MERGERS AND ACQUISITION

Xerox’s profit falls, CFO to retire Liana B. Baker/ Reuters  08:05 PM | January 26,2011 Xerox Corp’s profit fell due to restructuring charges in the fourth-quarter. Luca Maestri to be new CFO after the retirement of Larry Zimmerman
Deccan Chronicle to merge with Deccan Chargers, Odyssey PTI   06:49 PM | January 24,2011 The amalgamation is subject to the approval from the high court of Andhra Pradesh, Deccan Chronicle Holdings said in a statement
Bureaucratic huddle hits Reliance; complains to oil secretary PTI   03:47 PM | January 23,2011 Reliance executive director PMS Prasad wrote to S. Sundareshan oil secretary listing out a long list of operational issues at its oil and gas producing and exploration sites that have not been given approval for months
Tulip acquires data centre for Rs 230 cr PTI/Reuters   02:23 PM | January 18,2011 The communication service provider,would further invest Rs 670 crore in the next three years to upgrade the facility in Bangalore
JSW Steel buys Bellary steel assets for Rs210 crore Reuters  10:31 AM | January 17,2011 The company has have taken over the land, the buildings and the branded machinery lying at Bellary
Jacob Ballas PE buys minority stake in PNC Infratech Harini Subramani/Sneha Shah  05:01 PM | January 13,2011 Pradeep Kumar Jain, chairman and MD, PNC said that the infusion of funds will help the company strengthen its balance sheet further, enable it to bid for larger projects
Tata Communications to acquire US-based BitGravity PTI  06:14 PM | January 11,2011 Upon completion of the transaction, Tata Communications (Netherlands) will own 100% BitGravity, Tata Communications said in a filing to the BSE
IGate seals Patni deal at $1.22 billion Sridhar K. Chari  12:49 AM | January 11,2011 The acquisition is among the biggest involving an Indian IT company
Murthy has reason to smile Venkatesha Babu  12:40 AM | January 11,2011 A peripheral player in the IT services biz for almost a decade, he now has a seat at the high table
Not about egos, but about a firm with aspirations Sridhar K. Chari  12:34 AM | January 11,2011 IGate Corp. wanted a seat at the high table to kick butt in the marketplace, says chief executive officer Phaneesh Murthy
Comviva enters into partnership with Airtel Bangladesh PTI   03:58 PM | January 10,2011 The solution will provide Airtel Bangladesh with a single-window web-based environment to access, create, execute and manage messaging services.
IGate to buy majority stake in Patni for $1.2 bn Priyanka Pulla  02:25 PM | January 10,2011 IGate and Apax have agreed to pay Rs 503.50 a share for a 63% stake in Patni, the sources said
Omnitech acquires Dutch firm Avensus PTI  05:09 PM | January 06,2011 IT services provider, Omnitech Infosolutions has taken over Avensus Netherland BV for Rs 45 crore and is expected to close the acquisition by early February
Patni deal with iGate, Apax still on: source Sumeet Chatterjee/Reuters   06:08 PM | January 03,2011 The terms of the deal remain the same, including the price of around Rs500 a share, the source said
HCL Info buys 20% in Dubai’s Techmart Reuters   06:16 PM | December 30,2010 HCL Infosystems will have the option of buying up to 51% equity stake in Techmart Telecom
Surya Pharma arm buys ActivOn for $22 mn PTI  12:30 PM | December 28,2010 The acquisition was financed through a mix of internal accruals and debt from EXIM Bank, the firm’s filing to the BSE said
Tata International buys 76% stake each in two footwear firms PTI   06:49 PM | December 27,2010 Tata International has acquired 76% stake each in Bachi Shoes India Pvt Ltd and Euro Shoe Components Pvt Ltd
RCF doing due diligence to take over Russian phosphate mine PTI   12:39 PM | December 26,2010 India imports over five million tonnes of rock phosphate every year, which accounts for over 90% of the country’s annual requirement
Tata Motors’ Nano design receives international award PTI   01:45 PM | December 23,2010 With a length of 3.1 metres, width of 1.5 metres and height of 1.6 metres, Nano has the smallest exterior footprint for a car in India but is 21% more spacious than the smallest car available
