ePlanet picks up stake in Ramcides
Dec, 8 Times News Network Chennai

These are difficult times for corporate fund raising, be it debt or equity, private or public. Belying this, a Chennai-based agro solutions company-Sree Ramcides has quietly concluded a fund raising exercise with ePlanet Ventures.

"We have received growth capital from ePlanet Ventures for a minority stake," R Padmanaban, MD of Sree Ramcides Chemicals, told The Times of India. The funds raised from this exercise would be used to expansion of the company spread across Pudukottai, Chennai and Jammu. The company makes products in the crop protection and crop health segment space.

ePlanet would be accorded one board representation in Ramcides. Veda Corporate Advisors advised the company in the transaction.

"The company has been doing well in the past three years and there exists a huge opportunity in the agro space, which excited us to invest in Ramcides," Chandrasekar Kandaswamy, MD of ePlanet Ventures, said. He however did not divulge the details of the transaction.

Ramcides closed the fiscal ended March 2008 with revenues of Rs 101 crore and the company hopes to end this year with a topline of Rs 150 to Rs 160 crore. "Our aim is to grow to a Rs 350 crore company by March 2012 with a clear focus on agro products. We do have other products like detergents and mosquito repellents. That will be a small portion of our business." The company has applied for 8 patents across various plant nutrient and plant protection products, and has 8,000 dealers spread across 20 states.

Mayfield,SVB invest Rs 45 cr in Geodesic
Jul,25 Economic Times Bangalore

VC FUNDS Mayfield Advisors and SVB have picked up a minority stake in Bangalore-based Geodesic Techniques that designs and builds prefabricated steel structures. The funds have infused about $11 million (Rs 45 crore) into the company that will be utilised to set up a steel fabrication unit at Bidar, in north Karnataka. Geodesic expects to register a turnover of about Rs 200 crore in the 2008-09 financial year.

The investments will help the company meet its target of being a Rs 1,000 crore company in four years, after which it would enter the capital markets with its IPO. Veda Corporate Finance was advisors to the deal.This is Mayfields sixth investment in India, and the latest investment is part of a strategy that focuses on investing in infrastructure ancillaries.

Geodesic specialises in steelbased construction and signature structures for buildings, multi-level car parks and transportation structures. The companys end users include L&T, GVK, GMR, TCS and Infosys.

The investment will help us backward integrate, thereby making us the only end-to-end player in our business segment. This funding round will also help us commercialise innovative design solutions which are under development said Geodesic Techniques MD Srinidhi Anantharaman.The Bidar plant will be operational in January 2009 with a nominal capacity of 1,500 tonne per month initially and this will be scaled up to 3,000 tonne per month by mid-2009.

Trent buys out Landmark promoter
Times News Network May 01 2008

Chennai: After establishing the first book-store in Chennai in 1987, Landmark Book Store promoter Hemu Ramiah has exited the business lock-stock and barrel by selling her residual stake in the company to Tata promoted retailing chain - Trent.

The seeds of the imminent sale were sown in May 2006 when Trent bought 76% stake in the company while allowing Hemu Ramiah to continue to run the business and remain as its CEO. At that time Tatas paid around Rs 104 crore.

"I had an option to stay invested in the company and be its CEO or sell off. I chose the second," Ramiah told the Times of India soon after signing the deal with the Tatas. She however, did not disclose the financial contours of the transaction. Veda Corporate Advisors have been advising Landmark promoters in the first transaction as well the current one where the exit happened.

The transaction which was concluded on Wednesday would now see Ramiah start a retail design constancy firm. "As per the original deal, Tatas had the first right of refusal to buy the remaining stake. Today, when I opted to exit, they bought me over. I have other plans which includes starting a retail design consultancy firm. People with absolutely no or little domain knowledge are getting into it. I have been retailing for the past 30 years. My learning can be used effectively," she said.

Landmark's website claims that it is India's first large format book store with 10 stores ranging from 12,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet. It has three in Chennai, one each in Bangalore, Mumbai, Vadodara, Gurgaon, Pune and Lucknow. Besides books, Landmark stocks stationery, greeting cards, music albums and gifts.Landmark's revenues for this year is expected to be around Rs 240 crore and on plans is to add another seven to eight stores this year.

