India's infrastructure sectors, for long shunned by investors due to long gestation periods and hazy policies, have finally become attractive.
Nomura, Japan's largest brokerage, is considering mergers and acquisitions in order to build its presence in emerging markets such as China and India , where it needs operating licences. Kenichi Watanabe, new chief executive, said on Monday that "the market environment is difficult but [we] consider it a major opportunity" to expand in areas where the company lacks competitiveness.
Private equity-backed Kosmos, which has received a total of $800 million in financing from Blackstone and Warburg Pincus, has hired Standard Chartered and Barclays Plc to sell its stakes in the offshore Jubilee oil field. A potential sale of Kosmos' stake in the Jubilee field is being closely watched as the asset is one of the largest oil finds in West Africa in the past decade.
India is beginning to experience its own version of the subprime crisis as banks tighten lending procedures to curb rising delinquencies, particularly in small unsecured personal loans. India's financial system has so far been spared much of the pain of the global subprime crisis because of the relatively small size of its banks and their conservative investment focus overseas.
Debt conversion formula will increase govt stake.
This will pave the way for Kapil Puri to expand Spanco Telesystems, the business process outsourcing and telecommunication services company that he set up after partly exiting Sparsh. Puri is slated to receive around Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) from the sale of his stake, which will take place at around Rs 200 per share. This includes a premium as against the existing ruling price of Rs 150 per share.
Concerned over the spurt in capital inflows from overseas, the Indian government is monitoring investments in certain sectors to ensure such funds do not pose a security threat to the country. "We are looking at certain investments in certain sectors," National Security Advisor M K Narayanan told reporters when asked about large inflows coming into India from China and middle-east countries through private equity players such as Blackstone.
A clutch of foreign and domestic institutions has submitted expressions of interest to acquire at least 26 per cent in the Delhi-based Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI).
Fadnavis had a series of very productive meetings with American CEOs
The race for Citigroup Global Services, the business process outsourcing arm of Citigroup is hotting up with the entry of the BPO firm WNS and consultancy firm Accenture.
HDFC and Barclays Bank on Monday announced they will exit their joint venture Intelenet Global Services by selling stakes to SKR BPO Services, co-owned by Blackstone GVP Capital and Intelenet management, for an undisclosed amount.
As per media reports four global financial giants, including Schroders, Blackstone and US-based Capital, have submitted offers to Reliance Capital for buying a small stake in its mutual fund business -- Reliance Capital Asset Management.
Executives from private companies such as Shell and Blackstone are likely to be invited for interviews for the post of chairman and managing director of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Jet is believed to be in talks with leading private equity players.
The plot C-65 in the G Block of Bandra Kurla Complex was leased to Goisu Realty (a unit of Sumitomo) for 80 years by MMRDA.
In addition to Pichai and Nadella, IBM's Arvind Krishna, Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, Ajay Banga from Mastercard and Ann Mukherjee from Pernod are among the six Indian-Americans among over 200 corporate honchos who will advise the President and offer recommendations on how to revive the American economy.
In the ongoing bull run in the equity markets, the top 200 Indian companies have attracted much of the FIIs money, whereas the medium and small companies still remain undervalued.
This comes within two months of China announcing an investment of $3 billion from its trillion-dollar forex kitty for a 10 per cent stake in the US-based global private equity giant Blackstone.
If 2006 was the year when companies in China and India hinted at their potential to redraw the global landscape for mergers and acquisitions, this has been the year when they started to deliver on their promise.
According to reports, the deal, if successful, could fetch Hutchison as much as $14 billion and would be Asia's largest private equity deal.
Though Kishore Biyani is selling stakes in group companies to pay off debt, a significant share price crash since January this year is making his task difficult.
Around 15 venture funds from the US and Southeast Asia will be making investments in the Indian real estate sector through the FII route
Having cut eight deals last year, the $1.3 billion pharma major Ranbaxy probably has the sharpest negotiating skills in the business.
About eight bidders are in the race to pick up stake in major private carrier Air Sahara, which has kept "all options open", including selling equity or strategic partnership, to fund its expansion plans.\n\n
You can't fight the Fed. The Fed just cut interest rates by 50 basis points. Inflation is at an official 2%, which means by the spring they are going to cut some more
Increase in surcharge will adversely impact fund managers planning to shift to India. As a matter of fact several fund professionals based in India could also relocate to other jurisdictions, resulting in a brain drain.
Raghavendra Kamath reports on what ails India's real estate sector.
Global private equity fund Blackstone Group on Wednesday said India was the best place for the fund to initially focus in Asia and indicated that it could increase the quantum of investment in the country from the $1 billion already declared
A steady demand environment, prudent debt management and faster absorption of office space gave them an edge over others.
Last month, the bank was placed under Prompt Corrective Action due to high level of bad loans, lack of sufficient capital to manage risks and negative return on assets for two consecutive years.
To invest $1 bn in realty sector, mulls new funds; has done exits worth Rs 8,000 crore, says founder
After a long time, real estate companies could hit the fund-raising trail. The reason is improvement in investor sentiment.
Who is to take their place? Will a new generation of entrepreneurs start up with better business sense, or at least better luck? But the so-called unicorns are mostly copy-cat entrepreneurs whose cash flow is funded by overseas (including Chinese) money, notes T N Ninan.
After 42 years at Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and different roles across Unilever's global operations, Harish Munwani, 65, retired as HUL's non-executive chairman. A day before Manwani bid adieu at HUL's 85th annual general meeting on Friday, he spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto & Vishal Chhabria on what kept him going at the firm and the challenges that await HUL.
Kicking off his second visit to the US in one year with a meeting with eight of the top 10 financial entities in the US, including JP Morgan and Blackstone, Modi outlined efforts made during the last 15 months to increase investment in key areas like infrastructure.
