Singapore-based distressed assets fund SSG Capital Management and homegrown non-banking financial company InCred Finance are vying against each other to buy a stake of up to 15% in Catholic Syrian Bank, The Economic Times reported, citing multiple sources aware of the matter.
The development comes after negotiations between the private-sector lender and Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings hit a roadblock.
While the talks with Fairfax were for a controlling stake, the negotiations now are for a minority holding, the report said. The bank’s shareholders are seeking a valuation of around Rs 1,700-2,000 crore, it added.
InCred founder and CEO Bhupinder Singh had told VCCircle in August that the company was looking to shell out Rs 50-100 crore for acquisitions in the microfinance category and that it would buy one-two startups in the wheels financing segment for Rs 20-30 crore.
InCred Finance was incorporated last year and raised about Rs 600 crore in August 2016. It is backed by former Deutsche Bank co-CEO Anshu Jain, among others.
SSG Capital was founded in 2009 by former Lehman Brothers Inc executives Edwin Wong, Andreas Vourloumis and Shyam Maheshwari.
In another development, debt-laden Essar Steel’s Hazira plant in Gujarat has received preliminary interest for an acquisition from Tata Steel Ltd, Mint reported, citing two people aware of the development.
The plant in Hazira has a manufacturing capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum.
Essar Steel is going through a bankruptcy process. An interim resolution professional for Essar Steel appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal has received interest from at least four suitors for acquiring the company, according to the report.
“The Hazira facility constitutes more than 80% of Essar Steel’s operations, while the rest of the facilities are largely for raw material processing, in which Tata Steel sees no value since it already has its own facilities,†Mint quoted one person as saying.
Another company facing bankruptcy, Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, has drawn the interest of Emami Group.
The Telegraph reported that Emami Group may bid for the consumer goods company and that it has set up an internal team to chalk out the plan.
“Bidding would be a court-led process. We are closely watching the development at the NCLT,†said Aditya Agarwal, director at Emami Agrotech, in the report.
On 15 September, Ruchi Soya had informed the stock exchange that Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank Ltd filed an application with the NCLT to initiate an insolvency resolution process.
Ruchi Soya sells food products and edible oils under the brands Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Gold and Ruchi Star.
