Ashmore Emerges Sole Bidder For Milestone Capital - Only one suitor is left to acquire Milestone Capital, the real estate-centric fund with assets of Rs 4,000 crore under management. Only Ashmore Investment Managers is still in the race with others opting out due to the high valuation expectation of the family of Ved Prakash Arya, the late promoter of Milestone Private Equity Advisory. Promoters were asking for around Rs 280 crore ($55 million) or around seven-eight per cent of the fund’s AUM. (Business Standard)
Suresh Gurmani To Start New Venture - A year and a half after he left SKS Microfinance Ltd, India’s sole listed microlender, former chief executive Suresh Gurumani is set to come back to business, this time in the non-banking finance space. Gurumani could also bid for the Rs. 2,500 crore retail assets of Barclays Bank Plc in India. Gurumani has been forming a consortium of private equity (PE) firms which are expected to bring in about Rs. 800 crore for the bid. (Mint)
Zee Emerges Frontrunner For NewsX - Just two months after the Eenadu and Network18 deal, the Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Network has emerged as front-runner in buying out the majority 51 per cent stake in English news channel NewsX. The deal is likely to be struck at Rs 65-70 crore. The channel is now jointly promoted by Nai Dunia owner Vinay Chhajlani and the former editor of BusinessWorld, Jehangir Pocha. (BUsiness Standard)
Telenor Seeks Split From Unitech - Norwegian telecom company Telenor has served a divorce notice to Unitech, seeking compensation from the Indian firm for damages caused to their mobile venture, Uninor, from a recent Supreme Court judgement, and said it was looking for a new partner in India. It had tapped London-listed metals group Vedanta Resources' Indian arm, Sterlite Industries Ltd, and Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure. (Economic Times)
Virgo Hires Goldman Sachs For Stake Sale - Virgo Engineers Ltd., an Indian valve maker which twice planned an initial public offering, is exploring a sale that may value the company at more than $600 million. The company hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to manage the sale. Tano Capital, which invested in Virgo in 2006, held a 9.7 percent stake in the company. (Bloomberg)
Naya Ventures Backs Hyderabad Firm - Naya Ventures, a US-based venture capital firm, will be investing up to $2 million in Global Outlook, a cloud-based business communications service provider from Hyderabad. Global Outlook, which offers services using Microsoft’s core communication products under software as a service (SaaS) model, was started in 2007 and currently claims to have 10,000 users from 70 enterprises. (BUsiness Standard)
Eight Firms In Fray For Fidelity's MF Biz - At least eight firms, including Tata Asset Management Ltd, Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd, US finance company State Street Corp., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and a joint venture of Ambit and Nikko, are in the fray to acquire the assets of Fidelity’s Indian asset management arm FIL Fund Management Pvt. Ltd. Fidelity is looking for 6.5-7% of its assets under management (AUM) as price. It has assets of around Rs.9,000 crore.
