February 2008
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Infinite India invests Rs 600cr in Maytas Properties

Hyderabad-based Maytas Properties Limited on Tuesday announced that Infinite India Investment Management, a real estate investment fund, has invested Rs 600 crore ($150 million) in some of the company’s upcoming projects. A part of these funds will be used for developing the next phase of Maytas Hill County, the company’s flagship project in Hyderabad which include 9 million sft of IT SEZ and 28 million sft of residential development. In addition, Maytas Properties will use these funds for land acquisition as well as development of some of the major residential and commercial projects, which the company is launching in Chennai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Kochi, besides Hyderabad over the next six months, the company said. “The investment by Infinite India translates into just a minority equity in the company and this investment is meant for only a few projects,” a company official said in response to a question on how much equity the company has offered to Infinite India against the investment. […]

Scrapping of EGoM meet irks PE firms

This week’s government decision to cancel the empowered group of ministers meeting, which was to take a final call on crucial decisions on special economic zones (SEZ), dented the ambitious plans of private equity (PE) firms to invest in these tax-free enclaves. Many PE firms plan to withdraw from their proposed SEZ investment plans as the frequent changes in the SEZ policy makes their investment look unviable. Following nation-wide protests on alleged forced land acquisition for such tax-free enclaves and industrial projects, the government had in April 2007, capped the maximum area for a single multi-product SEZ at 5,000 hectares. Besides, the finance ministry suggested withdrawing such tax exemptions, though the commerce ministry pitched for commercial viability of SEZs. […]

Argonaut PE Fund Invests in VKL

US-based Argonaut Private Equity, which manages more than US $3.5 billion capital, has invested into Kochi (India) based Vallabhdas Kanji Limited (VKL). Argonaut's investment follows an investment by UTI Venture Fund in 2006 that allowed VKL to set-up a green field, state-of-the-art pepper processing facility in Vietnam and the acquisition of Beeta Chemicals, a leading flavors and fragrances firm in India. Combined, this gave VKL an overseas manufacturing facility closest to the world's largest pepper growing areas and a larger product offering through the addition of the IP-intensive flavors and fragrances business. Argonaut funding will allow VKL to expand its global sales and marketing for private-label business, further strengthen manufacturing capability and leverage synergistic inorganic growth opportunities in India and abroad. Anil Khatod, Managing Director of Argonaut Private Equity, believes that VKL's origin-based global delivery model has tremendous value in the food ingredients business worldwide and VKL's model would allow the company to continue its global expansion. […]

GTL closes in on $200m European buy

Telecom network services provider GTL Ltd, part of the Global Group Enterprises, is set to acquire a European company. A banker in know of the development said the acquisition would be in the network operations and maintenance space. The deal, valued at $200 million, is likely to go through in the next two quarters, he added. However, Manoj Tirodkar, chairman and managing director, GTL told DNA Money, “We don’t want to comment anything on any particular buyout at this stage, but acquisitions are in our radar and whenever anything happens, the company will inform the exchanges.” Tirodkar said the main objective of acquisitions was to strengthen the customer base in Europe and become a top-notch player in the network services business. At an organic level, the company is focusing on high-margin segments like network planning and designing, infrastructure management and application management. As of H1FY08, it had reduced the share of network deployment to 68% from 75% in FY07. Going forward, it aims to get 30% of its revenues from GTL Infrastructure Ltd (GIL) through network deployment and maintenance. […]

Port of Singapore picks up 49% in ABG terminal

Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), one of the world’s largest port operators, has bought 49% in ABG Infralogistics’ subsidiary — ABG Kolkata Container Terminal. The port giant has also subscribed to preference shares in another wholly-owned subsidiary of ABG — ABG Kandla Container Terminal. On October 3, 2007, ET had first reported about ABG’s plans to sell stake in its two subsidiaries. Two foreign shipping lines — Zim of Israel and Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), world’s second largest container line — were in race to buy the stake in the two subsidiaries. However, PSA, which already holds 12% in ABG Infralogistics, pipped the two shipping lines to strike the deal. IDFC SSKI is believed to have advised ABG on the deal. ABG Infralogistics managing director Saket Agarwal refused to give any financial details. Sources however told ET that PSA paid around Rs 150 crore for the 49% stake in the Kolkata subsidiary. PSA is likely to pick up stake in Kandla terminal at a later stage. […]

DB Realty, Hyatt tie up for 320-room, 5-star Goa property

DB Realty, a domestic real estate fund, which is setting up a 320-room 5-star property in Goa, has tied up with Hyatt International for managing and marketing the property. Once completed, Hyatt Goa will be the first 5-star hotel with Hyatt International’s Grand Hyatt brand name, outside Mumbai. DB Realty is investing around $80 million in the venture. The project is likely to be completed by the second quarter of 2009. DB Realty managing director Shahid Balwa said they plan to focus on all main real estate verticals such as residential, commercial, retail and hospitality. He said India’s booming economy will necessitate the development of tier-II towns in the next five years. Keeping that in mind, the fund has invested in building an exceptionally exquisite beachfront hotel property in Goa. […]

Kohlberg Kravis to invest $250 mn in Bharti Infratel

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts will invest $250 million in Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. This is in addition to the $1 billion investment in Bharti Infratel by leading international investors Temasek Holdings, The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup & India Equity Partners in December 2007. The enterprise value of Bharti Infratel is $10-12.5 billion, with the final valuation to be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel's actual operating performance in FY 2008-09. […]

Nexus India and JAFCO Asia invested USD 6.5 Mn in Mistral Solutions

Mistral Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a leading product realization company in the embedded space, announced today that it has raised $6.5 million in a second round of venture funding from Nexus India Ventures and JAFCO Asia. The investment will help accelerate the company's global expansion and also facilitate its Product and IP development initiatives. Naren Gupta from Nexus and Byron Askin from JAFCO Asia will represent the investors at Mistral. Naren Gupta is the Vice Chairman of Wind River Systems, the largest company in embedded systems software. Naren also serves on the Boards of some of the world's most innovative technology companies such as RedHat and TIBCO. Byron Askin is Senior Director and Head of South Asia and leads JAFCO Asia's investment efforts in the rapidly growing India market. […]