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Software firm Mastek Ltd said on Monday, Nalanda India Fund Ltd has acquired 5.2 percent stake in the company through market purchases, to take its shareholding to 9.99 percent. Nalanda India Fund, floated by private equity firm Nalanda Capital, has a corpus of $400 million, its website said.(Reuters) […] Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) said it is entering the foreign exchange business by acquiring a 33.5 per cent stake in Wall Street Finance, part of the House of Patels. The House of Patels owns about 65 per cent of publicly held Wall Street Finance. In a similar deal, in 2005, House of Patels sold a 60 per cent stake in Wall Street Exchange (WSE) to Emirates Post Corporation. “Discussions are also on with the group for USA and Canada markets. ADAG finalised the Wall Street Finance deal very fast based on the upward trend in the current exchange […] Darby Overseas Investments, the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments, has raised Rs 630 crore ($147 million) fund to invest in India. Darby's Indian arm has worked with Franklin Templeton to raise a private equity portfolio oriented towards high net worth individuals (HNIs) in the Indian retail market. The fund plans to invest in sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, and consumer goods, and in related sectors. It plans to invest in high growth, mid-sized unlisted companies in India. Another similar fund that closed recently was TVS Shriram Growth Fund, which also raised money from domestic investors. Franklin Templeton Private Equity Strategy is a closed-ended fund managed by Franklin Templeton (India) while Darby Asia Investors (India) is the investment advisor to FTPES. The funds India investments are headed by Deepa Sankaran. Some of Darby's investments include $25 million in Cafe Coffee Day and $18 million in Bangalore-based Bhoruka Power. Both of these investments were made earlier this year from $300 million Darby Asia Mezzanine Fund II. […] Turkcell, a leading Turkish telecom company and Europe’s third-largest operator by subscribers, is in talks to buy 51% stake in Datacom Solutions. The deal is expected to put the enterprise value of the company at nearly $2.2 billion. Sources said the Turkish company wants the Indian promoters—Dhoots of Videocon and Mahendra Nahata, chairman of Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) group—to resolve their differences before signing the deal. “Turkcell will buy into Datacom only after the promoters resolve their differences. Dhoots will have to buy out Mr Nahata, and Turkcell will then enter the company,” the sources said. If the proposed structure goes through, Dhoots will continue to hold 49% stake in the company while the foreign telco will have 51%. Under the arrangement between the promoters of Datacom, the Dhoots have the right of first refusal in case Mr Nahata decides to sell his 36% stake in the company. The two sides have differences over management of the company, which received pan-India telecom licence last year. Datacom has spectrum in 13 out of the 22 circles of India. […] Private equity (PE) deals in the real estate and infrastructure space grossed about $3 billion in value during the first nine months of 2008, over 9 per cent lower than the year-ago period. Moreover, PE investors, who had been cherry-picking realty deals earlier this year, appear to have tightened their purse strings now, with September seeing only two transactions worth $12 million compared with August, when $427 million of PE funds was infused into various projects. According to data compiled by Grant Thornton, while the number of deals during January-September was higher at 45 against last year’s 39 deals, the average ticket size of the transactions has come down substantially in the first three quarters of 2008, reflecting softening valuations across the crisis-ridden real estate sector. Realty companies have been facing a severe cash crunch with bank loans drying up. Their problems have been compounded by plunging sales and weak demand. […] Norway-based telecom company, Telenor has brought a majority of 60% stake in Unitech Wireless. Telenor is the largest telecom company of Norway having existence in 12 nations with subscriber strength of over 150 million. The Norway government holds 54 per cent stakes in Telenor. Unitech wireless is a subsidiary of major reality giant, Unitech. The deal worth Rs 6,120 crore has paved a way for Telenor to enter in the Indian telecom industry. The company is already present in Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Thailand. Telenor sought help from Goldman Sachs on the transaction issues while Unitech was guided by UBS AG and Mumbai-based IDFC-SSKI Group. Unitech was awarded mobile telecom licences for Rs 1,651 crore to operate in 13 telecom circles earlier this year. It is likely to start services in the middle of 2009. […] |