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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.

France's Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (SGCIB) and India's Ambit has signed a cooperation agreement for cross border M&A advisory work between India and Europe. They will offer advisory services to their respective European and Indian clients in the field of cross border M&A transactions.
The agreement sets a principle of exclusivity for both the parties and offers a framework of joint marketing efforts and execution of assignments between the two partners, a release said. It will enable SGICB to propose acquisition opportunities to its Indian client base, together with advisory services to assist in the negotiation and structuring of the transaction. It will also give the bank the opportunity to become Ambit’s partner of choice for European transactions. In turn, Ambit will be able to identify, introduce and execute transactions for its clients in the European market
Ambit, founded in 1997 by Ashok Wadhwa and others, employs a team of over 30 professionals across Mumbai and Delhi dedicated to M&A. Its recent deals include the Viacom's joint venture with TV18, the Heidelberg acquisition of Mysore Cement, and the merger of Indian Airlines with Air India. Ambit also has a partnership with Nikko Asset Management of Japan for asset management business in India. The firm also has a PE arm called Ambit Pragma Ventures and a three-way joint venture with TV18 and Centurion Bank for broking business.
SGCIB has done several cross border transactions such as the acquisition of Arcelor by Mittal, and the merger between Euronext and The New York Stock Exchange, to name a few.

Boutique investment banks does not want to remain boutique anymore. If the trend is anything is to go by, they also want to emulate the biggies like JM Financial and Edelweiss Capital and want to offer a bouquet of financial services rather than just stick to investment banking and advisory services. It makes sense in the current context as financial services firms like Edelweiss Capital and Religare Enterprises have commanded huge valuations in the recent stock market listings.
Mumbai based Avendus Advisors has rechristened itself as Avendus Capital. It's part of the "boutique" firm's plans to enter institutional broking and capital market practices (such as managing IPOs, open offer transactions). A Business Standard report says that Avendus plans to enter the asset management and non-banking financial company (NBFC) businesses too.
The firm is said to be in the process of setting up a sales and research team for the institutional broking division, BS reports, quoting Ranu Vohra, managing director and CEO of Avendus Capital. The firm had recently hired Girish Nadkarni from IL&FS Investmart to head capital market practices.
Chennai-based Spark Capital is another boutique investment banking firm that has launched institutional broking business. Similarly, o3 Capital Advisors, the boutique firm that was formed recently by a few ex-Avendus employees, has also ventured into institutional broking and research. It's likely all these firms will start providing a whole host of investment banking and capital market services.

Financial and technical consulting for carbon credits will be a new growth area for investment banks. Mumbai based investment banking firm Enam Financial has realised this and has formed a joint venture with UK’s Sindicatum Carbon Capital International Ltd, a firm that provides consulting in greenhouse gas reduction projects, reports Mint.
Enam, which already offers equity brokerage, private equity, M&A, private banking and wealth managment services, will be now the only domestic firm to offer investment banking services for carbon credit deals.
There are others like Ecosecurities India, Asia Carbon Ltd and Rabo India Finance offering similar services in India. Mint quotes an Enam official as saying that the market for carbon credit deals in India is estimated at around $6 billion (Rs 23,640 crore) in the next four years. Mint has more details on the carbon credits market.

BNP Paribas Securities Asia has announced today the launch of a 27-people strong securities research team in India, which will be headed by Praveen Chakravarty, Chief Operating Officer and Acting Head of Equity Research for BNP Paribas Securities India. The company had earlier announced the appointment of Abhijit Raha (formerly CLSA Asia) as the CEO of BNP Paribas Securities India, a joint venture between BNP Paribas Securities Asia and Geojit Securities. Raha is also the Head of Institutional Equities and Corporate Finance for BNP Paribas, India.
The new onshore research operation based in Mumbai is the second-largest research platform after the Hong Kong and China team. Chakravarty moved from Thomas Weisel International's India office, which was set up by him in Mumbai two years ago. A large section of his former team at Thomas Weisel was believed to have moved along with him to BNP Paribas Securities India. Thomas Weisel Partners is a San Francisco based investment bank.
The new setup will have 10 writing analysts and 13 research associates, and the firm plans to initially cover 100 Indian stocks by October 2008, according to a release. BNP Paribas Securities Asia will now be a full-fledged securities house with trading capabilities on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange.