DM Healthcare sheds 26% pie to India Value
THE ECONOMIC TIMES FEB 13 2008

INDIA Value Fund, formerly GW Capital, is investing Rs 200 crore into Kochi-based DM Healthcare, the holding company of Dr Moopen's Group, a healthcare service provider with operations in Middle East and India.

The $650-million IVF will pick up roughly 26% stake in DM Healthcare, which is charting out a Rs 1,000-crore expansion in the Indian tertiary and secondary healthcare segments. Along with the investment, DM is also roping in Hinduja Hospitals honcho Anupam Verma as its CEO to spearhead operations. Veda Corporate Finance is the sole advisor of the transaction. IVF's previous investments in the healthcare domain include Biocon, Care Hospital and TTK Healthcare Services.

"We hope to have a network of hospitals with around 2500 beds in four years," DM Healthcare chairman Azad Moopen told ET from Dubai. The domestic expansion plans will be accelerated through acquisitions and joint ventures, besides greenfield ventures. The group also operates a chain of pharmacy under MedShop brand and a network of clinics under MedCentre brand in the Gulf. In India, Moopen's presence is limited to Kerala where it has a stake in the Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences. "We see a long term secular growth for healthcare sector, and along with DM we hope to tap the healthcare market for the middle class in India," said Sunil Theckath, partner in India Value Fund. DM is also in the midst of expanding its operations into more markets in Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Its existing $75 million operations cover Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Qatar amongst others.

Along with private equity placement, DM will show up with more cash through promoters contribution and debt for funding. "Our Middle East operations generate significant surplus cash that will be ploughed back into expansion," said Dr Moopen.

IVF, floated by GE Capital's former CEO Gary Wendt, takes active managerial positions through buyout investments across sectors. It has taken majority positions in Trinethra-Fabmall retail chain and Radio City FM, and scripted some successful exits when it sold Trinethra to AV Birla Group.

- DM Healthcare will get Rs 200 crore from India Value Fund
- IVF would get 26% stake in DM Healthcare
- Hinduja Hospitals honcho Anupam Verma would be the CEO of the Rs 1,000-crore expansion project
- DM Healthcare's domestic expansion plans will be accelerated through acquisitions, joint ventures and greenfield venture

IP Soft to buy 55% in Scantrans
The Economic Times, Oct 06 2007

IP SOFT (IPS), a Singapore-headquartered supply chain services major, is acquiring majority stake in the Chennai-based print and packaging company Scantrans. IPS, listed on Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), is picking up 55% stake in Scantrans for over $5 million (Rs 20 crore).

IPS, with annualised revenue of over $130 million, is a significant player in the integrated supply chain services market across Asia-Pacific and counts high technology clients like Apple, Dell, HP and Intuit as its key accounts. Print and packaging and media replication figure prominently in its supply chain services play.

Set up in 1994, Scantrans has clients across sectors like pharma, electronics goods and hardware, FMCG and automobiles. It is projected to end the year with a turnover in excess of Rs 40 crore during the ongoing financial year. The customer list includes names like Cipla, Orchid, Flextronics, Motorola, Panasonic, Ford and BMW. Veda Corporate Advisors was advisor in this cross-border deal.

"We decided to fastrack our progress in the print and packaging segment through inorganic growth given the robust business growth in recent years. We hope to set up a facility up north as well given that several companies have been moving there to take advantage of the excise benefits offered by state governments," IP Soft MD Srihari Raghavan told ET. "By early next year we are hoping to pump investments into media replication business in India," he added.

The deal will help Scantrans leverage on IPS international client base in Indian market. Scantrans MD Ravi Krishnan said the company was targeting revenue of Rs 150 crore in the next three years, and was already beginning to work with IPS' international customers in India. Post-acquisition, the management structure at Scantrans will remain unchanged.

Quatrro BPO buys out eIndia's stake
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Apr 20 2007

NEW DELHI: Raman Roy's Quatrro BPO Solutions has bought out Mauritius-based fund eIndia's stake in Chennai-based Scope eKnowledge, a knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firm. Through this acquisition, Quatrro has taken a 'significant majority stake' in the 500 people KPO.

This is Quatrro's fourth big investment in the last 12-18 months. Others include 100% buyout of Flextronics BPO arm and investments in Annik Technology Services, an analytics firm and John Keells, a shipping and ports services company.