Reliance MediaWorks inks pact with Russian World Studios PTI   01:39 PM | December 23,2010 The MoU was signed during the India visit of Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev JSW acquires 41.29% stake in Ispat Industries for Rs 2,157 cr Joel Rebello & Harini Subramani  11:28 PM | December 21,2010 JSW is keeping around Rs 1,300 crore for the open offer, but Jindal doesn’t expect to pick up more than 10% through this route JSW close to taking over Ispat Industries Joel Rebello & Manish Basu  11:56 PM | December 20,2010 Ispat had outstanding debt of Rs 7,156 crore as of 30 June, the last day of its its accounting year JPMorgan buys new London HQ, continues skyscraper Reuters  04:13 PM | December 20,2010 JP Morgan is still reviewing its plans for Riverside South, said John Garwood, secretary of Songbird Estates, majority owner of CWG Tata Chemicals to buy UK salt firm; shares rise C H Unnikrishnan   02:38 PM | December 20,2010 The acquisition would be financed entirely via debt with no recourse to Tata Chemicals Voltas to form JV with Olayan Financing Company PTI   01:43 PM | December 20,2010 The company said both the firms will hold equal stake in the joint venture, which is expected to be operational from April 2011 Natural resources seen driving India M&A deals in 2011 Sumeet Chatterjee/Reuters   04:28 PM | December 17,2010 New markets, raw materials to trigger outbound deals; inbound deals seen picking up momentum in 2011; 2010 M&A deal volume tripled to $67bn Hero, Honda end 26-year partnership Amrit Raj  11:24 PM | December 16,2010 Royalty payments to remain the same; Hero can increase global presence but will need to develop bikes IDFC to sell 25% in MF arm to US asset manager N Sundaresha Subramanian   04:18 PM | December 16,2010 IDFC Asset management is the 10th largest asset manager in India managing over Rs18,300 crore BoB to sell 51% of its Bobcards to BBVA Joel Rebello  07:31 PM | December 15,2010 The venture is subject to RBI and Bank of Spain’s approval and is the first foray for the Spanish lender in the Indian retail market Vedanta plans to use IPO money of Zambian unit KCM to part fund Cairn deal PTI   04:15 PM | December 15,2010 Vedanta Resources plans to use some of the $1.1 bn it plans to raise through an IPO of Konkola Copper Mines to repay part of the $6 bn debt it has taken to acquire majority stake in Cairn India, company’s circular to shareholders said JSW Infra to raise $125 mn from stake sale to Eton Reuters  06:35 PM | December 14,2010 Eton Park manages about $13 billion and has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong and JM Financial was the sole financial advisor to the deal, it said in a statement Novartis to acquire 49% stake in Chiron Behring Vaccines Harini Subramani  12:49 AM | December 14,2010 Novartis and Aventis are currently fighting a couple of cases on the largest selling rabies vaccine brand, Rabipur, after the brand went to Novartis in 2009 PNB acquires majority stake in Dana Bank PTI  07:15 PM | December 13,2010 This transaction shall be placed for necessary ratification in the General Body meeting of JSC Dana Bank scheduled on 15 Dec and the acquisition would allow PNB to penetrate in CIS countries Reckitt Benckiser to buy Paras Pharma for $726 million Michael Erman & Sumeet Chatterjee/Reuters  01:24 PM | December 13,2010 Reckitt Benckiser said on Sunday it agreed to buy privately-held firm Paras Pharmaceuticals for $726 million MasterCard buys Travelex prepaid unit for $459 mn Maria Aspan & Sudip Kar-Gupta/Reuters  09:32 AM | December 10,2010 Travelex’s prepaid card business focuses on travelers that use plastic instead of travelers checks. But MasterCard hopes to expand the business to offer cards to consumers in emerging markets that do not have bank accounts Mothercare plans to add 150 outlets in India; five-year target Rasul Bailay   12:48 AM | December 10,2010 Growth potential lies in global markets, says Mothercare CEO Ben Gordon; seeks to double overseas sales to £1 bn Tata Steel’s motivation to acquire more of Riversdale may be low Mark to Market | Ravi Ananthanarayanan  10:42 PM | December 09,2010 Riversdale is undertaking exploration and mining projects for anthracite in South Africa and coal in Mozambique Vishal Retail gets a month to reach settlement deal Rasul Bailay   11:08 PM | December 08,2010 Resolution crucial for retailer to sell its assets to US equity firm TPG Capital, Chennai-based Shriram Group Sebi clears Fame open offer Aveek Datta & Anirudh Laskar   09:05 PM | December 08,2010 After an eight-month wait, Inox Leisure and Reliance MediaWorks got the nod from the Sebi for going ahead with their proposed open offers for acquiring control over Fame India ‘Indian firms M&A deal value at $5 bn in 2010’ PTI   03:04 PM | December 08,2010 There were M&A deals worth about $16 billion in 2009, while in the year 2008, it stood at a whopping $40 billion