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Beacon India Private Equity Fund started investing in July after entering India’s underserved $5-25 million (about Rs20-100 crore) deal segment one year ago. Beacon, which is sponsored by financial services firm Baer Capital Partners (UK) Ltd, has made two investments totalling $27 million and is about to close $32 million more from an initial corpus of more than $100 million. The firm is looking to raise another $100-150 million towards the end of the year that would be deployed over three years. Beacon’s strategy of doing smaller private equity (PE) deals is similar to others who also saw a gap in supply for established companies that needed less than $25 million. New Delhi-based Avigo Capital Partners does deal sizes of $3-$10 million. SAIF Partners is an example of a firm that serves smaller deal sizes within a range of $10-100 million. Deepak Shahdadpuri, managing director of Beacon India Advisors Pvt. Ltd, said they are also looking at a few deals between $1 million and $3 million. Similar to a venture capital (VC) investor, they are looking to invest in “the next big trend,” Shahdadpuri said, and are banking on finding proprietary deals. But they only back proven business models, which differentiates them from the VCs doing similar deal sizes. The fund heads, Shahdadpuri in Mumbai and Rajeev Thakore in New Delhi, have chosen this investment strategy for a reason. […]
The Trissur-based South Indian Bank has completed one round of equity dilution wherein marquee investors like International Finance Corporation, Fidelity Group and UTI Ventures have all picked up stakes. The entire exercise saw the bank raise Rs 326 crore or $81 million. The shares were placed at Rs 163 to the investors. According to sources, IFC lead the pack with an investment of around Rs 70 crore, Fidelity Group, UTI Ventures and Blue Ridge Group pitched in with around Rs 40 crore each. Besides fund houses like Birla MF, Merill Lynch, Indian Capital opportunities Fund, DE Shaw, Moon Capital and others have also picked up stakes in the Bank. […]
Vijay Mallya, chairman, United Breweries (Holdings, has bought a 50 per cent strategic stake in Epic Aircraft for $120 million (about Rs 480 crore), according to a statement by the UB Group. Mallya, whose UB Group owns the full-service carrier Kingfisher Airlines and also has a 26 per cent in Deccan Aviation (which owns budget carrier Air Deccan), has made the investment in Epic in his personal capacity. Epic Aircraft, a unit of Aircraft Investor Resources LLC, manufactures private business jets with single and twin engines, capable of carrying six to seven people. While Mallya’s initial focus would be on the US market, which is the largest with 11,000 of 14,000 business jets in the world, he will also use this acquisition to tap the business jets market in India. As India Inc looks to acquire assets abroad, its CEOs are looking for corporate jets that will fly them to destinations quicker and more comfortably. […]
Al Bateen Investment Co. LLC (ABI), a unit of the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ain International Group, said yesterday it has acquired a 4.24 per cent stake in India's Development Credit Bank (DCB), thus marking its entry into the Indian market. “We have paid the money and the allotment of shares to ABI has been completed,” Madhu B. Madhusudan, Al Ain International Group's chief financial officer told Gulf News. He declined to comment on the value of the deal. However, a source close to the developments told the newspaper that the acquisition cost ABI close to $21 million. “ABI invested by subscribing to DCB's preferential issue to a group of institutional investors. These include Tata Capital and the Mauritius-based GRA Finance Corporation,” ABI said in a statement. DCB is one of the fastest growing private sector commercial banks in India. […]
For the first time, a Russian company has entered the Indian telecom market. Sistema, the largest private sector consumer services group in Russia, on Wednesday announced its acquisition of a 10 per cent stake in Shyam Telelink, a code division multiple access (CDMA) and basic phone player in India. Sistema, which is both into global systems for mobile communications (GSM) and CDMA, acquired the stake for a cash consideration of $11.4 million. The Russian company reported revenues of $2.7 billion for the first quarter of 2007 and had total assets of $21.6 billion, as on March 2007. According to press statements issued by Sistema and Shyam Telelink, Sistema wants to increase its stake to 51 per cent after receiving Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval. “The overall value of the deal may touch $58.1 million at that point,” the Sistema statement added. It is believed that the Russian company may further increase its stake to 74 per cent subsequently. At present, FDI is capped at 74 per cent in the telecom sector. Shyam Telelink, which operates only in the Rajasthan circle and has a subscriber base of 2.57 lakh, has applied for unified access service (UAS) licences across the country. According to analysts, Shyam Telelink's application for pan-India operations would push up its valuation to around Rs 1,000 crore-Rs 1,200 crore. Sistema has tried to enter the Indian telecom market earlier also. […]
Real estate remains a favourite with investors and $5-10 billion worth of investment is expected in the sector in the next three years, even as investors remain wary of lack of transparency and land ownership issues, says an Ernst & Young survey. According to the survey, respondents rated real estate as one of the most attractive investment opportunities. Most investors said they prefer making investments in specific projects and not in the entity. The sector is expected to generate returns of 25-30 % over the next 2-3 years but returns are expected to plateau after that, the survey said. About 68% of the respondents said the sector would receive investments in the range of $5-10 billion over the next three years while 27% said they expect investment of over $10 billion. Most investors prefer to take the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route for picking up stakes in real estate companies. About 95% of investors surveyed prefer to take the SPV route for investment, with 69% favouring SPV with single asset/project holding and 26% favouring SPV with multiple asset holding. “Investors are still shying away from enterprise level investment,” said the survey. […]
ICICI Venture-controlled entity acquires Austrian company for $100 million. After the spate of overseas acquisitions by Indian companies, domestic private equity firms are getting into the game. VA Tech Wabag India, controlled by ICICI Venture, has acquired VA Tech Wabag GmbH of Austria from Siemens for about $100 million. In 2005, ICICI Venture had acquired the majority stake in VA Tech’s water business in India and Siemens had acquired the parent Austrian company. “This is a pioneering transaction in which a company owned by an Indian private equity firm has acquired its erstwhile parent. It will now emerge as a global water company,” said Sumit Chandwani, director-Investment, ICICI Venture, confirming the transaction. He however declined to divulge details or confirm the cost of the acquisition. VA Tech Wabag India provides water treatment solutions to domestic public and private sector companies. The Austrian company has a presence across the globe with a business volume of over €100 million (Rs 560 crore). VA Tech Wabag India, based in Chennai, is a Rs 400 crore company with presence in India and other Asian markets. Its order book is worth over Rs 800 crore. […]
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