Spark Capital Enters Broking: Spark Capital Advisors, a Chennai-based investment bank, has announced its entry into institutional brokerage and securities business. This will probably make Spark Capital the first south-based firm to offer full service investment banking. Spark Capital, since it set up shop in 2001, has advised on fund raising and M&A transactions worth [...]

The Thrissur-based South Indian Bank has raised Rs 326 crore ($82 million) from a group of investors including World Bank’s private equity arm International Finance Corporation (IFC), Fidelity Group and Bangalore-based private equity fund UTI Ventures, among others, according to media reports. The shares were placed at Rs 163 to the investors, reports The Times [...]

Credit rating agency CARE has assigned the proposed IPO of FMCG maker Jyothy Laboratories Ltd Grade 4, which is believed to be a rating of above average fundamentals. The company has filed for IPO with SEBI, which will see shedding of 4.43 million shares of Rs 5 each.
The Times of India reports that the grading [...]

Future Capital Holdings (FCH), the financial arm of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group (earlier known as Pantaloon Retail), has filed for the draft red herring prospectus with market regulator SEBI. The company plans to issue 6.42 million equity shares of Rs 10 each (at a price decided to be in a book building process), which is [...]

Jet May Sell 5% To PE Funds By March’ 08: India’s leading airline Jet Airways plans to sell at least 5 per cent to private equity funds by March 2008, reports Mint. Apparently funds like Temasek Holdings are in talks with the company. The promoters - Naresh Goyal’s Tail Winds Ltd currently controls 80 per [...]

Another huge Indian IPO is in the works. If media reports are to be believed, Reliance Power, a subsidiary of Anil Ambani group company Reliance Energy (REL), is planning a Rs 11,000 crore - Rs 14,000 crore ($2.75-3.5 billion) IPO to fund its ultra mega power projects in Sasan and Rosa. Mint reports that the [...]

Wasn’t that a quick exit for Fieldfresh, the EL Rothschild company, from the joint venture it struck with Bharti group last year for exporting fresh produce from India? The UK firm has sold a 40.1 per cent stake from its 50 per cent stake in the JV - Indian FieldFresh Foods Private Ltd - to [...]

Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and two other investors have invested nearly $160 million (Rs 645 crore) in in the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India. Citi and Merrill have picked up five per cent each in the Indian commodity market exchange, while Passport Capital and GLG Partners have acquired three and two per cent, respectively.
The MCX [...]

Societe Generale plans to launch an India dedicated real estate fund, reports Business Standard, without specifying the size of the fund. SG Private Banking, the private banking arm of Societe Generale, will be launching the fund, which is likely to be registered in where else, Mauritius. The first closing of the fund will be done [...]

UBS is the top earning investment bank for the Asia-Pacific region in the January to September period, according to Dealogic. The Switzerland-headquartered investment bank has done some of the major equity transactions in China, India and Australia, which made it the top performing investment bank in the region. UBS raked in $659 million in investment-banking [...]

HSBC Private Equity’s India investment head Rajeev Kalra has quit. He has moved to AIF Capital as Executive Director, and will based in the firm’s office in New Delhi/Gurgaon. Kalra spent about 11 years at HSBC PE in Mumbai.
AIF Capital is a leading Asia-based private equity firms with over $1.5 billion in funds under [...]

Deutsche Bank and a group of private equity firms are investing $425 million in Mumbai-based real estate developer Lodha Group. According to The Economic Times, Deutsche Bank is picking up 25 per cent stake in a special purpose vehicle promoted by Lodha Group. The SPV will set up three FDI-compliant real estate projects over 70 [...]

More and more captive power companies and diesel genset manufacturers are getting funded, and probably that’s an area to watch since demand-supply mismatch in power is still wide. We had broken the story about Goldman Sachs (and GE Power) investing about $60 million in Sudhir Gensets.
The Economic Times has a follow up today with an [...]

Carlyle and Texas Pacific Group are probably in the reckoning to acquire a 25-40 per cent stake in Delhi-based IT company NIIT Technologies, reports The Economic Times, quoting unnamed sources. NIIT Tech had gone on record last month that it would seek to sell a 25 per cent or more to a strategic investor. It [...]

Online local information business is just getting hotter. Bangalore-based online local information company Four Interactive has raised $10 million in series B funding. The round is led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and joined by Silicon Valley Bank and return backer Matrix Partners India. Matrix had invested $2 million in Series A round in the company [...]