Yatra Capital Ltd, the Euronext listed real estate company, has invested $7 million for a 40 per cent stake in Jalan Intercontinental Hotels Pvt Ltd, a company that is building a 200-room business hotel in Kolkata. The hotel will be managed by Indian Hotel Ltd under the Taj Gateway brand.
The hotel will be built on a 1.9 acre plot located at the junction of Rashbehari Connector and EM Bypass in Kolkata. EM Bypass is the main arterial road between old and new Kolkata, connecting Kolkata Airport and eastern parts of the city. The hotel will primarily cater to the needs of IT/ITES companies located in and around the IT parks and SEZs coming up in the area.
At present, there are close to 1,500 rooms in the premium category in Kolkata. Continue Reading »

UnitedLex, a legal process outsourcing company, has received $6 million in a Series B round led by Canaan Partners and joined by the existing investor Helion Venture Partners. UnitedLex’s Series A investment was done by Helion in 2007. Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan partners, would join on the board of UnitedLex. Rahul Chandra, Investment Advisory Director, Helion Ventures, already represents the firm on the board.
The company will use the funds to expand the headcount from 250 currently to 1,000 by 2009 and also for the expansion of its global delivery network, besides setting up an e-delivery network. The company is also opening a second delivery center in Gurgaon later this quarter. Besides, UnitedLex will invest $2 million in building LexBase, its technology platform. Continue Reading »

After hedge fund Venus Capital announced that it suffered a 22 per cent dip in returns, now Mirae Asset Management, Korea’s largest asset management firm, has liquidated its India fund owing to steep losses. The Korea Times, quoting Zeroin, a fund evaluating body, reported that Mirae has liquidated the “Class-C2″ fund for institutional investors last week, after nine months of operations. The fund was at minus 20 percent at the time of liquidation.
The fund was introduced at the height of bull run in October last year. The fund had its share of excellent returns from the Indian bourses too, as it gained 19 percent on average until early this year. But increasing concerns of higher oil prices, inflation and political turmoil took a toll on it. Continue Reading »

Tata Capital and Japan’s Mizuho Corporate Bank (MHCB) have entered into a strategic alliance for cooperation in a range of business areas. Some of the key areas of cooperation will be Ninja loans, project and infrastructure finance and treasury products. A ninja loan is a type of subprime loan issued to borrowers with no income, no job, (and) no assets. The memorandum of understanding is aimed at fostering business cooperation, enhancing cross-market value creation capabilities, strengthening competitive advantages in addition to aiding each other in gaining a deeper understanding of the Indian and Japanese markets.
This MoU follows the agreement signed in February this year which involved business collaboration between the two companies in areas such as private equity and wealth management. Since then, Tata Capital has firmed up its private equity plans in which it will launch different private equity funds (of $200-300 million each) focusing on different sectors such as technology, communications, healthcare and midcap space. A launch is expected in September this year. Continue Reading »

US financial major JPMorgan Chase & Co is picking up 33 per cent stake in a real estate special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Alok Infrastructure for Rs 150 crore ($35 million). The SPV will develop a real estate project at a prime location in Mumbai as Alok Infra has bought land in several areas of Mumbai in the last one year, reports The Economic Times, quoting sources. The company had also acquired 130 acres at Panvel at the rate of Rs 25 lakh per acre in a 50-50 joint venture. Alok Infra is the wholly owned subsidiary of Mumbai-based Alok Industries, which is into textile and retail. The company had been interested in diluting some equity it owns in its unlisted unit, Alok Infrastructure. The company is planning to raise Rs 600 crore to develop its large landbank and may go in for more funding. Continue Reading »

Gulf private equity and sovereign funds are increasingly turning global. In a significant deal, General Electric has struck an $8 billion commercial finance joint venture with Mubadala Development Co., a sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, one of the states in United Arab Emirates. The new venture will target Middle East and African markets. Each company will commit $4 billion in equity to the venture.
Besides, Mudabala would also buy into GE. Mudabala said it would become “top ten institutional investors” of GE. It would buy shares of GE from the open market, “as conditions allow.” Mubadala didn’t disclose what stake it would pick up in GE and when it would start investing. Continue Reading »

Within a month of committing $250 million to three Indian infrastructure focused funds, CDC Group, the UK government-backed private equity fund of funds investor, has announced fresh investments of a total of $185 million to six Indian private equity funds.
CDC has made the following commitments: $50 million to Baring India Private Equity Fund III, $50 million to New Silk Route Private Equity Asia Fund, $25 million to India Value Fund III, $20 million to BTS India Private Equity Fund, $20 million to Avigo SME Fund II and $20 million to VentureEast Proactive Fund. This brings CDC’s overall commitment to private equity funds investing in the region to over $1 billion. These six funds are expected to raise a total of over $2.47 billion for investment in the region.
Last month, CDC Group made commitments totalling $250 million to three funds focused on infrastructure and real estate investment in India. CDC invested $100 million each in IDFC India Infrastructure Fund and the Actis India Real Estate Fund, while $50 million to Kotak India Realty Fund.
Continue Reading »

A hammered Indian stock market and upcoming concerns about higher oil prices, inflation and political turmoil doom the Indian hedge fund industry. Venus Capital Management’s $100 million Special Situations Fund, a $100 million long-short hedge fund focused only on India is down 22.25% in the first half, Reuters reports.
Vik Mehrotra, CEO and founder of Venus Capital told Thomson Investment Management News in an interview that he expects Indian markets to fall another 10 percent to 20 percent or more this year, which would claim casualties among the 120 or so dedicated India hedge funds, which he said collectively have about $6 billion under management.
Mehrotra added that there’s a lot more pain to come in India’s hedge fund industry and that many will go out of business. “The whole hedge fund industry is going through a process of deleveraging”, he said. Continue Reading »

