Warburg leads race for stake in Laqshya

At least four large foreign private equity firms are chasing independent outdoor advertising firm Laqshya, and if sources are to be believed, Warburg Pincus has already firmed up plans to pick up 15-20% equity stake for Rs 300 crore in the Mumbai-based outfit.The company however denied the report.

According to a source Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse First Boston and KBC are also in fray but the deal is likely to go in favour of Warburg Pincus.

Laqshya is one of the country’s largest integrated out-of-home (OOH) media companies with 30 offices across 20 cities. UTI Venture is the other investor in the company, which had put in $10 million in 2006. Last year, Laqshya raised $35 million from Saudi-based PE Fund Amwal Al Khaleez for its Dubai subsidiary Right Angle Media.

Laqshya is a founder member of IOAA (Indian Outdoor Advertising Association). Apart from India, it has a presence in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sri Lanka, which makes it the only multinational in OOH media space. \

Outdoor media firms have recently been on the radar of PE and venture capital funds. New airports, roads, highways, malls and emergence of organised retail have created the need for outdoor advertising like billboards, hoardings, mobile vans, bus shelters, promotional activities at the point of purchase and television screens.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Warburg to invest $110 mn in Havells

Havells India, $1.2 billion enterprise and one of country’s fastest growing electrical and power distribution equipment companies, manufactures products ranging from building circuit protection, industrial & domestic switchgears, cables & wires, energy meters, fans, CFL lamps, luminaries for domestic, commercial & industrial application, and modular switches has attracted a $110 Million from Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm.

Havells will issue fresh shares and warrants to Warburg Pincus, representing approximately 11.2 per cent of the fully diluted share capital of the company.

SSKI (a subsidiary of IDFC) was the financial advisor and Amarchand Mangaldas provided legal advice to Warburg Pincus on this transaction.Havells owns prestigious global brands like Crabtree (Indian Region), Sylvania, Lumiance and Zenith, among others.

Read more in The Business Standard article.

Kotak Bank in talks with Buffett, others to raise $400m

Kotak Mahindra Bank is set to raise around $400 million through a qualified institutional offering this week. The private sector bank is in talks with a string of investors including funds of Warren Buffett and other strategic investors for the proposed placement.

The bank may issue 17 million equity shares (around 5% equity) to institutional investors. It has also sounded out some of the private equity players, foreign insurance firms and other bluechip investors. The bank is also said to be in talks with T Rowe Price.

At present, Warburg Pincus holds 9.14% in the bank. The issue is likely to be completed in the next few days. Sources say the bank is looking at placing shares at around Rs 1,050 per share. Kotak Mahindra shares ended at Rs 959.45 on BSE on Friday. The stock has moved 31% in the last one month, and 4% last week. The deal would enable the bank raise around Rs 1,700 crore. Citi is the advisor to the issue.

After the issue, promoter shareholding is likely to come down to around 52%. The promoters have to bring down their shareholding from the current 55.5%. As on June 2007, the capital adequacy ratio of the bank was 11.33%.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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.

DRL to bid for US-based Bradley Pharma: Srcs

Dr Reddy's has moved one notch closer to buying out US based generic drug maker Bradley pharma but, a few other big players pose a challenge to the deal.

The battle for US based generic drug maker Bradley pharma is intensifying. The Indian challenge is from Dr Reddy's Labs, which is learnt to have moved into, round two of the bidding process. Bradley’s product portfolio includes a few high profit margin dermatology products and that’s expected to benefit Dr Reddy's. But, that portfolio has attracted attention from Archimedes Pharma and Nycomed. Archimedes is a company promoted by private equity giant Warburg Pincus while Nycomed has the backing from Blackstone.

Read more in The Moneycontrol article.

Punj Lloyd sells 11% stake

A clutch of private equity funds including Warburg Pincus, Blackstone, Avenue Capital and hedge funds DKR Oasis and Kingdom Capital have bought a total of 11 per cent stake in Punj Lloyd for Rs 814 crore.

Warburg Pincus has bought 5.5 per cent stake while, Avenue Capital has acquired 2.5-3 per cent in Punj Lloyd, which is an EPC contractor focused on the oil and gas sector with diversification to infrastructure.

Private equity major Blackstone bought somewhere between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent in Punj Lloyd, which issued the shares to these global investors through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue priced at Rs 275 a share, almost on par with the current market price.

The deal propels the company’s valuation to nearly Rs 8,000 crore. Moore Capital bought 1-1.5 per cent stake in the Delhi-headquartered construction major.

The company issued 29.6 million shares through the QIP issue, managed by Citigroup Global Markets India and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

Following the placement, the company’s paid-up capital has gone up from Rs 29 crore. Ravi Keswani, director (finance) of Punj Lloyd said the company would invest Rs 400 crore to buy a strategic 25.1 per cent stake in Pipavav Shipyard and it would spend another Rs 80 crore for its foray into real estate development.

Lehman, Warburg, Carlyle eye 20% of Angel Broking

Leading private equity investors Lehman Brothers, Warburg Pincus and Carlyle Group are in talks with Angel Broking to buy a 20% stake in the Mumbai-based retail broking firm.

Angel Broking is the latest to join the PE bandwagon after leading industry players like Motilal Oswal Securities, Edelweiss Capital and India Infoline roped in equity partners in the past. Angel is planning to raise about Rs 200 crore through the placement, pegging the broking firm’s valuation at around Rs 1,000 crore.

Investment banker Rothschild has been given the mandate to find equity partner and the deal is expected to be sewed up by September-end.A 100% retail player, Angel Broking has chalked out an expansion plan under which it has identified 250 new locations in addition to its existing branch network of 70. It offers a range of services like broking, research, investment advisory, wealth management, e-broking and commodities trading to about two lakh clients.Angel Broking records daily business volumes of Rs 1,500 crore and enjoys about 3% market share.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Warburg Pincus appoints former McKinsey executive as MD at Mumbai office

Leo Puri, a former executive at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has been appointed managing director by Warburg Pincus for its India office. Mr. Puri is a post-graduate in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University, and was a co-leader of the financial services practice in Asia for McKinsey. He will begin at Warburg's New York office in April, and will move to its Mumbai office later. Mr. Puri’s appointment seems to fill in the gap created by ex-MD Pulak Prasad’s exit from Warburg Pincus some time back.