Simultaneously, Quatrro has also got an additional funding of $100 million from a bunch of VCs, taking the total VC investment in the company to over $200 million. Olympus Capital is one of the VCs which had invested about $90 million in Quatrro sometime back. Scope eKnowledge is a top-end KPO vendor with services spanning patent filing, knowledge extraction, legal processes and market research.

Its clients include Thomson Scientific, Reed Business Information, London Business School and Fortune 100 companies. Its 500 staff comprise engineers, doctors, radiologists, MBAs and other professionals. Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro and V Balakrishnan, who spearheads Quatrro's M&A effort, will be joining the eScope Knowledge board. Interestingly, Scope eKnowledge was set up back in 1987 as a business research organisation and made its foray into KPO space in 2001.

When contacted by ET, Mr Roy said, Scope eKnowledge is a top-end research and KPO firm. What excited us was the kind of work they do and the fact that net margins in such business are almost double of what you can expect in BPO work. Our business model is to support management teams. We will supplement the management of Scope eKnowledge and will not replace it. We are already making joint calls to customers for new business.

Typically, for BPO work, the net margins are in the range of 12-15% while in KPO companies it can be double of that. Says R Sivadas, CEO, Scope eKnowledge, "We have a spectrum of clients including Fortune 10 companies and four of the top 10 global publishing companies. KPO business is still nascent in India but we see lot of potential. It is beginning to grow now. We have built a large, trained, qualified team and with Quatrro now we have access to significant domain expertise as well".

Besides English, Scope eKnowledge offers services in German, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese, Russian and other languages. The delivery centre is in Chennai and it also has offices in China, New York, Chicago, Orlando, London, Brussels and Cologne.

With Scope eKnowledge, Quatrro now has 1,300 to 1,400 people and is looking at both organic and inorganic growth options.

BCCL buys stake in Life Cell
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Jan 05 2007

Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) has taken a stake in stem cell banking and research company Life Cell. Launched in November 2004, Life Cell has a state-of-the-art stem cell processing and banking facility near Chennai conforming to the standards of American Association of Blood Banks and US FDA. The company currently has 21 marketing and collection centers across India and has enrolled over 5,000 customers.

Life Cell recently made a foray into international markets with the launch of its Dubai operations and will soon expand presence to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Pakistan. The company has a technology tie-up with Cryo-Cell International (CCI), USA, which is a pioneer in the field of cord blood banking.

V R Chandramouli, CEO of Life Cell said, "LifeCell is India's first family cord blood bank to bring umbilical cord stem cell banking to the country. We plan to foray into public banking shortly and also intend to bring in clinical trials (on stem cell based therapies) and manufacturing partnership to the country."

Umbilical cord blood is usually discarded after child birth and is a rich source of stem cells. Stem cells are master cells that can regenerate into other types of cells and can help cure over 75 ailments. The stem cells collected from a baby will be perfectly compatible for the child and will have 25% chances of matching his or her siblings. Storage banks like LifeCell preserve the stem cells for individuals till need arises.

Electromags buy to beef up Wadias' auto parts biz
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, Dec 16 2006

The Wadia group is gearing up for an increased presence in auto components. Group company, Afco Industrial & Chemicals, has bought Chennai-based Electromags Automotive Products for about Rs 50 crore.

Afco is a subsidiary of Bombay Burmah Trading, India's second-oldest listed company with interests in timber trading, tea plantations and textiles.

Though the company didn't provide further details, it has been learnt that the move is in line with its objective of increasing presence in the fast-growing auto components business. It is also in sync with the restructuring that the group has drawn, that includes a focus on new-age businesses such as aviation, retail and real estate.

Electromags Automotive makes electro-mechanical components and its clientele includes foreign and local companies such as Robert Bosch, Honda, TVS Motorcycles and Sundaram Clayton.

The Wadia group already has an auto component unit through BCL Springs, India's second-largest maker of precision springs. It posted a 34% growth last fiscal. Sources said while the acquisition is small, it certainly indicates the group's plan to expand into pneumatic products and also into foreign markets. Electromags Automotive exports to countries like Germany, UK, Turkey, Denmark, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Baring pitches for PharmArc stake
The Economic Times

PRIVATE equity (PE) majors are turning to Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) now. Baring Private Equity Partners is investing $10 million for a significant minority stake in the two and a half year-old PharmArc Analytic Solutions, a marketing analytics and business consulting firm focused on the global pharmaceutical market.

