Monday, December 10, 2007

Angels to the rescue

Heres an article in the Hindustan Times which talks about the irony in the PE/VC space in India. It says "While the country is awash with foreign money flowing into private equity, early stage funding, what many believe to be the essence of venture capital, is not quite abundant. But successful Indian entrepreneurs who have been there and done that are trying to solve this problem in their own way with a network of “angels” — individuals who provide seed capital and some hands-on advice and help to boot, often by sitting on the boards of start-ups."

We hope the band of angels is always on the increase. Read the complete article on HT online

IDFC PE to raise $600 million in third fund by March 2008

IDFC Private Equity, the private equity investment arm of infrastructure financing firm Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd (IDFC), is raising a $600 million (Rs2,364 crore) fund, its third since it set up operations as the country’s first pure play infrastructure PE investor in 2002. The proposed fund has an upper limit of $700 million on the final corpus and is expected to close fund-raising in March 2008 as reported by Mint.

Separately, IDFC PE’s parent, the state-owned IDFC is itself in the process of closing first-round commitments for a mega $5 billion mega infrastructure fund, which includes debt and equity. With the proposed $600 million fund, total funds raised by IDFC PE till date stand at $1.2 billion. Its first fund, India Development Fund, had a corpus of $192 million and was the first to raise capital entirely from domestic institutional investors. The second fund, dubbed, IDFC Private Equity Fund II, raised $440 million of which over 70% came from overseas investors.

The firm has invested in 22 companies till date, which includes three airports and 31 roads and bridges. It typically picks up stakes between 10% and 50% in each of its portfolio companies and invests across the spectrum in power, oil and gas, transportation, telecom, urban and rural infrastructure and social infrastructure

Nutek gets 25 cr funding from a US fund

Gurgaon-based telecommunication solutions company, Nutek India Ltd, said that it was close to sealing a Rs 25-30-crore infusion from a leading US-based fund by end-this month. "We are in the final stages of closing this deal," Nutek India Managing Director Inder Sharma told reporters here.

The US-based fund will be picking up an around 10 per cent stake in Nutek, Sharma said, however without disclosing the identity of the US-based fund. The sale price is expected to be in the range of Rs 170 per share. Earlier, Atherstone Capital had invested Rs 10 crore in the company for an around 8 per cent stake. Atherstone Capital had been sold the company's shares at Rs 87 per share, Sharma said. This transaction took place nearly two years ago.

Post the fund-infusion expected to be completed by end-this month, the promoters' holding in the company would come down below 80 per cent from the present around 90 per cent, Sharma said.

Nutek's core expertise lies in the breadth of services it provides to its customers in the telecom infrastructure market. It provides turnkey infrastructure creation and installation for telecom sites which includes passive infrastructure like towers, telecom shelters, power plants, back-up power, DG sets, electrical infrastructure and earthing stations, among other services.

Source: Economic Times

3i makes its second India investment in Soma Enterprise

3i India Infrastructure Fund, part of the London-based private equity and venture capital company 3i Group Plc, has invested $101 million (Rs 398 crore) in Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Soma Enterprise.

Though the companies have not disclosed the exact stake the fund picked up, Avinash Bhosale, joint managing director, Soma Enterprise said, “3i has got minority stake; the stake figure is in mid-teens (between 13% and 17%).” This figure values the company at over Rs 3,400 crore.

Soma will use the money for expansion. Hyderabad-based Rajendra Prasad Maganti and his family owns majority stake in the infrastructure firm. Pune-based flamboyant real estate developer and hotelier Avinash Bhosale is the other promoter.

Soma, with revenues of Rs 1,100 crore, has an order book of Rs 6,400 crore. The company is also planning a public issue next year.

The company has divided its business in six verticals. Theses include real estate, urban infrastructure, irrigation, transportation, tunnel and hydro power. Along with IL&FS, Soma is bidding for phase II of the Mumbai metro rail project.

3i India Infrastructure fund targets to invest about $1bn in the country. Soma Enterprise is its second investment in the country. In October this year, it had invested $227 million for a minority stake in Adani Power, a subsidiary of Adani Group.

Source: DNA Money

RE funds eyeing township projects

Integrated townships seem to be the preferred investment option for private equity (PE) players in India. In fact, a Cushman and Wakefield (C&W) report finds that 28% of PE investors favour investment through this route in the real estate market.

Integrated townships — as a low risk investment avenue due to their diversification benefits and low entry cost — are a highly attractive option. Agrees Sandeep Singh, national head, capital markets, C&W, “In today’s high land price scenario, integrated townships offer higher value creation opportunities due to low entry costs for land and synergies created by mixed-use development within them.

Industry players also feel that it is only natural for investors to look at this asset class as a lucrative option. “Only integrated townships have the capacity to absorb a significant amount of capital that is raised ...this also means that in the years to come, this asset class is bound to grow by leaps and bounds,” feels V Hari Krishna, CIO, Kotak Real Estate Fund. Moreover, a mix of various services in these townships such as hospitals, recreation, education etc makes them win an edge over the other models.

The report also finds that investments in the market have spread rather evenly over three broad investment vehicles. While majority of the investment still remains either at the portfolio and SPV level partnership, at 40% and 36% respectively, the number of entity level partnerships formed 26% of the total investment in the sector.

Source: Economic Times

UBS India Investment Banking is stepping on the gas

UBS will nearly double its investment banking staff in India to up to 180 (from 100 now) in the next year as it prepares to offer more services and retain its share of the increasingly competitive business, the head of UBS in India said.

UBS tops the merger and advisory table so far this year, up from seventh spot last year, data from Thomson Financial showed, leapfrogging rivals including Morgan Stanley , Citigroup , JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch.

Our challenge and our desire is to remain among the top three investment banks in India," Manisha Girotra, managing director and chairperson for UBS India, told the Reuters India Investment Summit on Thursday. The competition extended to staffing. Hiring and retention of talent were the biggest challenges, Girotra said, and took up 30-40 percent of her time.

UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, is also awaiting regulatory approval to offer additional services including fixed income, wealth management and high-end retail banking in India.
Globally, UBS has had a turbulent year. It closed Dillon Read Capital Management in May and in October announced its first group quarterly loss in five years. But it has said its wealth management business was poised for strong growth.

Source: Reuters

Its raining M&A's

The volume of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by India Inc has grown phenomenally in the first half of the current fiscal and is likely to reach further heights over the next one year.
In the fiscal year 2006, the outbound M&As from India had an aggregate value of $13.97 billion spread over 480 deals. However, the M&As in the first half of the current fiscal surpassed this figure and stood at $25.58 billion, according to the data available with KPMG.

“The average ticket size of these outbound M&A deals from India had also been growing from $25 million in 2005 to $39 million in 2006,” Mr Preet Mohan Singh, Director (Corporate Finance), KPMG India Pvt Ltd

The key drivers behind this growth are increasing global consolidation, cost of production and valuation arbitrage, customs/skill set acquisition.

Source: Business Line

400 PE, M&A deals under CBDT scanner

The spill-over effect of Vodafone’s battle with Indian tax authorities may prove costly for several other deal makers. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has reopened about 400 cases of big and mid-sized transactions that took place during the past six to seven years.

According to sources close to the development, the cases include foreign corporates and PE firms selling stakes of companies based in India, and not paying any capital gains tax. One of the first such cases that the tax department is currently probing is Montreal-based Alcan Inc’s selling of the controlling stake in Indian Aluminium Company (Indal) to Hindalco Industries seven years ago, sources in the finance ministry told SundayET.

Significantly, there were around 300 PE deals clocked in India in 2006 alone. The tax department had earlier slapped a notice on Vodafone Essar, demanding $2 billion as capital gains tax over its $1-billion acquisition of a majority stake in Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth largest mobile telephone company. The case is now locked in the Bombay High Court.

Source: Economic Times

Bharti, Idea and Vodafone Essar come together to form a tower company

GSM mobile operators Vodafone, Bharti and Idea Cellular will jointly set up an independent tower company, Indus Towers, to share passive infrastructure with all telecom players to enable lower cost and a more competitive operating environment .

Bharti and Vodafone will own 42 per cent stake each in the tower company, with Idea will hold the balance 16 per cent. Indus Towers will be an independently managed and operated company.

The mobile phone companies will merge their existing assets, and the new infrastructure company will have 70,000 sites, which will be shared in 16 circles. In addition to telecom companies, service providers such as broadcasters and broadband service providers would also share the infrastructure, Vodafone said in a statement.

"Indus Towers will enable optimisation of future tower rollout and enhanced operational efficiency leading to operational expenses and capital expenses savings for its customers," it said in the statement.

Source: domain - b

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

General Atlantic takes minority stake in IBS software for $60 mn

Private equity firm General Atlantic has paid $60 million for a minority stake in India's IBS Software Services, reported Reuters.

IBS, which provides services for the travel, transport and logistics industries, has two development centres in India.

Edelweiss Capital was the financial adviser to IBS.

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TechTribe gets funding from 3 PE funds including Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners, a $2.4 billion global venture capital firm, today announced it has led a joint investment with The Entrepreneur's Funds and Miven Venture Partners in techTribe, India's leading career networking portal as reported by PRWeb.

techTribe is a software company that enables current and future Indian technology professionals to enhance their careers through social networking. The investment will be used to expand techTribe's sales and marketing infrastructure in India and to drive new revenue growth. Alok Mittal, Canaan's managing director in India, will be named to the techTribe board of directors.

