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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.

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.

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."

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.

ICICI Venture-funded diagnostic chain Metropolis Health Services is looking at acquisitions in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, says a report in Business Standard. The Mumbai-based company, which recently formed a joint venture with Desai Clinical Laboratory in Surat, are in talks with laboratory firms in these states. These deals may not be very large - under Rs 10 crore, if what the report is anything to go by. It had earlier acquired Sanket Labs in Ahmedabad.
Metropolis is also believed to be looking at acquisitions overseas too in countries such as the US, Thailand or Vietnam and East Africa. But here it can spend as much as Rs 40-50 crore ($10-12.5 million), which would be raised from banks.
ICICI Venture had invested Rs 35-crore in the company last year. Diagnostic business is largely unorganised in India with some 45,000 labs. The business is said to be worth Rs 10,000 crore a year. Some of the organised players are LalPath Labs (funded by Sequoia Capital India) and SRL Ranbaxy.

Private equity-backed Time Technoplast Ltd (TTL) has acquired a Gulf-based battery manufacturer, Gulf Powerbeat. TTL, the maker of polymer products for consumer packaging industry, had ventured into battery manufacturing by acquiring the Hyderabad-based NED Energy Ltd early this year. The Gulf acquisition has been done through NED. The total investment in Bahrain project is estimated at $10 million over the next three years and would be financed through a mix of equity and overseas debts, the company said.
The acquisition will help NED expand its capacity of battery production from 100 million AH currently to 300 million AH, the company said. GPW has state-of-art production facility at South Alba Industrial Area in Manama, the capital city of Bahrain, for manufacture of high quality Long Life batteries. It is currently owned by a reputed business family of UAE who offered to sell battery business to remain focused on finance and real estate businesses. GPW has installed capacity for telecom batteries of up to 150 million AH with surplus capacity to produce vital battery components of additional 250 million AH.
TTL is backed by Zephyr Peacock and Motilal Oswal Venture Capital, who together invested Rs 38.7 crore early this year. The company's shares are currently trading at Rs 1,035, giving returns of almost 3.75X to the PE investors.

Publicly-listed Advani Hotels said that it has sold its flight catering business for Rs 20.3 crore. The buyer's identity is not revealed, however, a report indicates that Switzerland-based Gate Gourmet, one of the world’s largest independent providers of airline catering and logistics services, could be the buyer. Advani's flight catering business is called Airport Plaza Flight Services, and is apparently the sole airline caterer at the Goa International Airport. The unit primarily caters to the requirements of charter companies and domestic carriers.
Advani's flagship property is a hotel in Goa called Caravela Beach Resort (Formerly Renaissance Goa Resort), a 202 room five star deluxe resort built on a 23 acres beach front.
This is the second deal in flight catering business. Blank check firm India Hospitality Corp. (IHC) had recently acquired Mumbai-based Mars Restaurants and its sister concern SkyGourmet Catering for about $110 million.

Mobile services provider Spice Communications has decided to sell its 875 mobile towers to a tower operating company. Some reports suggest that the towers would be sold to Quipo Telecom, a tower company promoted by Srei Group, however, The Economic Times quotes Spice's B K Modi as saying that the deal is yet to be concluded. Media reports suggest that the deal with Quipo could be estimated at about Rs 500 crore ($126.5 million). If the information is correct, that values each tower at about Rs 57 lakh ($144K).
Spice has also informed Bombay Stock Exchange that the board has decided to avail borrowing facilities of up to $400 million from Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp and another $410 million from China Development Bank for expanding its networks in Karnataka and Punjab, the two circles where it currently offers mobile services.
Recently, the other mobile companies like Bharti Airtel, Idea, and Vodafone, transferred their passive towers to a separate tower arm called Indus Towers. It would hold 70,000 towers. The Tatas and Reliance Communications have also hived of their tower assets as separate businesses. Reliance sold a 5 per cent stake in its 14,000-strong tower biz RTIL to a group pf private equity investors for $337.5 million, which valued the company at $6.75 billion.
Spice's tower business is getting a lower valuation probably they are present only in two circles - Karnataka and Punjab.

The government has reportedly decided to simplify the norms for mergers and acquisitions, and that could pave way for fast track deal-making. The Economic Times reports that the government may exempt companies from seeking high court sanctions for M&As, if they meet certain criteria. The ministry of company affairs is apparently working on two types of fast-track clearances for M&As. One is ‘Contractual Mergers’, under which companies needn’t wait for the high court approval. Usually, a HC approval for merger take six months to come by.
This was a proposal suggested by a panel headed by corporate lawyer Shardul Shroff. Under the contractual merger plan, companies can decide to merge through a contract among themselves, which should be approved by the shareholders later. As of now, all private sector companies need to get the approval of high courts for M&A activities. The state-owned companies have to obtain the government approval.
The second proposal, reports ET, is a simplified procedure for M&As between group companies and unrelated private companies. Both are designed to make M&A on a fast-track mode. This should make companies relieved.

Financial services space will go down as the single most active sector this year from a deal perspective with about two dozen deals being announced in this space alone. Close on the heels of $191 million capital infusion in India Infoline and in its insurance subsidiary by Singapore's Orient Global, another global investor, State Bank of Mauritius, is interested in picking up a stake in Mumbai based merchant bank Centrum Capital, according to The Economic Times. Centrum is a full service investment bank with merchant banking and broking services, besides undertaking distribution of financial products.
SBM, which had acquired a minority stake in the Kolhapur-based private bank Ratnakar Bank where Centrum also has a 7 per cent stake, is said to be interested in buying under 15 per cent in the company. The report adds that SBM has valued Centrum at Rs 1,800 crore, which has been rejected by the firm. The paper quotes an unnamed Centrum official as saying: “State Bank of Mauritius approached us to acquire an equity stake in the company. However, we cannot agree with the valuation which they have given to us. We expect a much higher valuation because all our business are growing, Currently, we are in the process of restructuring our business operations and we will actively look for a stake sale after few months.” Centrum Capital is listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, and its stock has hit the 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 695 following the news development.
Centrum, incorporated in 1977, is promoted by Chandir Gidwani and the Cassinath Group (of late Khushroo P. Byramjee).