This is probably the biggest PE action in the emerging KPO industry, and it marks Baring's interest in this sector after highprofile BPO investments, including the recent $254 million exit from Mphasis BFL. PharmArc, promoted by Siraj Dhanani and Amit Sadana, has over 180 consultants working out of its Bangalore hub at the moment. The company, which boasts 11 out of the 20 top global pharma giants as clients, is expected to end the ongoing calendar year with $7 million in revenue.

"We expect to use the investments for enhancing our onsite service delivery and client management in US and Europe, and for establishing a presence in Asia-Pacific. Besides the investment, Baring also brings to the table a proven reputation in building companies," Siraj Dhanani, CEO of PharmArc, told ET. The deal valuation was not available. Veda Corporate Advisors was the investment banker for PharmArc.

Baring's interest in PharmArc is significant given that KPO sector is expected to touch $16 billion by 2010, with India accounting for bulk of the work. KPO is essentially upward migration in the BPO value chain � from process expertise to knowledge expertise. Mr Dhanani, a former top honcho of Strand Genomics, said the firm could also look at "selective acquisitions" to expand the portfolio of service offerings, and establish a presence in targeted niche segments. "Our goal is to emerge as a leading pharmaceutical industry KPO with a multifold increase in revenues over the next few years," he added.

The company hopes to ramp up its manpower to 450/500 over the next two years. "We have multiple level engagement with our clients spanning from specific projects to multiyear contracts. We are focused on delivering value to the pharma industry by enabling better decisions in sales and marketing," said Amit Sadana, president of PharmArc.

Baring currently has assets over $500 million under management in India, and was one of the first PE biggies to move into ITeS/ BPO sector about eight years ago. It must be mentioned that PE majors have made several successful, big-ticket BPO exits in recent times like Citigroup's divestment from Progeon and that of Baring's from Mphasis BFL being the prominent ones.

Yahoo! and Canaan Partners invest USD 8.65 million in BharatMatrimony
India PRWIRE, Aug 02 2006

Mumbai, August 2, 2006: Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company and Canaan Partners, a global early stage venture investor in innovative technology companies, today announced that the companies have both invested US $8.65 million in BharatMatrimony.com Pvt. Ltd, the No. 1 matrimony service provider with 7.5 million registered members. Both investors will be represented on the board of the company. Veda Corporate Advisors acted as a strategic advisor to the transaction.

Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO, BharatMatrimony Group, said, "It gives me immense pride that two of the world's leading companies in the technology and Internet space have invested in our business. More importantly, the global knowledge, partnerships and experience that both these investors bring will help us scale our business globally. The infused capital will be used to further sustain our leadership position in the matrimony sector. The investment will also be used to enhance our portfolio of services and take them to leadership positions in their respective sectors."

The BharatMatrimony Group plans to significantly expand its presence on-ground and will also invest in the global personals space. BharatMatrimony is the first portal to offer content in six Indian languages and the company soon plans to offer content in two more languages. As part of its expansion plans, BharatMatrimony Group expects to double its headcount to 700 by the end of this year.

The company also plans to increase the number of BharatMatrimony Centres (BMC), its offline initiative, from 38 to over 300 across the country by 2008. BharatMatrimony has plans to open offices in UK and in key South East Asian markets to cater to the Indian Diaspora and to open up religion / country based matrimony portals.

Alok Mittal, executive director - India, Canaan Partners, said, "We are very excited to be an investor in BharatMatrimony. The company is very well positioned to grow rapidly and maintain its leadership in the Indian Internet landscape while continuing to be a highly valuable company from a social standpoint. The company's services truly change the lives of millions of Indians around the world. India is one of the key markets for Canaan Partners and we are looking at creating lasting partnerships in the technology space and generating shareholder wealth over the coming years." Mittal, who will represent Canaan Partners on the Board, was the founding managing director of a prominent job portal, JobsAhead.com. Janakiraman says that Mittal's experience and expertise will give a strong competitive advantage to BharatMatrimony's ClickJobs.com.

Commenting on Yahoo!'s investment in BharatMatrimony, Susan Decker, chief financial officer, Yahoo! Inc. said, "India is one of the fastest growing Internet markets and our investment in BharatMatrimony furthers Yahoo!'s plans to extend our leading position in the country."

