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Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to raise around $400 million through a qualified institutional placement. The private bank is in talks with a group of blue chip investors like funds managed by Warren Buffett, T Rowe Price and others. The bank may issue 17 million equity shares for around 5 per cent equity to institutional investors, according to The Economic Times.
At present, Warburg Pincus holds 9.14 per cent in the bank. Citigroup is the advisor to the QIP issue.

Private equity fund Carlyle is looking at making real estate investments in India - mainly at the company level and not in projects like a typical real estate fund does. Carlyle may allocate about Rs 600-800 crore ($150-200 million) for real estate investments in India, reports The Economic Times. Caryle has investments in HDFC, Allsec Technologies, Elitecore Technologies and Great Offshore.

GVK Bio, Hyderabad-based contract pharma research services company, plans to raise Rs 100 crore or $25 million in private equity by the end of this year. GVK Bio is a JV between GVK Group and DS Brar, former CEO of Ranbaxy Laboratories. The company is already in negotiations with funds. "The response has been positive and we expect to finalise the deal by the end of this year,” GVK Bio chairman Mr Brar has been quoted as saying by The Economic Times. The company is looking at revenues of Rs 200 crore in 2007-08. Its services include informatics, medicinal chemistry, process R&D, pharmacological profiling and clinical research. Chemistry services account for 70 per cent of its revenues.
Sequoia Capital India has last month closed a $12.5 million deal with another Hyderabad-based chemistry services firm Sai Advantium.

International Press Softcom (IPS), a Singapore headquartered supply chain services company, will buy 55 per cent stake in the Chennai-based print and packaging company Scantrans for $5 million. Set up in 1994, Scantrans has clients like Cipla, Orchid, Flextronics, Motorola, Panasonic, Ford and BMW. The company is expected to have a turnover of Rs 40 crore in this financial year. It is looking at revenues of Rs 150 crore in the next three years. Singapore Stock Exchange-listed IPS has revenues of over $130 million, and it has clients like Apple, Dell, HP and Intuit. Veda Corporate Advisors was the advisor in the transaction. (via The Economic Times)