ICICI prepares for a pre-ipo placement

ICICI is looking for to pre-IPO placement of equity and Global FIs such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Nomura among others are in line.

Apprantely 12-15 interests have been received and the deal will be sealed shortly.JP Morgan is the advisor for the pre-IPO placement while merchant bankers for the IPO have not yet been finalised. Sources believe I-Sec is valued at $7.5 Bn or 30,000 Cr, highest valuation for an I-Bank in India.

In February 2007, JM Financial had sold its 49 per cent stake in JM Morgan Stanley Securities for $445 million. The deal valued the entity at $908 million against DSP Merrill Lynch’s valuation of $1 billion, when Merrill bought out Hemendra Kothari’s 47 per cent stake in December 2005.

As reported by Business Standard

GS India buys another NBFC

Goldman Sachs India is on the verge of acquiring Pratham Investment and Trading, a Mumbai-based NBFC.

Goldman Sachs will invest INR2 billion in the firm, through Goldman Sachs (Mauritius) NBFC LLC. The company plans to invest $7.5 million upfront and the balance $42.5 million in the next 24 months or so, the ET report said.

Goldman Sachs India expanion has stated goal of buying NBFCs.

Mallya Wants Heinken's 37.5% Stake

Liquor baron Mallya is open & willing to buy 37.5% of heinken's share in UB. At this point both have equal stakes. Mallya says, "At today's price, I am a buyer".

Heinken get's its stake in UB from Scottish & NewCastle (S&N) after the worldwide takeover of the British brewer. The heinken-carlsberg combined takeover of S&N for $15.4 Bn was announced in jan.

Mr Mallya says Heineken is not yet a shareholder in UB pending global transaction. “My business agreement was with S&N, and Heineken will have to renegotiate a charter of rights. I cannot speculate on the outcome of our discussions,” he added.

Heinken's beer business is a direct conflict with UB's Kingfisher beer. Heinken is also a leading shareholder in Asia Pacific Breweries, makers of Tiger Beer, another competition to Kingfisher. According to a banker S&N's business charter agreement is not transferrable to Heinken, and that's where Mallya's leverage will come from.

report from ET

SEBI's effort at decoupling

With all the theorist of decoupling debating on it's merits, SEBI seems to be finding a way to implementing it.

SEBI is proposing a margin payment from Institutional Investors from April 21 onwards.

Only Korea & Taiwan, of all Asian markets, require margins on high beta stocks.
The other spin to the story could be "Level Field", with retail,HNI and corporates having to pay 50% margin in the cash markets. With the proposed upfront T+1 margin collection, trading churn will reduce due to a portion of funds locked in margins. Is this an attempt to regulate financial markets to avoid slingers? May be. But the consequence is on risk, as conservative institutions like pension funds will be unwilling to pay advance for shares (margin payment on T+1, shares received on T+2).

The move is finding supporters (though from conservative folks ). Abhay Aima, Equity Head of HDFC says "Fair move, as more players come in & risk rises, market needs safeguards". Ved Prakash Chaturvedi, MD, Tata AMC says "This will reduce the amplitude of swings"

Kotak raises $440 Mn. for PE buys

Kotak Investment Advisory ltd. has raised $440 Mn. in its PE fund, taking the corpus to $1.4 Bn. It will continue it's focus on small & medium enterprises with a sweet spot in the range of $10-$30 Mn.

C. Jayaram, head of KIAL says the India story is so strong that it has percolated even the scandinavian countries. Another $250 Mn. will be raised from oversees investors by september.

KIAL is organised under two heads. Real Estate & PE. The PE group has two other funds, a $160-million fund that invests across sectors and a $68-million fund focused only on biotech. With the closure of the third fund, KIAL now has approximately equal amounts in both groups. It intends to launch a third group focussed only on investments in the core infrastructure sector with a corpus of $1 billion.

reports ET

TechWave : DataCenter Story Rolls On With Ctrl S

Ctrl S Data Centers, promoted by the Pioneer Group along with IDBI and Och-Ziff will set up 4 tier-IV data centers in India, investing $250 Mn. over 2-3 years.

The Asian Data Centre market is expected to grow at CAGR 11.5 % over 2006 -10 with India emerging as the fastest growing market. The coming of around 50 Telcos is creating demand for datacenters.

All other current facilities are tier-II or III, a lowver version. A tier-IV costs 30-40% higher.

This is a part of new technology wave likely to hit India after software & BPO sector having matured, called Remote Infrastructure Management.

Reported by ET

Red Fort Capital Plans $800 Mn. Real Estate Fund

Red Fort Capital will launch second in the series offshore fund, Red Fort India Real Estate Fund II next month with size of $800 Mn.

The fund will invest in FDI-compliant projects in the residential, commercial, retail and hospitality sectors and has an investment threshold of Rs 40 crore ($10 million). ‘’We are expecting returns of 30 per cent,’’ said Subhash Bedi, partner. Red Fort has also received approvals for domestic realestate fund.

Red Fort India Real Estate Fund I has given returns in excess of 55%.

A host of global private equity players, including Blackstone, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Tishman Speyer and domestic funds of ICICI, Kotak and HDFC, has committed or invested nearly Rs 20,000 crore ($5 billion) in the Indian realty sector.

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