M&As are back on the radar for Indian companies, but with two vital changes. First, the average size of the deals are much smaller compared to the earlier years; and second, overseas acquisitions have taken a backseat.
Promoters Narendra Patni and his younger brothers Gajendra and Ashok hold equal stakes totalling 48.3 per cent in India's sixth largest software exporter.
Prices of key inputs up 44% to 74%; analysts expect earnings squeeze after a quarter or two.
Aditya Birla Nuvo is in talks with global private equity players Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR to sell shareholding in its proposed holding firm for its financial services business. The financial services holding company will house its asset management, insurance, stock broking, wealth management and private equity businesses.
V N Khare and S P Bharucha, both once Chief Justices of India, have been appointed to the arbitration panel to resolve the issue of sale of the government's residual 49 per cent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company to Sterlite Industries.
The three-judge arbitration panel set up to resolve the controversy over the sale of the government's residual 49 per cent stake in Sterlite-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd has decided to meet in August, raising hopes of a resolution to the five-year-old dispute.
Grasim Industries, the leading cement maker of the A V Birla group, is not enthusiastic at a proposal to merge with its subsidiary, UltraTech, as it does not see value in the process at this stage.
Aditya Birla group flagship firm Hindalco Industries has decided to trim its overseas operations and is restructuring its capital expenditure in India in an effort to stabilise operations. As part of this overall plan, Novelis, which Hindalco acquired for $6 billion in 2007, is closing its sheet mill at Rogerstone in the UK, involving 440 job losses.
Sameer Nath, head of mergers and acquisitions for Citi Group Global Markets India, has been busy working on domestic restructuring and consolidation deals over the past six to nine months.
India's second-largest private ship builder, Bharati Shipyard, which already holds 14.9 per cent stake Great Offshore, has said it will make an open offer to buy an additional 20 per cent. While P C Kapoor, MD, Bharati Shipyard, ruled out any possibility of a hostile takeover bid for Great Offshore, he had earlier said competitors such as Punj Lloyd and ABG Shipyard had shown an interest in buying Great Offshore shares from the open market.
Bharti Telecom, the unlisted holding company of Bharti Airtel, may issue fresh equity to the MTN group to give it the 25 per cent economic interest in India's largest mobile service provider.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the company that cancelled a five-year contract of rig supply with Great Offshore on Thursday, is planning to issue a new tender. India's largest oil producer cancelled the contract as Mumbai-based Great Offshore could not supply the rig in time.
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, is in the process of raising Rs 5,000 crore through a bond issue to refinance the remaining $ 2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) bridge loan it took to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover.
"That plant has a high cost of production and it is not feasible to operate it when aluminium prices have dropped significantly," said a company executive. It has started reducing output and full closure is expected soon. Aluminium prices fell to $1,251 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange from last July's all-time high of $3,271, as the global credit crunch and economic slowdown curbed demand for the base metal. On Wednesday, the metal's LME price was $1,421 a tonne.
Ripples of Indias largest corporate scam along with poor quarterly performance have made more than half of the actively traded companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opt not to disclose their fourth quarter un-audited results this month. Instead, they would announce only their annual audited results, before the end of June.
The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India's second largest producer of the base metal, avoided a production cut by offering discounts to its key clients that helped it boost sales and trim rising inventory.
Tech Mahindra, the highest bidder for Satyam Computer Services, has tied up Rs 875 crore funding from mutual funds and insurance companies and is in talks with banks to mobilise Rs 1,000 crore bridge loans.
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, has postponed plans for an overseas equity issue and sale of investments to repay the $3 billion bridge loan it took in June last year to acquire the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford.
The first to pass on the baton will be Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant. He retires in June, according to the group's policy that all executive directors must retire at the age of 65 years. The other two are the MD of Tata Steel, B Muthuraman, and his long-time counterpart at TCS, S Ramadorai. They retire in September and October, respectively.
The company had reported less than 1 per cent of the revenue of Rs 781 crore (Rs 7.81 billion) in 2007-08 from the dredging business. For the nine months ending December 31, 2008, it reported revenue of Rs 853 crore (Rs 8.53 billion), a 61.1 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous year as it largely deployed its ships on long-term contracts.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances