AVB To Buy Columbian Chemicals For $800M - Aditya Birla Group, which had simultaneously placed bids for two of the world’s three largest carbon black assets, has reached an agreement to buy US-based Columbian Chemicals for about $800 million. Columbian has about 9% market share in global carbon black production. The deal may be backed with funding organised by Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank. One Equity Partners, the private equity buyout unit of US bank JP Morgan Chase, was the sole owner of Columbian. The fund, which manages some $8 billion in assets, had teamed up with South Korea’s DC Chemicals to acquire Columbian in 2006. In early 2009, it bought out DC’s stake. (Economic Times)
Apax, KKR In Talks To Buy Blackstone's Emcure Stake - Three investor groups, including private equity firms Apax Partners and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR), are in separate discussions to buy Blackstone's stake in Indian drugmaker Emcure Pharmaceuticals for about $100 million. The Pune-based company's plan for a public issue to get listed on the stock markets has been delayed. Emcure was one of the first investments made by US private equity major Blackstone, which invested $50 million in Emcure for an undisclosed stake in 2006. (Economic Times)
GTL Infra, Viom In Talks For Vodafone's Tower Unit - GTL Infrastructure Ltd and Viom Networks Ltd have put in preliminary bids to buy Vodafone Essar Ltd’s 7,000 telecom towers. GTL Infrastructure, India’s largest independent wireless tower operator that bought Aircel Ltd’s 17,000 towers in January last year for Rs 8,400 crore in an all-cash deal, has appointed Standard Chartered Bank as an adviser for the matter. Viom, formerly Quippo-WTTIL, is being advised by Barclays Capital. Vodafone Essar is looking at hiving off its tower business valued at around Rs 3,500 crore.
GVK Power In $2B Mining Bid - Hyderabad-based GVK Power & Infrastructure has submitted a preliminary bid for a controlling stake in a coal mine owned by Australian mining giant Hancock Coal for nearly $2 billion. GVK is among six bidders shortlisted in an auction process being conducted by Hancock Coal for the sale of its Kevin's Corner mine located in the coal-rich Galilee basin of Queensland in Australia. Kevin's Corner is estimated to have coal reserves of around 4.3 billion tones. GVK had earlier bid for western Australia-based Griffin Coal but lost out to Hyderabad-based rival, Lanco Infratech , which is estimated to have paid over $800 million to purchase the mine. (Economic Times)
HDFC Picks Stake In Indus World Schools - In its first ever investment in the booming education sector, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), has picked up stake in Indus World Schools, a unit of education company Career Launcher. The deal size is valued at around Rs 40-50 crore. Gaja Capital Partners, an existing investor, is part in this round of funding that will finance the expansion plans for the education company. Indus World Schools (IWS) is a 14-school chain spread across cities such as Hyderabad, Indore , Gurgaon, Mandi, Raipur, Aurangabad , Ahmednagar, Jalgaon and Bhiwani. (Economic Times)
Dentsu To Buy Indian Promoters Stake In Unit - Japanese advertising company Dentsu Inc is buying out Dentsu India group chairman and CEO Sandeep Goyal's 26% stake in its Indian arm for nearly Rs 240 crore. The deal will make Dentsu India, a seven-year-old joint venture between Goyal and Dentsu, a full-owned subsidiary of the world's fifth largest advertising group. The deal will include a fee for ceding the management control and for the businesses he brought to the company through his personal contacts. (Economic Times)
Warburg, Lemon Tree In Realty JV - Warburg Pincus, the private equity major, is set to enter an equal joint venture with Patu Keswani’s Lemon Tree Hotels to get into affordable housing. It may see the two infuse $100 million (Rs 455 crore) in the first phase which will go into a foreign direct investment-compliant, Rs 1,500-crore realty project. (Business Standard)
StanChart PE, 3i To Invest In Bangalore-Mysore Expressway - Global private equity majors - Standard Chartered Private Equity and London-headquartered 3i - are understood to have shown keen interest to invest in the litigation-prone Rs 4,000 crore Bangalore-Mysore expressway being developed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE). Goldman Sachs is also reportedly looking at investing in the second phase of the project. The project is understood to have recently raised $100 million from a private equity fund owned by J P Morgan for the first phase of the project. (Business Standard)
