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Goldman Sachs and Macquarie India Holdings have invested Rs 155.74 crore to pick up a 40 per cent stake in PTC Financial Services (PFS), the financial services arm of PTC India Ltd, formerly known as Power Trading Corporation. PFS is a non-banking finance corporation which has been set up to undertake investments across the Indian energy value chain.
The two financial investors have acquired 20 per cent stake each at Rs 16 per share. The face value of the share is Rs 10. This values PTC Financial Services at Rs 389.35 crore. The paid up capital of the company is Rs 243.2 crore. The state-owned PTC India has brought in Rs 146 crore for its 60 per cent equity holding in the subsidiary at Rs 10 per share. NM Rothschild & Sons (India) was the sole sell side advisor on the transaction.
PFS, which has already acquired a 26 per cent stake in Indian Energy Exchange, the country’s first power exchange, has a mandate to invest in greenfield and brownfield power generation assets, power transmission and distribution assets, apart from energy related infrastructure assets such as gas pipelines, fuel linked ports and electricity equipment. It may also act as a sponsor of energy funds, as well as establishing an asset management company to deploy and manage the fund.
Meanwhile, The Hindustan Times reports that PTC India has just completed a roadshow to raise about Rs 1,200 crore via private placement. The publicly listed company has a market cap of Rs 2,350 crore.

Broking-to-real estate conglomerate Indiabulls has picked up a 10 per cent stake in High Street Cruises & Entertainment, reports Hindustan Times. High Street is owned by Jiadev-promoted Arrow Webtex. High Street had recently acquired Pune-based Victor Hotels and Motels from Diana Buildwell, a wholly owned subsidiary of Indiabulls.
The deal is a share-swap between Indiabulls and High Street, according to which the former gets a 10 per cent stake in High Street in return for its 100 per cent stake in Victor. Indiabulls, however, has not confirmed the deal.
There is not much information available on High Street Cruises.

The private equity arm of Kotak Mahindra would invest around $10 million in Hyderabad-based Heritage Foods, reports The Economic Times. Heritage is promoted by Chandrababu Naidu, politician and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The deal was signed on Monday evening, the report added, quoting sources.
Heritage has informed stock exchanges that it would hold its board meeting on Friday, January 4, to consider the proposal of issuing equity shares/warrants on preferential basis to promoters or non-promoters. The Kotak investment is to be decided in this meeting.
The proceeds of the fund would be deployed to expand its retail format 'Fresh@' stores from the present 50 to 100. The store plans to expand the footprint and look at other markets in mid term. They currently have stores in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and sell 50 grocery products like cereals, pulses and staples under brand name Farmers Pride. The company is primarily into milk and milk products and has established a network of procurement and chilling plants across South India.

HDFC sells 7.15 per cent in Life JV to partner: Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) will transfer 7.15 per cent stake in HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company to its foreign partner - Standard Life - at a pre-agreed price, reports The Hindu Business Line. Standard Life is said to have paid about Rs 201 crore to HDFC for the 7.15 per cent stake, according to the report. With this stake buy, Standard Life will hold 26 per cent in the insurance JV, the maximum foreign equity allowed in insurance ventures. Earlier, Standard Life could not hold 26 per cent in the insurance company as it held 9.2 percent stake in the parent HDFC. But, following Standard Life's last year's sale of its stake in HDFC to Citigroup for Rs 3,100 crore, that hurdle has been removed. After the current sale, HDFC's stake in Life insurance business will come down from 81.15 per cent to 74 per cent.

Austrian co ZKW to pick up 26% stake in Neolite: Austria-based ZKW Zizala Lichtsysteme GmbH will pick up a 26 per cent stake in automotive lighting manufacturer Neolite Industries for an undisclosed amount. ZKW, an OEM supplier for the front lighting for premium segment vehicles in Europe, has revenues of about 200 million euros from automotive lighting business. Neolite Industries has inked a joint venture agreement with ZKW- Zizala Lichtsysteme GmbH. ZKW will be taking an initial stake of 26 per cent in existing business of Neolite group, with an option to increase its stake up to 40 per cent.

ICICI Bank to sell 5% in Mascon Global: Mascon Global promoters have bought back 5 per cent stake from ICICI Bank. , K Chandra, the company's Executive Chairman & CEO, will see his holdings in the company rising to 9.26 per cent from the existing 4.25 per cent. Mascon Global develops and implements end-to-end IT solutions for clients, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, from diverse industry segments. The firm also provides software implementation and consulting services throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, India and Asia Pacific.

The promoters of the leading Indian media company NDTV Ltd have bought 7.73 per cent stake from private equity fund General Atlantic for Rs 192 crore. The promoters - husband-wife duo Prannoy and Radhika Roy - have bought the stake (4,836,000 shares) from GA Global Investments, an entity of the PE fund, thus increasing their stake in the company to 61 per cent. Indiabulls Financial Services is believed to have brokered the transaction. The shares have been pledged with Indiabulls, a stock exchange announcement showed.
Following the deal, the promoters have made an open offer to acquire a further 20 per cent stake from the public shareholders at Rs 438.98 a share (which is below the current market price of Rs 462). Acquiring 12,525,446 shares of the company would cost the promoters Rs 550 crore. Morgan Stanley India is managing the open offer.
It's not clear why promoters have chosen to buy back shares. Post-buy back, the foreign holding in the company will come down. Now foreign investors or NRIs can pick up an additional 7.73 per cent in the company, it informed the stock exchanges. The Roys had wanted to gift a 15 per cent of their stake to their daughter Tara Roy, who is an NRI. This proposal was not approved by the RBI since the foreign holding in the company had reached the upper limit. Now the buy-back will allow the Roys the leeway to effect the transaction.
The deal will give General Atlantic almost 2X returns. In September 2005, GA bought 7.95 per cent stake from Shyam Cellular for Rs 116 crore at Rs 240 a share.

