MERGERS AND ACQUISITION WATCH

1)General Atlantic And Sequoia Capital is expected to back MU sigma, a leading provider of decision sciences and analytics services with investment valuation   presently estimated to be around R.S 566.5 crores.

Mu Sigma's deal with General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital is among the biggest for any analytics company globally

2) New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has picked up a 9.4% stake in Patni Computer Systems.

 Elliott has been buying small chunks of Indian technology outsourcer Patni Computer Systems since October

. Elliot, who manages assets worth $17 billion, bought Patni stock through its Mauritius registered investment arms, Mansfield Ltd and Suffolk Ltd. the deal is estimated to be of around RS 205.1 crores in value.

3) Actis capital, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets is set to invest RS 372.4 CRORES in Endurance Technologies.

The Endurance group, a leading Indian auto component manufacturer, consists of Endurance Technologies and its subsidiaries HTTS (India), Amann Druckguss (Germany), Endurance Fondalmec (Italy) and a joint venture with Magnetti Marrelli in India.

Kotak Investment Bank advised the company on this transaction.

4) Mahindra group’s two technology ventures, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam, would be merged by the end of this year.

On whether Tech Mahindra would be merged into Mahindra Satyam or the opposite would be done, a decision is yet to be taken on that. Consultants would suggest the process, but the final call would be taken by the management.

Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam Computer Services in April, 2010 and later renamed the company Mahindra Satyam.

5) Greenko Group PLC, an Indian developer and operator of clean energy projects, acknowledged that its subsidiary Greenko Mauritius, has secured commitment for a $70 million investment from Standard Chartered PLC.

The transaction seems to be structured in a way that will ensure minimum returns to Standard Chartered, with upside on any listing.

The investment by Standard Chartered is drawable within a period of six months and is structured to be part-redeemable at a fixed return and part-convertible into equity shares at a fixed rate of return," Greenko has said in a filing.

6) Two funds managed by IL&FS Investment Managers (IL&FS Private Equity), one of India’s largest PE firms managing assets of $3.2 billion, have acquired stake in IL&FS Energy Development Company Ltd.

7) Country's largest real estate firmDLF, and its joint venture partner Hubtown sold 100 per cent of their respective shares in DLF Ackruti Info Parks (Pune) to Blackstone group for Rs 810 Crore after obtaining all necessary approvals.

DLF and Hubtown held 67 per cent and 33 per cent equity shares in DLF Ackruti SEZ, respectively.

8) Kotak Mahindra Bank has acquired the non-performing portfolio of Barclays Bank’s credit card business in India.

The deal, experts said, gives momentum to the sale of stressed loan market in the country which has been having a dry run following stringent regulatory norms introduced in 2007.

The portfolio acquired by Kotak is estimated to be around Rs 250-300 crore and comprise nearly 200,000 cards. The private sector lender’s in-house asset reconstruction team will be responsible for recovering the dues from these accounts.

9) Walt Disney has concluded the acquisition of UTV. The company acquired the Indian media group for $454 million by buying the remaining shares. The deal was completed after a public tender offer for the 20% of UTV shares owned by individual investors.

10)   NMDC is eyeing to acquire two more properties — Ridley iron ore deposit of Atlas Mining and Wonarah phosphate reserve of Minemakers Ltd — in the island continent.  

The Ridley project, 100 per cent owned by Atlas Mining, contains 970 million tonnes of high grade iron ore reserves and can produce 330 mt of ore with 68.3 per cent Fe content for over 30 years.