The Indian career networking market for middle- and senior-level executives is worth $400 million, according to techTribe, which has operations in San Francisco and New Delhi.

Canaan Partners is a leading global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage information technology and life sciences investments. Founded in 1987, Canaan Partners has $2.4 billion capital under management and has invested in more than 240 companies, completed 63 mergers and acquisitions, and brought over 50 companies public.

The Entrepreneurs' Fund III (TEF3) is a Silicon Valley based, early stage venture fund focused on Software and Healthcare startups. Miven Venture Partners, founded in 2005, is a multi-stage venture capital firm with a primary focus on investing in consumer related technology companies.

Related Articles:
Canaan Partners to invest in 3 companies; deals to close by year-end

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Angel Broking is attracting PE interest

The domestic equity broking scene has been heating up recently. With the interest that global investors are showing in the Indian markets, the broking business is getting very attractive for a lot of players.

After names like Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss, India Infoline, it is now Angel Broking which is in talks to offer 20% of its stake to PE investors like Lehman Brothers, Warbug Pincus and the Carlyle group. Angel intends to raise Rs.200 crs through this sale, valuing it at Rs.1000 crs. NM Rothschild has been given the mandate to look for a suitable partner and the deal is expected to be closed by September end as reported by the Economic Times.

The funds will be used to finance Angel’s proposed expansion of branches and to launch new products such as loan against shares and margin funding, said the paper.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Praful Patel brings in industry friendly norms for aviation sector

The aviation industry has seen a lot of action in the recent past on the M&A front. In line with the trends, Praful Patel the civil aviation minister has decided to support mergers & acquisitions (M&As) in the sector with industry-friendly norms, reported Times Now.

Simple rules for the transfer of traffic rights and the right to use airport infrastructure to facilitate M&As in the sector are among the initiatives proposed in the comprehensive civil aviation policy, which will be considered by a group of ministers (GoM) soon.

The civil aviation ministry’s stand should help M&A deals by making it clear that an airline which takes over another can use the traffic rights of the latter. Parking bays, landing slots, hangars, check-in stands, lounge areas, ticketing areas and office space would also get transferred.

In the aviation sector, management change makes it mandatory for airlines to get several clearances all over again from various authorities including the civil aviation ministry, the Director General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, the home ministry and the corporate affairs ministry, which could change if the new policy is approved by the GoM.

Max India raises Rs.1000 crs through QIP placement

Max India today announced that it has raised Rs. 1,000 crore through a QIP, which was subscribed 2.3 times by broad based investors, spread globally. CLSA acted as the sole book runner and global coordinator for the issue.

The QIP raises FII holding in the company to 39% from around 26% earlier. Max India has an investment limit of 49% for FIIs.

The company has issued shares at a price of Rs. 240/- per share. Each share of Max India has a face value of Rs. 2/- and therefore, the new shares have been issued at a premium of Rs. 238/- per share. The new shares aggregate 18.8% of the fully diluted equity base of the company. About 40 % of the allocation went to US based investors while the remainder was split evenly between Asia and Europe based investors.

Max India plans to use the net proceeds from this issue to meet its additional funding requirements in line with its strategic business plans to further grow each of its existing businesses. A portion of the proceeds is also expected to be used for general corporate purposes including acquisitions and investments in new ventures. Encouraged by an almost 100% CAGR of its life insurance business since inception, the company has committed itself to growth plans for this business.

Source: Business Wire

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

CLSA Capital Partners invests in Luminous Power Technologies

CLSA Capital Partners, a member of France's Crédit Agricole Group, announced that CLSA ARIA Investment Partners III LP and CLSA Clean Resources Asia have co-invested US$20.3 million in Luminous Power Technologies Ltd.

This is the seventh investment by Aria Investment Partners in India. Managing Director of LPT Rakesh Malhotra said, “This investment by CLSA will provide a strong impetus to our future growth in India and markets across Asia, Africa and Latin America. With this investment we will also be able to execute our strategy of offering high technology Power Electronics and Energy Storage products for the renewable energy sector.”

Luminous Power Technologies is a manufacturer of Inverters, UPS, Deep Cycle and Automotive Batteries and a range of water purification and other home appliances.CLSA Capital Partners is the alternative asset management arm of CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, with US$1.5 billion under management.

Source: RTT News
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Ruias funding Algoma acquisition through senior notes & loans

Essar Global will raise $900 million through a combination of senior notes and loans to fund its acquisition of Canada’s Algoma Steel, reported Economic Times. The non-recourse fund raising exercise by Essar Global is the second-largest such transaction by an Indian steel company, after Tata Steel’s almost $7 billion loan to finance its acquisition of Corus.

The Ruias’ international holding company had acquired Algoma in April for $1.58 billion in an all-cash leveraged buyout. Essar Global’s acquisition is considered the second biggest by an Indian company in North America, after Hindalco paid $6 billion to buy Atlanta-based Novelis in February.

To finance its Algoma acquisition, Essar Global will sell $450 million of senior notes, recoursed to the Canadian company’s balance sheet. The eight-year notes, denominated in dollars, may yield 9.75% to 10%. UBS is the financial advisor to the offer.

Essar Global also plans to issue $450 million in loans, based on Algoma’s earnings. The group’s own contribution will be about $500 million. It could not be ascertained how the rest of the acquisition amount — about $100 million — will be raised.

India Hospitality to buy Mars Restaurants, SkyGourmet Catering for US$110 mn

India Hospitality Corp (IHC) said it wants to create a diversified hospitality company after agreeing to buy India-based Mars Restaurants Private and airline catering company SkyGourmet Catering Private for about 110 mln usd, as reported by Business Wire.

IHC said in a statement that it will pay about 91.6 mln usd in cash and the rest in shares on completion of the transaction. An additional amount may be payable if the businesses hit certain performance targets.

Upon completion of the transaction, current India Hospitality shareholders will own approximately 88.9% of IHC and insiders, including Hayground Cove Asset Management and Navis Capital Partners, will hold approximately 51.1%. Affiliates of Navis Capital Partners and Mr. Sanjay Narang, the founder of both SkyGourmet and Mars, will continue to play an active role in the management of the combined businesses going forward.

One of the major shareholders in the target companies, private equity investor Navis Capital Partners, retains an option to reinvest a substantial portion of the sale proceeds into IHC, the company said. The option allows Navis and its affiliates to subscribe for up to 75 mln usd in cash for new IHC shares, which, if exercised will lift Navis' stake in IHC to about 20.7 pct.

Citigroup keen to divest 80% of its BPO arm

On the heels of Blackstone's acquisition of the back-office firm Intelenet, news is ripe that Citigroup is keen on selling 80 percent of its business process outsourcing (BPO) arm in India for USD 700-USD 750 million, reported the Mint .

Citigroup is in "advanced negotiations" with leading private equity firms for an all-cash deal for Citigroup Global Services, the newspaper said, citing investment bankers close to the deal. A private equity investor was most likely to emerge as the buyer with IBM Corp. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. "likely to drop out of the race over terms being proposed by the seller", the bankers told Mint.

Citigroup Global Services operates primarily in financial services and employs about 8,000 people, its Web site showed.

Private firms are eager to invest in back-office firms in India because of the potential for fast growth in the sector. Carlyle, which has a 28 percent holding in Allsec Technologies Ltd., is reportedly bidding for another back-office firm, Cambridge Solutions Ltd.

Intelenet: Blackstones first management buyout in India

Private equity heavyweight Blackstone Group agreed to buy Indian back-office firm Intelenet Global Services Ltd. for an undisclosed sum, its first management buyout in India, reported Business Standard.

U.S.-based Blackstone, which along with rival Carlyle has been grappling with stiff resistance from Indian companies unwilling to sell out, will own 80 percent of Intelenet, with the back office firm's management holding the remainder.


Under the deal, a joint venture comprising HDFC Bank and Barclays Bank will sell its Intelenet stake to SKR Business Process Outsourcing Services, a company co-owned by Blackstone GVP Capital and Intelenet’s management. Although financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, industry Business Standard sources pegged the sale figure at around $420 million.


Intelenet’s management team will continue to be in charge of operations, with current Chief Executive Susir Kumar at the helm. Also, Intelenet will continue to provide services to Barclays in relation to certain processes currently offshored to India.


Intelenet started out in 1994 as a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HDFC. In 2004, TCS sold its stake to HDFC for Rs 161 crore when it decided to focus on its own business process outsourcing (BPO) business. Subsequently, HDFC sold 50% to the UK-based Barclays, which was looking to outsource back-office processes to India.

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Monday, June 18, 2007

Merill Lynch loses Sumeet Puri

Sumeet Puri resigned as head of equity capital markets in India at Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest arranger of share sales in the nation, reported the Economic Times. Puri will leave Merrill by August after 13 years with the New York-based investment bank.

There have been no official statements as of now on this development from Merill Lynch and the reason for quitting, less than five months after he was named to run equities and origination of structured products in India, is not known yet.

Merrill's top executive in India, Amit Chandra, and its head of investment banking Munesh Khanna quit at the end of last year to start buyout funds.

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Merill invests US$ 11 mn in India's Copal Partners

Merrill Lynch completed a minority investment in KPO provider Copal Partners, joining Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as minority investors in the firm, reported . The three banks now collectively own around 25% of the business.

