Info Edge India Ltd, the owners of jobs portal Naukri.com, does not seem to be losing steam. It has doubled their profits to Rs 55.5 crore (about $14 million) in 2007-08 from Rs 27 crore last year, according to the financial numbers issued by the company. The net sales for the full year stood at [...]

Finally, ICICI Bank has decided not to tread into private equity and venture capital business, which is the turf of ICICI Venture, its own private equity arm. The country’s second largest bank has decided to shelve the plans for a fund of funds and an infrastructure fund, reports The Economic Times, quoting Chanda Kochhar, Executive [...]

As US telco AT&T is said to be eyeing a reentry to India, here is another cash-rich telco - the Dubai-headquartered Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) - expressing its intention to acquire an Indian telecom company - most probably Spice Telecom - or acquire a fresh licence in the country. The largest Arab telecom company by [...]

“Affordable homes business” is going to be the next big trend in India real estate sector. Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus will invest $75 million in Unique Affordable Homes Pvt Ltd, part of the Jaipur-based Mannat Group company. The company will build affordable housing projects in North and Western India. In its first pure [...]

Australia’s investment and specialised fund and asset management group, Babcock & Brown, has hired eight key managers from ABN AMRO India including the latter’s M&A Head Manikkan Sangameswaran. Babcock & Brown will be headed by Sangameswaran in India. He was a key member of ABN Amro which advised on the Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus [...]

Foreign private equity funds will increasingly look at Indian exit routes. Advent International, a global PE fund, has sold of one of their portfolio companies, Poland-based Bolix S A for $38.6 million to Berger Paints India Ltd, a leading Indian paint maker. The Delhi-based paint company has acquired the provider of external insulation finishing system [...]

Deutsche Bank has officially rolled out their real estate investment management business — RREEF Alternative Investments (RREEF) — in India. The firm has said it plans to invest over $1 billion in India across real estate and infrastructure sectors over the next three years. The bank has set up entity in India - RREEF India [...]

Indian family business houses are increasingly looking at private equity as a source of funding. The country’s top utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra is considering a private equity placement to raise about Rs 500 crore on a preferential basis, The Economic Times reported, quoting sources. A board meeting of the company on Saturday would [...]

Kotak Realty Fund willl invest close to Rs 200 crore in setting up a joint venture company with the DRS Group, a third-party logistics company based out of New Delhi, reports The Economic Times. The newly floated special purpose vehicle, DRS Warehousing (South), will build and operate almost six warehouses in the southern region of [...]

Axis PE, the private equity arm of Axis Bank, has announced the first closure of its Axis Infrastructure Fund (AIF) at Rs 600 crores or $150 million. The fund’s final target is Rs 2,000-2,400 crore or $500-600 million. AIF has already committed more than half of the corpus in infrastructure and facilitating companies with focus [...]

Private equity fund Lighthouse Funds is launching India 2020 Opportunity Fund focused on fast growing small and mid-size Indian enterprises. Lighthouse, primarily a fund of US origin, seems to be on a roadshow in Oman, wher it participated in a forum organised by the Indian embassy. The fund’s offer size is $100 million, besides a [...]

Blackstone Real Estate Partners, the real estate investment arm of private equity fund Blacksone, has picked up a minority stake in Bangalore-based Synergy Property Development Services Pvt Ltd for $18 million. Blackstone will get a board representation in the company. This is the second investment of Blackstone in a construction company. It had last year [...]

Homegrown buyout fund India Value Fund (IVF) is close to picking up a majority stake in Bangalore-based Atria Convergence Technologies, a digital cable and broadband service provider. IVF is reportedly in talks with Atria, which is looking at raising funds to roll out its services in other cities and investing in digital technologies. The firm [...]

IDFC Private Equity’s third fund worth $700 million will be closed in the next two to three weeks. According to Reuters, quoting IDFC’s managing director for investment, Satish Mandhana, around 85 percent of the money being raised is coming from international investors.
The new fund will aim for internal rates of return of about 20 percent, [...]

South Africa based private equity firm Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) Private Equity has invested $10 million in Lizer Cylinders Ltd, a company that manufactures CNG cylinders. Vishal Ramsinghani, Managing Director, Lizer Cylinders, said that the funds raised would be utilised to expand the company’s manufacturing capacity from current level of 200,000 to 400,000 CNG cylinders [...]