Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has said that its alternative asset arm has raised $1.14 billion in commitments for Morgan Stanley Private Markets Fund IV, a private equity fund of funds. Its strategy is to emphasize less efficient market segments and target managers with differentiated skill sets in the US, Western Europe and emerging private-equity markets. The firm has also recently opened up an office in Hong Kong.
"In today’s environment, distressed – including secondary purchases – and asset-backed strategies are especially attractive," said Tom Dorr, Chief Investment Officer, Private Equity Fund of Funds Team. The new fund, which is an increase of over 15% from the last fund, will make investments in primary funds, co-investments and direct secondaries.
Emerging markets are increasingly becoming attractive for limited partners (LPs). India ranks third in terms of attractiveness among emerging markets, after China and Brazil, said a recent survey by Emerging Markets Private Equity Association and Coller Capital. The survey added that 78% of the LPs with an exposure to emerging markets are now looking to increase their commitments. This is because most LPs believe that emerging market funds will give better returns developed market funds.
Fundraising has been increasingly getting tough as LPs are cutting commitments to the private equity asset class. Many fund managers have delayed their fund closing dates and are even trimming their fund size in order to reach a close.
Currently there are 78 India-focused funds on road in 2009 looking to raise $24 billion, according to data by Prequin. There are about 117 pan-Asia private equity funds - who have India as one of its geographies - on road currently targeting to raise an aggregate capital of $59.2 billion.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Universal Cables in JV with Furukawa Electric
Universal Cables Ltd (UCL), part of the M P Birla group, has entered into a joint venture agreement with Furukawa Electric Co, of Japan, for manufacturing and marketing optical fibre in India.
As per the agreement, UCL and associates would have a 55 per cent stake while the balance would be held by Furukawa and its affiliates. The chairman of the board of the joint venture would always be a nominee of UCL from amongst its nominee directors.
D R Bansal, chief mentor and CEO of UCL said, “By combining the pre-eminent position of the M P Birla group in optical fibre and cable business in India, with significant experience and technical expertise of Furukawa with the best in world-class technology and industry leadership position, we will bring our customers a strong product offering, greater breadth of service and increased local presence with value accretive for the customers exceeding expectations."
Bansal added that the partnership would enable the new joint venture to utilize the distribution channels of Furukawa in the international markets to reach new customers and compete effectively with lower cost.
As per the agreement, UCL and associates would have a 55 per cent stake while the balance would be held by Furukawa and its affiliates. The chairman of the board of the joint venture would always be a nominee of UCL from amongst its nominee directors.
D R Bansal, chief mentor and CEO of UCL said, “By combining the pre-eminent position of the M P Birla group in optical fibre and cable business in India, with significant experience and technical expertise of Furukawa with the best in world-class technology and industry leadership position, we will bring our customers a strong product offering, greater breadth of service and increased local presence with value accretive for the customers exceeding expectations."
Bansal added that the partnership would enable the new joint venture to utilize the distribution channels of Furukawa in the international markets to reach new customers and compete effectively with lower cost.
Unitech on assets sale spree, sells Gurgaon hotel
Unitech Ltd, the country’s second largest developer, on Friday said it has sold out a hotel in Gurgaon for Rs231 crore and is in advance stages of talks for selling out an office complex in the national capital.
The company has also signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) for sale of school plots in Gurgaon and another realty project in Kochi.
In a presentation to the investors, Unitech said that Marriott Courtyard hotel, comprising 199 rooms, in Gurgaon has been sold out for Rs231 crore to a high networth individual based out of Delhi. Unitech, which raised $325 million to retire part of its Rs8,400 crore debt, plans to sell four more hotels in Noida, Kolkata and Gurgaon within six months. It is also expecting “induction of private equity at project level”. The company is also expecting to close a deal to sell out its Saket office complex, comprising 2.2 lakh sq ft, in the current quarter. As part of its strategy to deal with the slowdown in the realty sector, Unitech is monetising its non-core assets by “deleveraging through sale of assets like hotels, offices and infusion of private equity at individual project level”. The sale of non-core assets are expected to contribute to cash flow of the company. It said that its sales have dipped to an all-time low because of slowdown in property market.
