S P Apparels to list in six months

Textiles seem to be the stocks to watch out for. SP Apparels earlier had acquired a private equity placement of $8 mn (approx. Rs. 36 crores) from global insurance major New York Life Insurance’s investment arm, New York Life Investment Management, from its NYLIM India Fund. The Rs. 200-crore company is now planning to hit the capital markets. SBI Capital Markets and IL&FS InvestSmart are the advisors to the issue, which may come out within the next six months. The company intends to raise around $82 mn (Rs. 370 crores) from the listing and divest 25% stake to the public, having previously offload around 10.71% stake to NYLIM India Fund. S P Apparels is expanding rapidly, having earlier acquired the domestic men's brand Crocodile in April last. It has also chalked up Rs. 370-crore, Phase-II expansion programme, covering its backward linkages in spinning, knitting, wet-processing, garmenting and retailing, including the cost of acquisition of the brand. Presently, the company exports 90% of its production; clientele includes major global garment retailers such as Mothercare, Tesco, Disney Stores, H&M, Benetton and Dunnes Stores. It is consistently posting 25-30% growth in the last three years has achieved a sales turnover of Rs 200 crore during 2005-06. Its sales during the half-yearly period ended September 2006 stood at Rs 120 crore.

Read article from Moneycontrol.com for more details.

SIDBI Venture to invest Rs. 30 crores in V&S International

SME Growth Fund of SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd. has invested 30 crores in Gurgaon-based textile manufacturer and exporter, V&S International Pvt. Ltd. The company supplies textiles and ready-made garments to retail chains in the US and Europe. SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd is the venture capital arm of the Small Industries Development Bank of India. It invests out of two funds, the SME Growth Fund and the Rs. 100 crore National Venture Fund for Software and IT Industry.
Of late, the private equity firms have shown a lot of interest in the textiles and apparels sector. KPR Mills, Koutons Retail are some of the firms that have received a round of PE funding.

TravelPort India acquires domestic tour operator

After Thomas Cook’s acquisition of Travel Corporation of India, here’s some more M&A news in the travel sector. Mumbai-based TravelPort has acquired Shree Balaji Tours for an undisclosed sum. TravelPort is one of the largest franchisee travel houses in the country, with 65 franchisee outlets in 8 cities and a turnover of Rs. 60 crores. Shree Balaji Tours has a network of 400 agents and offices in five cities and close to 90% of its Rs 20 crore turnover last fiscal came from hotel sales for Goa. TravelPort has the backing of strategic private equity investors; this particular transaction has been funded using equity and cash. With this acquisition, TravelPort has become the largest domestic tour player in Goa. Javed Akhtar, CEO, TravelPort, says that Rs. 50 mn will be invested in Balaji to fuel expansion plans in Goa, including promotion of tourism, and underwriting of hotel properties in Goa. TravelPort is looking forward to more domestic acquisitions in the future, notably in the Kerala tourism space.

For more, read the article from Daily News and Analysis.