M&As
Dabur In Talks To Buy FEM Care For Rs 300 Cr
FMCG and pharma company Fem Care Pharma, famous for its Fem bleach, is on the radar of Dabur India to be acquired for Rs. 270-300 Cr. The deal is aimed at extending Dabur's consumer care portfolio. Dabur's last acquisition was Balsara in 2005.
Funding
ICICI Funds Danone Buy For Wadias : Groupe Danone's stake in biscuit major Britannia Industries is set to be acquired by Nusli Wadia Group as ICICI bank has committed $200 million funding for the same. Wadias will buy Danone's 50% equity in Associated Biscuits International Holding (ABIH), the UK incorporated holding company, backed by a five-year loan. The deal will end the two year old shareholder dispute between the Wadias and Danone.
Tuticorin Port Plans Rs 4,350cr Spread : India's third largest port in terms of cargo handled this year, Tuticorin Port Trust is contemplating to develop an outer harbour under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) at a cost of Rs 4,350 crore, which will increase its cargo handling capacities and also set up port-based industries. In- principal approval has been received. The funds are expected to come from Japan Bank Corp and private players.
Global Financial Crunch Defers Piramal Life's Fund-Raising Plans: The demerged R&D arm of pharmaceutical major Piramal Healthcare, Piramal Life Sciences (PLSL), has deferred its plans to raise funds through strategic stake sale forced by the global financial crunch. Formed as an independent research-driven company by demerging the new drug research assets of Nicholas Piramal, PLSL was listed on the stock exchanges in May this year.
Promoters' Stake In Himalya International Up 5% : Food processing firm, Himalya International said that promoters of the company have increased their holding to 20.9% of the post issue capital.
DLF Share Buyback News Rebounds Its Stock
DLF, the New Delhi based real estate firm, announced that board would meet on July 10 to consider and approve buyback of equity shares of the company to protect shareholders' interests. As a result its stock was up by 15% on bourses. The buyback proposal has been offered after seeing the share price plummeting to below the issue price of Rs 525, at which the company had sold shares to public about a year ago.
People
Datacom Solutions CEO Ravi Sharma Resigns : Ravi Sharma, CEO of Datacom Solutions, a joint venture (JV) between Dhoot-owned Videocon Group and industrialist Mahendra Nahata's Jumbo Techno Services has resigned. Though it may be pointed out that the JV partners were at loggerheads over investments in the company, Mr Sharma has cited personal reasons for his exit. Sharma was roped in from telecom infrastructure service provider Alcatel-Lucent, where he was the managing director for India and the head of South Asia region
PepsiCo to Lay Off 3,300 Globally As Profit Falls :After a 9.5% drop in Q3 profit and a bearish profit outlook, PepsiCo, India's second-largest drink maker after Coke, has announced plans to cut 3,300 jobs globally. It expects to generate pretax savings of $350 to $400 Million in 2009, with total savings being more than $1.2 billion over the next three years. Also the recent surge in the US dollar will hurt fourth-quarter profit, impact being about 4 cents to 5 cents per share.
Policy
RBI Opens Exclusive Forex Window For OilCos
To prevent the rupee from going further down, and rocking the market, the Reserve Bank of India has quietly opened a special foreign exchange window for oil companies. IOC, HPCL and BPCL have bought nearly $800-900 million over the last 7 days, using this special forex window.