Posts for: July, 2006

Sonalika Group Plans To Dilute Another 10%; Seeks Foreign Strategic Partner Too

07/31/06, 8:38 PM

International Tractors Ltd (ITL), known for its Sonalika brand of tractors, is in talks with private equity investors for diluting a further 10 per cent stake, reports The Hindu Business Line. The company is believed to be in talks with three or four firms inlcuding Barclays, the report says. The tractor-maker had earlier received funding [...]

Orchid Pharma Buys Out The Remaining 24% In Bexel Pharmaceuticals For $3 Million

07/31/06, 5:35 PM

Chennai-based Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals has increased stake in US-based Bexel Pharmaceuticals to 100 per cent. Earlier they held 74 per cent. The deal involves buying out the entire shareholding of the US founders of Bexel Pharmaceuticals for a cash consideration of $3 million.
Bexel focuses on drug discovery research in metabolic diseases (such as diabetes, [...]

E*Trade Takes Control Of IL&FS Investmart; Changes CEO

07/31/06, 3:47 PM

E*Trade, the leading online share trading company in the world, has raised its stake in IL&FS Investsmart to 23 per cent. Recently the US-based company had taken an additional stake of 4.5 per cent. Following this, IL&FS Investmart CEO Hemang Raja has stepped down. He will continue in the position till September 1, 2006. E*Trade [...]

Warburg To Invest In Lemon Tree Hotels; Puts In $66 Million In Aryan Coal

07/31/06, 1:46 PM

Warburg Pincus is close to acquiring a stake in the Delhi-based Lemon Tree Hotels, a budget-hotel chain. Warburg is expected to invest $40 million in the hotel chain floated by Ravi Jaipuria, a Delhi-based businessman, and Patu Keswani, a former COO with Taj Group’s business hotels. Jaipuria also owns Indian franchisee rights for Pizza Hut, [...]

SRL Ranbaxy Aggressively Looking To Buy Pathology Labs

07/31/06, 12:14 PM

SRL Ranbaxy, the pathology lab business of Ranbaxy family, plans to grow inorganically. It’s is aggressively scouting for pathology labs for acquisitions. The company is believed to have formed a team to identify such acquisition opportunities both in India and abroad.
“We are not constrained by capital and we are looking at labs with all sizes. [...]

Munesh Khanna To Head Investment Banking At DSP Merrill Lynch

07/31/06, 10:29 AM

Munesh Khanna is joining DSP Merrill Lynch as the head of investment banking, reports The Economic Times. He will be designated as managing director, reporting to chairman Hemendra Kothari. Khanna had left Enam Financial last month after a short, eight-month tenure. He was rumoured to have quit following the poor response to the Deccan Aviation [...]

TiE-ISB Connect 2006 From September 20-22

07/30/06, 8:18 PM

Here is a message from S Subramonia Sarma, Director, Entrepreneurship Development, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad. If you are an entrepreneur, you could be interested in attending this event.
The TiE – ISB Connect 2006 is scheduled at the ISB from September 20-22, 2006. This year we have significantly up-scaled [...]

Khosla Ventures Backs Music Band

07/29/06, 3:28 PM

Vinod Khosla is interested not just in clean energy these days. He likes music companies too. Khosla Ventures’ latest investment is in San Francisco’s GarageBand.com, an independent music community. Khosla has put in $2.5 million in first-round funding in the company.
Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and partner David Weiden led the round, with additional [...]

Dalmia Cement To Raise $155 Million From Overseas Markets

07/28/06, 3:14 PM

Dalmia Cements Bharat Ltd has got board approval to raise Rs 700 crore ($155 million) through the issue of securities in domestic or international markets. It can be through issue of preference shares, debentures, depository receipts, warrants or other securities convertible into equity shares to domestic or foreign investors.
Dalmia Cement had recently raised $25 million [...]

Credit Suisse To Pick Up 10% In Binani Cements

07/28/06, 2:57 PM

Cement sector is hot. Binani Industries announced that it is divesting further 10% stake in its cement business to Credit Suisse, which will buy shares at Rs 73 per share, reports CNBC-TV18. The company will raise Rs 150 crore with this stake sale.
In September last year, Binani Cements had sold 25 per cent stake to [...]

Arch Pharmalabs, Mankind Pharma To Raise Private Equity

07/28/06, 11:57 AM

Mumbai-based Arch Pharmalabs, a Rs 246-crore active pharmaceutical ingredient maker, is raising Rs 100 crore through private placement of its equity. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with some leading domestic private equity funds, reports The Economic Times. This will be the company’s fourth round of funding. Two years back, ICICI Ventures [...]

Who Is India’s First Woman CA?

07/27/06, 8:08 PM

Ok, some trivia today. Who is India’s first woman Chartered Accountant? Try answering this, or I will post the answer tomorrow.

Other Top Headlines For Today

07/27/06, 7:56 PM

Sasken Buys Botnia for $44 million (Red Herring)
India’s Sasken Communication Technologies has acquired the Finnish company Botnia Hightech on Wednesday for an all-cash price of €35.5 million (about $44 million). Nokia Venture Partners has invested in Sasken.
ICI looking to acquire paint, starch facilities (Business Standard)
ICI India plans to acquire paint companies or natural starch facilities. [...]

Japan’s Daiwa Securities SMBC Enters Indian Investment Banking Business

07/27/06, 5:14 PM

Japan’s Daiwa Securities SMBC has entered Indian investment banking services market. Leading global investment bank has set up an office in Mumbai to “match the vigorous capital demands in India and the energetic investment demands in Japan”. The India head of investment banking at Daiwa Securities SMBC is Vaishali Sinha.
Daiwa Securities SMBC is owned by [...]

Morgan Stanley To Invest $1 Billion In Indian Real Estate Over 5 Years

07/27/06, 1:37 PM

US investment bank Morgan Stanley plans to invest $1 billion in Indian real estate sector over five years, Zain Fancy, executive director for the Asia-Pacific region, told Reuters. The investment bank had raised $4.2 billion for an international property fund in March.
Morgan Stanley has already invested $65 million in Delhi-based residential and commercial developer Alpha [...]

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