Mahindra May Rope In Cerebrus, TPG For Volvo Bid - Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is considering a bid for Swedish car brand Volvo. It is in talks with private equity majors Cerberus Capital and Texas Pacific Group for a joint bid of the auto major. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and South Korea’s Hyundai are among other suitors. Ford had bought Volvo for $6.4 billion in 1999. M&M is currently looking for an advisor on the bid.
Arvind Dham In Race To Buy Unitech's Hotel Projects - Arvind Dham, Chairman and managing director of auto parts maker Amtek Auto Ltd, is leading the race to buy the hotel projects of Unitech Ltd after making an offer to pay up to Rs 400 crore. Unitech is selling these
properties to repay its short term debt, which stands at Rs 2,700 crore and is due in March. Other like Hinduja group have also been approached by Unitech.
Wockhardt In Talks With ICICI Venture, ChrysCapital - Drugmaker Wockhardt is in discussions with ICICI Venture, ChrysCapital and other private equity firms to divest a 15% stake. The funds are being raised to pay off investors in its $110-million foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) issue, which comes up for redemption in October 2009. Wockhardt is looking to raise funds at nearly triple the premium over its current market price of Rs 96.45 per share.
SEBI Increases IPO Validity Period - Eighteen companies will benefit from the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) new norms to extend the IPO validity period from three months to a year. These companies are collectively planning to raise Rs 9,000 crore through
IPOs. Among these companies are Pipavav Shipyard, Gemini Engi-Fab, Sea
TV Network, NHPC and Oil India.
ONGC Gets Cabinet Nod; Submits Imperial Open Offer - ONGC Videsh Ltd
(OVL), the overseas investment arm of India's largest oil producer,Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), submitted its open offer to acquire the shares of UK-listed company Imperial Energy today after a Cabinet committee approved the bid. The offer is likely to be open for 21 days starting today.
RCom To Buy Back FCCBs - Reliance communications (R-com), promoted by Anil Ambani, will buy back foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) as the RBI has allowed premature buyback of such bonds through rupee resources as well. R- com would be the first company to do so. Reliance had issued zero coupon FCCBs in February 2007 to raise $1 billion. Other companies like Amtek Auto, Auto, Orchid Chemicals, Bharat Forge, United Phosphorus and Wockhardt are also planning to Buy back their FCCBs.
Spicejet Set For Restructuring Core Leadership Team - As a part of Wilbur Ross's strategy of turning around the company, spice jet is looking at restructuring its core leadership team. Five top executives from the company's top leadership team quit 4-5 months post Ross's coming on board. Those who have quit include Siddhanta Sharma (CEO), Parthasarathy Basu (CFO), JS Dhillon (Executive Vice-President, flight operations), Neil Charters (Head of Engineering). If reports are to be believed, Kishore Gupta, Director, customer relations is also planning to move out. While Sanjay Agarwal has taken over as the new CEO, Charters has been replaced by Robert Bryant as head of operations. The earlier head of airports,I P Singh has been replaced
by V Ankesh. The company is now looking for a new CFO. The carrier also planes to increase the number of daily flights from 98 to 120 by the middle of this month.
Honda Siel Cars, Hero Honda, Bajaj Cut Rates - Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and Honda Siel Cars cut the prices of thei vehicles today, agreeint to pass on the cenvat rate cut to the consumers. Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has cut prices of City, Civic and Accord models by Rs 19,000-31,000 also with immediate effect. Ford Motor's Indian unit has also cut prices of its cars by 17,500 to 54,000 rupees.While hero Honda gas announced a reduction ranging between Rs.1000-2000 for its motorcycles and scooters, Bajaj Auto will cut down th raetes of its
two-wheelers by Rs.2100- 4400.
Motorola Faces Top Level Exits In India - Motorola's Senior Director, Sales and Marketing, Mobile services, the firm following the resignation of Motorola's corporate V-P & MD for Software and Services, only a few months back. Earlier, Firdose
Vandrevala, Motorola India country president left the company to head
Hiranandani Constructions. Motorola's global CTO Padmasree Warrior too
left to join Cisco in April this year.
After Vodafone, I-T puts S&N deal under lens: The $15.4-billion buyout of the British brewer Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) by a Carlsberg-Heineken consortium last January income-tax department.Encouraged by the Bombay High Court order on the Vodafone case, the department is exploring the possibility of claiming tax on the S&N deal with Carlsberg-Heineken.
Now Deutsche Bank Starts Layoffs In India: Even after receiving a fresh dose of capital for business expansion, Deutsche Bank India is learnt to have started laying off employees. Though Deutsche Bank remains mum about job cuts, a senior official close to the development indicated ET, that the bank had asked several officials to quit as a cost-cutting measure.
