Pravi Capital Ties Up With ASK For $250M Fund - Domestic private equity firm Pravi Capital, founded by former ICICI Venture executives, is partnering with ASK Group, a diversified financial firm, to launch its maiden $250 million PE fund. A 50-50 JV, the fund intends to tap family offices, institutional investors and ultra high networth individuals from domestic as well as international markets. Jayanta Banerjee, Anand Vyas and Sunay Mathure Pravi — former officials of India’s largest VC fund ICICI Venture — are the men behind Pravi, a serbo-croatian word for ‘pure’. (Economic Times)
TTK Prestige Eyes Italian Buy - TTK Prestige Ltd, the maker of cookers and other kitchen appliances, is set to buy Italian firm Bialetti’s ailing Indian unit, called Triveni Bialetti Industries, to expand production capabilities. The company plans to merge the entity with itself before the end of this fiscal. Triveni Bialetti has a state-of-the-art, automated manufacturing unit in Khardi in the Mumbai suburbs, which was set up to cater to Indian and global markets. The parent company, based at Coccaglio in Lombardy, Italy, has already invested €6-7 million since 2008. (DNA)
Edserv Buys Prosel Ventures Content - Edserv Softsystems Ltd has decided to acquire contents of Prosel Ventures Pvt Ltd for a consideration of Rs 35 crore. This will be by way of equity allotment. Besides, the company has also tied-up with Nokia to provide education content through mobile phones. As the cost of service was going up, and to avoid royalty cost, the company has decided to acquire the content part. (Business Standard)
HCC Eyes Distressed Assets Buys - HCC Concessions Ltd, a unit of Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) , is looking to acquire "distressed" infrastructure assets as it plans to triple its portfolio of projects to about 150 billion rupees in the next 3 years. The company's present portfolio of projects, including six National Highways Authority of India projects, stands at 55 billion rupees. The company is also expecting over 5 billion rupees in revenues by FY14. Hindustan Construction Co said it has concluded the sale of a 14.5 percent stake in unit HCC Concessions to U.S.-based investment firm Xander Group for 2.4 billion rupees. The stake sale had valued HCC Concessions at $375 million.
Air India May Launch $2B Bond Sale - Air India Ltd., the state-owned carrier struggling with losses, plans to raise 100 billion rupees ($2 billion) selling bonds as it works to reduce dependence on government bailouts. The bond sale is part of a turnaround plan the airline has submitted to the government. The government hasn’t yet decided on giving sovereign guarantee for the bonds, he said without specifying a timeframe for the sale. The carrier, which has reported annual losses every year since a merger with Indian Airlines in 2007, has piled up 442 billion rupees of debt after ordering 111 planes from Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. (Bloomberg)
Cisco Invests In Shekhar Kapur's Start-Up - Technology giant Cisco has funded Shekhar Kapur Digital Media, a company founded by filmmaker Shekhar Kapur in association with music composer AR Rahman. Based out of Bangalore and Mumbai, the start up firm creates digital entertainment content for internet and mobile platforms. Cisco, a networking equipment maker, operates a $200 million corporate venture capital fund in India and has thus far invested in companies that include Netmagic, Indiagames, Comviva, Nimbus Communications, Real Image, Servion and Mycity. Cisco had also invested in the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services to develop healthcare management solutions. (Financial Express)