George Zacharias, managing director, Yahoo! India said, "BharatMatrimony Group's strength in matrimonial and other services complements the strong offerings we already provide in the Indian market across communications, search, and mobile. On completion of the investment, Yahoo! India and BharatMatrimony Group will cooperate through a business partnership".

Motilal Oswal buys Peninsular's capital market business
Business Line, Feb 12 2006

MOTILAL Oswal Securities Ltd is to take over the capital market operations of the Kochi-based Peninsular Capital Market, for an undisclosed amount. Peninsular has 257 branches spread across 12 States, with major presence in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and an active customer base of over 30,000. A large number of these branches are run by franchisees.

Of the 200 staff in Peninsular, the direct employees would be absorbed by the new management, Mr Akshay Agarwal, Managing Director of Peninsular, said. The deal leaves Peninsular free to pursue its commodity derivatives trading operations through Peninsular Multi Comex Services Ltd as well as portfolio management services.

Through this strategic move, Motilal Oswal Securities is reinforcing its presence in South India. The company is also giving a new thrust to the retail segment, sources said. Mr Motilal Oswal, Chairman and Managing Director Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd and Mr T.S. Anantharaman, Chairman of Peninsular Capital Market, signed a memorandum of understanding for this acquisition in Kochi on Friday.

While a new franchisee of Motilal Oswal has to pay a deposit of Rs 3 lakh, existing franchisees of Peninsular need make no further payments, other than Rs 1 lakh they have already remitted.

VC fund to pick up stake in UDS
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, Jan 30 2006

CHENNAI: Venture capital funds in India are not shying away from entering hitherto uncharted territories, provided there is a right investment opportunity and growth potential. New Vernon Bharat is pumping in $10m for a minority stake in Updater Services (UDS), India's largest facility management company.

Consistently growing at about 40% to 50% per annum and expected to end this fiscal with a topline of Rs 65 crore, UDS today manages in excess of 35m sq ft of space, primarily in IT and manufacturing sectors. It manages almost all of Infosys facilities, besides Embassy Golf Links (EGL) in Bangalore, the Tidel Park in Chennai and the Hitec City in Hyderabad among others.

Besides facility management services, it also offers production support services to companies like Hyundai Motor India and French glass major, Saint Gobain. While UDS has a minor presence in Mumbai and Delhi, almost 80% of its revenues come from South India, largely from Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

It intends to utilise the capital now raised for acquiring other facility management companies in areas where it is not present. It will also bring under its acquisition radar those companies offering complementing services.

"We have chalked out an aggressive acquisition plan to have a pan-India presence. And we will not hesitate to raise additional capital, if needed, to achieve the same," T Raghunandana, managing director, Updater Services told ET. Veda Corporate Advisors facilitated the deal.

While UDS has a target to achieve Rs 100 crore in revenues by end of '06-'07, it wants to ramp up the topline and race towards the Rs 250-crore mark in three years. "This is better achieved through inorganic growth," Mr Raghunandana said.UDS is promoting a chain of service apartments to cater to the booming economy.

It has already acquired land on Chennai's IT Corridor for an 80-apartment property in the city."While acquisition of facility management companies will happen in the Western and Northern regions, where UDS has a limited presence now, the company will also move forward aggressively to have a national presence," he said. "With big IT players spreading across India, it is only natural that they would expect the service providers too to do the same," he added.

"This will be followed by Bangalore and Hyderabad and will later spread to Kolkata and Kochi, besides the B-cities like Coimbatore and Pune," he pointed out.Unlike the multinational facility management companies like JLL and JCI, who in turn outsource these services to smaller companies in India, UDS is an integrated player equipped with in-house resources that are self-managed. With over 8,500 employees on its roll, it has also been offering 'staffing services', which it now wants to extend to the hospitality sector.

New Vernon to invest in Eastern Condiments
The Economic Times, Jan 08 2006

New Vernon Private Equity is keen to add a bit of Indian masala and flavour to its investment bouquet in the country. It is set to invest Rs 44 crore for a mi-nority stake in Eastern Condiments, one of India's largest manufacturers of branded pure spices and masalas.

The 20 year-old company's products are sold in the domestic market under the 'Eastern' brand. It sells over five lakh pouches a day of its products, which are available in over 50,000 retail outlets, predominantly in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It has just entered the west and north Indian markets and has chalked out plans for a national roll out of 'Eastern' products.