The company has also signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) for sale of school plots in Gurgaon and another realty project in Kochi.
In a presentation to the investors, Unitech said that Marriott Courtyard hotel, comprising 199 rooms, in Gurgaon has been sold out for Rs231 crore to a high networth individual based out of Delhi. Unitech, which raised $325 million to retire part of its Rs8,400 crore debt, plans to sell four more hotels in Noida, Kolkata and Gurgaon within six months. It is also expecting “induction of private equity at project level”. The company is also expecting to close a deal to sell out its Saket office complex, comprising 2.2 lakh sq ft, in the current quarter. As part of its strategy to deal with the slowdown in the realty sector, Unitech is monetising its non-core assets by “deleveraging through sale of assets like hotels, offices and infusion of private equity at individual project level”. The sale of non-core assets are expected to contribute to cash flow of the company. It said that its sales have dipped to an all-time low because of slowdown in property market.
Oracle-Sun deal - Impact on India
Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems will create a $1.5-billion (Rs 7,474 crore) entity in India, and help Oracle compete more effectively with arch rival IBM by bundling its business software with Sun’s computer servers, and offering them at competitive rates to customers in the country. This transaction will help Oracle address newer segments of India’s $34 billion market (Forrester estimate) for IT products and services, and increase its share of the overall enterprise software services market. Customers, such as Punjab National Bank (PNB), which already uses hundreds of computer servers from Sun Microsystems and runs several applications through Oracle’s database software, this transaction will surely add value. “Since we have both Oracle and Sun as important vendors, this acquisition will bring a lot of value,” said RIS Sidhu, chief information officer (CIO) of PNB. According to Dataquest, Sun Microsystems India had revenues of Rs 1, 674 crore, while Oracle India’s revenues were estimated to be around Rs 5,800 crore last year.
Religare hikes stake in Vistaar Religare Capital
Delhi-based financial services firm Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) has hiked its stake in Vistaar Religare Capital Advisors Ltd (VRCAL), from 50% to 74% for an undisclosed amount. The joint venture between REL and film production company Vistaar Entertainment Ventures Pvt Ltd which manages a film fund with a corpus of Rs 200 crore, was formed last year. As a result of the transaction, VRCAL has now become a subsidiary of REL, a public listed holding company of various financial services businesses promoted by former Ranbaxy owners, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh.
PA Consulting Denies Being in Talks with Cognizant for Buyout Deal
PA Consulting Group has denied the reports of being in talks with Cognizant Technology Solutions for a buyout deal. Economic Times reported yesterday that Cognizant was in early stage discussions with PA consulting for acquiring it for around $300-350 million.
“PA's Executive team and Board are not, nor have ever been, in talks with Cognizant about anything whatsoever. There is no truth at all in the allegation of an acquisition of PA, nor any part of PA; nor in the possibility of alliances, partnerships or the like,” PA Consulting has said in a statement issued today. The statement further clarifies that PA lays great emphasis on its ability to give its clients independent advice and cites this as a strong reason for not pursuing an alliance with Cognizant. The statement says, “the PA is a highly successful employee-owned global management and technology consulting firm, working across the world with major companies in the private and public sectors. We are one of the large stand most influential sourcing advisory firms and we take very seriously our ability to give our clients independent advice. The emphasis we place on this independence is one reason why we would not pursue an alliance with Cognizant.”
Referring to a report in The Economic Times, PA Consulting has said that it is seeking advice about the “highly inaccurate financial performance information given in the article, particularly as it understates PA's financial performance and is in direct conflict with its audited “information.