Based in the UK, Copal Partners is a leading KPO with approximately 550 employees based primarily in India and Mauritius. Copal is a leading outsourced research provider to Wall Street firms and the buy-side. The funding will be used for expansion organically and through acquisitions

According the WSJ, Copal is valued around $300 million, putting Merrill’s stake around 3.7%. The investment is a strategic one, in the sense that Merrill, like the other minority investors, relies heavily on outsourcing for its own research and other activities such as investment banking prep work.

Citigroup Venture Capital to invest a fresh $1.5 bn in India

Citigroup Venture Capital International (CVCI), Citi’s emerging markets private equity investment arm, will invest a fresh $1.5 billion in India over the next three years, reported the Mint. It will be the largest such infusion by a single private equity investor in the Indian market and outstrips the $1 billion allocations made by the Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group each in 2005.

The investments will be made out of CVCI’s global $4.5 billion Growth Partnership LP Fund II, which is slated to complete fund-raising in a few weeks. In three years, CVCI’s exposure to India will jump three-fold from the $500 million it has invested here so far.

The move to up the ante in India follows the recent reorganization of Citi’s global alternative assets businesses, namely hedge funds, private equity and real estate development, under Citi Alternative Investments (CAI), led by former Morgan Stanley executive Vikram Pandit.

CVCI stepped up its investments in India in 2005 soon after the launch of its $1.7 billion Growth Partnership LP Fund I. This fund, incidentally, was the first independent PE fund that CVCI raised since it started operations as a private equity investor in 1996. The bulk of the $500 million it has invested in India so far came from Fund I. Investments prior to 2005 were made mostly out of proprietary funds from Citi.

Among its notable investments pre-2005 were I-Flex Solutions Ltd in Mumbai, Progeon Ltd (now known as Infosys BPO) in Bangalore and Polaris Software Lab Ltd in Chennai.From the new fund, it will go after deals in cross-border outsourcing, consumer-driven industries, infrastructure and restructuring plays among others.

Barings is launching its third India dedicated fund

Baring Private Equity Partners India Ltd plans to launch its third India fund in the second half of 2007, with a corpus of at least $175 million (Rs717.5 crore) to target the energy and the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) sectors, reported the Mint. The focus will be on alternative energy projects as they have a small gestation period and are comparatively smaller as compared to the conventional power projects.

Baring Private Equity Partners was founded in 1984 and has operations in Latin America, Europe, Russia, Asia and India. The company already has two funds operating in India with interests across sectors such as information technology, life sciences, financial services, energy and fast moving consumer goods.

Baring’s Indian operations started in 1997 with a $40 million fund and its second India fund of $175 million. Its two funds have invested in companies such as Mphasis BFL Software Ltd and Integra among others.

Yash Raj attracts PE interest

Yash Raj Films (YRF) is planning to enter the TV content and broadcast business and is in talks with private equity funds to raise money. A separate company may be created for the TV business.

YRF founder-promoter Yash Chopra has had talks with private equity investor Blackstone, the source adds. Among the other new initiatives, YRF is planning to get into the film exhibition business.

When queried about the TV business, Yash Raj Films chief executive Sanjeev Kohli said: "We are considering an entry into the TV space. We will be firming up our plans in the next few months." He did not rule out a presence in the broadcasting arena, but said no definite plans had been worked out yet.

Source: Indiantelevision.com
Related: Mickey Mouse meets loverboy Raj

Ascendas launches S$500m development fund for India

Business space provider Ascendas has launched its first ever development fund for India - to tap into the country's booming real estate sector. Totalling S$500 million, the private fund will invest in the development of integrated property projects like business and IT parks.

The new Ascendas India Development Trust will start by developing two IT business parks, in the Indian cities of Pune and Nagpur. Ascendas had announced in April that it was developing the two projects through joint ventures with Indian government agencies.

It plans to raise the total asset size of the fund to S$1 billion - and is in the process of securing new investment projects. Current investors in the fund include Bahrain-based asset manager Arcapita, and Holland's ING Private Banking

Source: Channel NewsAsia
Related Article: Singapore-based real estate firm Ascendas to raise $1 bn fund for India & China

Vineet Vohra to head ING India operations

ING Groep NV's (ING) investment management unit said Wednesday it appointed Vineet Vohra as chief executive of its India operations.

He will take over from Kavita Hurry, who has been chief executive since 2002 but is leaving ING to pursue other interests.

Vohra comes to ING from Citibank N.A., where he helped build the firm's wealth management franchise as regional director and business head for Citibank's Asia Pacific Consumer Investments business.

Vulture Funds investing in SMEs

There was an interesting article in the Economic Times on June 13, on how distressed assets funds (also called as Vulture funds) have been attracted to the SME segment in India. Over the past six months, funds specialising in distress assets like ADM, Clearwater, Citadel, Goldman Sachs Special Situations and DE Shaw have invested in such companies.

Spinnaker has invested in Spice Telecom and Clearwater in Sanghi Movers and earlier Diamond Cables. While Asia Debt Management (ADM) has invested in Rama Pulp and Paper, DE Shaw has invested Amar Ujala, Citadel in Aban Lloyd and Goldman Sachs has put in money in Cremica.

Both the SMEs as well as distress funds have their own motives to embrace each other. The SMEs may get funds for working capital from the banks, expansion capital is much more difficult. From a distress funds perspective, there are not enough distress opportunities considering the economy is growing at around 9%. Hence funds are forced to look outside their focus area

Read full article

NEA-IndoUS Ventures Fund invests in ISGN Technologies

ISGN Technologies Ltd, a software services firm servicing US funding from mortgage customers, has received $25 million (Rs102.5 crore) venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and an affiliate NEA-IndoUS Ventures Fund, a firm controlled by Vinod Dham, a former engineer who was part of the Intel team that designed the first Pentium chip.

The NEA firms declined to disclose financial terms but said they will pick up equity between 10% and 30% at ISGN. ISGN will use the investment to set up new offices and finance sales and marketing. The revenues of ISGN, backed by India’s K.K. Birla group of companies, as on March 2007 were $30 million. K.K. Birla is the chairman of HT Media Ltd

Firms from the outsourcing industry have attracted significant Private equity interest. Early this year, Adventity, a back office firm specialising in financial services, announced its first round of funding of $20 million from an investment to fund its domestic and oversees group led by Norwest Venture Partners expansion plans.

New Delhi-based Global Vantedge, that had carved a niche in the insurance recovery industry got strategic funding of around $8 million from private equity firm ChrysCapital in 2002, and was acquired by an Essar group call centre company in February 2007.

Indecomm Global Services Ltd, which provides financial services to its clients, received $5 million funding from West Bridge Capital Partners and Acer Venture Capital in 2003.

Source: Mint

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lehman completes a Trimurti of senior hires

Lehman Brothers has made the last in a trimurti of senior hires to its Indian investment banking unit with the appointment of a venture capital specialist Jayanta Banerjee to run its private equity business in the country, as reported by Reuters.

Jayanta Banerjee joins from ICICI Ventures where he was a committee member on India’s largest private equity fund, the $810m India Advantage Fund Series 2.

By hiring Banerjee, Lehman has appointed new heads for its three main growth businesses in India this year. In January the bank hired Surojit Shome as head of investment banking before appointing Pankaj Vaish as head of equities and fixed income markets in April. Both were earlier working with Citigroup.

Banerjee will report to Tarun Jotwani, the chief executive of Lehman’s business in India, and Christopher Manning, head of the bank’s Asia investment management division.

Reliance Cap bitten by the Investment Banking bug

The growth in the Indian Investment Banking field continues to lure more players .

Reliance Capital, having a presence in asset management, retail broking and insurance businesses in the country, now intends to start an investment bank in partnership with a foreign player, reported the Economic Times. Reliance Capital’s vice-chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala is said to be overseeing the initiative.

Bear Sterns and Paine Webber are some of the names floating around who could partner Relaince Capital in this venture.

Investment bankers from rival firms believe Reliance Capital can have a significant presence in the investment banking business, given the fact that it holds minority stakes in various companies across sectors, which could lead to securing fund-raising mandates of these companies.

Mickey Mouse meets loverboy Raj

Walt Disney is typing up with the production house of Bollywood showman Yash Chopra (Yashraj Films) to co-produce animated films in Bollywood, as reported by Economic Times.

While the deal is not a joint venture with equity participation, the industry perceives it as the beginning of a relationship that may later culminate in a strategic equity partnership. For Walt Disney, the Indian game plan could be to secure a supply chain so as to make inroads into the local market. Joining hands with an established house would make greater sense in high growth markets.

Amid reports of Yashraj’s tie-up with Disney, rumours are also floating that some private equity players have evinced interest in investing in the production house.

ICICI Ventures buys stake in Radiant Research

ICICI Venture has acquired majority control in US-based clinical research company Radiant Research for an undisclosed amount, as reported by Economic Times.

Last year Radiant Research had sold a part of its clinical research business, constituting eight clinical pharmacology centres, to US-based clinical research company Covance for $65 million. With 26 other clinical centres, the current deal could have been valued at $150 million plus.

Apart from clinical centres, Radiant compromises of a full service CRO and a centralised patient recruitment company, employing over 400 clinical research professionals. Radiant Research had clocked revenues of $73.5 million in 2003.