Standard Life to buy Focus Solutions for $66 mn Reuters  01:24 PM | December 07,2010 Agrees to buy Focus Solutions for 42 million sterling; offering 140 pencein cash for each Focus Solutions share; offer represents a premium ofaround 10% Daikin in talks to buy Goodman Global: Bloomberg Reuters  12:43 PM | December 07,2010 Daikin in talks to buy Goodman from Hellman Friedman; H&F negotiatingafter rejecting roughly $3.6 bn bid; Daikin shares down 3.5%, versus 0.3%drop in Nikkei; deal would make Daikin biggest player in sector, sayanalysts Volvo buys Jaico’s 30% stake in JV, becomes fully owned Sridhar K Chari   06:46 PM | December 06,2010 Plans to make India an export hub; sets revenue target of $1 billion in five years Rio Tinto in talks on $3.5 bn bid for Riversdale Reuters  04:46 PM | December 06,2010 A deal would mark Rio Tinto’s first significant acquisition since its badly timed $38 billion takeover of Alcan at the height of the commodities boom in 2007 3M to acquire Winterthur for $448 mn PTI   04:20 PM | December 06,2010 As per the agreement, 3M will pay Swiss francs 62 ($63.56) for each share through a public tender offer taking the aggregate total to $448 million Sun Pharma plans to delist Caraco, offers share buyback Harini Subramani  03:30 PM | December 04,2010 Sun Pharma’s total investment to acquire the outstanding shares of Caraco will be around $48.76 million Warburg Pincus invests $75 mn in QuEST Divya Guha  06:41 PM | December 03,2010 The investment allows Warburg Pincus to get a minority ownership stake at the Bangalore-based firm TACO acquires 37.5% more stake in Ge Gestamp Servicios Harini Subramani  06:26 PM | December 03,2010 Post this acquisition through an inter-se transfer of shares, where promoters exchange shares, ASAL will be a subsidiary of TACO Godrej acquires Swastik, Genteel brands PTI  02:15 PM | December 03,2010 Godrej Consumer Products said it has acquired ‘Swastik´ and ‘Genteel´ brands for an undisclosed amount Pepsi to buy Russia’s WBD for $5.4 bn Reuters  04:37 PM | December 02,2010 Wimm-Bill-Dann’s Moscow-listed shares jumped 27% on news of the acquisition which is subject to regulatory approvals ABB to buy Baldor Electric for $3.1 bn in cash Catherine Bosley/Reuters  03:13 PM | November 30,2010 The agreed purchase price of $63.50 a share represents a 41% premium to Baldor’s closing price on 29 Nov. and the acquisition also includes $1.1 billion in net debt, ABB said GMR to sell its InterGen stake to Chinese firm Utpal Bhaskar  12:34 AM | November 29,2010 Decision to divest stake in InterGen is in line with the strategy to focus on Indian market, says group chairman BP to sell Pan American stake to Bridas for $7 billion Tom Bergin  04:27 PM | November 28,2010 Bridas already owns a 40% stake in Pan American Energy, which BP said was Argentina’s second-largest producer of oil and gas M&M to boost stake in Tech Mahindra Lison Joseph  10:52 PM | November 26,2010 M&M has also waived the first right of refusal to buy BT’s remaining 24.5% stake, which allows the British company to sell it in the open market ChrysCapital buys 12% stake in Pratibha for Rs 100 cr Shraddha Nair   09:42 PM | November 26,2010 The investment was made through Van Dyck, a subsidiary of ChrysCapital V, LLC. Through the investment the PE firm picked up a 12% stake in the company, valuing Pratibha Industries at about Rs 833 crore Abbott India to merge with Solvay India Harini Subraman  07:46 PM | November 24,2010 This merger follows a global acquisition of Belgian-based pharmaceutical company Solvay SA by Abbott in 2009 in a 4.8 billion euro global deal Yes Bank inks pact with Japan’s Shinsei Bank for M&As PTI   01:52 PM | November 24,2010 The alliance will play an active role towards further augmenting investment flows into the Indo-Japanese corridor News Corp. buys education technology company AFP   11:56 AM | November 23,2010 News Corp. will acquire 90% of education technology company Wireless Generation for $360 million in cash Mahindra signs deal to buy Ssangyong for $464 mn Reuters  09:34 AM | November 23,2010 The vehicle maker Mahindra will take a 70% stake in Ssangyong Bharati Shipyard plans to acquire majority stake in Tebma Reuters   09:20 AM | November 23,2010 Bharati is infusing fresh equity capital into Tebma Shipyards at a price of Rs19.20 per share and proposes to expand the post-issue equity capital base of Tebma to Rs77.36 crore Zensar to buy US-based Akibia for $66 mn Reuters   05:09 PM | November 22,2010 Deal to be funded through internal