M&As
Hindalco To Sell Stake In Group Firms: Aditya Birla group company Hindalco Industries, may sell stakes in group companies to raise funds to repay a part of the $3 bn bridge loan it had taken to buy Novelis. Hindalco plans to sell a part of its Rs 2,081.34 crore stake in group companies, including Grasim Industries, Idea Cellular and Aditya Birla Nuvo, to fund the repayment. It had paid $6 billion to acquire Novelis.
BHEL, GE Transportation To Form JV For Diesel Locomotives: GE Transportation, maker of Rail products will tie up with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to manufacture and deliver 1,000 diesel locomotives to the Indian Railways, provided it wins the order estimated to be worth more than Rs 10,000 crore. GE Transportation and American firm Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. have been shortlisted through the tender floated by the Indian Railways. The winner of the contract would have to enter into a joint venture with the railways in which it would hold a 74% stake, with the national transporter taking the remaining 26%.
GoAir Signs $40 Mn Maintenance Deal With Air France: The Wadia Group promoted GoAir has signed a letter of intent with Air France Industries and KLM Engineering & Maintenance, a group company of Air France- KLM. The deal, worth $40 million, would see the Franco-Dutch organisation handle the maintenance of GoAir’s fleet over the next six years. The airline is pegging its fleet at 20 aircraft for the period.
Future Group Sells Stake In JV With Alpha Airports: Pantaloon Retail, a Future Group company has exited its airport retailing JV -Alpha Future Retail, formed in October 2006 with the UK-based Alpha Airports Group Plc. The company recently sold its stake in the JV to Alpha due to differences on operational issues, purported to have arisen because of takeover of Alpha Retail UK by Italy’s Autogrill SpA.
Capital Markets
R-Power Secures Funding For Rosa Project Phase-II: Reliance Power, a R-ADAG company has tied up with the IDBI Bank-led consortium of domestic banks to secure funding for the second phase of the 600-MW Rosa Power project in UP’s Shahjahanpur district. The consortium will lend Rs 2,000 crore as debt out of the total project cost of Rs 2,702 crore, while rest of the amount will be funded through equity.
Norway Fund Set To Invest $2 Bn In Dalal Street: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s second largest with assets worth $350 mn, is set to invest $2 billion in Indian stocks, despite the fact that FIIs are fleeing the stock market in the heat of the financial meltdown, taking out close to $11.2 bn. The Norwegian government said that the investments by the Government Pension Fund would take place between October 2008 and January 2009.
Private Equity
German Fund - MPC Synergy Invests In Phoenix Ventures: Germany-based fund, MPC Synergy, has invested about Rs 1,200 crore in different ventures of the Atul Ruia family- promoted Phoenix Mills, which includes 30% equity stake Palazzo Hotels and Leisure, a wholly owned subsidiary of Phoenix, and three other SPVs of the company.
People
DBS Bank Appoints Sanjiv Bhasin As CEO: DBS Bank has appointed Sanjiv Bhasin as CEO of its Indian arm. Bhasin has joined DBS from Rabo India Finance, where he has been CEO and managing director since 2004. He will replace Pranam Wahi, who is moving to Singapore as managing director and head of DBS Bank’s group global transaction services.
Merrill Likely To Cut 10,000 Jobs After Merger: After getting acquired by Bank of America for $50 bn, Merrill Lynch & Co. is likely to eliminate 10,000 jobs, as part of Bank of America’s ‘slash & burn’ style. Merrill had 60,900 employees as of September 26. Majority of the job cuts are likely to be in information technology, operations and “corporate functionsâ€.
