of the Mumbai-based SSKI group.

Some foreign and domestic banks have also expressed their interest in the brokerage firm, while existing private equity investors General Atlantic, Intel Capital and a group of funds advised by HSBC Pvt Equity India, which own about 48 per cent shares in Sharekhan, will look to sell either fully or partially in the current equity sale.

Intel, which owns 5 per cent, and HSBC-advised funds, which own close to 12.5 per cent, have been investors in Sharekhan for long. The other major shareholders are the Morakhias’ (promoters) with 37 per cent stake, while 300 employees together hold another 15 per cent.However, none of the employees would sell their stakes in the current round.

Sharekhan is valued at around Rs.800-850 crore. It is among the top five retail brokerage outfits in the country with over 100 branches across 150 cities.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Sharekhan may sell 15% to PE players

Sharekhan, the retail broking arm of the Mumbai-based SSKI Group, is raising funds from private equity (PE)players to finance its expansion.A few private equity players have already started due diligence on Sharekhan, which may dilute close to 15 per cent stake. Shripal Morakhia, promoter of Sharekhan, said, “We are planning to dilute close to 15 per cent stake. This will result in a dilution of stakes of all existing shareholders.”

He, however, refused to divulge the amount the company was planning to raise.At present, the Morakhias hold 37 per cent stake in Sharekhan, while its employees hold 15 per cent and the rest is held by General Atlantic, Intel Capital and a group of funds advised by HSBC Pvt Equity India.

In April last year, General Atlantic invested about Rs 144 crore ( $31 million) in the company through a combination of primary and secondary investments through buying out the entire shareholding of First Carlyle Ventures.

Sharekhan is looking at expanding its presence in the country through organic growth. It is among the top five retail brokerage outfits in the country with over 100 branches across 150 cities.