"The entry of other players in this segment will help in reiterating the benefits of the cash-and-carry concept to Indian customers," Metro India Managing Director Martin Dlouhy says. It may be the first time anywhere in the world that Wal-Mart and Metro square off in the cash & carry format. Dlouhy's apparent nonchalance can't hide the fact that Metro may be facing one of its most difficult challenges in the country.
Kingfisher Airlines is looking to roll over close to Rs 800 crore of its short-term debt, even as it finalises the paperwork to borrow another Rs 1,500 crore from a few Indian public sector banks.
Redevco, one of Europe's largest real estate investment and development firms, with a $10 billion portfolio, is understood to be looking at investing around Rs 300 crore in various projects of Bangalore-based Sobha Developers.
The present offer is a third of Homeland Mining's initial valuation. GMR Energy, a part of GMR Infrastructure, had valued this coal mining firm at $310 million when it acquired a small stake in April 2008. "In our due diligence, we have found out that we had valued this firm much higher based on various factors such as how many layers one has to mine to access the worthwhile coal," a GMR Group official said.
The JV TACO Sasken Automotive Electronics has been called off and over 100 people working for the JV have been asked to quit. In January 2007, Sasken and Tata AutoComp Systems had formed the JV with a focus on automotive electronics products in the areas of telematics, infotainment and occupant convenience. However sources say that even two years after its formation, the JV could hardly make any progress.
The Indian Hotels Company, the Tata Group firm which runs the Taj Group of Hotels in the country, is set to expand its offerings by getting into serviced apartments business and by widening the portfolio of its wildlife resorts.
UB Group's other businesses are being aggressively being ramped up. The group recently entered apparel exports to add to its leather exports business. These are in addition to a sturdy fertiliser arm, an engineering construction firm and a property development business which is getting into building high-end apartments.
The US-based global financial company is understood to have shown a "keen interest" in helping the hospital, which has 140 acres in its land bank, to unlock the value of its real estate assets.
While the company does not report segment results for the foods business until a specific vertical reaches a threshold limit, its entire FMCG business during the last financial year has reported revenues of Rs 2,523 crore. The food segment, which is still in the investment mode, crossed the Rs 1,000 crore revenue mark in FY 08 and is losing on an average close to Rs 60 crore on a yearly basis, accumulated losses of Rs 700 crore over the past seven years.
The deal values the stock exchange at $3.3 billion.
According to sources in the company, a review of the JV is under way and a decision to separate is likely to be taken soon. Sanyo wants to focus on LCD and plasma televisions and other industrial equipment such as heavy-duty air conditioners, coolers and the like, while not being saddled with the conventional colour television segment, which is the strong point of BPL.
"It is challenging and difficult. But one or two challenging years are not a big deal. This too will come to an end. We are not running the business on a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter basis. Yes, it is hard to actually generate consistently high margins, but this is what leadership is all about. To manage and deliver when things aren't going too smoothly," says Bali.
Canara Bank, India's second largest public sector bank, is all set for an aggressive play in the venture capital business.
D E Shaw, a global private equity firm with $36 billion in assets, is understood to be planning around $200 million investment in the Indian education sector by taking up strategic positions in companies offering e-learning, distant learning, vocational training and the like.
Blackstone Group, a global private equity player, is set to increase its focus on India. After setting the ball rolling on its corporate private equity and recently starting off its real estate opportunity focus, the company during the past week has set up Blackstone Altius Advisors, an event-driven strategy focusing on opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. Event-driven strategies are those where PEs fund merger and acquisitions or bankruptcies scenario.
KPMG, the $20-billion global advisory and audit firm, is set to broaden its basket of operations in India as it sees annual growth of 40 per cent in the coming years as well. At present, a significant chunk of KPMG's global client service support is being outsourced to Outsource Partners International, a strategic partner, in India. Going forward, the outsourcing volumes are expected to double.
STAR India, a wholly owned subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong, is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media business in India. Last week, top STAR executives including STAR Hong Kong CEO Paul Aiello, STAR India CEO Uday Shankar and COO Jagdish Kumar were in Bangalore for meetings with possible joint venture partners for the print foray. The company is said to be in talks with Vijay Mallya's UB Group.
This is as definitive as it can get. Dutch global beer major Heineken is understood to have outlined its intent to Vijay Mallya's United Breweries that it does not want to have any conflicting presence in India.
If you are an entrepreneur and apprehensive that the global market meltdown will strain your fund-raising plans, fear not. India-focused private equity and venture capital funds raised $7 billion (Rs 27,958 crore) in 2007, excluding real estate, last year. They had garnered a similar amount in the corresponding previous year, according to data from Venture Intelligence, a venture capital research company.
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