India’s largest IPO ever may be round the corner. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India’s largest telecom company, is likely to go public with its employee union dropping its opposition to the public float. The decision came after union representatives met Union Communications Minister A Raja to discuss various issues, including dearness allowance. Now bankers [...]

Emami Ltd, the Kolkata-headquartered maker of personal care products, has bought out one of the promoters in Zandu Pharmaceuticals, a 90-year old company. Emami, which earlier held 3.5 per cent stake in Zandu, has bought an additional 24 per cent stake from Vaidya family, one of the two promoters of the company which makes ayurvedic [...]

Monsoon Capital, an India-focused hedge fund, is forming a joint venture with real estate developer Anant Raj Industries. Monsoon may pick up 49.9 per cent in the JV, which is a special purpose vehicle for a specific IT park project in Haryana. The fund could be investing $43 million for the stake, according to sources.
For [...]

Sun Pharma’s battle for Taro is taking an interesting turn with investment guru Mark Mobius throwing his weight behind the Israeli pharmaceutical company. Mobius’s Franklin Templeton owns a 14 per cent stake in Taro. Mobius told NDTV Profit that Taro’s decision to turn down Sun’s offer of $10.25 a share is justified since it did [...]

The state-owned lender IFCI is once again back in deal circles. Six months after IFCI rejected a conditional offer to buy a 26 percent stake by a consortium led by Sterlite Industries, the board of the Delhi-based company is reviving the plan to induct a strategic investor. And this time Mukesh Ambani and StanChart may [...]

It’s good news for the foreign institutional investors, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) who are looking for an India exposure. Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India’s capital market regulator, has amended FII regulations of 1995 to widen the definition of FIIs (see the 16-page amendement in PDF). It has allowed non-resident Indians [...]

Piramal Life Sciences Ltd (PLSL), the new drug research spun off from Indian pharmaceuticals company Nicholas Piramal, will look at private placement of 15-20 per cent. The company debuted in India stock exchanges on Thursday at a price of Rs 376.60 (at the Bombay Stock exchange), and closed the day at Rs 313.90 after touching [...]

Hyderabad based Sujana Metals Products Ltd (SMPL) has acquired three steel units for Rs 180 crore in three different transactions. The units acquired include Saritha Steels, Glade Steels and Shree Ganga Steels, and they are located at Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Chennai, respectively.
SMPL plans to invest Rs 180 crore for acquisition, expansion and modernization of their [...]

Monnet Power, a subsidiary of Monnet Ispat & Energy, is planning to dilute 10 per cent stake in favour of PE funds. The company, which is present in power and steel, had been in talks with PE players such as Blackstone, Warburg Pincus and IDFC in the past four to five months, according The Economic [...]

Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO of US Airways, has joined Teachers’ Private Capital as a Senior Advisor. Teachers’ Private Capital is the private investment arm of the $108.5-billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada.
A release said that Gangwal will be responsible for “sourcing and evaluating technology and business services transactions”. He [...]

A day after Israel’s Taro Pharmaceuticals called off its deal with India’s Sun Pharma, the latter has broken its silence. Sun has said that Taro “is not entitled to terminate the merger”. Taro on Wednesday called off the deal saying Sun’s offer price did not reflect its “turn around” and future business performance. Responding to [...]

o3 Capital, an Indian boutique investment bank, has taken over a small US based investment bank Wolet Capital. The two companies have not disclosed the price and terms of the acquisition. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to be completed within few weeks.
o3 Capital, founded in January 2007 by former [...]

A former Bear Stearns executive will be spearheading an India-focused multi-strategy fund of hedge funds (FoHF). The new launch is from Ridaa Murad, who has earlier developed India focused products at Bear Stearns since 2003. He has joined hands with Bradford Matthews, who owns a broker/dealer in India, to set up Veda Asset Management. The [...]

Exclusive: This will be Actis’s first investment in a real estate development company. The UK-headquartered private equity fund has invested $28 million in Vaishnavi Group, a Bangalore based company that is involved in residential and commercial projects, VC Circle has learnt from sources close to the deal.
Vaishnavi Group was founded in 1998 by C.N.Govindaraju, an [...]

Blackstone Altius Advisors, the newly formed Asia-focused merger arbitrage and event-driven investments business of the eponymous private equity group, aims to raise $500 million to $1 billion for an Asia-focused hedge fund, Reuters reported, quoting sources. The lauch is expected in October.
Early this month, the New York-based firm launched Blackstone Altius Advisors, an Asia-focused investment [...]