ICICI Venture has multiple exposure in the life sciences business. Its investment portfolio includes Arch Pharmalabs, Malladi Drugs, Bharat Biotech, I-Ven Pharma, RFCL, Metropolis, Perlecan, Avesthagen, Biocon, Medicorp and Intas Pharma.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Mayfield Fund is building its team in India

Mayfield Fund, which has $2.6 billion under management with investments in high growth companies in the U.S., China and India, announced the addition of Nikhil Khattau and Vikram Godse to its India investment team based in Mumbai, as reported by Finance Asia.

This follows the fund's two direct investments in the past six months in India in Tejas Networks and the Seed Fund. Mayfield's activities in India are being led by the U.S.-based Managing Directors Navin Chaddha and Robin Vasan.

Khattau was earlier the founding chief executive of Sun F&C Asset Management, one of India's first private-sector asset managers, which is now part of the Principal Financial Group.

Godse was a founder of JM Financial Investment Managers, an Indian private equity fund. Before that he worked in India for the investment unit of Cisco and for Infinity Venture Capital, one of India's first venture capital firms.

Mayfield will focus on investments in the consumer services (retail, entertainment and travel), infrastructure (power, roads, buildings and waste disposal), manufacturing and offshore sectors in the country.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Apax to buy Patni stake for USD 800 mn

Apax Partners, a UK-based private equity firm, is planning to buy a controlling stake in Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems for over USD 800 million, reports Economic Times. Apax is willing to pay 8-10% higher over the present share price, for 44% stake in the company.

Two other mid tier Indian IT companies and other private equity firms are also in the race to acquire stake in the company.

The move was stimulated by Gajendra and Ashok Patni (co-founders of the company), who expressed their will to exit from the company. They together hold 28% stake in the company. General Atlantic, another private equity firm is also considering to sell 16% stake. Narendra Patni (co-founder) will continue to hold a 16% stake in the company.

Friday, May 25, 2007

RSM Equico on the prowl for acquirers

RSM Equico, an investment banking arm of US-based H&R Block, a $7 billion, Fortune 500 financial services company, is seeking local participants to join its “buyers’ pool”. A buyers pool refers to the collection of potential acquirers.

Hector J Cuellar, president, RSM Equico, is now making pitches to five dozen local industrialists in five days in a bid to enlist them into the buyers pool for close to 200 mergers & acquisition proposals from US medium-sized companies they have in the pipeline.

So far, RSM Equico has never had an Indian in its buyers pool till one of its accounting and consulting units operating in India informed that Batlilboi Ltd, the machine-tool maker and engineering services firm, was on the lookout. RSM Equico steered Batliboi’s acquisition of Quickmill Inc, a Canadian CNC lathe machine maker, for Rs 22 crore on March 27.

Source: DNA Money

IFC to invest US $500 million in India by June

World Bank's private equity arm, International Finance Corporation, aims to cross 500-million-dollar mark in new investments by June 07. IFC's currently-held portfolio is 1.3 billion dollar (as of June 2006) making India its fourth-largest country of operations.

During the last year, IFC invested over Rs 91.71 crore in a subsidiary of Moser Baer and infused about Rs 82 crore for assisting Kanoria Chemicals in its expansion plan. It has also picked up 11.48 percent stake in Granules India for around Rs 26 crore and has committed a 50-million- dollar loan to Orissa-based cement manufacturer OCL India Ltd. IFC would also invest over Rs 101.37 crore (25 million dollars) to help expansion of the production capacity of electronic bikes marker Electrotherm India in Gujarat.

IFC focuses on supporting companies that do not have easy access to long term funding. In the past, IFC had invested in companies such as Bharat Forge and Titan Watches, which later grew into global brands, in their early stages. The list also includes industrial giants like Tata Steel, Larsen and Toubro, Bajaj Scooters and Arvind Mills. In the financial sector, IFC played an institution- building role and was a founding investor in key financial institutions such as HDFC and IDFC and continues to be their partner.

As of financial year 2006, IFC has the largest exposure in the manufacturing sector, followed by financial sector. Pulp and paper, steel products and chemicals formed a large part of the manufacturing portfolio of the institution.

Source: Hindustan Times
Related Stories: IFC, DEG planning to acquire a stake in SICOM

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Central Bank plan to tap the Capital Markets:plans an IPO of 1000 cr.

Central Bank of India, one of the few government-controlled banks yet to tap the capital market, has filed its draft prospectus for an initial public offering with the capital markets regulator Sebi to raise close to Rs 1,000 crore.
The bank, which is planning to launch a public offering of eight crore shares, is likely to price its issue at close to Rs 110 per share. Central Bank, like other banks in the country, needs funds to bolster its capital base to feed rising demand in an economy which has recorded an average growth of 8% during the last four years.
The public offer will help the bank bolster its capital adequacy ratio now at 10.4%. The beefing up of its capital base will also aid the bank in fulfiling regulatory norms for banks with overseas operations.

Source: Economic Times

ITC Hotels acquire 100 % stake in King maker Marketing Inc. (KMM)

ITC Ltd on Thursday said it has acquired the balance 49.02 per cent shareholding of King Maker Marketing Inc (KMM) for an undisclosed amount. After the said acquisition, KMM has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC with effect from May 9, ITC said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Earlier on November 6, ITC had consolidated its stake to 50.98 per cent, after which KMM became a subsidiary company of ITC. KMM is engaged in the business of distribution of tobacco products and all its brands are made exclusively by ITC.

Jain Irrigation to acquire an Israeli co.

The Indian agriculture conglomerate Jain Irrigation Systems is buying 50% of Israel's Na'an Dan Irrigation at a company valuation of NIS 140 million.

Sources in Israel's agriculture sector say that Na'an Dan preferred the Indian offer, even though Israeli company Netafim's offer was more attractive in many respects. The reason for rejection is believed to be that Netafim demanded a controlling share in the company, raising concerns that Netafim would take steps to integrate the management activities of the two companies, sending Na'an Dan's management home.

Source: Haaretz.com
Related News: Jain Irrigation to acquire US-based Aquarius Brands for $21.5 mn

Restrictions on Realty VCs

The real estate sector has been on the radar of regulators for a while now. The fear of an asset bubble being formed due to increased interest in the sector, especially by the ever growing realty funds, has been sensed by one and all.

As per an article in the Business Standard, the government is reviewing norms for investments by foreign venture capital funds in real estate, after the Reserve Bank of India coming round to the view that such funding is helping create an asset bubble in the sector.

The government had recently clamped down on the use of external commercial borrowing by real estate companies in order to check capital inflow, which, it feels, is fuelling inflation in the country.

With stock market sentiments too turning against the sector, real estate developers were looking at private equity funds as their last hope. But that source too could suffer if the proposed clampdown on venture capital funds takes place.

Under current norms, foreign venture capitalists invest in real estate through private equity firms in the form of foreign direct investment.

While market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India has cleared the decks for registration of such VCs, the Reserve Bank of India has opposed their operation and not allowed them to open foreign exchange accounts. If the Reserve Bank gives the green signal, such investments will be clubbed under institutional investments.

Read more

Whats up at Old Lane?

Old Lane is a New York based Hedge Fund with a $500 million India fund. The firm was set up by former Morgan Stanley executives Vikram Pandit, John Havens and Guru Ramakrishnan.

13 months into existence, Old Lane was bought by Citigroup for a reported sum of $800 million. Pandit now heads Citi’s alternative investment business, while Ramkarishnan, a co-founder, has taken over as the CEO. By next month around 40% of the India fund will be invested

Read more about Old Lane, its investments and its plans in the Mint

RBI to allow Temasek, Singapore Invt. arm to buy ICICI stake

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow Temasek and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) to acquire 10% equity each in the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank as a “one-off case”, as reported by Economic Times.

The regulator has taken a stand that this cannot be “quoted as a precedence” for the Singapore government’s investment arms and any other foreign investor to pick up stakes in other private sector banks, sources told ET. Even though the government has been in favour of allowing the Singapore entities to hold higher stakes in ICICI Bank, RBI had earlier said that Temasek and other investors associated with the Singapore government, like GIC and Monetary Authority of Singapore, were all ‘related entities’ and could together hold a maximum 10% stake.

The tussle between RBI and the Singapore government owes its origin to the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement between India and Singapore. The agreement says “...for investments into India’s capital markets, India shall regard GIC, Temasek and their investment vehicles as independent and unrelated legal entities, for the purpose of application of the Sebi legislation, including rules, regulations and guidelines governing investment limits on Foreign Institutional Investors...” Further, Annex 7 of the treaty says, “Each legal entity shall be allowed to purchase up to 10% or the prevailing threshold under these regulations, whichever is higher, of the issued capital of any company.” The Singapore investment arms were keen to participate in ICICI Bank’s issue in December ‘05. RBI had refused to make any exception for Temasek in the ownership guidelines for private banks, and had barred from further raising stake in the private bank.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

FIIs' pre-IPO investments in real estate to get FDI status

The government proposes to treat the investments by foreign institutional investors in pre initial public offers (IPOs) of real estate companies as foreign direct investment (FDI), as reported by Business Standard.

The government has also said FII investments in the pre-IPO allotment of real estate companies will have a lock-in period of three years, in line with the FDI norms. The lock-in period of three years is currently applicable to FDI in real estate.

