Vodafone to sell 5.5 per cent stake in India unit to Piramal (India)
The Vodafone Group has announced that Piramal Healthcare Limited will buy a 5.5 per cent stake in its Indian unit for $640 million. This will keep the British company?s holding within the stipulated norms. In July 2011, Vodafone bought the 33 per cent stake held by its Indian partner, the Essar Group, in the telecom joint venture for $5.46 billion. Hence, post the completion of this transaction, Vodafone?s stake would have gone up to 76 per cent, breaching the foreign direct investment cap of 74 per cent. With Piramal picking up stake in the company, Vodafone?s holding will be limited to about 70 per cent. Piramal may exit the venture when Vodafone goes in for an initial public offering (IPO). An option to sell the stake back to Vodafone has also been agreed to by both the companies.
ICICI Bank acquires 29.3 per cent stake in GTL Limited
ICICI Bank has acquired a 29.3 per cent stake in telecom infrastructure company GTL Limited after taking over the shares pledged by the Global Holding Corporation, the promoter of GTL. The transaction is part of a corporate debt restructuring (CDR) exercise being undertaken by the company. With this transaction, ICICI has recovered about Rs 1.94 billion of the Rs 5 billion debt to GTL. Under the CDR, Global Holding had pledged 99.1 per cent of its 52 per cent stake in the company to lenders. Syndicate Bank also has a similar claim over the remaining pledged shares. According to reports, GTL currently owes Rs 60 billion in debt.
Indus Towers likely to be merged with Bharti Infratel
The three owners of Indus Towers ? Bharti airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone ? are considering merging the company with Bharti Infratel, prior to the proposed listing of Bharti Infratel. A merger before the IPO will mean that a stronger and bigger company, with around 155,000 towers, will be presented to investors. The merger would also resolve the possible confusion that may arise about the embedded value of Bharti Infratel?s 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers if it is listed at a later date. However, the merger may delay the Bharti Infratel IPO slated for the second half of 2010-11. Bharti wants to complete the IPO process by January 2012 and has asked two leading foreign investment banks ? Standard Chartered and Morgan Stanley ? to begin working on the issue.
Karbonn Mobiles to raise $125 million through private equity
Karbonn Mobiles is planning to raise about $125 million in the next few months through private equity players. The company is looking at divesting up to 15 per cent stake. The funds will be used for expansion of its R&D units in Delhi and Bangalore. The company is currently selling 7-8 million units a month and is looking to increase it to 10 million units by end-2011.
Micromax withdraws its IPO
Micromax Informatics has withdrawn its Rs 4.26 billion IPO due to volatile market conditions. The company had filed its draft red herring prospectus on September 29, 2010 to sell 21.5 million shares. JM Financial, Citigroup, Edelweiss and Nomura were the bookrunning lead managers to the issue.
First State increases stake in Idea Cellular
UK-based First State Investment Management Limited has acquired 57 million shares of Idea Cellular in an open market transaction. With this, First State?s stake in Idea has increased from 3.29 per cent to over 5.02 per cent. In a related development, Monet Limited, a part of global investment firm Chrys Capital, has sold over 83.4 million shares of Idea Cellular for about Rs 7.5 billion. The shares constitute about 2 per cent stake in Idea Cellular.
MediaTek to acquire 10 per cent stake in Spice Digital
Taiwan-based chip designer MediaTek has decided to buy a 10 per cent stake in Spice Digital for $20 million. While MediaTek wants to capitalise on Spice?s market potential in India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the latter is looking to use the funds raised for expansion of its device and service portfolio.
TCIL decides not to sell its stake in Bharti Hexacom
Telecom Consultants of India Limited (TCIL) has decided not to sell its 30 per cent stake in Bharti Hexacom. Though the TCIL board had been looking to exit the venture, it has decided to stay invested in Hexacom in light of the company?s strong performance and the prospect of higher valuations with the introduction of 3G.
Dayamitra Telekomunikasi secures $117.3 million loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Indonesia)
Indonesia-based Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) has secured a $117.3 million loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) for funding its capex requirements. Mitratel is a unit of Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), the country?s largest operator in subscriber terms. BRI has signed a six-year lending facility, which will be used by Mitratel to build and acquire towers and supporting facilities.
Alcatel-Lucent plans to sell its enterprise business segment (France)
Alcatel-Lucent is looking to sell its enterprise business segment. The business provides unified communications, workflow management and call centre software to large businesses internationally. It generates 10 per cent of the company?s total income. Private equity firm Permira has reportedly been the frontrunner in the negotiations to purchase the business at a bid of $1.3 billion.
