Sutherland To Buy Apollo Health Street For Rs 875Cr - American business process outsourcing (BPO) company Sutherland Global Services is close to signing a Rs 875-crore deal to purchase rival Apollo Health Street, owned by the Reddys of Apollo Hospitals. The Reddys own 54% stake in the back office firm that earns nearly 90% of its business from American hospitals and healthcare firms. The remaining stake is held by PE funds Temasek Holdings and One Equity Partners. (Financial Express)
Kamat Hotels To Restructure Loans Worth Rs 500Cr - Kamat Hotels, the hospitality group that runs The Orchid near the Mumbai airport, is negotiating with banks to restructure more than Rs 500 crore worth of loans as optimistic expansion amid slowing economy pushed it to the verge of default. The company's negotiations comes when private equity company Clearwater Capital Partners is in the process of increasing its stake in the company from 21 per cent. (Economic Times)
Nilgiri's Promoter, Actis Spar Over Exit Options - Warring partners PE fund Actis and the Mudaliar family (stakeholders in the century-old retail chain Nilgiri Dairy Farm) are at loggerheads on how to go about the split. While the market is rife with buzz of Actis Private Equity hawking its 67 per cent stake, it is understood the PE fund is trying to impress upon the original promoters of the dairy and the retail chain to exit its 33 per cent share as well. In early 2006, Actis had invested $65 million for 67 per cent stake in Nilgiri Dairy Farm. (Business Standard)
Arcil Plans Risk Capital Fund For NPAs - As a step to give timely capital support to viable companies that are non-performing assets, asset reconstruction company Arcil plans to float a risk capital fund. Equity assistance to promoters (of the units in the Arcil portfolio) can help turn around and improve recoveries. Arcil has begun talks with financial investors for floating funds and the corpus could be Rs 100 crore. (Business Standard)
PFC Consulting Looks For Partner - PFC Consulting Ltd (PFCCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation, is looking for a partner to provide consultancy in project and design engineering and project management of thermal power plants. PFC Consulting was carved out of Power Finance Corporation in March 2008. (Business Line)
Apollo-backed Welspun Corp To Raise Rs 1,000Cr - Welspun Corp Ltd proposes to raise Rs 1,000 crore by way of an issue of non-convertible debentures. The company, backed by PE giant Apollo Global Management, intends to use the funds to pay back debt. The proceeds of the issue are to be utilised for refinancing of NCD, external commercial borrowings and possible early redemption of ‘foreign currency convertible bonds’. (Business Line)
Finoso Pharma Forms JV With CritiTech - Hyderabad-based Finoso Pharma Private Limited, a formulation development company, on Thursday formed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with US-based CritiTech Inc, a drug development company. Under the agreement, CritiTech will provide specialised fine-particle production equipment, its technical expertise and business and marketing support,while Finoso will bring its manpower and existing facility located in Hyderabad. (Business Standard)
CIMB Drops Plan To Buy RBS India Assets - The sale of some Indian assets of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. (RBS) to Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd as part of a wider Asia-Pacific deal has been called off due to unspecified legal reasons. The units will be closed. Earlier this year, CIMB had agreed to take over RBS’ corporate finance, investment banking and institutional equity broking businesses in India and some other markets in the region. (Mint)
Aditya Birla Plans To Invest $2B In Fibres, Acquire Suppliers - Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla plans to spend $2 billion (around Rs11,000 crore) in the next three years to add capacity and maintain his group’s position as the world’s largest producer of viscose staple fibre. Birla is betting his plan to acquire suppliers and add capacity will help the company control costs and enable it to profit from rising demand in Asia. (Mint)
