Vodafone India to offload stake in its payments bank (India)
Vodafone India is in talks with the Piramal Group and HDFC Bank to sell around 49 per cent stake in its payments bank. The move implies that the operator is planning to sell more than the 26 per cent stake it has to compulsorily divest, given the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines that prohibit more than 74 per cent foreign holdings in payments bank.
Xiaomi to pick up minor stake in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has led an investment round of $25 million in Mumbai-based Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, an aggregator and publisher of online entertainment content, along with Hungama’s existing investors. As per the deal, Xiaomi will pick up a minor stake in the company. This will be the Chinese company’s first investment in India.
Brocade to acquire Ruckus Wireless in a deal valued at $1.2 billion (USA)
Brocade has entered into a definitive agreement with Ruckus Wireless to acquire the latter in a cash and stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Ruckus’s stockholders will receive $6.45 in cash and 0.75 per cent share of Brocade’s common stock for each share of Ruckus’s common stock. The transaction is valued at approximately $1.2 billion. The cash portion of the purchase price will be funded through a combination of cash in hand and new bank term loan financing. The acquisition will add Ruckus Wireless’s products to Brocade’s networking solutions.
Globe Telecom borrows PhP 7 billion from Land Bank (Philippines)
The Philippines-based Globe Telecom has borrowed PhP 7 billion from Land Bank of the Philippines to finance its capital expenditure. The telecom operator has entered into a 10-year term loan agreement with the bank. Globe has set a capital expenditure programme of up to $750 million for 2016, the bulk of which will be spent on data-related projects.
MobiFone to sell its stakes in two banks to raise VND 447 billion (Vietnam)
Vietnam’s state-controlled operator MobiFone is planning to sell its stakes in two partly private banks to raise VND 447 billion. A total of 33.4 million shares, equivalent to a stake of 6.12 per cent in SeABank, will be auctioned towards end-April, starting at VND 9,600 per share. MobiFone will also sell 14.28 million shares in TPBank through another auction, starting at VND 8,900 per share. The sale will reduce the company’s stake in the bank from the current 4.76 per cent to 2.19 per cent. MobiFone’s plans for reducing its investment in the financial sector are in line with the government’s order for state-owned enterprises to divest from non-core businesses.
Axiata Group issues a 10-year $500 million Islamic bond (Malaysia)
Malaysia-based Axiata Group has issued a 10-year $500 million Islamic bond. The sukuk was priced at a yield of 4.357 per cent with a final order book of over $900 million. CIMB, Deutsche Bank and HSBC were the joint bookrunners. As per the company, the orders for the sukuk were received primarily from Asia (71 per cent), followed by the Middle East (18 per cent) and Europe (11 per cent). The sukuk will be listed in Malaysia and Singapore and the proceeds from the issue will be used for the proposed acquisition of Nepal-based Ncell by Axiata. This sukuk is the third under Axiata’s $1.5 billion multicurrency sukuk issuance programme that was set up in 2012.
Cellcom Israel announces private debenture offering (Israel)
Cellcom Israel has accepted orders from institutional investors in a private debenture offering for Israeli residents. The telecom operator took orders for about NIS 246 million of additional Series I debentures, which have a total consideration of NIS 250 million. The price has been set at NIS 101.5 for each Series I debenture of NIS 100, reflecting an effective interest rate of 4.06 per cent per annum.
Cisco acquires Leaba Semiconductor for $320 million
Cisco has acquired Israel-based chip fabrication company Leaba Semiconductor for $320 million in a cash deal. The deal is a part of the company’s strategy to hedge against the commodification of networking hardware and focus on specialty application-specific integrated circuits. Earlier, Cisco had acquired CliQr, a cloud management company, for $260 million.
BTCL raises BWP 462 million through IPO (Botswana)
The Government of Botswana has sold its 49 per cent stake in national fixed line and mobile operator Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) in an oversubscribed initial public offering. BTCL raised BWP 462 million ($41 million), selling 462 million shares at BWP 1 each – 212 million government shares and 250 million newly issued BTCL shares. The government received 44,000 applications for the BTCL stock. As part of the offer, 44 per cent of BTCL’s shares were offered to the public, while 5 per cent was reserved for the operator’s employees.