The government recently also clamped down on the use of external commercial borrowings for the real estate sector for integrated townships. All these measures are in response to widely held opinion that overseas funds are contributing to an asset bubble in the real estate space.

The government had said that it intended to slow down the flow of foreign debt into the real estate sector through its recent curbs on external commercial borrowings (ECBs).

HDFC Realty Fund invests 75 crs in Pune based real estate co.

HDFC India Real Estate Fund has bought a 10% stake in Pune-based real estate company Paranjape Schemes for Rs 75 crore. Private equity investor GE Capital has also signed a deal worth Rs 250 crore with the company for developing an integrated township project in Pune.

The funds infused by HDFC will be used for all upcoming projects of the company, while GE Capital’s investment is for a specific project in Pune, as reported by the Economic Times. Paranjape Schemes, which also undertakes construction activities and has completed over 100 projects, is also planning an IPO in the future.

HDFC India Real Estate, a real-estate fund having a corpus of Rs.1000 crs, was the first dedicated real estate fund launched in India in 2005. The fund has bought stake in another Pune based real estate developer Vascon Engineers. The fund has a mandate to invest in three broad classes of projects-those that are complete, those in the development stage and those in the planning stage.

India, China are Asia's top M&A destination - Are you surprised??

India & China are top M&A destination...havn't we heard this often enough. India is a party destination for the Financial services industry, and everyone wants to cover this party.

PWC has come out with a survey reiterating the above. “China and India still remain the top two targets for M&A in the region due to underlying economic growth conditions,” an annual report presented by the financial advisory firm said, as reported by Mint.

The survey which polled 230 senior financial executives in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East, showed interest in India had increased slightly from 37% in 2005 to 39% in 2007.
By comparison, 47% of executives answered that they expected to execute a merger or buyout in China over the next five years.

Taiwan, Pakistan and Vietnam were also fast emerging as M&A hot spots, the report said.
Managers also signalled particularly strong expectations for Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia over the next five years.

Among those surveyed, nearly three quarters predicted that their companies would undergo a significant merger or acquisition some time in the next five years, up from 68% last year. Already, transaction value in Asia last year totalled $64 billion (Rs2,59,711 crore), a jump of 66% from 2005.

The sun is shining...and we all know whos making hay

Nasscom floats a 100 cr VC fund for IT start-ups

In December 2005, Nasscom wanted the Union Government to set up a separate venture fund to fuel innovation in the software products space.

A year and a half later Nasscom is set to launch a Venture Fund, with a corpus of Rs.100 crs, along with Hyderabad-based ICICI Knowledge Park, an arm of the ICICI bank.

Disclosing this to CyberMedia News here, Rajdeep Sehrawat, vice president of Nasscom, said “We have earmarked Rs 100 crore to fund IT start-ups in India, which are involved in IP-creation. These companies could be anyone who is working on automotive electronics, wireless and broadband, life sciences, medical devices and the like.”

The venture fund is expected to be in place by October this year. The fund will be looking at disbursing seed capital or angel funding, which other venture capital firms hesitate to enter. It intends to finance early start-ups, in their ideation stage, as this is where the liquidity crunch is felt the most.

Such initiatives promise to offer a lot of opportunities to an entrepreneurial mind. One hopes to see more such initiatives being taken in the future.

Funds continue to be lured by the Indian Real Estate story

About $2.5 billion have been invested by overseas realty funds in India to date. And if that wasn't enough, wait to see another $3.5 billion running after the best real estate opportunities India has to offer.

Nearly two dozen US funds are raising $3.5 billion for investments in Indian realty. Those raising the money include Wall Street powerhouses such as Blackstone Group ( $1 billion) Goldman Sachs ($1 billion), Citigroup Property Investors ($125 million), Morgan Stanley ($70 million) and GE Commercial Finance Real Estate ($63 million). Others raising the money are: JP Morgan, Warburg Pincus, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Colony Capital and Starwood Capital.

Theres been enough said and written on the increasing property prices in India. But that doesn't seem to deter these funds to make investments in the sector. The attraction for these funds is potential investment returns of 25% and more in Indian projects that might be hard to come by in the US and Western Europe today.

One such determined big player is Goldman Sachs. For about a year now, Goldman Sachs’s Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds have been exploring the Indian market and checking out potential investment partners. Some time back the California Public Employees’ Retirement System invested $100 million in a $400-million real estate fund promoted by IL&FS.

Tishman Speyer is among the first US developers to invest in India. Last year, the New York City-based firm formed a joint development company with ICICI Venture Funds of Mumbai that will have a war chest of $2.5 billion. Similarly, New York-based developer Vornado Realty Trust has teamed up with The Chatterjee Group, a venture capital firm also located in New York.

The Indian Real Estate story seems to be growing by the day and everyone wants to play a part in it.

Source: Financial Express

From DSP ML to Citi: Vikas Khattars big move

The last couple of years have been exciting for the Investment Banking community to say the least. The action though has not been limited to large ticket deals. One gets to hear about high profile moves every now and then. DSP ML seems to have been affected more than others with movements of Munesh Khanna and Sanjay Sharma.

Vikas Khattar is the latest to make the big move. Citi India has poached Khattar from DSP Merrill Lynch to add strength to its equity capital markets team. He will be joining in as a Director early next month. Khattar is an MBA from IIM Calcutta and an engineer from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science. He was a veteran at DSP Merrill Lynch with 11 years experience.

Citi’s equity capital markets team is headed by another erstwhile DSP Merrill Lynch stalwart, Ravi Kapoor. Kapoor left DSP ML, where he was head of equity origination and capital markets, in April 2005 to kick-start the same business for Citi. Khattar will be part of Kapoor's team, which reports to Pramit Jhaveri, who heads investment banking for Citi in India.

For its part DSP Merrill Lynch is also on a hiring spree since Merrill Lynch bought out its Indian partner in December 2005. DSP is aggressively foraying into new areas including private wealth management, real estate and principal investing and hiring to staff these businesses. Indeed, worldwide Merrill Lynch has been beefing up its global private client non-resident Indian (NRI) business at the cost of Citi and has lured Rahul Malhotra, Inderjeet Hora and Aseem Arora from Citi in the last few months.

Source: Finance Asia

Monday, May 21, 2007

Valuation dilemmas lead to panic fall in Bajaj’s stocks

The newly carved out demerger is expected to increase the market cap aggregate of the daughter companies by 10%. This was infact cut short with what could have been a 50% increase.

The mangement of the parent company decided to give its insurance JV partner Aliianz a call option to increase its stake in the life insurance venture to 74% and the non life general insurance venture to 50% which would expire in April 2016.This according to the management was a safety procedure which saw a potential valuation of the insurance business by several intermediaries of 13-18 thousand crore to a mere 575 crore of the Life Insurance and 421 crore for the general insurance venture by the end of FY08.

The combined market cap of the demerged entities is expected to be around 30,000 crore as against 27,000 crore of the prevailing BAL. It could have seen a valuation of 36,000 crore had there been no put-call options.

The demereger according to Rahul Bajaj would be from effect from 31 March 2007 but the process could take upto December 2007.This would mean that the existing shareholders would recive the shares of the new company only then which could have been a possible reason for the inexplicable fall in Bajaj’s stock on 17th May followed by another fall on 18th May which saw the market cap shed by 15% or Rs 4000 crore

Source: The Economic times, Mint

Bajaj announces demerger into 3 new entities

After much speculation of a demerger, one to the effect was finally anounced on 17th May. The Bajaj’s business will be rolled off into 3 new companies with the existing Bajaj Auto Ltd continuing as the holding company which will also have a mammoth Rs 6,000 crore in cash.

Under the new scheme of arrangement the auto businesses will come under the Bajaj Holdings and Investments Limited (BHIL),it will also have 1,500 crore in cash and the Financial services company which includes a joint venture with the UK insurance major Allianz will continue operations under as Bajaj Finserv (BFL).It also includes consumer finance, windpower projects and Rs 800 crore in cash.

Rajiv Bajaj will continue as the MD and CEO of BHIL whereas Sanjiv will manage BFL and remain the Executive Director of BHIL. Rahul Bajaj will remain the chairman of all the three companies.The board of the two new companies will have four members comprising Rahul,Madhur,Rajiv and Sanjiv Bajaj. However the BAL board will not be tampered with.

Source: The Economic Times, www.livemint.com

Friday, May 18, 2007

HDFC to raise money through ADR’s , preferential allotment

HDFC is expected to raise $1 bn through ADR’s and preferential allotment. It plans to raise about one-fourth of the money through equity alloted on a preferential basis which will most likely be to its promoter HDFC Group as a public offer could see the promoters stake diminish. The promoter group has a current holding of 21.56% and the issue will increase its stake to 23%.

It currently needs a strategic investment of Rs 1390 crore to retain its stake and then it would go for a public offer of equity shares in domestic markets
as well as international markets like the US in the form of American Depository Shares(ADR)rasing the residual 2800 crore.


