Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a Canadian asset management company that manages investments worth $181 billion, is set to acquire all of Unitech Corporate Parks Plc (UCP), a London Stock Exchange-listed, India-focused real estate investment firm, paying Rs 3,000 crore ($506 million). A definitive agreement to this end is likely to be signed this week in London, said four persons directly involved in the deal. Last year, UCP was in talks to sell its Gurgaon IT SEZ but the deal did not materialize. In April, Unitech had informed the stock exchanges that UCP was in talks with an investor for selling Candor Investments Ltd, the holding company, for its 60% interest in the six real estate projects. (Live Mint)
IDBI Bank plans Rs 4,000 crore share sale: Government-controlled IDBI Bank Ltd. plans to raise as much as Rs 4,000 crore ($677.3 million) to bolster capital buffers as bad loans increase. The board of the Mumbai-based bank approved raising the money through a share sale to institutional investors or a follow-on public offer, an exchange filing showed on Monday. No timing for the transactions was specified. The fund-raising will help the lender, which had outstanding loans of Rs 2 trillion as of 31 March, to absorb increased soured debt. Gross bad loans at IDBI Bank rose to 4.9% of total lending as of March from 3.2% a year earlier, exchange filings showed. (Live Mint)
Dynaflex: Gujarat-based company that supplies packing material is looking to raise $10 million this year: Dynaflex, which is currently 100% owned by the Vora family, is also looking to raise $10 million this year to expand manufacturing capacities. Prior to the ecommerce boom in India, the company was supplying tamper free polymer packs for foren-sic evidence collection to India's CBI and law enforcement agencies in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ireland. A 40-year-old company that once made polymer envelopes for collecting evidence from crime scenes is now the country's largest supplier of packing material for e-commerce firms, such as Flipkart, Myntra, Amazon and FashionandYou. The Vadodara-based company diversified its operations into e-commerce just four years ago, when India saw the emergence of its now $3-billion (Rs 18,000 crore) e-tailing sector. “The packaging industry will grow even faster than some e-commerce firms since the number of orders are rising faster than the amount of order and every item needs a package," eTailing India founder Ashish Jhalani said. (The Economic Times)
JSW Steel to buy Welspun Maxsteel for about Rs 1,10x0 crore: JSW Steel, India's third-largest steel maker, will acquire smaller rival Welspun Maxsteel for about Rs 1,100 crore ($186.2 million), two people with direct knowledge the development said, in a move aimed at sourcing cheaper raw material, cutting production cost and strengthening its presence in the northern and western markets. Both companies have signed a MoU last week after a financial due diligence by consulting services firm EY, one of the persons said. The deal will help JSW cut production cost by supplying surplus raw material to make sponge iron cheaper. The steel maker will acquire the sponge iron plant, jetty and roughly 1,000 acres of land, known in industry parlance as slump sale, besides absorbing the Rs 1,030-crore debt of Welspun Maxsteel. (The Economic Times)
Top PEs eye $300m Sutherland stake: An investment arm of Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital are among the suitors lining up for $300 million (Rs 1,767 crore) stake in the privately held business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Sutherland Global Services, people aware of the matter said. The private equity investors are vying for about one-third stake in the company valued at over $1 billion (Rs 5,893 crore). The transaction in the making is mostly a secondary deal with the new investor purchasing shares of two existing shareholders Oak Investment Partners and Standard Chartered Private Equity. Sutherland is running a share sale process with a select list of potential investors. Other US investors like Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) evaluated the transaction but may not have progressed with it, one of the sources mentioned earlier said. (The Times of India)
flydubai eyes stakes in India's budget airlines: Close on the heels of Qatar Airways showing an interest in the country’s largest budget carrier IndiGo, Dubai-based low-cost carrier flydubai on Monday said it was “open†to investing in an efficient Indian airline. The Indian government allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49% stakes in Indian carriers in September 2012. Since then, the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has bought a 24% stake in Naresh-Goyal’s Jet Airways. Two new ventures, AirAsia India and Tata-SIA Airlines, have been registered and will start flights soon. (Business Standard)
Carlyle in talks for Bharat Serums stake: The Carlyle Group, one of world's largest private equity investors, is in talks to buy a significant minority stake in Bharat Serums and Vaccines from existing investors for Rs 500-600 crore ($85 million - $102 million). Carlyle is in discussion to buy the 15% stake held by Kotak Mahindra's private equity arm as well as another 8-10% held by OrbiMed Advisors, the world's leading healthcare-dedicated investment firm. It is not clear whether the promoters will dilute their stake in this round of fundraising. In a similar transaction in December 2013, Carlyle had bought the 28 per cent held by Avenue Capital Group in Naresh Trehan's super-specialty hospital Medanta Medicity. (Business Standard)
Courtesy: VCCEdge