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Thursday, 2 February 2012

ECONOMY WATCH

KEY  INDICATORS                                                     VALUE

REPO RATE                                                                    8.50%
REVERSE REPO RATE                                                7.50%
CASH RESERVE RATIO                                              5.50%
STATUTORY LIQUIDITY RATIO                              24%
1 INR/USD                                                                      49.1288
1 INR/EURO                                                                  64.7480
1 INR/POUND STERLING                                          77.8495
FOOD INFLATION  RATE                                        -1.03%
WHOLESALE PRICE INDEX                                      7.47%

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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.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES-IT/ITES/BFSI

                                                               NEWSLINE


2nd FEBUARY, 2012: MOODY WARNS AGAINST DEBT RECAST PLAN

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. has cautioned that the DEBT exercise is not in the interest of bank creditors since banks will avoid setting aside money for such exposure.

The debt recast plan— scripted by SBI Caps and vetted by consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd—proposes that banks should be allowed to carry the debt on their books as performing assets. This means they will not be required to set aside money for the debt.

A debt recast would not reflect the true exposure of banks to the Air India credit risk problems. It would allow banks to avoid provisioning for such exposure, which is not in the interest of bank creditors,” said Vineet Gupta, vice president and senior analyst, financial institutions group at Moody’s


1st FEBUARY, 2012 :CARLYE GROUP SELLS HDFC STAKE

U.S. private equity giant Carlyle Group has sold about 20 million shares of Housing Development Finance Corp in market deals , the chief executive of the Indian mortgage lender said, citing market sources.
The buyers of the shares include domestic as well as foreign investors, Keki Mistry told Reuters.

About 1.3 percent of HDFC's outstanding shares changed hands on the stock markets on Wednesday.
Carlyle, which currently owns 5.2 percent of HDFC, will pare its stake in the mortgage lender to nearly 4 percent after a sale of shares via block deals

31ST JANUARY , 2012: TCS EXPANDS US OPERATION WITH NEW FACILITY IN SILICON VALLEY

Expanding its presence in the US, India's IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has opened a new facility in silicon valley which was welcomed by the US lawmakers and the Californian government.

Just a few blocks away from the Yahoo's corporate headquarters, the facility, among other things, would serve as the worldwide headquarters of TCS' Mobility Solutions Unit which aims to bring the benefits of emerging technologies like big data, analytics and mobility to enterprises across all industries.


30TH JANUARY ,2012 : WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES GRANTED PATENTS FOR StORM

Wipro Technologies has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its Statistics Operations Research Matrix (StORM) methodology.

StORM, a system and method for software test suite optimisation, increases the effectiveness of the testing process while reducing the number of test cases.

The company said that StORM can reduce the software test suite by around 30 per cent.

29TH JANUARY ,2012: ATTRITION GOES DOWN IN IT'S TOP 4

Fewer employees left the top four Indian software companies in the quarter ended December 31, 2011.

In other words the top four companies, including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, saw a drop in employee attrition during the quarter.

Attrition in the industry reduced after a spate of lateral hiring (those hired from other companies) in 2010. This has been contained in the last couple of quarters, said Mr Siddharth Pai, partner with Information Services Group.

Wipro witnessed a sharp decline in its employee attrition to 14.2 per cent – this means for every 100 people only 14.2 left the company. It was 21.7 per cent in same quarter a year ago.


28TH JANUARY ,2012: CLOUD CO PEEL-WORKS GETS RS 3.25-CR VENTURE FUNDING

Indian Angel Network, a large group of successful Indian entrepreneurs and CEOs who invest in early stage businesses, has invested Rs 3.25 crore in Peel-Works, a Mumbai-based cloud-enabled sales force transformation and BPO company.

Peel-Works has been set up by a team of management graduates with experience in the consumer goods sector.

Peel-Works, according to a press release from the Indian Angel Network, offers customised solutions for companies in FMCG, telecom and insurance sectors that conduct their business using indirect sales force.
The investment will be used to expand product offering and improve technology.

27TH JANUARY ,2012: KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK EYES LOCAL ACQUISITION

Aiming to transform itself into a bank of global scale, quality and size, ‘ever-young’ Indian banking company Kotak Mahindra Bank is looking for acquisition opportunities within India on a top priority basis, its chief, Mr Uday Kotak, has said.

“We are also seriously looking at opportunities for acquisitions within India and if (we) get something appropriate, it would be top of our priority and this is something we are currently focusing on,” Mr Kotak acknowledged


JANUARY 26,2012 : LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUM DOWN 17% UP TO DEC 2011

The first year premium of life insurers has decreased 17 per cent at Rs 71,952 crore up to December 31, 2011 compared with Rs 86,697 crore in the year-ago period.

The decline in the business of private insurers was higher at 20 per cent compared to the State insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India, which suffered a 15 per cent dip in the first-year premium.

In the non-life segment, the gross premium underwritten grew by 24 per cent at Rs 42,023 crore during April-December 2011 as against Rs 33,889 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous financial year, according to flash figures released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.












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