Donald Trump Jr, the executive vice-president of the Trump Organisation, is setting up a $1 billion fund to buy property in India. Trump Jr is betting on the fast growing Indian economy and may create a privately held fund, whose investors could include an Indian family, reports Bloomberg. Trump Jr is the son of United States property mogul Donald Trump. Other details such as closing of the fund or when the first investment will be made is not known.
Trump was quoted as saying that the fund will primarily be for acquisitions of real estate in the high end, though it will also look at other opportunities. Another area he is looking at is resorts and plans to make his first investment in Mumbai. Trump Jr has been looking at the real estate market in India for some time now, and now plans to make the best of the downturn in the real estate market. The report added that Trump Jr is also planning a hotel and residential project in Mumbai with a local partner. Continue Reading »

Info Edge Ltd, the owners of jobs portal Naukri.com, has made investment in another education company. Info Edge informed the stock exchanges today that it has proposed to invest Rs 6.5 crore or $1.54 million for a 40 per cent equity stake in Applect Learning Systems, a Delhi-based education content developer. It has already disbursed Rs 1 crore as part of the first tranche of the investment.
This is the second investment by Info Edge in an education company. Earlier this year, Info Edge invested $1 million in StudyPlaces Inc, as part of the latter’s $3-million series A round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Info Edge also has its own education portal - Shiksha.com.
According to the website of Applect, the company provides custom content development services to corporates with a focus on Education in the K-12 segment. Their services include development of courseware, assessment items, teaching pieces, simulations, and conventional training materials.

Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories’ is set to buy back the shares of Perlecan Pharma, its demerged arm dedicated to new drug development, from private equity investors ICICI Venture and Citigroup Venture Capital International (CVCI). The share buyback from ICICI Ventures and Citigroup, both of whom hold 43 per cent each in Perlecan, will be for $18.5 million. The buyback will be in cash and will be funded through existing reserves and internal accruals.
GV Prasad, Vice Chairman and CEO of Dr Reddy’s, told CNBC TV18 that they would buy back shares from both the investors for a total consideration of $18.5 million. “The net of the cash in Perlecan is about $9 million. So, roughly we would be paying $18.5 million to acquire shareholding from both the investors,” Prasad said. Continue Reading »

Leading investment bank Edelweiss Capital is venturing into asset reconstruction business, for which it’s on the lookout for foreign partners. Edelweiss will soon apply to Reserve Bank of India for an ARC licence.
Meanwhile, Edelweiss has hired Siby Antony as executive vice-president of Edelweiss Alternate Asset Advisors, the company which will run the ARC busiuness. Antony was previously executive director at IDBI Bank, and will head the newly formed asset reconstruction.
Antony has played a vital role in setting up and running Corporate Debt Restructuring forum, where banks jointly resolved bad loans as well as Stressed Assets Stabilisation Fund (SASF), a pool in which IDBI’s Rs 9,000 crore bad loans got transferred. Continue Reading »

Bangalore-based Canara Bank is planning to launch a Rs 500 crore ($125 million) venture capital fund, which could be an ambitious target since the fund raising environment is getting tougher. The fund will be the largest one from the bank and will be sector agnostic, accoreding to a report in Business Standard. The bank has applied for permission for this fund to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Canara Bank already has a small venture capital fund - Canbank Venture Capital Fund - which was set up in 1989, the first to be sponsored by a public sector bank. The firm has launched four funds till date with an aggregate corpus totalling to Rs 112 crore and has invested in as many as 65 companies across various sectors.
The latest, named Bharat Nirman Fund, has a corpus of Rs 60 crore and its investors are Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Vijaya Bank, Andhra Bank and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Canara Bank will pitch the new fund to the government-owned institutions to join as investors. The average ticket size of Canbank’s investments is Rs5-9 crore but with the new fund this might get bigger. Continue Reading »

Has the India team of Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI), the private equity arm of Citigroup, quit? Business Today magazine, dated June 25, hinted in a report that Ajay Relan, Managing Director, of CVCI, and his other colleagues in India like P.R. Srinivasan and Vivek Chhachhi have left the firm to start a private equity shop of their own. A TV channel too flashed news on Monday that Relan and the team have resigned from the firm.
VCCircle could not reach Ajay Relan for his comments as his mobile phone went unanswered. Vivek Chhachhi, a vice president at CVCI, told VC Circle that he is “very much part of CVCI as of now”. However, independent sources confirmed that Relan is on his way out to start his own firm.
Interestingly, earlier it was rumoured that Relan and team would join private equity firm TPG, which apparently is not the case now.
Relan’s name however still apears (at the time of posting this article) on the Citi website. Continue Reading »

Investment bankers have started bearing the brunt of the slowdown in IPOs and mergers and acquisitions in India. Investment banking fees in India have declined 37.8 per cent on year-on-year basis, a report says, quoting data from Thomson Reuters. The IPO pipeline has almost fully dried up, while there has been a dip in private equity and M&A deals.
In contrast, investment banking fees have fallen only 19 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region. The fall is more in India because the market is high beta, the report adds, while cross-border volume of M&A deals has declined by 51.1 per cent from the same period last year.
Interestingly, loan syndication grew 66 per cent compared to a 69.4 per cent fall in equity capital market activity. State Bank of India topped the overall i-banking league table with 31 deals amounting to $31.3 million followed by Merrill Lynch with 18 deals worth $26.3 million.
More details here.