accruals, debt; deal to add 1-1.5% in gross margins next fiscal; Zensar to look for more acquisitions Corporate India’s M&As rise to $42.76 bn: report PTI   03:08 PM | November 19,2010 In October, 46 M&A deals worth $530 million took place, said consultancy firm Grant Thornton Axis Bank to acquire Enam units Dinesh Unnikrishnan & Baiju Kalesh  11:00 PM | November 17,2010 Bank to buy investment and broking units; Enam shareholders to get 3.3% stake; key executives of Enam will move to Axis Life comes full circle for key men at Enam Satish John & Baiju Kalesh  10:23 PM | November 17,2010 After building one of India’s largest home-grown investment banks, they are back to where they began, on the ‘buy side’ Cairn Energy says no guarantee on Vedanta deal Reuters   05:18 PM | November 16,2010 Says still hopes to close deal in first quarter of 2011; investors had hoped the deal would close by year-end Dabur India makes second overseas acquisition Bhavna Raghuvanshi  05:06 PM | November 16,2010 The deal marks Dabur’s entry into the $1.5 billion ethnic hair care products market in the US, Europe and Africa Religare scouting for AMC acquisition PTI   05:05 PM | November 15,2010 Religare Enterprises group CEO Sachindra Nath said we are talking to some US asset management companies with presence in emerging markets Café Coffee Day group to take control of Sical Baiju Kalesh & P. Manoj  09:03 PM | November 14,2010 Acquisition plan valued at 200 crore will end the logistics run of Chennai-based MA Chidambaram group Sahara to buy London’s Grosvenor House for 470 mn pounds: report HS Rao/PTI   05:59 PM | November 14,2010 Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to sell Grosvenor House Hotel to Subrata Roy-led Sahara India Pariwar for a knock-down price, a British newspaper report said Adani Power mulls overseas acquisitions Reuters   05:24 PM | November 14,2010 The company also plans to raise its power generation capacity in India to 2,000 megawatts by December, from 990 megawatts now Verlinvest buys 15% stake in Sula maker for $15 mn Harini Subramani  10:28 PM | November 12,2010 Purchase values Nashik Vintners at $100 mn, a 10-fold increase since 2004; stake sold by GEM India Advisors Agro Tech Foods sells Rath Oil brand to Cargill Staff Writer  08:28 PM | November 12,2010 Agro Tech says even though Rath enjoyed a loyal set of consumer base in India, the brand did not fit into the company’s “longer term strategic focus Maran picks up another 7.68% in SpiceJet P.R. Sanjai & Harini Subramani  10:02 PM | November 11,2010 New owner increases stake ahead of 15 November board meet at which heis set to take over I don’t understand the concerns around Rediff.com’s Vubites deal: Ajit Balakrishnan Surabhi Agarwal   12:22 AM | November 11,2010 Looking at the industry evolve, Vubites fits in more with Rediff.com, which is why the two businesses were combined with shareholders’ permission, says Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and chairman and managing director, Rediff.com Axel Springer, India Today to take over CarWale.com Anushree Chandran  12:17 AM | November 11,2010 Sierra Ventures and Seedfund will both exit CarWale fully for a total of about Rs 100 crore Infosys hunts for acquisitions in Japan Saeed Azhar & Kei Okamura/Reuters  03:41 PM | November 10,2010 CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said Japan accounts for 2% of the Bangalore-based company’s revenue Thermax buys Danish boiler maker; shares drop Reuters   11:56 AM | November 09,2010 Engaged in manufacturing boilers and waste heat recovery systems, Denmark-based Danstoker has annual sales of €40 million and is a profitable company, Thermax said in a statement Reliance Power inks $5 bn deal with US Exim Bank PTI   01:52 PM | November 07,2010 The deal, which coincides with the three-day visit of US President Obama to India, was signed by Reliance Power chairman Anil Ambani and Exim Bank chairman Fred Hochberg US firm to buy RFCL from ICICI Venture for $100mn Indulal P.M/Reuters  12:48 PM | November 04,2010 ICICI Bank’s private equity arm, has sold its 85% stake in biotech firm RFCL to US-based Avantor Performance Materials Holdings for what sources said was $100 million FedEx to acquire AFL, Unifreight India by Feb next year PTI  04:00 PM | November 03,2010 FedEx expects that this transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, will close in the third fiscal quarter which ends February 2011 The major merger and acquisition deals in October include Fortis Healthcare’s