Mumbai-based ambulance startup - popularly known as DIAL 1298 FOR AMBULANCE - has received $1.5 million funding from New York’s Acumen Fund. Acumen is a nonprofit venture fund which invests in “sustainable, scalable solutions addressing poverty in South Asia and Africa”.
Acumen has made the investment in Ziqitza Healthcare Limited (ZHL), which owns the ambulance service. [...]
The M&A in Asia Pacific market has been booming if the latest numbers from Dealogic are to be believed. M&A deals grew by 50 per cent in the first half of 2007 to touch “a record $253 billion”, reports Reuters (Via Mint), quoting Dealogic stats. Australia led the region, excluding Japan, with deals worth $76 [...]
Is aviation business actually in the black? Indian budget carrier Spice Jet has recorded a net profit of Rs 18.5 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, compared with a net loss of Rs 3.4 crore during the same quarter last year. Jet Airways has also registered net profit of Rs 30.88 crore compared [...]
Thrissur-headquartered Catholic Syrian Bank has sold 14 per cent stake to three foreign private equity funds, AIF Capital, Gartmore and Siguler Guff, for Rs 33 crore ($8 million), reports Business Standard, quoting a bank press release. The investment has been made at Rs 190 per share (of face value Rs 10).
The private equity infusion [...]
It seems Bharat Parajia has an iconic status in the Indian institutional trading business. Former head of sales at CLSA Singapore moved to India Infoline in May, and that moved the Mumbai broking firm’s stock price by some 60-70 per cent up over the last three months.
Parajia and three of his colleagues in India were [...]
Probably this could be a wrong time to launch an online loan lead generation company like ApnaLoan.com. Interest rates are at the peak, and everyone is deferring plans to take on more debt. But that will not stop new such companies from entering the market. Online ad network Komli has launched LoanRaja.com, which collects loan [...]
PepsiCo India says it has identified a juice brand in India to acquire. (Any guesses? Dabur’s Real juice is unlikely to be up for sale). Sanjeev Chadha, CEO, Pepsi Co Holdings India, has been quoted by Business Standard as saying that the multinational beverages company had already identified its targets. He also told the paper [...]
Delhi-based, publicly-listed, auto component maker Talbros Auto Comp Ltd (TACL) is looking for private equity funding to bankroll its expansion plans, according to The Economic Times. Talbros, set up in 1956, manufactures gaskets, steering and suspension components, stampings and forgings for auto manufacturers. It has a tie up with US-based Federal Mogul for gasket manufacturing, [...]
Kwality Group, one of Delhi’s oldest restaurant companies, is looking to raise private equity to fund its expansion plans, reports Business Standard. The company, set up in 1940, has revenues of Rs 78 crore from its ice-cream (Kwality Walls), bakeries, restaurants (Gaylord, Chopsticks), catering services and hotels businesses.
Kwality is now looking at setting up restaurants [...]
Accounting firm Ernst & Young complains that there are not enough people to do the growing M&A work in Asia so much so that it’s declining work nor is it doing any business development. Reuters quotes Dave Read, the London-based head of Ernst & Young’s transaction advisory services: “There is so much demand that we [...]
Info Edge India Ltd, the owner of jobs portal Naukri.com, has registered net sales of Rs 46.5 crore ($11.6 million) in the first quarter of the current financial year (three months ending Jun 30, 2007) against Rs 27.9 crore during the same quarter last year. That’s a growth of 66 per cent quarter on quarter. [...]
Baring Private Equity has made an investment in a Kochi-based lesser known, although publicly-listed, broking firm. The Delhi-based private equity fund has acquired 44.8 per cent stake in JRG Securities for a consideration of $35 million (Rs 140 crore) (see a Reuters report). The deal values JRG at $78 million. The preferential issue has been [...]
Indian microfinance sector continues to attract funding. Aavishkar Goodwell, a for-profit private equity organisation that funds microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from World Bank’s private equity arm International Finance Corp, the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), and Deutsche Bank.
The investment will be used to bankroll up to 60 [...]
UK-based human resources group Hat Pin has bought over search firm Executive Access India for a maximum consideration of £6.9 million in a mixture of cash and shares, reports The Economic Times. The transaction is being part funded by placing of 5,500,000 new Hat Pin shares at 100 pence a share to raise £5.5 million. [...]
Genpact, WNS, and Firstsource are reportedly on the short-list to bag Citigroup Global Services (formerly e-Serve) in what could be the biggest deal in the domestic BPO space pegged at Rs 3,200 crore. The largest deal in the BPO space so far was when Blackstone bought Intelenet from Barclays and HDFC for Rs 840 crore.
Business [...]
