After 15 months of negotiations, the Aditya Birla Group has finally agreed to buy out the US firm Columbian Chemicals Company (CCC) for $875 million from One Equity Partners, the merchant banking arm of JPMorgan Chase. This has catapulted the group to become the world leader in carbon black with a combined two million tonne annual production.
Ban fiats, freezes and new levies are ensuring a drying up of operations and new investments, complain companies.
NMDC Ltd has decided to set up its second steel plant in Chhattisgarh and is in talks with two companies to form a joint venture. One of them is Tata Steel.
The sudden surge in raw material prices has forced steel companies abroad to raise prices considerably but Indian counterparts have been unable to do so at such a pace. This has eroded the premium that Indian steel makers enjoyed and they're actually selling at a discount to international prices.
The Aditya Birla Group is in acquisition mode again. It appears set to acquire US carbon black manufacturer Columbian Chemicals. According to two independent sources, negotiations are at the last stages, and a deal is expected to be announced next week. The size of the deal, said these sources, is expected to be around $900 million (Rs 4,100 crore).
Five months before the put option window closes, JP Morgan has come out with a report stating that Essar's stake in Vodafone Essar is around $2 billion, which is far less than what the shareholder agreement between the two companies in 2007 envisaged.
The Mumbai-based Shah family of the diversified Anchor Group has decided to put its FMCG portfolio of oral care and personal care products on the block, according to two independent sources.
A stake sale deal between Patni Computer Systems and iGate is on course, but has been delayed due to procedural issues.Sources involved in the deal said they include tax-related developments and offshore transaction fees.
However, the Carlyle-Advent consortium could revise its bid upwards, said two independent sources tracking the deal.
Vinod takes centrestage as Pramod stays away from deal; uncertainty over the latter's continuity on Ispat board.
The O P Jindal Group has emerged as a strong contender for Ispat Industries, the debt-laden company owned by Pramod and Vinod Mittal.
As and when the sector opens up to FDI, the world's second-largest retailer will automatically get equity in Pantaloon Retail or will enjoy right of first refusal, said the sources.
The mining ministry's inordinate delay in giving approval to group firm Hindustan Zinc to buy London-based Anglo American's zinc mines has forced the company to route it through Sterlite.
Stable rise in demand, mega steel capacities on the anvil have resulted in the firms shifting up the value chain.
Essar Steel wants to partner with a foreign company to consolidate its position in the automobile steel market in India. The company, soon to be a 10-million tonne per annum manufacturer, has 20-25 per cent of the auto steel market. It does not wish to lose any of it to the recent joint ventures formed by various Indian steelmakers with Japanese ones.
NTT had earlier sought the combined 63 per cent stake of the promoters and private equity firm General Atlantic Partners, but their exclusive talks failed due to a valuation mismatch.
The company, which finds itself at the centre of the real estate scam, as alleged by the Central Bureau of Investigation, is housed in a dilapidated building, and from the exterior, nobody can ever guess that the fourth floor of MMFSL would be so swanky.
Sajjan Jindal's JSW Energy moved a step closer to securing its coal requirements, signing a definitive agreement with the management of CIC Energy on Wednesday, to buy them out and take control of the Toronto-listed company. CIC Energy has an 'A-grade' mining-cum-power complex called the Mmamabula Energy Complex in Botswana, Africa. The field there is estimated to have 2.6 billion tonnes of high-thermal coal, mostly above 6,000 Kcal/kg of calorific value.
Vedanta Aluminium is sourcing half of its bauxite requirement from Bharat Aluminium Company's mines.
National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has chalked out plans to enter the power business through the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route. The company plans to produce over 2000 MW by 2016.