Source: The Economics Times

SBI allowed to reduce stake in subsidiaries

The lok sabha allowed SBI to reduce its stake in its seven subsidiaries from 55 percent to 51 percent. This will make their shares available to retail investors by listing on the stock exchanges

The State Bank of India (Subsidiary Bank Laws) Amendment Bill, 2006, which amends the State Bank of Saurashtra Act, 1950, the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956 and the SBI (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 was passed by a voice vote. The bill also raised the authorized capital of these banks to Rs 500 crore, allow them to issue bonus shares and augment the number of nominated directors representing shareholders to a ceiling of three.This also gives the chairman of SBI the power to appoint chairmen of its subsidiaries.

The government however clarified that it has and would dismiss any proposal of reducing stake in the subsidiaries below 51% as it would like to have majority voting power in these to be state owned companies after RBI transfers its holding to the government in August.

Tthe SBI has 100 per cent stake in State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Saurashtra. Stakes in State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Indore -- SBI's stake varies from 75 per cent to 98 per cent.

Source: The Economic Times.

Foreign Private Equity firms to take India’s infrastructure story ahead

The monetary requirements for building infrastructure set by the government seems to find foreign support .The centre has earmarked $320 bn in infrastructure investments by 2012 which it proposes to accrue from its Foreign exchange reserves in partnership with foreign funds.

Various Private Equity firms has approved of investments pertaining to infrastructure in India .Citigroup and Blackstone will float a $5 billion fund with India’s Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) and India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFC) .3i, another UK based PE firm, has put in $500 mn in projects with IIFC as its partner, in India .The SBI along with Société Générale of France plans to Rs 18 bn to invest in infrastructure companies .It also plans to venture into private equity with a target to invest Rs 42 bn in infrastructure .About 65% of these funds will be invested in equity .US based TransAsia infrastructure holdings will be another infrastructure dedicated fund to be launched by the end of 2007.

However all this is subject to approval by RBI who dictates an upper limit for External Commercial Borrowings(ECB’s) in India and also the decision to use the forex reserves is reserved with the RBI.

Source: www.economist.com

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Indian BPO's want share in US markets;Genepact next in list

Genepact is harboring ambitions to upfold what could be the biggest Indian IPO in US markets and is speculated to be worth around $600 mn.

The listing in the New York bourse would make Genepact the third Indian BPO trading in US after WNS and EXL services listed on the NYSE and the Nasdaq respectvely.The proceeds from the share sale will be used to repay debt bligations and for realizing potential acquisitions, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Genpact will apply to have its common shares listed on the NYSE under the symbol “G”. The IPO will be managed by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase.

General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners hold 60 per cent of the company’s equity, while GE owns the remaining 40 per cent. All the three sareholders are diluting their stake through the proposed IPO, according to the SEC filing.

Source:www.bpowatchindia.com

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Mutual Funds' ADR/GDR exposure limit to increase by $50 mn:SEBI

SEBI, to much cheer from the MF industry, has decided to increase the investment limit of single domestic Mutual fund's from $150 mn to $200 mn.It also said that there would be a sub-ceiling for individual MF's which should not be greater than 10% of their total AUM or $ 200 mn whichever is higher.

Source: The Economic Times

Millennium India Acquisition Company, Inc. to acquire stake in SMC Group

Millennium India Acquisition Company, Inc. announced that it would be picking up a minor stake in SMC group of companies worth A$39.97 mn.This would give the company a 14.9% control in what is one of the heavyweights in the finanial services industry in India.

This deal values SMC Group at $228 million, or approximately 8.6 times FY2008 projected earnings.

The capital realized from this investment will be used by SMC Group to expedite its expansion plans

Read the complete article

Geogit Financial sevices to partner BNP Paribas

The BNP Paribas-Geojit financial services partnership which was ascertained in March 2007 is being renamed as 'Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Limited' in India.

BNP Paribas picked up a stake of 27.18% in March which will go up to 34.35%.Investors of Barjeel Geojit Securities LLC, a leading UAE-based provider of financial services of which Geojit Financial Services is the parent company, are to benefit by way of best practices, global products and technology as a result of this partnership.

Read the full article here

HDFC buys out Chubb in insurance JV

HDFC bought out the 26% stake of Chinese insurance major in the JV whose book value expected to be around Rs100 crores would make the deal worth Rs 26 crore.The General Insurance Venture was set up in 2001.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority(IRDA) has been approached by HDFC to clear the Buy-Out.Ergo,the German reinsurance company is speculated to be the lead runner in the race to pick up the Chubb stake,till then,as the HDFC authorities say the JV will be fully owned by them.

Indian insurance regulations limits foreign institutions to own a maximum of 26% stake in insurance ventures.The limit might be raised to 49% but not without political opposition.

Source: Mint

ICICI plans India's biggest Public Offering;to be worth $4.3 bn

ICICI Bank Ltd. has filed documents with the market regulator SEBI seeking a public offer speculated to be worth 17,500 crore which may go up to 20,100 crore depending on the demand.

The bank which has hired Goldman Sachs and Merill Lynch to manage the offer said it would meet its next 3 years requirements assuming the banking system grows at 25%.It proposes to use the proceeds to meet the strong credit growth and also to usher the bank's inorganic growth ambitions.

Enam Financial Consultants and JM Morgan Stanley are also hired to see the deal through.

Source: www.livemint.com

Hindalco wins court approaval for Novelis buyout

The AV Birla group promoted Hindalco is set to become the largest producer of aluminium rolled products in the world after it won the approval of the Ontario superior court to acquire Novelis, a leader in the aluminium rolled products market.The buyout is valued at $6 bn.

The Atlanta based Novelis will now become a fully owned subsidiary of Hindalco.This catapults Hindalco in the top five league of aluminium heavyweights with revenues standing at $14 bn.

Hindalco would acquire Novelis through its subsidiary AV Metals which would cost the company $44.93 per share.Novelis is on its way to being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Source: The Economic Times

Hilton-Dlf to form joint venture in hotel business

Hilton Hotels Corporation will create a joint venture company (JV) in India with DLF Limited (DLF). The joint venture company plans to develop and own 75 hotels and serviced apartments over the next seven years. The formation of the joint venture is pending receipt of formal written approval from the Government.

The JV-owned hotels will represent several brands from the Hilton Hotels Corporation portfolio, including Hilton Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hilton Residences. The JV Company will develop and build these properties, while Hilton will manage them.

DLF will hold 74% in the JV Company, and Hilton will hold the remaining minority stake as a symbol of its commitment to the venture. Over the next five to seven years, Hilton will invest up to USD 143 million in the JV Company, before any consideration of debt.

The initial stage of the joint venture will involve 20 hotels in a number of key locations, including Chandigarh, Chennai and Kolkata. A large number of these hotels are expected to be Hilton Garden Inn properties -- a business hotel brand, offering focused services. Beyond the initial 20 sites, the JV Company will continue to identify and acquire sites and undertake new hotel developments in due course of time.

Source: INR News

Central Bank to roll out IPO in June

The Central bank of India is expecting an approval for an IPO from the Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI) in June. The capital realized by the bank would be used to amend the basel-2 Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) as directed by the Reserve Bank of India(RBI).The CAR is expected to rise to 12 per cent from the current levels of 10.40 percent after the issue.

The management also plans to expand the bank internally, upgrade it technologically and strengthen the Human resource department. The size of the IPO is expected to be somewhere around Rs300 crore. The bank is also thinking on capital expansion as a means of capital restructuring and diversifying it services.

Arvind mills and Diesel planet to form joint venture

Arvind mills announced that it had completed a joint venture agreement with Diesel International B.V. to represent the arrival of the diesel brand in India. The new entity would be called Diesel India Fashion Arvind Pvt Ltd.

Arvind mills, as the diesel authorities claim, was carefully chosen by them after a detailed search.

The joint venture hopes to start operations before the end of this year opening stores in Delhi and Mumbai

Source: www.equitybulls.com

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ranbaxy acquires yet another company,this time a South African major

Ranbaxy laboratories has added another feather to its cap.It confirmed the acquisition of Be-Tabs the South African pharma major for a whooping $70 million.This will make the company the fifth largest generic pharmaceutical company in South Africa.

The deal is expected to give Ranbaxy local manufacturing capability.As part of this acquisition, Ranbaxy has concluded a Black Empowerment transaction with a Community Investment Holding(CIH) group company.Ranbaxy has also planned a major upgrade of the Be-Tabs manufacturing facility to bring its factories in resonance with new standards.The comapny expects to cash in on the brand equity of the South african firm and expects to appease the local markets.

This would lead to the further enhancement of the products portfolio of Ranbaxy especially in the acute and over the counter products stream.Ranbaxy has operations in South Africa since 1996.

Source:
www.moneycontrol.com

Valuation business to be regulated:CA's oppose move

In a move to regulate the valuation business,the government is expected to introduce a Valuation Professional Bill in the upcoming monsoon session of parliament.

The Bill would endeavor to create a council of valuation professionals who would train the professionals,set standards and issue qualifying norms.According to a concept paper by ICAI,ICWAI and ICSI it will comprise of two members from each of these bodies and five other members from government entities.

This move has invited much criticism from the community of valuation business, who have a mixed view about this.Some of them claim that people working in the field have already studied these subjects thoroughly while the others welcomed the move saying that it would draw the line,and ensure that they acted responsibly.

Read the Mint article:
Chartered accountants oppose regulation move

United Spirits buys scottish counterpart Whyte and Mackay

Vijay Mallya's United Spirits has bought out the Scottish Scotch major Whyte and Mackay.An official announcement is scheduled for Wednesday.The deal which was initially valued at Pound 650 million was settled at pound 595 million which includes a pound 100 million payout to bridge a Pension fund Deficit in W&M's Pension trust.

The main owners of the Scottish firm is expected to leave the board including chief executive Mr.Vivian Imerman,who owns nearly two thirds of the firm.However,United spirits is keen on Mr Brannan ,the erstwile manager to head the existing management,as scotch is a new proposition for the Indian major.

Whyte and Mackay has an array of brands including their USP W&M scotch whisky,Dalmore scotch whisky,Isle jura single malt and Vladivar vodka.United spirits will look to promote these in India and some other markets too.

Mr Alok Gupta, one of Vijay Mallya's senior executives is expected to control the operations going forward.

Source: The Economic times

Aavishkar Goodwell to foray into Microfinance;Dubai's Legtaum Capital Picks 51% stake in SHARE

India's leading MicroFinance Institution(MFI) SHARE to get equity support from Aavishkaar Goodwell.The private equity player is expected to buy a small stake in the firm and help the SHARE management expand its existing operations.This is after Dubai's Legtaum capital picked up 51% stake in SHARE for Rs 125 crore.

Aavishkaar Goodwell which has a "for the poor" approach generally invests in small start up's and microfinance and has build up a porfolio worth US $25 mn.On the other hand SHARE is one of India's largest MFI with outstanding loans to the tune of $95 mn and has operations in 5 Indian states.

Read the complete article

BSE heading towards demutualisation

The Bomabay Stock Exchange has 22 foreign and local investors lined up for a 51% stake sale as a part of its ongoing mandated demutualisation process.This is after foreign investors including the NYSE and global Investment Bank Goldman Sachs bought 20% stake in the National Stock Exchange a few months ago.SEBI has fixed the deadline as 19th May to complete the transaction.

BSE has managed to convince the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB) to allow six foreign investors to invest in Asia's oldest bourse. The Singapore stock exchange and the Dutch bourse exchange already own 5% of BSE's equity.Among the foreign investors Dubai Financial, Caldwell Asset Management(USA),Katriel Investment(Cyprus) and Atticus(Mauritius) are expected to pick up stakes.

16 domestic investors including corporates Mahindras,Bajaj,LIC,Bank of India,SBI,Central Bank of India are also acquiring equity stakes of 1% or a little more.Any company buying more than 1% is subject to approval by SEBI.High net worth individuals such as Infosys CEO probable Kris Gopalakrishnan are also buying into the company.

Post Demutualisation BSE will have 77.2 lakh outstanding shares up from 69.5 lakh shares.FY'06 saw BSE booking profits of 60 crores ,it has reserves and surplus to the tune of Rs 930 crores.

Source: The Economic Times.

Debt markets to have credit default swaps

The next level for the debt markets in India is not far from realization.The RBI is expected to issue guidelines for the introduction of credit derivatives and set the regulatory framwork for its issuance today.This is after the the credit market has soared more than 27% in the last tweleve months.

RBI claims that it has reached the "adequate comfort level for the introduction of such products".However it may take several months for the banking industry to standardize the terms for trading these instruments.

There is a possibility that the government initially sets aside these instrument to be secured against an asset before allowing the markets to do away with them at a later stage.Also there is much speculation about whether or not offshore FI's will be allowed to trade in them.

Interest rate derivatives were the only derivative products allowed by the regulators to hedge against foreign currency risk before 1999.Allowing credit derivatives to be traded after the recent inclusion of derivatives on equity products(as recently as 2001)will cerainly lead the markets towards more stability.

Source: Mint

Monday, May 14, 2007

Right's issue worth $400 million on Jet's radar

Jet is planning a mammoth rights issue worth $400 million, the offer is still in its gestation period, and the issue is expected to come through in another 4-5 months according to director Mr. Vic Dungca.

$50 million from the proceeds would be used for Jetlite,the renamed Air Sahara which the company acquired after a prolonged legal tussle.The rest,according to the management, would be used to expand its existing fleet to 22 new aircrafts which would include 10 Airbus 330 and 10 Boeing 777.

Read the full article here

Fund houses on a NFO rolling spree

The mutual fund industry is set for a roller coaster ride.Investment banks like JP Morgan and AIG are coming out with NFO's for the first time.Along with them NFO's from veterans like SBI and HDFC is expected to hit the markets soon.

Capital protection offers are also rolled out by Franklin Templeton and DWS.DSP Merill Lynch's closed ended scheme is another fund which is closing for subscription at the end of the month.

Fixed maturity plans are in the pipeline by the likes of ICICI Prudential,Standard Chartered and Lotus.The offer documents of these funds have been filed with the SEBI.On the equity side UTI India Lifestyle, UTI Flexi Cap and Lotus Nifty Index Plus Fund are ready to make their offers public.

Read the Hindu article:
Fund houses line up series of new offers

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Hedge funds to debut in India soon

The RBI monetary policy for 2007-2008 has given a fillip to the alternative investment industry in India.

In a move to usher the capital and current account convertibility of the rupee the RBI has increased the present limit for individuals for any permitted current or capital account transaction from $50,000 to $100,000 per financial year.The current account convertibility was established with the acceptance of the obligations under Article VIII of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement in August 1994.

Driven by the need to increase their assets under management Hedge funds have reduced their minimum investment limits from $1mn to 200,000$ and even 100,000$ overseas and to tap the retail markets launched mutual funds that invest in them.This move by the Hedge fund community over the years coupled with the government's incentive gives a strong case for Hedge fund investments in India.

The SEBI has laid down the guidelines for the direct registration of hedge funds.What is to be seen is that how these funds interpret this move by the RBI.

Read the Hindu article
$100,000 limit puts hedge funds within reach of Indian investors

Friday, May 11, 2007

LBO'S in India in the long term???

The Private Equity Industry in india has ripened to a stage where it needs regulatory legislations so as to accelerate the development of the capital markets in India.
The current SEBI laws do not allow firms to pick up more than minority stakes in Indian entities.The ban on leveraged buy-outs is a constraint, which is the preferred mode of entry for many private equity firms.
Other regulatory obstacles include foreign ownership and investment restrictions, for instance in the aviation and publishing industries, that make departing from this sort of business more difficult.There are cultural barriers where the founding entrepreneur may wish to bring in money and management expertise through PE funds but do not have the appetite for handing over the reins to them.
The recent influx of investors in the stock markets would begin to reduce return which gives a stong case for Private Equity growth in India, though on the flipside PE funds have a history of job sacking and asset stripping realizing huge profits from that.They also have the uncanny ability to takeover businesses at low premiums which might effect investors.These doesnt make things easy for the regulatory authorities and they will find it difficult to give them unmarked access to the Indian markets.
But the real question is that is it the right time to let loose entities who have been labelled by many as 'barbarians'?
On a personal level, i think that the indian markets are not mature enough and still is highly imperfect to sustain a sudden change in the regulatory issues and allow highly risk activities such as LBO'S,which may see a sudden shift in liquidity trends from other AMC'S on the back of global perfomance and may cause a collapse that can trigger financial instability, however i endorse the government taking a stand on this issue and allow such activities over a period of time which will help investors gain more out of the markets and at the same time have the markets realize the cons of getting linked with these funds.The top private equity firms have been consistently outperforming the markets elsewhere and i find no reason why they can't produce the same results in India.
Private Equity activities in India reached its peak after domestic funds were able to raise $1.8 bn from the market and foreign funds from Carlyle to Blackstone betting on the markets.
India was the biggest recipient of private equity investment in Asia last year, with 143 deals worth a total of $2.21bn, according to figures from Thomson Financial, the data group.

Big names gear up to pick up stake in Reliance MF

Big private equity and asset management firms have lined up for a small stake in Reliance MF. Blackstone, the big US PE firm which has operations in India will look to build a relationship base with what is the biggest Asset management company in India and has Assets Under Management(AUM) which are scaling new heights, recently surpassing the 50,000 crore mark.
Reliance MF which is eyeing a valuation of 1.2 billion dollars (10% of the total AUM) is also on the radar of Schroder’s, the British fund with assets of about $260 bn after speculation that it wants to enter the Asset Management business in India and one of the units of US based Capital.
If this deal does go through it will help the foreign investors to cement a relationship with one of the biggest money mangers in the world .The industry’s AUM has witnessed a growth of almost 85% over two years starting 2005 April, and with the future looking bright these foreign firms could not have possibly found a better opportunity to build on a base starting with the leader in the Indian Markets .On the other hand it’s a win-win situation as far as Reliance Capital is concerned as it will give the company valuable know-how and technical proficiency in the Financial Services industry with the biggest names on its board. Valuations are also going crazy with the firm hitting a new high on the BSE.
Even if the offer is not accepted it has showcased the potential for the growth of the industry, with the American and the European markets approaching perfection and that these investors are finding it hard to outperform the markets there, they are looking at offshoring their business to low cost and high return destinations on the long term like India.
Related articles:
Schroders looking to join the AMC brigade

Friday, May 4, 2007

Godrej Sara Lee may take over Sara Lee business in India

Godrej Sara Lee, the joint venture company between the Godrej Group and US-based Sara Lee Corporation, is in discussions to take over Sara Lee’s independent business unit in India. While Sara Lee has a 51 per cent stake in Godrej Sara Lee (GSL), a household product company, it also has an independent unit, Sara Lee Household and Body Care India, which is headquartered in Chennai. The independent unit markets brands like Kiwi shoe polish, drain cleaner Kiwi Dranex and hair care brand Brylcreem in India. It is believed that the business and operations of Sara Lee Household and Body Care will be transferred to GSL. Sources familiar with the discussions said the size of the transaction is estimated to be in the range of Rs 100 crore. At present, Godrej Sara Lee’s portfolio largely consists of household insecticide brands like Hit and Good Knight in India, apart from Sara Lee’s air purifier brand, Ambi Pur. Industry sources said Sara Lee was keen on moving all its brands to one company to better manage its portfolio in India.