The company is also India's largest exporter of branded curry powder, in con-sumer packs of less than 500 gm, supplied to large super markets in at least 10 countries, for which it has bagged the export award from the Spices Board consecutively over the last seven years.

The company has its plants, with a combined capacity of 20,000 tonne per an-num, at Adimali, Kerala and Theni in Tamil Nadu. It also has a well equipped laboratory for microbial and chemical analysis with a dedicated R & D facil-ity. It also operates a large cold storage facility at Theni.

"We are trying to create a pan-Indian strategy for masalas and the major focus is to establish a direct distribution network across the country.The fresh in-fusement of capital will be utilised for these, as well as for creating world class manufacturing facilities," Mr Navas Meeran, vice chairman, Eastern Condiments told ET. The company is awaiting a few statutory approvals", expected to come over the next few days, for this fresh infusement of capital.

New Vernon Private Equity, a $One billion India-centric fund, has already in-vested in Balrampur Chini, Ricoh Auto, Celebrity Fashions and Rajasthan Spinning among others. The Chennai-based investment banking firm, Veda Corporate Advisors facilitated the deal.

According to Mr Meeran, who is also the vice chairman of CII (Kerala), there are lot of "negativeness" about Kerala's militant labour. The state also has certain geographical dis-advantages having been placed at the "tail-end of the country".

"However, these issues cannot hinder entrepreneurship. For instance, we took a direct route of distribution and connected almost 30,000 retail outlets, which is being hailed as our pillar of strength," Mr Meeran observed. "There are sev-eral such successful entrepreneurships across Kerala", he pointed out.

"We have been growing consistently, in terms of revenues, and still feel there is enough scope for the export revenue to grow two - three times over the next couple of years", Mr Meeran said. Part of the increase is expected to come through 'in-organic growth' as well. From a little over Rs 140 crore revenues now, it expects to achieve a revenue target of Rs 180 crore for the year 2006-07, and Rs 245 crore at the end of 2007-08.

Barings pumps in $4 m for Maples ESM pie
The Economic Times, Dec 15 2005

Barings Private Equity Partners India has pumped in $4 million to pick up a sizeable equity stake in the Chennai-based Maples ESM Technologies, a remote IT infrastructure management company.

Maples' core business focus area is enterprise systems management (ESM) and enterprise application services (EAS). And to support these two consulting practices, it has a training division which serves as a feeder.

The company takes care of remote IT infrastructure management for high-end servers. While others in the business focus their attention on desktop and Linux management. Maples' focus is on mainframes, mid-range and IBM Unix boxes. It has its presence across several key IT cities in the country including Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. It has also established a base in Sydney, Australia, and plans to have one on the US east coast by January 2006.

"We are a tier-II vendor, where there is not much of competition given our expertise to manage high-end tools, which has been a key focus area for the company. The present capital infusion from Barings will help us to aggressively move forward", Mr Ram Subramani, CMD, Maples ESM Technologies, told ET.

Veda Corporate Advisors facilitated the investment by Baring. As for ESM, Maples manages the complexity of OS, database and networks for big brands like IBM and Standard Chartered. "Our client list includes almost all the IT majors including Infosys, Wipro and TCS", Mr Subramani said.

It currently has 400 people, with over 350 of them in consulting services. About 35 are in the training division. "The number of people will increase to 800 by March 2006, and by the end of December that year, we will aggressively grow to 1,500 people", he pointed out.

Maples, which clocked a turnover of about Rs 10 crore last year, hopes to close this fiscal with a topline of close to Rs 16 crore. "With the increased head count over the next year, we hope to reach a turnover of Rs 45 crore to Rs 50 crore during 2006-07", he said.

Paramount raises $14 million from Kotak Venture Fund
The Times of India, Nov 27 2005

CHENNAI: The Coimbatore-based, all business class start-up airline, Paramount Airways has quietly sealed its first round of venture funding with Kotak Venture Fund investing around $14 million.

According to sources familiar with the development, Kotak will pick up a "minority stake" (the exact stake the fund picks up is kept under wraps). The valuation of Paramount for the purpose of this deal is being pegged at around $125 million.

M Thyagarajan, MD, Paramount Airways abstained from commenting on the transaction.

