Reliance Retail is in talks with Electronics Mart India for a possible acquisition of the consumer durables retail chain for close to Rs 3,000 crore ($407 million), people close to the development told Business Standard.
Electronics Mart operates 60 stores in South India with 1,200 employees. Businessman Pavan Kumar Bajaj opened the retail chain in 1980.
This comes at a time when Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) retail arm is about to raise $1 billion from Silver Lake and about $755 million from KKR.
Meanwhile, IDFC First Bank and a few other investors are looking to sell all or a part of their stake in Suryoday Small Finance Bank, which is in the final lap of making an application for its initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the development told The Economic Times.
The proposed IPO will consist of a primary issue and an offer for sale (OFS).
The size of the IPO is likely to be in the range of Rs 550-600 crore with about 40% reserved for OFS.
World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), DWM (International) Mauritius, Gaja Capital, Lok Capital and HDFC Life Insurance are some of the prominent stakeholders in the company.
IDFC First holds about 2.87% stake.
Also, Tata Group, through Tata Consumer Products, and Domino’s operator Jubilant Food are looking to bid for Coffee Day Group’s hot beverage vending machine business, people with knowledge of the matter told The Times of India.
Coffee Day Group is seeking Rs 2,000 crore (about $270 million) for the business, the people said.
The business has also attracted interest from marquee global private equity funds like Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, they added.
Coffee Day Group had earlier sought a price of Rs 3,000 crore for this business.
Separately, Tata Coffee is learnt to be in the initial stages of negotiations to acquire 12,000 hectares of the late Café Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha’s coffee plantations for up to Rs 1,500 crore ($203.6 million).
His wife Malavika Hegde has been in charge of the group’s operations. Located in Karnataka, the coffee plantations are believed to be the second-largest in Asia employing 3,000 people. It accounts for 20,000 tonnes of coffee exports annually.