Corporate

Promoters, Actis to exit Nilgiri Supermarkets

The promoter of Nilgiri Supermarkets, and global private equity firm Actis have jointly decided to sell their entire share holding in the Company. A global retail major has expressed the buyout interest, and sale could be in the form of an auction, similar to the recently concluded Paras Pharma deal. Morgan Stanley India has received the sale mandate for Nilgiri. A high quality asset like Nilgiri will draw interest from Indian players too.

Actis owns 65 percent stake in Nilgiri, purchased for $65 million in Sep 2006. Actis holding is structured as a back-end and franchise model, where it is getting royalty from the franchisee.

Patni bid: Carlyle group tops iGate-Apax

Private equity firm Carlyle is ahead in the race for a controlling stake in Patni Computer Systems with a bid of Rs 600 a share. The Carlyle bid is higher than the iGate-Apax bid, which is believed to be around Rs 550 a share and without any non-compete clause tied to it. Its bid at Rs 600 a share values the Patni Computers at around Rs 7,800 crore, a 25 percent premium to its current market value. The Management of Patni has not yet given any indication whether they would endorse the highest bid at this stage.

Strides to up stake in Oz Pharma to 94 percent

Strides Arcolab is consolidating its stake in Australian firm Ascent Pharmahealth. Currently, it holds 60.3 percent in the firm and plans to increase it to 94 percent. Strides will need around $36 million for the deal and will raise the amount through internal funding. The firm announced its plans to enter into a scheme-implementation agreement under which Linkace investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of strides, will buyout the outstanding minority shares of Ascent. After the deal is closed, Strides would opt to delist Ascent Pharma from the stock exchange. Ascent occupies the fourth position in the branded generics segment in Australia.. The process is expected to be over by Apr 2011.

Temasek buys 3 percent pie in Max India

Temasek Holdings has acquired over 3 percent equity of Max India that runs a hospital chain and owns stake in insurance venture. Temasek started accumulating shares of Max India through stock market purchases from early Nov 2010 and has brought at an average price of about Rs 160 per share translating into an investment worth Rs 120 crore. Temasek had exited its investment in another hospital chain Apollo Hospitals in 2007, the investment in Max India will once again provide exposure to Indian healthcare sector. It is looking to diversify investment in India to new sectors such as infrastructure and health-care.

Food Inflation back in red zone

Prices of vegetables continued to rise, pushing food inflation back into double digits. Food price index rose 12.1 percent for the week ended Dec 11 from a year ago, compared with 9.5 percent in the previous week in a row. The index for food articles was up 2.3 percent during the week. Unseasonal rains have caused damage to some standing crops resulting in shortage of vegetables. Rise in vegetable prices was the highest at 11.3 percent, while prices of onions and potatoes rose by 4.6 percent and 9.5 percent from the previous week. Food inflation has eased into single digits in the third week of Nov as the Kharif crops had started flowing into the market, but the impact was limited to cerals and pulses. Cerals and Pulses prices dropped 10.7 percent and 0.35 percent respectively during the week from a year ago. The price is due to supply side constraints.

(An Article by DAS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AND ADVISORS Pvt Ltd)