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With the Indian real estate market slated to grow 35-40 per cent in value terms over the next two years, private equity (PE) players are lining up significant investments in the segment. Led by Blackstone and the PE arm of Deutsche Bank, a host of players -including Red Fort Capital Advisors, Starwood Capital and Walton Street – are expected to invest close to US$ 12 billion combined in homes, offices, townships, hotels and other projects. Red Fort Capital is preparing to invest Rs 3,500 crore, mainly on budget hotels, while Starwood is committing Rs 800 crore to Chennai-based Shriram Properties. Deutsche Bank will help Suncity Projects raise Rs 1,500 crore, and the Blackstone Group has said it would invest around US$ 18 million (around Rs 73 crore) in Synergy Property Development Services. Kuldeep Chawla, director, Red Fort Capital, said, “We will focus on developing a chain of budget hotels by associating with local developers. About 400 budget hotels with 60,000 hotel rooms are expected to come up in India. We will look at investing in a diversified portfolio of properties.” In 2006, markets regulator SEBI opened up the real estate market to PE investments. The first year was a learning period. “The following year saw a real correction in the market, with large incremental growth rather than dramatic growth, where stock market money went into special purpose vehicle-level investments,” says Arun Natarajan, founder & CEO, Venture Intelligence India, which tracks the PE segment. […]
UTI Asset Management Company has raised USD 600 million for private equity investments in infrastructure companies and projects across the country, reports Economic Times. The AMC has raised the money through its subsidiary UTI International, in association with Shinsei Bank and HSH Nordbank. The investments will be made in companies across the market cap spectrum, but the main focus will be on projects like ports and airports. (My Iris) […]
Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment is setting up a multi-million dollar fund in Asia for the production of feature films. The fund aims to raise $55-$73 million. Hyde Park's Asia offices will be based in Singapore. Hyde Park will produce or co-produce three to four films per year, which will include a mixture of English and local or regional language films to target international as well as national or regional market. The company aims to establish long-term producing partnerships with local production houses in India, Japan and South Korea. The fund has positive support from Singapore's Media Development Authority, though it is not going to put in money behind the fund. Singapore's Media Development Authority CEO Christopher Chia said that he expects the production funding to raise Singapore's position as a global media city. […]
Venture investment in India had a relatively quiet first quarter — VCs invested $99 million in 16 deals, according to a new report from Dow Jones VentureSource. That’s an 80 percent drop from the same period last year, but that plummet tells us more about the investment spike in early 2007 than whether the recent quarter was particularly terrible. It’s also a 27 percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2007. (Yeah, last year was a record-breaking time for venture investment in India.) Interestingly, the amount of deals held relatively steady — it’s the deal size that shrank. That’s pretty much the exact opposite of what happened in China (the other country seen as the standard-bearer in overseas venture growth), where the number of deals fell, but the amount of money per deal grew, causing a 46 percent year-over-year boost. How big is the difference? In India, the median deal size was $4.1 million; in China, it was $10 million. The United States fell in between, with a median size of $7.1 million. […]
Subhash Chandra, owner of the Essel group, has exited from Centrum Capital Ltd, a listed financial services firm that offers project finance, investment banking, wealth management and brokerage services. Chandra, who is believed to have picked up about 14% stake in Centrum through a preferential offer in late 2006 or early 2007, sold his stake in the stock market in tranches in March. At an average price of Rs1,304 per share of Centrum in March on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Chandra could have realized some Rs111 crore for his stake. Chandra’s acquisition price is not known though one person familiar with the transaction said, “he has made good money.” Shares of Centrum, which used to be known as Centrum Finance, closed at Rs850 a share on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Their 52-week high was Rs1,670 a share. Chandra, who is also chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, was not available for comment. Following Chandra’s exit, Indivision Fund of the Future Group, which owns thePantaloon and Big Bazaar chain of retail stores, acquired a 14.9% stake in Centrum, initially by buying 10% through a preferential allotment and later by buying shares from the stock market.Meanwhile, people familiar with Chandra’s thinking said the media baron initially bought the Centrum stake through trading companies to enter financial services. […]
SIDBI Venture Capital (SVCL), which manages two venture capital funds with total corpus of Rs 600 crore, is gearing up for more investments. Speaking to FE on the sidelines of announcement of his company’s investing Rs 30 crore in Mumbai based Centaur Group, Ajay Kapur, CEO, SVCL, said that “We are in harvesting mode nowadays and there was no chance of exiting from any of the funds we have invested at this moment”. The only fund which was exited by the SVCL in recent past was the NCR-based retail chain retail chain, Sabka Bazar which is promoted by a Muradabad-based firm. The SVCL, which had invested a sum of Rs 6 crore in the firm, sold off its entire stake to Spinach Group. Kapur said, “Most of the firms we have invested in our young and performing well, so we would like to wait for 3-4 years before deciding to exit. Out of our commitments to invest Rs 500 crore as SME Growth Fund within a period of three years, we have already invested Rs 375 crore so far in sectors like auto, textile, pharma, speciality chemical, industrial adhesive and others.” […]
Idea Cellular said on Thursday private equity Providence Equity Partners would buy a fifth of its unit Aditya Birla Telecom for $640 million, the latest deal in the world's fastest growing wireless market. The deal, which values the telecom firm at $3.2 billion, is subject to regulatory approvals, and expected to close by August. The funds will be used for network rollout and ongoing operations of Aditya Birla Telecom (ABTL), which has a licence in eastern Bihar and Jharkhand states, Idea Cellular said. Idea will transfer its 16 percent holding in tower company Indus Towers — a joint venture with top telecom operator Bharti Airtel and Vodafone –to ABTL. “ABTL has got growth opportunities in one of the biggest telecom circle going forward (Bihar service area) and also 16 percent equity in Indus Towers,” Managing Director Sanjeev Aga said, explaining Providence Equity's interest in the firm. DSP Merrill Lynch was the sole advisor to Idea on the deal. […]
Sidbi Venture capital (SVCL), the venture capital arm of Small Industries Dvelopment Bank of India, is planning its third fund this year, which will focus on early and growth stage companies across various verticals, a top official said. “We will come up with more funds in the current fiscal year. The focus is set equally across different segments that have growth potential,” SVCL's Chief Executive Officer, Ajay Kumar Kapur, told reporters here. However, he declined to divulge further details about the fund. SVCL had launched its first fund–National Fund for software and IT– with a corpus of Rs 100 crore, Kapur said, adding, “the fund has already been deployed fully in various firms”. The second fund, which is an SME Growth Fund, has a corpus of Rs 500 crore and had attracted investments from nine parties including Sidbi. […]
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