acquisition of Quality HealthCare for $195 million, followed by Venkateshwara Hatcheries’ takeover of Blackburn Rovers for $68.09 million. GAIL in talks to buy stake in Advent -exec Reuters  03:30 PM | November 03,2010 However, the co-owners of Advent Energy, an unlisted oil and gas exploration company, said the report was incorrect South Korea’s watchdog nods Mahindra buy of Ssangyong AFP   11:16 AM | October 29,2010 The watchdog said the deal would enhance competition in the South Korean market and increase Ssangyong’s exports Sanofi sticks to Genzyme offer as raises FY goal Caroline Jacobs/Reuters   02:19 PM | October 28,2010 Sees no reason to change Genzyme offer; sees FY EPS growth at constant rates of 0-2%; Q3 net income 2.47 bn euros; Q3 sales rise 5.7% Venkys to acquire Blackburn Rovers Reuters   03:52 PM | October 26,2010 The Premier League club Blackburn Rovers hope the deal with Indian firm Venkys will be completed in November Sony shares rise on speculation of Apple interest Reuters  01:29 PM | October 26,2010 Helping to spark the speculation was a Saturday report in Barron’s that said cash-rich Apple could be contemplating a big acquisition and noted speculation about Adobe, Sony and Disney as potential targets More time needed on takeover code: Sebi PTI  07:04 PM | October 25,2010 In July, a Sebi committee,had proposed changes in the current takeover rules, to give more rights to minority shareholders Unilever to buy Alberto for $3.7 bn as growth plan Reuters  09:01 AM | October 25,2010 Unilever’s biggest acquisition in a decade will add brands such as V05, TRESemme and Nexxus to Unilever’s existing Dove and Sunsilk Cairn must seek our approval for Vedanta deal: ONGC PTI  01:32 PM | October 21,2010 ONGC, which partners Cairn India in most of the seven exploration acreage,writes to Cairn Energy saying it has the right of first refusal on the assets. M&A deals touch $442.2 bn in current fiscal Harini Subramani  08:23 PM | October 12,2010 There has been a 312.9% increase in deal value over last year. While most number of deals were announced in technology, media and telecom Suzlon board to consider share allotment to IDFC PE Reuters   07:36 PM | October 11,2010 The shares proposed to be issued are in consideration of Suzlon’s acquisition of 41 million shares of SE Forge Ltd from IDFC Private Equity Vedanta rules out change in open offer for Cairn India PTI   06:49 PM | October 11,2010 Vedanta is paying up to $8.48 billion for 40-51% stake in Cairn India Fortis Healthcare to buy HongKong business Reuters  10:41 PM | October 10,2010 Fortis Healthcare have agreed to buy the healthcare assets of Hong Kong-based Quality HealthCare Asia for $195 million Microsoft mulls possible acquisition of Adobe Systems: Report   02:38 PM | October 08,2010 British daily Financial Times has reported that a possible Microsoft acquisition of Adobe Systems was among the ideas for closer cooperation, raised informally at a meeting of their chiefs Komli Media acquires UK’s Indoor Media Gouri Shah   12:30 AM | October 08,2010 According to Prashant Mehta, chief operating officer of Komli Media this acquisition was made for several reasons, including the fact that UK represented the largest population of non resident Indians Novelis may buy BP out of joint venture Baiju Kalesh & Joel Rebello   11:50 PM | October 06,2010 Aditya Birla Group firm seeking to acquire 60% stake in US-based Logan Aluminium from BP for $600 mn GE rebuffed in $1.2 bn bid for Wellstream Sarah Young & Scott Malone/Reuters  07:09 PM | October 06,2010 News of Wellstream’s rejection came on the same day GE said it would buy Dresser Inc, a maker of gas engines used to power oil and natural gas production equipment, for $3 billion Glenmark in pact for Italian firm’s pain-killer drug Reuters  12:31 PM | October 06,2010 The drugmaker, however, did not disclose the upfront and milestone payments to be made to unlisted Lay Line Genomics Tata Motors acquires Italian design house PTI  09:10 PM | October 04,2010 Both Tata Motors and Trilix Srl have worked together on several projects in the past JSW Steel seeks investment in Japan’s JFE: report AFP  08:08 PM | October 04,2010 JSW aims to hold an interest of less than 5% in the JFE Holdings Inc Sanofi-Aventis launches Genzyme takeover battle Greg Keller/AP   07:51 PM | October 04,2010 At $69 per share, the offer for Genzyme, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is unchanged from a friendly bid that Sanofi-Aventis made privately to management in July