Biscuits major Britannia Industries has approved an employee stock option scheme, fixing the exercise price at Rs 1,125.30, Tuesday’s closing price.An exercise price is the price at which options can be converted into shares. The remuneration panel of the company’s board on Wednesday also approved to grant 15,000 options, convertible into an equal number of shares, to managing director Vinita Bali.
In July, shareholders had approved a proposal to issue a maximum of one lakh shares to senior management, whole-time directors and executive directors.The vesting period will be a minimum of one year from the date of grant and the exercise period will commence from the date of vesting and expire not later than three years from the date of vesting.A previous employee stock option plan okayed by the board about two years ago did not see the light of day.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Anand Jain’s firm buys 10% stake in Gokaldas Exports
Anand Jain, chairman of Jai Corp and a confidante of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, has picked up nearly 10% equity stake in Gokaldas Exports, a leading player in the readymade garment industry.Mr Jain’s acquisition coincides with Reliance Industries’ attempt to revive ‘Only Vimal’ and other textile brands. Reliance Industries, which started as a textile company in 1979, now earns less than 1% of its revenues from the textile business.
Blackstone had acquired a 50% stake in Gokaldas from its promoters last year. The deal was pegged at Rs 275 a share, 20% higher than the ruling market rate at that time, making it the country’s largest management buyout in the textile industry. It was followed by the mandatory open offer to shareholders which increased Blackstone’s stake to 68%.
The US-based PE giant Blackstone is the largest shareholder in Gokaldas, with a 68% holding. The Hinduja family, the original promoters of the company, now holds 20%.
Blackstone had acquired a 50% stake in Gokaldas from its promoters last year. The deal was pegged at Rs 275 a share, 20% higher than the ruling market rate at that time, making it the country’s largest management buyout in the textile industry. It was followed by the mandatory open offer to shareholders which increased Blackstone’s stake to 68%.
The US-based PE giant Blackstone is the largest shareholder in Gokaldas, with a 68% holding. The Hinduja family, the original promoters of the company, now holds 20%.
NTPC to form JV with NPCIL
State-run power producer NTPC today said that it would form a joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd for setting up a nuclear power project."NTPC board has approved the formation of a joint venture company with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to set up a nuclear power project," company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.NTPC would hold 49 per cent of the stake in the joint venture company and 51 per cent would be held by NPCIL.
The company plans to raise up to Rs 4,500 crore from domestic as well as international markets for meeting its expansion plans in the current financial year.NTPC posted a net profit of Rs 2,110 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, a jump of 9.60 per cent from Rs 1,925 crore in the second quarter of last fiscal.Total income rose by 18.94 per cent to Rs 10,406 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 8,749 crore in the same period last fiscal.The company's net sales rose to Rs 19,201 crore in the first half of the current fiscal, from Rs 16,976 crore in the year-ago period.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Kuwait's Global Investment buys 11% in MAPE
Kuwait-based Global Investment House (Global) has picked up an 11.11% equity stake in MAPE Advisory Group, a boutique investment bank, for about $10 million (about Rs 48 crore), valuing the firm at $90 million. MAPE has offered the stake to Global by way of a fresh issue of shares.The funds raised through this transaction would be utilised by MAPE as working capital to boost its institutional broking business.
Post stake sale, Mr Mathew and Mr M Ramprasad, the promoters of MAPE, will own roughly 70% of the company’s equity.MAPE, which was founded in 2001, focuses on M&As, private equity fund raising, debt syndication, cross border advisory services and institutional broking.
It has closed over 60 transactions — the recent ones being Mahindra's acquisition of Kinetic Motors, CVCI's investments into Mumbai-based broking firm Sharekhan and ICICI Ventures, and Baring's investments into Karvy Stock Broking — across various sectors.
The total value of these deals add up to nearly $1.9 billion. MAPE currently employs around 60 professionals across its offices in India and the United States.
This strategic alliance finally gives Global a toehold in India. It may be recalled that the Kuwait-based firm was a strong contender for UTI Securities, which was eventually lapped up by Standard Chartered bank.Global is one of the leading mid-sized investment banks in the Gulf and has registered itself as a foreign institutional investor (FII) with SEBI.