Analytics firm eClerx listed today at Rs 320 and ended the trading session with a 42.35 per cent gain over the IPO price of Rs 315. The company's stock closed at Rs 448.40 on the National Stock Exchange. That is not bad for a pure play analytics firm. It traded with volumes of 93,16,883 shares recording the turnover of Rs 392 crore, reports Moneycontrol.com.
Meanwhile, PG Mundra, Executive Director of eClerx Services, told CNBC-TV18 that they are looking at the US and Europe for acquisitions. It will make acquisitions worth $5-15 million, and a deal is expected to be closed in the next financial year.
The company had closed one transaction in July this year when it bought a UK company called Igentica. Mundra told CNBC TV18: "Going forward also, our strategy around acquisitions remains the same, which is to look for small strategic deals, which we can bolt on to our existing model. So they don’t require a huge transformation."

Logistics firm Gateway Distriparks is looking at raising private equity for its railway freight subsidiary - Gateway Rail Freight Pvt Ltd. The company is expected to close the deal in the next two months, a top executive of the firm told CNBC TV18 this afternoon. The company will look at diluting about 15-20 per cent to a private equity investor. The executive also told the channel that the rail freight business may clock revenues of Rs 100-120 crore in 2008-09.
This will be the second private equity investment in a rail cargo company. Early this month, Mumbai-based Sage Capital picked up 8 per cent in Innovative B2B Logistics Solutions reportedly for Rs 25 crore.
Gateway Rail Freight is an unlisted company. The group may look at listing this entity over a period of time. Gateway Distriparks is a publicly listed logistic firm. It's a joint venture between NTSC, Parameshwara Holdings Ltd, Windmill International and Thakral Corporation, and provides services such as warehousing, container freight stations, providing handling and clearance of shipping containers. The company received approval from Indian Railways for running bulk trains railway in 2005.
It operates container freight stations (CFS) at Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Vishakapatnam and Inland Container Depot at Garhi Harsaru, Gurgaon. In November last year, the firm acquired 50.1 per cent stake in cold chain logistics firm Snowman Frozen Food Ltd for Rs 48.12 crore.

Aksh Optifibre, a publicly listed manufacturer of optical fibres and a telecom service provider, plans to raise Rs 200 crore or $50 million. The company is also reportedly looking at roping in a foreign investor into the company, reports The Economic Times. It further reported that a couple of companies in the internet telephony and IPTV have show interest in acquiring a stake in Aksh.
The company makes a variety of cables such as singlemode and multimode cables, duct cables, armoured & aerial cables, indoor and outdoor cables. The Company has also the facilities or producing ribbon fibre optic cables.

Another publicly listed company Temptation Foods Ltd plans to raise $200 million, says a report. The leading frozen food exporting firm plans to raise the capital by March 2008 to fund its acquisition and expansion efforts. The company is yet to decide on the route - it could be rupee convertible loan or Global Depository Receipts, TFL CEO Vinit Kumar told PTI.
The company had this year raised $30 million through a Qualified Institutional Placement which was part-utilised for acquiring Everfresh, the food processing unit of Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (CFCL), and recently a marine export business in southern India.

Coal Ventures International, a special purpose vehicle promoted by five state-owned corporations, has invited expressions of interest from global investment bankers to help the firm make acquisitions in metallurgical and thermal (boiler) coal assets overseas. The company, promoted by SAIL, Rashtiya Ispat, Coal India, NMDC and NTPC, is looking at acquisitions in Australia, Canada, the US, Indonesia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and others. CVIL has funds of $2.7 billion ($1.8 billion in debt and $900 million in equity) for making the acquisitions.
The selection of Investment/Merchant Bankers would be based on: a) Global foot prints and/or selected countries specific credentials; b) Adept at Mergers and Acquisitions, particularly of Coal assets; c) Recent/successful record of advising clients.
It will look at three routes of acquisitions: a) Strategic Investment in shares of listed coal companies producing or intending to produce metallurgical, PCI and steam coal anywhere in the world, but preferably in Australia, USA, Canada etc., b) Private equity deals with unlisted companies, partners, owners having coal assets in production or not in production any where in the world including South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Indonesia etc., c) Acquiring/applying for Prospecting/Mining licenses to develop coal mines anywhere in the world

See the full details of EOI here. The last date for EOIs is January 30, 2008.

This just in. A slew of international investors have picked up a minority stake for $1 billion in Bharti Infratel, the tower arm of Bharti Airtel, the company said in a statement today. The international investors are Temasek Holdings, The Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup and India Equity Partners (IEP). Temasek is the largest investor.
The enterprise valuation has been agreed to be in the range of $10-12.5 Billion, and the final valuation, within this range, will be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel's actual operating performance in FY 2008-09, the release said.
Bharti Infratel owns close to 20,000 sites and holds approximately 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, the recently announced joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, which has over 70,000 sites. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers will provide passive infrastructure services to all wireless telecom operators in India on a non-discriminatory basis.
Sharing of passive infrastructure results in capex and opex savings and higher capital efficiency for all wireless operators, enabling quicker roll out of services especially in rural areas, the release added.
Recently, Spice Communications decided to sell 875 towers to Quipo, part of the Srei Group, for Rs 500 crore, while Reliance Communications raised $337.5 million by selling 5 per cent stake in its tower arm RTIL.