Chennai-based IT company Teledata in a $200 mn buyout in Singapore

Teledata Informatics, a Chennai-based software company, may make its second acquisition in Singapore following its Jan 12 acquisition of IT services company Soltius Private Limited. The company is into systems integration; the deal is valued at around $150-200 mn. The name of the company has not been disclosed.

Teledata Informatics offers enterprise-wide solutions for marine, education and utility sectors, apart from providing e-learning training and solutions. Teledata had acquired Soltius through its Dubai subsidiary, Bitech International. Soltius offers technology business solutions and services that focus across horizontals such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), business-to-business integration, mobile solutions, systems integration and product implementation, among others.

Article in Business Standard.

UK’s Centric, Fox Mandal and the Hinduja Group to float LPO JV

UK-based contact centre Centric has entered in to an alliance with the Hinduja Group and leading Indian law firm Fox Mandal Little to set up one of India's largest legal process outsourcing (LPO) firms. The three-way JV, to be called Centric LPO, is likely to employ over 1000 lawyers initially and aims to make India an outsourcing hub for international legal practices. It will be 40% owned by the UK-based outsourcing major and 60% by the JV between Hinduja TMT Technologies and Fox Mandal, with Hinduja TMT holding the majority stake. Hinduja TMT had recently completed the acquisition of US-based BPO Affina. The Hinduja TMT-Fox Mandal JV will have four members on the LPO board while Centric will have two. Centric will use its existing customer base in these markets to woo clients for the new business. Similarly, Fox Mandal will provide the legal expertise while the Hindujas the process skills. The JV will become operational in the next two months and that Centric had already lined up business from UK and US clients. The LPO will focus on every legal aspect-from the low-end secretarial works to law firm accounting and high-end legal work. In two years, it will ramp up to 2000 people.

The LPO segment is poised to cross $6 bn by 2010 and $15-$20 bn by 2015. LPO customers include legal departments of multinationals, international law, legal publishing and legal research enterprises. As of now, it accounts for less than 11% of the $6.3-billion ITeS-BPO pie. Other prominent players in the Indian LPO space include Pangea3, OfficeTiger and Integreon, which is also a BPO player, and law firms such as AZB & Partners.

Read the article in The Economic Times.

UB's bid for Whyte & Mackay hit by price issues

United Breweries’ bid for scotch whisky major Whyte & Mackay seems to be running into problems with the British company believed to have raised the price tag to £600 mn. The UB Group and Whyte & Mackay were holding negotiations during the past six months, but the two have failed to reach a conclusion due to differences over the valuations. The UB Group had offered a little over £400 mn; Whyte & Mackay did not agree to this price, which was later upped to around £500 mn.

Whyte & Mackay is the seventh-largest Scotch maker in Scotland with a turnover of $283 mn. It owns major brands like Isle of Jura, Dalmore, Vladivar Vodka and Whyte & Mackay.

Read more in the article in The Economic Times.

Soros’ Quantum fund hikes stake to 5.1% in Reliance Capital

Legendary investor George Soros, through his Quantum investment fund, has hiked his stake in Reliance Capital from 4.8% to 5.1%. The fund has bought nearly 500,000 shares of Reliance Capital to take its total holding in the company to 11.3 mn shares worth about Rs. 700 crores. As of December-end, Quantum was holding about 10.8 mn shares in the financial services firm. Reliance Capital and George Soros could co-operate to launch an offshore real estate fund which would invest in the Indian realty sector. In addition to the 5.1% stake in Reliance Capital, George Soros also holds about 11% in Reliance ARC.

Read the article in The Times of India.

SingTel keen on acquiring Vodafone's 10% stake in Bharti

SingTel has formally conveyed its interest in Vodafone’s 10% stake in Bharti Airtel to the British company and its advisors UBS. Vodafone has initiated talks with SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecom group, to sell its 10% stake in Bharti Airtel. As per law, Vodafone would have to dilute its holding in Bharti Airtel, if it wins the $18 bn auction of Hutchison Essar. At present, SingTel owns 30.5% stake in Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel is India’s biggest mobile operator with more than 30 mn customers. India is the world’s fastest growing mobile market. Analysts forecast the country will have 500 mn users by 2010.

Read the article in The Economic Times article.

SEBI investigates structured deals in IPO allotments

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is investigating all public issues in the past three months after it found in the offering of Nissan Copper that allotments and subsequent sale of shares to some foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were actually structured deals. It has been discovered that at least three portfolio investors have sold all the shares they purchased in the IPO on the first day of their listing. SEBI was also looking at the role of merchant bankers in these issues. SEBI investigators have also asked stock exchanges for details of public offers and first few days' trading of Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, Minar International, and Cairn India. The regulator is probing whether merchant bankers or the companies themselves helped some investors to use the FII route to corner shares without directly participating in the IPO process.

Read the complete article in The Times of India.

India Infoline, BoB enter e-broking deal

The Economic Times reports that Mumbai-based broking firm India Infoline (IIL) has entered into an alliance with Bank of Baroda (BoB) to offer e-broking services to the bank’s customers. The alliance aims to provide various products and services under wealth management, along with research and analysis services to the bank’s customers. The service has been named as ‘Baroda e-trading’. It includes multiple options to customers for trading in equity shares (online and off-line) on both exchanges, in the cash as well in derivatives segments. The tie-up will help IIL reach out to the large customer base of the bank in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra. IIL has a daily traded turnover of Rs. 1000 crores and annual traded turnover of about Rs. 250,000 crores. It has a client base of 200,000 and employee strength of over 12,000. Currently, it is earning revenues of about Rs. 1 crore daily.