Round Up: Wipro, Jet Airways, Shetron, Avasarala Tech, BTS India, Pyramid Saimira
Thu, 04/26/2007 - 00:53 — Sahad P V--Wipro's plans to make larger acquisitions will gather momentum now. Its past acquisitions have contributed about Rs 500 crore to the revenues (Rs 15,000 crore) of the company in the last financial year. That's encouraging the Bangalore IT company to enlarge the ticket size of its future acquisitions to $100 million from $30-$60 million in the past. So what are the new areas the company is looking at?
The company is eyeing acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and avionic sectors both in the US and continental Europe. In the pharma industry, the infrastructure, package implementation, drug discovery and analytics space is being considered, according to company officials, reports Business Standard.
--Jet Airways is raising capital for sure. The amount is not clear. Earlier there were reports of raising about $400 million, now the amount talked about is about $100-$120 million. The private equity funds the airline is talking to include TPG Partners, Temasek and Blackstone. The first two may team up too, says The Economic Times.
--Shetron Ltd, a Mumbai-based manufacturer of metal cans for food and dry cell battery jackets/components, is looking at acquisitions overseas.. The company is believed to have zeroed in on a few companies with a turnover of Euro 10-20 million in the metal can manufacturing segment in Europe. It already has a subsidiary in Belgium. A deal is expected to be concluded in the next six months. It is also exploring acquisition opportunities in India.
The company, which had a turnover of $22 million in 2006-07, is hoping to achieve a $122 million turnover in the next five years. More in Business Standard.
--AIG Global Investments, the private equity arm of the American International Group (AIG), is close to picking up a minority stake in Avasarala Technologies for $20 million, reports The Economic Times. TT Mani, MD, Avasarala Technologies, confirmed that it has been holding discussions but did not name the investor. Avasarala is a Rs 200-crore company, based in Bangalore, that manufactures components for nuclear reactors used in generation of electricity.
--BTS India Private Equity Fund, which is focused on small and medium scale enterprises, has picked up a 17-20 per cent stake in an Indian auto component manufacturer Reliable Autotech Pvt Ltd for Rs 20 crore ($4.5 million). BTS, which launched a $48 million fund last year, is currently on the lookout for small to mid-sized companies in the pharma and life sciences, auto ancillary, information technology enabled services, telecom services and entertainment sectors, says a report. It also advises Swiss Technology Venture Capital Fund Private Ltd in Indian investments.
--BTS India Private Equity Fund has also received $20 million investment from CDC Group, the UK government-backed private equity fund of funds. CDC will be the largest anchor investor in the fund. The other investors include Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM), the Belgium Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), the International Cooperation and Development Fund Taiwan (ICDF) as well as various high networth individuals and large family offices from Europe and Asia.
--Pyramid Saimira Theatres (PSTL), the leading digital film theatre chain, is planning a film content fund with a corpus of $150-200 million. It will fund production houses partially to create content. The company has signed an MoU with Infinity Film Completion Services, a division of venture capital firm Infinity India Advisors, which offers film guarantee and project completion services, including term loans for film projects. See more here.

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