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Goldman deal to buy Shriram Credit stake called off

Goldman Sachs and India's Shriram Credit have called off an agreement, which would have given the U.S. investment bank a 20 percent holding in the Indian firm, the Times of India said on Monday. Goldman had signed the deal in March to buy the stake for 3 billion rupees in the non-banking financial services company that would have given Goldman an indirect entry into the equity and commodity brokerage business in India. “Goldman Sachs is among those assessing the losses they would incur because of the subprime issue. They were delaying things here and we said drop it,” the newspaper quoted Shriram group Chairman R. Thiagarajan as saying. A spokesman for Goldman declined comment on the report, while Shriram was not immediately available. Citing sources familiar with deal, the newspaper said the deal failed after Goldman wanted to scale down the valuation. Under the deal the Shriram group was to transfer the brokerage and distribution services business to Shriram Credit, the paper said.(Reuters) […]

Europe's Nogard to buy 9.5% in Fortune Fin

Europe-based Nogard Investment is at an advanced stage of negotiations to buy a 9.5% stake in broking firm Fortune Financial Services India (FFSIL) through a preferential allotment of shares, according to a source who is involved in the transaction. A formal announcement is expected shortly. Nimish Shah, managing director of Mumbai-based FFSIL declined to comment on the deal. “We keep looking at different ways to grow our business,” he said. According to the source, FFSIL would make a preferential allotment of about 11 lakh shares at a price of Rs 220 per share. This is about 13% premium over FFSIL’s closing price of Rs 195 on the BSE on Friday. In addition, another four lakh warrants would be allotted to promoters and entities part of the promoter group. The deal values the broking firm at roughly Rs 253 crore, post dilution. According to sources, Nogard Investment is a special purpose vehicle which has been formed by some Europe-based investors to invest in the brokerage, details of which are not known. […]

India Real Estate Infra Fund eyes $100 mn mop-up end June

Mauritius-based India Real Estate Infrastructure Fund’s first round of fund raising exercise will come to an end by June by which it plans to mop up $100 million. Launched in January, the fund targets a mop-up of $250 million from across the world for private placements in Indian real estate companies. Balance $150 million will be raised in the following closures. “We plan to invest the money in unlisted Indian real estate companies under the FDI guidelines. We prefer to have weightage of up to 50 per cent in every company so that we can have a ‘say’ in the management. It will help us to drive the policies in the right direction,” said Arun Goel, CEO of DHFL Venture Capital India Pvt. Ltd, which has been mandated to create an investment portfolio on behalf of the fund. The fund will invest in real estate companies pursuing projects in residential, commercial and hospitality domains which also encompass SEZ, IT parks, hotel. […]