Helios Towers Africa, the infrastructure company backed by funds of George Soros, Madeleine Albright and Jacob Rothschild, is seeking about $500m to take part in the largest ever auction of telecoms towers in the region. Providence Equity Partners, a US buyout group that specialises in telecoms and media investments, is in talks to be one of the investors participating in the fundraising, committing several hundreds of millions of dollars. Helios wants to participate in the forthcoming auction of the tower infrastructure owned by Bharti Airtel across Africa, which could raise more than $2bn for the Indian telecoms group. The deal has been broken up into several smaller transactions of about $500m, which are expected to be fought over by Helios Towers Africa, and rivals IHS and Eaton Towers. America Tower, the US infrastructure group, is also expected to be interested in parts of the portfolio. (The Financial Times)
HPCL to buy 11-15% stake in Petronet's east coast terminal: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd is likely to buy 11-15% stake in Petronet LNG Ltd's INR 5,000 crore($851 million) LNG import terminal on the east coast. "We have a huge gas requirement at our Vizag refinery and naturally it is to our interest that we take a stake in the Gangavaram terminal in Andhra Pradesh," an HPCL official said. "We have been in discussion with Petronet... they have told us that 11-15% stake in the project is available which we are keen to buy," the official said. (Economic Times)
Reliance Industries to raise up to INR 10,000 crore via debt route to fund capex: Energy major Reliance Industries plans to raise up to INR 10,000 crore ($1.7 billion) by way of debt in 2014-15 to finance its capital expenditure. RIL will seek shareholders' approval at its 40th AGM on June 18 to authorise the board to raise funds through non-convertible debenture in one or more tranches. Its total debt increased to INR 89,968 crore at the end of FY14 from INR 72,427 crore a year ago. In its petrochemicals business, RIL is in the process of expanding across its value chain over the next two year. (Economic Times)
JSPL seeks shareholder nod to raise up to INR 10,000 crore via NCD: Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) will seek shareholder approval to raise up to INR 10,000 crore ($1.7 billion) by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis. NCDs are a secured debt instrument and offer high returns with moderate risk. They cannot be converted into shares. The company would seek approval for proposals to enhance the strength of the board to 18 from 13 now and appointment of K Rajagopal, group Chief Financial Officer and director, as whole-time director. (Economic Times)
Ruias consider delisting all Essar units: India's Essar Group, controlled by billionaire brothers, Shashikant and Ravikant Ruia, is considering delisting all its publicly traded units and plans to sell some assets, sources said. The Group plans to take Essar Ports, Essar Shipping and Essar Oil private over the next couple of years, according to sources, asking not to be identified. The Ruias are already in the process of delisting Essar Energy Plc from the London Stock Exchange. Mumbai-based Essar Group wants to buy all the shares it doesn't already own in its listed units as it considers them undervalued, sources added. The units Essar Group is seeking to privatise have a combined market value of about $4.4 billion (INR 25,774 crore). (Business Standard)
Courtesy: VCCEdge
