Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail is close to buying a Ruby Mills estate in Mumbai for Rs 400 crore ($90 million), reports The Economic Times. The mills is located in Dadar, an important commercial centre in the city. This could be the location for Ambani’s retail initiative, and they may set up the biggest hypermarket here.
Reliance [...]
Here is another big reason to go long on India. India’s GDP grew at 9.2 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year. For the first six months (April-Sept), the growth is 9.1 per cent, the highest in any quarter in any year since 1991-92, according to The Economic Times.
There has been [...]
Considering the investor interest in the clean energy space, here is an interesting news item. Indus Elec-trans, a division of the Ahmedabad-based Electrotherm (India), the makers of the battery-powered “Yo Byks”, is entering the three-wheeler segment, reports The Economic Times. It plans to roll out a battery-run autorickshaw by June 2007. The company is also [...]
Here is a big people move. Amit Chandra, the Country Head of DSP Merrill Lynch, has quit the firm to set up a private equity fund along with former McKinsey chief Rajat Gupta. Chandra is leaving after a 13-year stint at the firm. Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSPML, will stand in for Chandra (probably till [...]
Indian real estate group Unitech plans to raise $700 million from London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. It will list a newly created entity called Unitech Corporate Parks Plc, which in turn will hold stakes in six special purpose vehicles that own IT park/IT SEZ projects. They include one IT Park in the National Capital [...]
It’s official. Indian online travel company Travelguru has received second round funding of $15 million from Battery Ventures and Sequoia Capital India.
This is the first investment in the “Indian consumer internet space” by Battery Ventures. The investment from Battery side was led by General Partner Mark Sherman. KP Balaraj, Managing Director, led the investment from [...]
This is considered a good move from Sonata Software. Its UK-based subsidiary has acquired a 50.1 per cent stake in Germany’s TUI InfoTec GmbH for $23.74 million (euro 18 million). Sonata has also received anti-trust clearance from the Federal Cartel Office in Germany. The remaining 49.9 per cent stake in TUI InfoTec will be held [...]
Wipro has been one of the most aggressive groups (of course, apart from the Tatas) in making acquisitions abroad. The Bangalore-based group has so far made nine buys this year, and is looking for more. Here is what Azim Premji, the group chairman, told The Economic Times about Wipro’s acquisition strategy:
We have acquired nine in [...]
It’s tie-up time for the hospitality sector in India. Soon after Emaar MGF signed up with France’s Accor Group for budget hotels in the country, Delhi-based real estate group DLF Ltd and Hilton Hotels Corp have formed a joint venture for the hotel business.
The JV will develop and own 75 hotels and serviced apartments over [...]
Private equity fund Apax Partners has appointed Neeraj Bharadwaj as its India MD and Country Head. He will be stationed in Mumbai. Bharadwaj was earlier in New York and was in charge of tech and telecom investments. He has led deals like JAMDAT Mobile, WiderThan and NXP.
Bharadwaj joined Apax in 1999. He has previously with [...]
Matrix Partners India has announced its second investment in India. The $150-million venture fund has invested Rs 25 crore ($5.5 million) in Moods Hospitality Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Chinese fast food chain Yo! China. The stake dilution is not disclosed. Yo! China currently has 20 outlets in Delhi and National Capital Region (Noida, [...]
Finally Bharti Group has gone with Wal-Mart instead of Tesco with which it was negotiating all along for the entry into the retail business. Bharti Enterprises, the parent of India’s largest private sector telco Bharti Tele-Ventures, has signed a MoU for a joint venture with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The deal is that Bharti will manage the [...]
India’s (probably) smallest venture fund is being launched on November 30. That’s how the press invitation from the PR firm of Seed Fund reads. It’s not clear what is the size of the fund. Earlier, Mahesh Murthy, one of the partners of the fund, had gone on record that they were raising $10 million.
If that [...]
Here is a big move in the hospitality sector. Emaar MGF Land Pvt Ltd has formed a joint venture with French hospitality group Accor to build 100 hotels in India over the next ten years, reports Reuters. The joint venture with Accor - christened as Budget Hotels India Pvt Ltd - plans to invest [...]
More and more money is flowing into the real estate sector. Goldman Sachs may invest Rs 200 crore in a real estate fund sponsored by the Ashok Piramal group’s Peninsula Land Ltd, reports The Economic Times. Their Peninsula Realty Fund (PRF) is hoping to raise $350 million overall.
PRF is floating a special purpose vehicle (SPV) [...]