“PA's Executive team and Board are not, nor have ever been, in talks with Cognizant about anything whatsoever. There is no truth at all in the allegation of an acquisition of PA, nor any part of PA; nor in the possibility of alliances, partnerships or the like,” PA Consulting has said in a statement issued today. The statement further clarifies that PA lays great emphasis on its ability to give its clients independent advice and cites this as a strong reason for not pursuing an alliance with Cognizant. The statement says, “the PA is a highly successful employee-owned global management and technology consulting firm, working across the world with major companies in the private and public sectors. We are one of the large stand most influential sourcing advisory firms and we take very seriously our ability to give our clients independent advice. The emphasis we place on this independence is one reason why we would not pursue an alliance with Cognizant.”
Referring to a report in The Economic Times, PA Consulting has said that it is seeking advice about the “highly inaccurate financial performance information given in the article, particularly as it understates PA's financial performance and is in direct conflict with its audited “information.
GVFL Raises Rs 100 Cr For Rs 250 Cr Fund; To Get Rs 60 Cr More
GVFL Ltd, which is currently raising its SME Technology Venture Fund with a target of Rs 250 crore, has achieved first close at Rs 100 crore. The fund will get another Rs 60 crore in next few months, the firm's interim Managing Director Mihir Joshi said in an interview to VCCircle. Joshi has been appointed after long standing MD Vishnu Varshney stepped down from his post. Joshi is heading the fund till a new MD is found.
GVFL has raised about Rs 133 crore over five funds till date, and the new fund is its sixth vehicle. The target size of the new fund is nearly more than double the size of all the previous five funds combined. The dramatic increase in the fund size is because the new fund will focus on growth capital investments.
Till now GVFL has focused on early stage deals, investing between Rs 2-10 crore per deal. With the new fund, its deal sizes will go up. GVFL raises most of its funds from domestic institutions and its limited partners include institutions like CDC, IDBI, SIDBI, World Bank and other private and public sector organizations.
Stepping Up Investments
GVFL now seems be looking to step up investments and Joshi believes that this is the best time to invest. "We may close 2-3 more deals in next one month," he added.
The fund is looking to do deals in areas like information technology, biotech and nano technology. It will look at areas like healthcare and education in the IT domain, said Joshi. Some of GVFL's recent deals were white light emitting diode (LED) solar lighting systems maker Pegasus Semiconductors. One of its portfolio firms, 20 Microns, also listed on exchanges in October last year, in which the firm offloaded a part stake.
GVFL is one of the most active and largest state government-backed venture capital firms in the country. Other such VC firms include Punjab Infotech Venture Fund, Kerala Venture Capital Fund, Hyderabad Information Technology Venture Enterprise Ltd, Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund, etc.
GVFL has raised about Rs 133 crore over five funds till date, and the new fund is its sixth vehicle. The target size of the new fund is nearly more than double the size of all the previous five funds combined. The dramatic increase in the fund size is because the new fund will focus on growth capital investments.
Till now GVFL has focused on early stage deals, investing between Rs 2-10 crore per deal. With the new fund, its deal sizes will go up. GVFL raises most of its funds from domestic institutions and its limited partners include institutions like CDC, IDBI, SIDBI, World Bank and other private and public sector organizations.
Stepping Up Investments
GVFL now seems be looking to step up investments and Joshi believes that this is the best time to invest. "We may close 2-3 more deals in next one month," he added.
The fund is looking to do deals in areas like information technology, biotech and nano technology. It will look at areas like healthcare and education in the IT domain, said Joshi. Some of GVFL's recent deals were white light emitting diode (LED) solar lighting systems maker Pegasus Semiconductors. One of its portfolio firms, 20 Microns, also listed on exchanges in October last year, in which the firm offloaded a part stake.
GVFL is one of the most active and largest state government-backed venture capital firms in the country. Other such VC firms include Punjab Infotech Venture Fund, Kerala Venture Capital Fund, Hyderabad Information Technology Venture Enterprise Ltd, Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund, etc.
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