Post stake sale, Mr Mathew and Mr M Ramprasad, the promoters of MAPE, will own roughly 70% of the company’s equity.MAPE, which was founded in 2001, focuses on M&As, private equity fund raising, debt syndication, cross border advisory services and institutional broking.
It has closed over 60 transactions — the recent ones being Mahindra's acquisition of Kinetic Motors, CVCI's investments into Mumbai-based broking firm Sharekhan and ICICI Ventures, and Baring's investments into Karvy Stock Broking — across various sectors.
The total value of these deals add up to nearly $1.9 billion. MAPE currently employs around 60 professionals across its offices in India and the United States.
This strategic alliance finally gives Global a toehold in India. It may be recalled that the Kuwait-based firm was a strong contender for UTI Securities, which was eventually lapped up by Standard Chartered bank.Global is one of the leading mid-sized investment banks in the Gulf and has registered itself as a foreign institutional investor (FII) with SEBI.
Nifty ends 5% lower on weak global sentiments
Weakness in global markets and lack of investor confidence saw the Indian stock market benchmarks wipe off gains made in last two trading sessions on Wednesday.Markets opened sharply lower, in line with the Asian peers, on concerns of global economic slowdown. Expectations of further cooling in inflation rate failed to cheer the market. Inflation rate for the week ended Oct 11 is seen at 11.35 per cent, lower from 11.44 per cent previous week.
Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended at 10,169.90, down 513.49 points or 4.81 per cent from Tuesday’s close. The index touched a low of 10,128.22 and high of 10,484.85. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed at 3065.15, down 5.25 per cent or 169.75 points. The broader index touched a low of 3051.80 and a high of 3235.75.
Among frontline stocks, Tata Steel (-12.04%), Sterlite Industries (-10.04%), Reliance Communications (-8.79%), ICICI Bank (10.04%), Jaiprakash Associates (-7.88%) and Tata Motors (-7.87%) were the worst hit.ITC (1.04%) and Hindustan Unilever (0.5%) were the only gainers in the 30-share index.Market breadth remained weak through the day, with 1,733 declines and 778 advances on BSE.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
TCS to buy Citigroup Global Services for $505mn
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed an agreement with Citigroup Inc to acquire its captive BPO-Citigroup Global Services (CGSL) for $505 million (around Rs 2,424 crore) in an all-cash transaction. In addition to the sale, Citi has signed an agreement with TCS to provide, through CGSL, process outsourcing services to Citi and its affiliates in an aggregate amount of $2.5 billion over a period of 9.5 years.
The acquisition broadens TCS’s portfolio of end-to-end IT and BPO services in the global Banking and Financial Services (BFS) sector.TCS has provided IT services to Citi since 1992 and is currently one of the largest IT services partners for Citi, delivering IT and business processing outsourcing services to Citi across its operations in North America, Europe, India, Japan, Singapore and the rest of Asia Pacific.The parties expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2008. Merrill Lynch acted as advisors to TCS in this transaction.
The acquisition broadens TCS’s portfolio of end-to-end IT and BPO services in the global Banking and Financial Services (BFS) sector.TCS has provided IT services to Citi since 1992 and is currently one of the largest IT services partners for Citi, delivering IT and business processing outsourcing services to Citi across its operations in North America, Europe, India, Japan, Singapore and the rest of Asia Pacific.The parties expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2008. Merrill Lynch acted as advisors to TCS in this transaction.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Nomura to buy Lehman's Indian operations
Japan's top broker Nomura Holdings today announced that it had agreed to acquire Lehman Brothers' operations in India, giving jobs to 3,000 more workers from the bankrupt Wall Street giant.Nomura, which is already buying Lehman's operations in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe, will take on the failed US bank's India-based back office and IT support businesses for an undisclosed sum.The subsidiaries, based in the financial hub of Mumbai, were not included in the earlier deal because they were under the wing of Lehman's North American business, which is being bought by the British bank Barclays.
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