This seems to be an effort to sweeten the IFCI stake sale process. The board of the state-owned financial institution IFCI has reportedly decided to bring in IFC, the private equity arm of World Bank, as an investor. The Economic Times reports that IFC may pick up less than 20 per cent stake. This is independent of the strategic sale process currently underway at the Delhi-based IFCI.
The sudden move to bring in IFC is apparently because IFCI needs funds to meet its capital adequacy requirements. But that may also increase the interest of the bidders in IFCI. Only four of the eight shortlisted bidders have actually conducted due diligence till date. They include the Sterlite Industries and Morgan Stanley & Co consortium, the WL Ross, GS Capital Partners (VI) Fund, Standard Chartered Bank and HDFC combine, the Shinsei Bank, PNB and JC Flowers group and the Cargill Financial Services Corporation/Texas Pacific consortium (the latter is a new entrant). However, the remaining bidders, GE Corporation, IDFC, Natixis and Blackstone Group, are yet to conduct due diligence, which shows their interest may be waning.
One of the reasons for it is that the creditors in IFCI are converting debt into equity which results in fresh issuance of 15 per cent stake, and that will change the valuation of the company.
So it's in IFCI's interest to keep the interest levels high and make the deal attractive. The last date of submission for financial bids has been fixed as December 14. The IFCI board is expected to announce the strategic investor by December 20.

Stock broking and investment banking firm Religare Enterprises had a terrific listing today. The Delhi based company, promoted by the Singhs of Ranbaxy, opened at Rs 323.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange compared to the offer price of Rs 185. The shares later touched a high of Rs 600, and is currently trading at Rs 546. The Religare public issue was oversubscribed 160 times. So this kind of opening was not unexpected.
On the National Stock Exchange, the scrip opened at Rs 323.75, touched a high of Rs 601 and was trading at Rs 588.
Religare is a holding company of 11 subsidiaries engaged in offering financial services targeted at retail, high networth individuals besides corporate and institutional clients. The company recently sold a 5 per cent stake to Indopark Holdings, a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, for Rs 60.6 crore.
Meanwhile, Edelweiss Capital, the Mumbai-based investment banking firm cum institutional broking house closed its public issue on Tuesday. The issue was oversubscribed 109 times. The stock broking firms and investment houses have caught the fancy of investors. The Edelweiss issue was priced in the band of Rs 725-825, valuing the company at Rs 6,400 crore.

CLSA Ltd, part of France's Credit Agricole SA, plans to increase its private equity investments to $3 billion from $1.8 billion, according to Rob Morrison, chairman of CLSA. A big chunk of this money will be used for buyout opportunities in countries such as India and China, reports Bloomberg.
According to Morrison, India has huge investment opportunities as it needs capital to build power, roads and other utilities.
CLSA also plans to expand the investment banking business in India by doubling employees to eight. Besides, it also plans to renew a two-year contract with State Bank of India for pitching for investment banking business. In August, CLSA hired J Niranjan, former head of investment banking at ICICI Securities, as Asia Pac Co Head of Investment Banking.

The Chesapeake Group Inc., a New York-headquartered boutique investment bank focusing on mid-market companies in the IT/BPO verticals, has announced its entry into India with an office in Bangalore. The Chesapeake Group specialises primarily in buy-side representation in merger & acquisition deals and focuses on strategic deals. Siddhartha Padam, till recently a Principal in the M&A team at Infosys, will move to head Chesapeake’s Indian presence as its Principal.
Founded in 1987, the New York headquartered Chesapeake Group has affiliates in London and Paris. The Chesapeake Group claimed it has helped a number of US and Europe-based clients establish Indian operations. Its current and past clients include Covansys, Zensar Technologies, Valtech, Tech Team, Sento Corporation, Softtek, Answerthink and eIndia Venture Fund among others.
Recently another New York investment bank Jefferies had announced it India entry with a representative office in New Delhi.

Charles 'Chuck' Prince has finally stepped down as the chief executive of Citigroup Inc on Sunday. The board of directors of Citigroup has announced that Robert E. Rubin, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citi and a member of the board, will serve as Chairman of the board.
In the interim, Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman of Citi Europe and a member of Citi's Business Heads, Operating and Management Committees, will serve as acting Chief Executive Officer. The Board has designated a special committee consisting of Rubin, Alain J.P. Belda, Richard D. Parsons, and Franklin A. Thomas to conduct the search for a new CEO.
It seems Vikram Pandit will have to wait, as the board screens candidates from within and outside the organisation for the hot job. Pandit's name was heard as a strong probable for the job. He is good at quant and technical skills, however, his standing as a people's man is not as strong as his technical knowledge. It remains to be seen if he will get to occupy the corner room at Citi.
Chuck Prince's head was demanded by the key shareholders like Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of Saudi Arabia and the Wall Street since the bank made losses worth $6.5 billion following the credit crunch and the sub-prime crisis. The Saudi Prince alone has lost some $4 billion following the meltdown of the Citi stock.
Rubin said in a statement: "We intend to complete our search for a new CEO as expeditiously as possible, reviewing qualified CEO candidates from outside as well as within our organisation."
See the full statement of Citi here.