Move will help AI Express reduce costs and increase fleet utilisation.
The rise in material prices and excise duty is set to raise the prices of liquor brands across the country. According to officials of various companies, the brands will be costlier by 15-20 per cent from April.
The Chhabria-promoted Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) Allied Blenders & Distillers will launch two brandy brands in South India next month.
Consolidation seems to the key word among private equity (PE) backed companies. In the first few months of 2011, about 20 merger & acquisition (M&A) deals worth $150 million took place.
Luckily for him, the bumps on the way got forgotten, thanks to his expertise in earning high returns for investors through patient exits.
Gati Coast to Coast was set up in 1986 as a service provider for all sea-bound cargo in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Islands and Malacca Straits.
Macquarie-SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF), one of the largest in this category in India, run by Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Management Pvt Ltd (MSIT), is in an advanced stage of talks with a shipping port company to make an investment of about Rs 1,000 crore ($200-220 million).
Gitanjali Gems plans to hive off various businesses.
The automobile services segment, from radio taxi services to used cars, is seeing increased interest from venture capital (VC) investors.
"Kraft's acquisition of Cadbury is a global acquisition, where some value is attributable to India. This is different from Vodafone, where the transfer of a single share of the offshore company by Hutch resulted in the Indian business getting transferred to Vodafone," said Pranay Bhatia, associate partner at legal firm Economic Laws Practice.
"A lot of PE investors are interested in renewable energy and we are exploring PE investments for our wind energy initiatives," said Thomas John Muthoot, chairman and managing director.
Private equity company Actis is in talks with Isuzu Motors for exiting automobile company Swaraj Mazda. According to sources, though Actis has been looking to exit for quite sometime, the deal is stuck over difference in valuation.
In the changed scenario of Indian private equity, where institutions and individuals are busy with fund raising, the fund houses are exploring untapped markets.