1) Apollo Tyres is acquiring Cooper Tire, a NYSE-listed company, for $2.5 billion, making it the largest M&A deal this year involving an Indian company.
2) Twilight Litika is selling its manufacturing unit in Himachal Pradesh to Herbalife International for $3.5 million as part of plans to reduce debt by selling non-core assets.
3) The Securities and Exchange Board of India is seeking details from Infosys about a board meeting where N.R. Narayana Murthy was reappointed as executive chairman, but Infosys did not disclose the nature of the information sought.
1. 1
Top Headlines
Apollo Tyres to buy NYSE-listed Cooper Tire for $2.5B in
year's largest M&A deal.
Twilight Litika to sell manufacturing unit to Herbalife for
$3.5M.
SEBI seeks details on board meet which brought Narayana
Murthy back as Infy chairman.
Aditya Birla Group, Coal India among suitors for $3.2B Rio
Tinto's coal assets.
GMR Airports acquires 17.03% stake in Delhi Duty Free
Services.
Norwest Venture Partners to invest $10.4M in cold chain
logistics firm Snowman.
Eredene sells 6.8% stake in port management firm Ocean
Sparkle to Infrastructure India Holdings Fund for $12.9M.
US-based OpenTable acquires mobile payments startup
JustChalo for $11M.
Inflation eases to 4.7% in May but rate cut could be
elusive.
HDFC plans to raise $173M via commercial paper.
Inside The Story
Apollo Tyres to buy NYSE-listed Cooper Tire for $2.5B in
year's largest M&A deal.
Apollo Tyres Ltd has said it will acquire New York Stock Exchange-listed Cooper Tire &
Rubber Company for $2.5 billion (Rs 14,500 crore) in an all-cash deal. In what is
apparently the company's most ambitious move, Apollo Tyres is going to buy a firm over
three times its size in terms of market capitalisation and more than double in terms of
sales.The transaction will be this year’s largest merger & acquisition deal involving an
Indian company, after Mylan acquired Strides Arcolab’s generic injectables unit Agila for
$1.6 billion in February
2. 2
Twilight Litika to sell manufacturing unit to Herbalife for
$3.5M.
Twilight Litaka Pharma Ltd (TLP) is looking to sell its manufacturing unit located at
Baddi in Solan district in Himachal Pradesh, to Herbalife International India Pvt Ltd, a
subsidiary of US-based Herbalife International, for Rs 20 crore ($3.45 million).Herbalife
is a nutrition and weight-management company which is operating in 66 countries
through a network of over 1.8 million distributors.The firm has also sought approval for
either selling or jointly developing real estate assets in Pune for at least Rs 27 crore. The
deals are part of the company's plans to cut debt through sale of non-core assets.
SEBI seeks details on board meet which brought Narayana
Murthy back as Infy chairman.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has sought details from Infosys,
India's No. 2 software services exporter, about a board meeting held on the day founder
N.R. Narayana Murthy was re-appointed to an executive role in the company.Infosys did
not disclose the nature of the information sought by the SEBI.Market regulator SEBI
routinely seeks clarifications from listed companies without citing reasons, and the
requests for information are not necessarily an indication of an official investigation.
Aditya Birla Group, Coal India among suitors for $3.2B Rio
Tinto's coal assets.
Aditya Birla Group, Coal India Ltd and China's state-owned Shenhua Group Corp Ltd are
among companies considering bids for some of Rio Tinto Ltd's Australian coal assets,
valued at an estimated $3.2 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.Rio
Tinto, led by new chief executive Sam Walsh, is offloading a string of assets to help cut
its $26 billion in debt and protect its single-A credit rating. It is also looking to cut its
exposure to the coal industry, which has been squeezed by surging costs and a 30 per cent
slump in prices since early 2012.This has given potential suitors the opportunity to bulk
up on good quality coal assets and secure supply agreements.
GMR Airports acquires 17.03% stake in Delhi Duty Free
Services.
GMR Airports Ltd, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, has acquired a 17.03 per cent
stake in Delhi Duty Free Services Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount, as per a stock
market disclosure.Delhi Duty Free Services operates, maintains and manages duty free
outlets at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI Airport), New Delhi, under concession
from Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) which holds 49.9 per cent in the
3. 3
company; 33.07 per cent stake is held by Yalorvin Ltd, a subsidiary of Aer Rianta
International cpt (ARI).
Norwest Venture Partners to invest $10.4M in cold chain
logistics firm Snowman.
Venture and growth capital investor Norwest Venture Partners is picking up 14 per cent
stake in the cold chain services firm Snowman Logistics Ltd for Rs 60 crore ($10.4
million) through a fresh issue of shares. The investment is a play on the domestic
consumption story for Norwest, a Silicon Valley-headquartered multi-stage investment
firm that manages more than $3.7 billion in capital.The deal is expected to value
Snowman, a subsidiary of the BSE-listed Gateway Distriparks Ltd, at Rs 420-430 crore.
Shares of Gateway Distriparks closed at Rs 116.5, up 0.43 per cent on the BSE on Friday.
Eredene sells 6.8% stake in port management firm Ocean
Sparkle to Infrastructure India Holdings Fund for $12.9M.
AIM-listed investor Eredene Capital Plc has exited its investment in port operations and
marine services provider Ocean Sparkle Ltd (OSL) for £8.2 million ($12.9 million or Rs
75 crore), as per a company statement.The stake was acquired by Mauritius-based
Infrastructure India Holdings Fund LLC, a fund managed by Kris Fund Management.
Kaup Capital was the advisor to Kris Fund Management. Eredene is expected to sell its
stake at around Rs 75 crore and by June, the deal is expected to be closed with an existing
investor in the company. Earlier, it was also in talks with another existing investor,
Standard Chartered Private Equity, for the transaction.
US-based OpenTable acquires mobile payments startup
JustChalo for $11M
The US-based online restaurant reservations firm OpenTable Inc has acquired Mumbai
and Silicon Valley-based mobile payments startup JustChalo, run by JustChalo
Technologies and JustChalo Inc, for around $11 million.“Mobile is increasingly
important to our business and the JustChalo team’s expertise will help accelerate our
development efforts in this area. We are looking forward to integrating JustChalo’s
engineers into our team and continuing to enhance the mobile experience for diners and
our restaurant customers,” said Joseph Essas, CTO of OpenTable in a statement.In the
first quarter of 2013, reservations booked on mobile devices accounted for 36 per cent of
the 34 million diners OpenTable seated in North America, as per its statement.
4. 4
Inflation eases to 4.7% in May but rate cut could be
elusive.
The headline inflation slowed for a fourth straight month in May to 4.7 per cent from a
year earlier, but a slump in the rupee is likely to prevent the RBI from lowering policy
rates on Monday despite the economy slowing to a decade-low level.May's reading, the
lowest in more than three years, was less than the 4.87 per cent estimated by analysts in a
Reuters poll. The wholesale price index, India's main inflation measure, rose an annual
4.89 per cent in April.The reading for March was revised to 5.65 per cent from 5.96 per
cent, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday showed.
HDFC plans to raise $173M via commercial paper.
Housing Development Finance Corp. is planning to raise Rs 10 billion ($173.10 million)
through 364-day commercial papers yielding 8.80%.The firm has directly placed the
papers with mutual funds, said the sources