Wockhardt will pay $265 million (Rs 1,090 crore) in cash to acquire Negma Laboratories

Wockhardt will pay $265 million (Rs 1,090 crore) in cash to acquire a research-based French pharmaceutical company,Negma Laboratories. This means a valuation of 1.8 times the sales and 9.7 times the EBIDTA. While the valuation seems reasonable, if measured against revenues, it is relatively high when one looks at the EBIDTA multiple. Wockhardt will fund the acquisition through internal accruals and debt; it has about $250 million on its books as cash. But more importantly, the acquisition gives Wockhardt a portfolio of patented products.
The management expects the takeover to reflect in its performance from the third quarter. Indian pharma companies are vying for a global presence in the branded generic drug space. Dr Reddy’s had recently acquired German generic drug maker Betapharm.
Earlier, Wockhardt acquired companies in the UK (Wallis and CP Pharmaceuticals), Germany (Esparma) and Ireland (Pinewood Labs). With this acquisition in France, the company effectively covers the whole of Europe. This acquisition helps the company get a strong foothold in the French generic market, which is valued at about $2 billion.
With this acquisition, the management has raised its estimate of group turnover by $90 million to $590 million for FY07. The European business will account for more than 60% of total revenues. The key concern, however, could be the acquisition’s impact on margins. Margins could get hit by about 100 basis points during the current year, as Negma recorded an EBIDTA margin of about 18% last year.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

HCL, SABA looking at a tie-up for enhanced IT services

Global IT services company HCL and human capital management (HCM) and software services provider Saba have tied-up to strengthen their services and relationship in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. They'll be aligning their marketing efforts to provide coordinated software and IT services to mutual customers in several vertical markets including media and entertainment, healthcare, financial services, retail, life sciences and manufacturing.

Ranbaxy considers acquisitions in US

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's biggest drugmaker, considers acquisitions aimed at expanding operations in the US, south and central America and its home market to be priorities.
Ranbaxy made eight acquisitions last year, buying South African company Be-Tabs Pharmaceuticals and Romania's Terapia. The US $3.4 billion company has been built over the past three decades by copying blockbuster drugs such as Bayer AG's Cipro and selling them for a fraction of the price in countries including France, Germany and the US.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Koutons files DRHP with SEBI

The retail garment brand Koutons has filed its draft red herring prospectus, DRHP with SEBI and intends to enter the capital market with an IPO as reported on Moneycontrol.

This comes after a round of PE funding from Passport India, UTI Ventures & Argonaut. Passport India Investments (Mauritius) has picked up 6,00,000 equity shares in Koutons Retail India for an investment amount of Rs 210 million. Passport has been allotted the equity shares at a fixed price of Rs 350 per equity share. With this infusion Koutons Retail India has raised an aggregate amount of Rs 1,216 million as private equity since June 2006. The earlier investors were UTI Venture Funds Management Company Private Limited and Argonaut Ventures.

As on February 28, 2007, the company had 26 manufacturing and warehouse facilities in and around Gurgaon, and a network of 674 retail outlets across India.

Schroders looking to join the AMC brigade

Schroders Plc, a 204-year-old London fund manager, wants to open a mutual-fund business in India to tap demand for investments among the world’s second-most-populous nation, reported the Business Standard.

The company, London’s largest publicly traded fund manager, is considering either a joint venture or entering the market on its own.

Assets of the money manager overseen for clients outside the UK now account for 56 per cent of the total, up from 43 per cent five years ago. India’s mutual-fund market has about $73 billion of client assets, according to Boston-based Cerulli Associates.

The Indian AMC market has seen many new players establishing presence in the recent past. JP Morgan & AIG have launched their maiden India Equity Fund. Amongst the Indian names, Edelweiss has recently been awarded the AMC license. All of this is expected to further deepen the market and offer more choices to the Indian investor

Related Articles:
Edelweiss to start asset management and NBFC businesses; recruits senior people for the same

Jet to raise capital through PE route

India’s largest private airline Jet Airways is in negotiations with private equity players Blackstone, TPG Capital and Temasek for raising Rs 400-450 crore reported the Economic Times.

The company is raising money for meeting the operational expenses of running the loss-making Air Sahara, which it recently acquired. The operational expenses for Jet are huge since Air Sahara is not very profitable. Reportedly TPG Capital is looking to co-invest along with Singapore-based fund Temasek, while Blackstone is considering going solo.

The promoters currently hold 80% stake in the company which will come down proportionately along with the other shareholders’ stake. The private equity investor may take 8-9% stake.

Jet Airways recently acquired Lucknow-based Air Sahara in a deal valued at Rs 2,300 crore. While Jet had paid Rs 400 crore upfront, it will pay Rs 550 crore in four annual instalments, starting next year. Air Sahara will be renamed JetLite and will be a 100% subsidiary of Jet Airways.

Related Articles:
Jet Airways to buy Air Sahara for around Rs. 1450 crores
Jet Airways seeking $400 mn via private equity

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Zydus acquires Tokyo-based Nippon Universal

Cadila Healthcare today announced the acquisition of 100% stake in Tokyo-based Nippon Universal Pharmaceutical.

According to a release issued by Zydus to the BSE today, Nippon reaches out to more than 4,000 hospitals and clinics, and is expected to provide a fillip to the group's operations in a market that is highly complex and dominated by local pharma Companies.

Pankaj R Patel, chairman and managing director, Zydus, said: "We had announced our intentions of being a long-term player in this market when we set up our subsidiary last year. Going forward, I believe this acquisition will unlock value for us as the generic market in Japan is just opening up, and post-2010 we expect this market to be a major growth driver for our global business."

Read the article in Business Standard.

Navis Capital Partners approach Pritish Nandy for buying stake in his company

Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) is considering to offer a small stake in the company to private equity (PE) funds . Navis Capital Partners is among the firms that has approached Mr Nandy. KPMG is handling the valuation and the due diligence process that is likely to get over in the next 3-4 weeks.

PNC is looking to release a slate of six movies this year, and is hoping to ramp up its production to about 10 movies annually in the next couple of years. The company is also eyeing the new media space, to look at alternate revenue streams via internet, mobile phones and cable television.

Navis Capital is a Malaysia-based PE player founded in 1998 to make investments in buyouts, recapitalisations and financial restructuring in Asia. The firm focuses on enterprises in Asia, particularly South and Southeast Asia. The firm manages approximately $ 1.5 billion in capital commitments.

PNC has just finished a qualified institutional placement (QIP) that saw the promoter’s stake falling from 41% to 30%. According to PNC’s latest shareholding pattern, Mr Nandy holds 21.79% while his wife holds around 4.32%. His daughters collectively hold less than 1%. Among the non-promoters, some firms from Mauritius hold nearly 7% in the company.

Argonaut leads $80 million funding of Cordy's

Cordys Holding B.V., provider of industry-leading business process management suite (BPMS) enterprise software, announced the successful completion of $80 million equity financing representing the singlw largest round of funding for an independent, private BPMS vendor.

Argonaut Private Equity led the round with an investment of $67 million securing a 'significant minority stake' in the company, which could be anywhere between 20 and 33 percent.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Cordys is a global company with over 520 employees in offices in the Americas, Europe, China and India. Cordys currently employs 250 people at its Asia development centre in Hyderabad which is the key to its ability to compete with larger incumbents,

With more than $2 billion under management, Argonaut Private Equity is a diversified global private equity fund. 'This investment in Cordys demonstrates Argonaut's commitment to investing in high potential business with strong ties to India,' said Gagan Kapur, vice president, Argonaut Private Equity. With the investment in Cordys, the total investment by Argonaut in India has reached $170 million in diverse markets.

BMPS' are the next generation of BPM software. BMPS' pull together a broader set of tools to provide end-to-end lifecycle support of the business process all within a single model that is shared by all its enabling technologies.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Deloitte launches dedicated private equity practice in India

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited is launching a dedicated private equity practice in India, to be called as Deloitte Corporate Finance Services India Private Limited. Deloitte Corporate Finance will work closely with the Asia Pacific regional practice, UK & US member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the rest of the DTT network.

Deloitte Corporate Finance will address the needs of the growing private equity market and provide investors with transaction-related services across the complete deal cycle from origination to completion. The team comprises professionals with significant experience in the global mergers and acquisitions and private equity services business and is led by Sandeep Gill, Managing Director and Bimal Modi, Director, who prior to transferring to India, were part of the corporate finance practice of Deloitte & Touche in London.

Deloitte Corporate Finance plans to address the needs of the fast-growing private equity market in India by providing specialist services which include due diligence, bid support,
sale and purchase agreement advisory and completion accounts work.

Read the pres release here.