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News Roundup: Hindujas To Acquire Construction Co

By TEAM VCC

  • 02 Feb 2010

Hindujas To Acquire Construction Co - The Hinduja Group is close to acquiring an Indian construction company in a bid to secure a foothold in India’s fast growing infrastructure sector, especially roads. It has already short listed a company, and said that this is part of company’s plan to bring synergy in its businesses. Without divulging much details, group’s global president G P Hinduja told reporters that Hinduja will have a minimum 51% stake in the company, which is engaged in everything (construction ), in parking, roads, concessions, and in bridges. (BS)

VLCC To Buy UAE's TGC For 150Cr – Wellness major VLCC is about to acquire UAE’s The Grooming Company (TGC) for Rs 150 crore, which will help the New Delhi-based retailer break into the region’s lucrative grooming space with an array of products and services. VLCC operates only fitness centres, numbering 14, in the UAE. The beauty chain’s acquisition will help the company foray into the hair and nail treatment category in a key market where the grooming space is seeing an unprecedented boom, growing at over 12% annually.  The transaction will be funded through internal accruals and debt and will be done in phases. (ET)

Suzlon Looks To Sell Its 26% Stake In Hansen - Suzlon Energy plans to sell its entire 26% stake in its Belgium-based gearbox technology unit, Hansen Transmissions International. Two private equity firms, including a US-based energy fund, are in the race to buy Suzlon’s stake in Hansen, which is estimated to fetch $400-500 million. Suzlon acquired 100% equity of Hansen in 2006 for Rs 2,511 crore, as part of a vertical integration process to ease input supplies and also to control costs. In November last, Suzlon had sold 35.2% of Hansen to raise about $361 million, bringing down its shareholding to 26%. (ET)

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Adani Eyes Gangavaram Port Acquisition - Gautam Adani-controlled Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd (MPSEZ), which runs India’s biggest private port at Mundra in Gujarat, has opened talks to buy Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh. If successful, the acquisition will help Adani gain a foothold on India’s eastern coast. MPSEZ holds the rights to develop non-liquefied natural gas cargo ports at Hazira and Dahej, both in Gujarat, and to develop and operate a new port in the state, at Dholera. It is also developing a coal handling terminal at centrally owned Mormugao port in Goa. (Mint)

DB Realty IPO Subscribed Twice - DB Realty, a Mumbai-based real estate company, has evoked good institutional response with its initial public offering getting subscribed 2.08 times as of Monday, the second day of the offer. The Rs 1,500 crore IPO, with a price band of Rs 468- Rs 486, has already received good response from anchor investors. The majority of reserved portion was subscribed at lower end of the price band by foreign institutional funds such as Janus Capital, which picked up close to 43% of the allocated portion and another 5.14% by India Capital Fund. (DNA)

Genpact In Talks To Acquire Intelenet Global Services - Private equity investors in the country’s top back-office firm Genpact have initiated talks to explore a potential acquisition of Intelenet Global Services. The talks are being held between financial investors at Genpact and Blackstone, which holds a little under 80% in Intelenet. Genpact is the country’s largest BPO firm and has investments from private equity player General Atlantic and other investors, which hold nearly half of the firm. (ET)

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Apollo To Launch Asia Pacific Distressed Property Fund - Apollo Management is launching an Asia Pacific property fund with an expected corpus of $500 million to $1 billion under management, to target distressed real estate in the region. The fund will be run from Hong Kong by a team headed by Grant Kelley, who was chief executive officer of Colony Capital Asia until a year ago. Kelley will adapt Apollo's US strategy of gaining control of assets at a fraction of face value by acquiring large positions in the debt of over-leveraged property companies to the far trickier landscape of Asia. (FT)

Fortis, Religare Eye More Acquisitions - Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises are looking out for acquisitions in order to be on fast track in healthcare and financial services sectors. Malvinder Singh, chairman of the two companies, said that the intention is to look at opportunities, both organic and inorganic. The company is infusing a lot of cash both in Fortis Healthcare and financial services provider Religare Enterprises. While the Rs 1,000-crore rights issue has just been completed by Fortis, Rs 1,800-crore Religare rights offer is still open. (BS)

Cox & Kings Scouts For Acquisitions Overseas - Travel operator, Cox & Kings India, is scouting to acquire travel firms in English-speaking markets such as the US, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. Cox & Kings, which raised Rs 610-crore through a public issue in December last year, has earmarked Rs 150-crore to fund such acquisitions. The company is believed to zoom in either several small companies or one large company. Last year, Cox & Kings acquired MyPlanet Australia Pty Ltd and Bentours International Pty Ltd, adding to its product and retail distribution presence in Australia. (DNA)

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Global Hospitals Group Plans IPO In 3 Years - Global Hospitals Group, a super specialty healthcare provider, is planning to go for its initial public offer (IPO) in the next three years. For its next round of expansion, it has firmed up its intention to go public to support its pan India expansion which will help double the total bed strength from the current 2,000 to 4,000. The expansion will include two greenfield projects in Mumbai and Kolkata and two joint venture initiatives in New Delhi and Bhubaneshwar. The Group had raised Rs 1,000 crore in 2008 from Indivision Capital, a private equity fund managed by Future Capital Holdings. (Pharmabiz.com)

GVK Power Ties Up Funds - GVK Power (Goindwal Sahib) Ltd has achieved financial closure for its 540 MW coal-based power plant being set up at Taran district in Punjab. The Rs 3,200-crore project would have an equity component of Rs 800 crore and debt of Rs 2,400 crore. The debt was syndicated by IDBI Bank Ltd, and funded by a 13-bank consortium. The company has so far invested about Rs 489 crore in the project. (Business Line)

Govt Fixes NTPC's Follow-on Offer Price - The government of India has fixed the benchmark price for the proposed divestment of NTPC at Rs 201 per share, which is a 5% discount to Monday’s last closing price of Rs 211.25 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). At current prices, the government would mop up a minimum of Rs 8,286 crore from divestment of 41.22 crore shares, or 5% of the existing paid-up capital of the company. The proposed follow-on public offer (FPO) of NTPC is scheduled to open on February 3. (ET)

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Air India To Hive Off Cargo Biz - National carrier Air India plans to hive off its cargo business into a separate unit by April 1, Anita Khurana, director-cargo, told reporters. Cargo business currently constitutes 8% of Air India's overall revenues and Khurana expects that to increase after the spin-off. Air India, which had stopped cargo flights to Europe and Japan last September, plans to resume these services in the first half of 2010. (Reuters)

UCO Bank To Raise Rs 400Cr Via FPO - The board of directors of the state run UCO Bank has approved fund raising plan of the company via follow-on public offer or placement to institutional investors. The board decided to issue 60 million equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each at a suitable premium for raising funds, it said in a statement to the BSE. Reports suggest that the company is expecting to raise around Rs 400 crore via the FPO, and sees the government infusing another Rs 500 crore. (Team VCC)

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