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IF global private equity (PE) and venture capital(VC) funds are queuing up to invest in India, it’s not only because the country offers a compelling investment opportunity. It is also because most of the funds have Indians at the top. According to independent estimates, as much as 15-20% of the team members of some of the global funds are Indians. We are not talkign about the usual top names like Ram Shriram, Vinod Dham, Promod Haque and Vinod Khosla, but of a new crop of PE and venture capital investors who occupy senior roles in firms like Blackstone, Permira, Carlyle, General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus, Apax, Battery Ventures, Bessemer Ventures and Sequoia. Take the US-based buyout fund Blackstone, for instance. The world’s largest PE house has about 11 Indians in its team of 148-odd members. Some of the top names who serve as senior managing directors of Blackstone include AJ Agarwal, Akhil Gupta, Punita Sinha, Prakash Melwani and Manish Mittal. Similarly Carlyle, which has a large global team of more than 400 people, has close to 30 executives of Indian origin. In General Atlantic Partners, there are 15 Indians out of the 87 team members. Warburg Pincus, which hit a jackpot with its early investment in Bharti Airtel, has 25 Indians among the 150-plus member global team. Besides these top PE firms, there are ex-bankers like Arshad Zakaria, who has set up New Vernon Capital, and Vikram Pandit, who recently sold his hedge-cum-private equity fund Old Lane to Citicorp. […]
Usha Martin Ltd said its wholly owned UK unit, Usha Martin International Ltd, has bought the business of Dutch company De Ruiter Staalkabel BV. The acquisition price was 3 mln eur, the India-based speciality steel and wire rope manufacturer told Thomson Financial News. In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, it said Ruiter Staalkabel is a distribution company having a warehouse and rigging facility.(Forbes) […]
KLG Systel Ltd, the leading knowledge-based IT-centric Business Life Cycle Solutions Company, has taken a majority stake in Atlantis Lab Pvt Ltd, a dedicated engineering solutions company. With this acquisition, Atlantis will now be a subsidiary of the Company. KLG is already strong player in the Power, Process, Petroleum, Ports & Airports, Roads & Highways. Home Building, Ship Building, Automotive and Metal industries. The Company, has extensive experience and expertise in the Plant Life Cycle Solutions (Plant Design Solutions) business, which has been its stronghold since the inception of the Company, providing solutions to major oil refinery, power plants and engineering construction projects. Over the past two years, KLG Systel has also been making successful inroads into the Product Life Cycle Business (Computer Aided Mechanical / Electrical Design solutions) and is now in a position to offer art-to-part solutions to the design and manufacturing segment in India. […]
Mergers and acquisitions seem to be the flavour of the season in India this year with reports of more than two potential deals hitting headlines every day, but over 80 per cent of these do not actually fructify. According to a study by international M&A deals tracking firm 'mergermarket', India has emerged as Asia-Pacific's second-biggest target after China in terms of official or unofficial intentions expressed for takeover deals from across the world this year. However, the conversion rate – measuring the proportion of news headlines actually converting into deal announcements – is the second-lowest for the country in the region. India was the target for as many as 561 potential merger and acquisition deals in the first seven months of 2007, trailing China with 824 potential deals. This translates into a daily average of about four deals in China and 2.6 deals targeting India during the 212 days between January and July this year. […]
Logistics firm Gati Ltd said on Monday it acquired 52.96% stake in trucking firm Kausar India Ltd for Rs142.8 million. Gati would buy 1.96 million shares at Rs72.84 a share in Kausar, which specialises in refrigerated transportation of temperature-sensitive products such as meat, dairy products and pharmaceuticals. The stake would allow Gati expand its business with its pharma and lifesciences customers, as well as retail, Gati’s Chief Financial Officer A S Sandhu said. “In the upcoming retail business, a lot of customers are approaching us but we are not having vehicles and facilities to tackle that business. That’s why we have gone for inorganic growth,” he said over the phone. Gati will make the mandatory open offer for 20% in Kausar, which is listed on the Delhi Stock Exchange. […]
The Hong Kong based $400 million, Mulitex Holdings plans to acquire a 10% equity stake in Mumbai-based Effort BPO. Rajnish Sarna, director, Effort BPO, has confirmed the deal at an undisclosed price. The boards of both companies are in discussion and the transaction is scheduled to be completed by the first week of September. “Effort BPO is a focussed domestic BPO company with a current market valuation close to Rs 100 crore. The company is focussed on the Indian and Chinese domestic BPO markets and at present has over 1,500 seats in India with presence across Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Indore,” Efforts BPO, CEO and managing director, Akshay Chabbra said. […]
The supremacy of Western economies in venture capital (VC) investment is facing a challenge from emerging economies, with India expected to overtake the UK by 2009, a latest report sponsored by UBS, a global wealth management company, said. As per data analyzed by ‘UBS UK Venture Backed Report—2007,’ Western leadership in innovation is being increasingly threatened by emerging economies. According to the report, “India’s VC market with a growth rate of approximately 90% is likely to overtake the UK by 2009.” The Chinese VC market has already surpassed the UK in terms of absolute size in 2006 and is growing at a much faster clip. […]
Citigroup and UTI Ventures are pumping in around $12 million into value fashion retailer Primus, sources said. This probably marks Citigroup’s initial investment in India’s red hot retail sector, sources said. The Bangalore-headquartered retailer is also the master franchisee for Levi’s, Dockers and Adidas. It recently completed the acquisition of Weekender,. as reported by ET earlier. Sources said Citigroup Venture Capital is infusing about $7.5-8 million (Rs 30 crore) while UTI Ventures is hiking exposure with Rs 13-crore second-round funding. UTI Ventures had made initial investment of Rs 22.5 crore, and with the latest round has increased the cumulative exposure to around Rs 35 crore. The promoters of Primus Retail, apparel exporter K Mohan & Co, also pumped in Rs 52 crore in the latest round of fund raising. When contacted, Primus Retail declined to comment on the investors stating that it has raised about Rs 43 crore. Sources said Citi’s investment probably backed the buyout of Weekender as a case of FDI in single brand retailing. Another instance of a prominent global fund investing in domestic retail involves Actis acquisition of Nilgiris supermarket chain more than a year ago. […]
NIIT Ltd, the promoter of Delhi-based IT company NIIT Technologies, is looking to sell 25% in the company to a strategic investor. NIIT Technologies is a listed entity and a 25% stake sale would trigger an open offer for a further 20%, thereby giving the buyer management control of the company. “Our position has been that the promoters will dilute 25% out of the nearly 40% stake held by them to a strategic investor. This will naturally lead to an open offer. However, at this point of time, we are not in discussions with any investors,“ said NIIT Technologies CEO Arvind Thakur. Sources in the industry say the company has initiated discussions with investment bankers for the possibility of a stake sale to a global IT company. The company has a market capitalisation of Rs 1,597.45 crore and has a P/E ratio of 14.43. This is significantly lower than the P/E ratios of companies such as Infosys Technologies which has a P/E ratio of 28.34 and TCS which has a P/E multiple of 28.25. The recent meltdown in the market and the appreciating rupee has resulted in a sharp decline in the NIIT Technologies stock price. In the last three months, the scrip has fallen over 25% and in the last one month, the scrip has lost over 19% at the NSE. […]
New Silk Route (NSR) – the private equity fund promoted by former DSP Merill Lynch MD Amit Chandra and former McKinsey global chief Rajat Gupta, is acquiring about 73% stake in telecom infrastructure provider and tower company Aster Infrastructure for Rs 233 crore. The PE fund will pick up equity in three tranches in the Secunderabad-based company. Aster will be the third large private equity buyout this year. Last week, American PE firm Blackstone bought India’s largest export house Gokaldas Exports for $165 million, and in June, it acquired about 85% stake in Intelenet Global, the BPO promoted by HDFC and Barclays. This will be NSR’s second investment in a telecom infrastructure company after R-ADAG’s Reliance Infrastructure. NSR along with Temasek is a large investor in the Indrani Mukherji-promoted INX Media. When contacted, NSR-PE partner Amit Chandra declined to comment. A source close to Aster said the deal would be spread over three years. NSR would pick up 32% in the company in the first tranche, about 17% in the second tranche and the remaining 23% in the last tranche. […]
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