Sources also said Kotak was preferred, factoring in future fund related activities that the airline might want to tap at a future date.

"Actually we are adequately funded, our internal accruals take care of our operational cost. The funds raised now will be used to acquire six Embraer aircraft over the next six months," official sources said.

The deal assumes significance from the standpoint that two other airline deals are hanging on (Air Sahara and Spice Jet) without closure.

Veda Corporate Advisors advised Paramount Air on the transaction. It might be noted here that Bennett, Coleman & Company (publishers of The Times of India and The Economic Times) have picked up 2% stake in the airline a few days back..

Of the six new aircraft planned, three will be Embraer 170 (70 seats all business class) and three Embraer 175 (11 first class and 64 business class). Paramount operates flights between Coimbatore, Chennai, Kochi and New Delhi. ... ... It is promoted by the illustrious Karumuttu family of Madurai in South Tamil Nadu. Bank of Madura (which is now under the belt of ICICI Bank) was promoted by this family.

PVT EQUITY TO FLOOD COIMBATORE'S TEXCOS
The Economic Times, Sep 19 2005

Private equity funds, which have so far avoided investing in Coimbatore's textile industry, may soon have a large presence there.

Faced with a need to expand at a rapid pace in order to be competitive, textile companies are taking a fresh look at their capital infusion plans. They are now contemplating multiple options including private equity for raising money. Funds, too, appear keen on investing $5-15 million in a company with a decent growth record.

The mutual suspicion and apprehensions of the past appear to be making way for mutual co-operation. Even companies with less than Rs 100 crore in topline want a private equity participation of above $3 million. "More deals will happen in this belt. The aggressive growth strategies chalked out by textile companies call for equity infusion. As the valuations are also attractive, private equity funds are also looking at investing in these companies," says C Venkat Subramanyam, director of Veda Corporate Advisors.

Veda Corporate Advisors, an investment banking firm, structured a deal in July by which Kotak private equity picked up a significant stake in the Karur-based home textiles company Sabare International in July. Funds are eyeing under captilised tier-2 and tier-3 companies for deals. They want to invest in companies with a turnover of above Rs 100 crore, a PE ratio of 12 and a bottomline of Rs 7-8 crore. Typically, they are interested in taking a stake of about Rs 20-40 crore. Though industry players are eager to take the private equity route, they however expect the funds to be more realistic about their assessment. "Textiles are a cyclical business. Unlike software, the industry has a history. Funds should understand all this," they say. In the past, while entrepreneurs felt that private equity funds were expecting high returns, the latter believed the the promoters were conscious of retaining control over companies. Differences over exit clauses also kept the largely family-run companies away from funds.

TRENT ACQUIRES 76% STAKE IN LANDMARK FOR Rs. 103.6 CR
Business Line, Aug 31 2005

TRENT Ltd., the retail venture of Tatas, today announced that it has acquired a 76 per cent "strategic interest" in the Chennai-based privately owned books and music retailer Landmark and its subsidiary firms, for a consideration of Rs 103.6 crore.

Ms Hemu Ramaiah, who created the brand Landmark with the launch of the retail chain's first store in Chennai in 1987, will continue to be the CEO of Landmark, says a Press release from Trent. Her brother, Mr Natraj Ramaiah, and one of the main promoters of the chain, will exit the partnership firm, having sold his 75% stake in an all-cash deal. Ms Ramaiah has sold one per cent of her shareholding and will continue to hold the balance 24 per cent in Landmark.

With the Trent acquisition, a new company, christened Landmark Mega Stores Pvt Ltd, will be established.

Mr Ramaiah is the MD of Korea Lanka Garments Pvt Ltd, a garment export company in Sri Lanka, which belongs to Sri Krishna Corporation, an industrial and trading house. Business Line on Tuesday had reported that the Trent-Landmark deal was in the offing.

Landmark (including its subsidiary firms) closed FY '05 with a turnover of Rs 95 crore which is projected to increase to Rs 130 crore in the current year.

The chain now has four own stores (three in Chennai and one in Bangalore) and operates in Kolkata through a joint venture with the Emami group. Its stores range in size from 12,000 sq ft to 45,000 sq ft and stock various categories of merchandise such as books, audio/video, gifts, stationery, cards and toys.

Commenting on the development, Mr Noel Tata, Managing Director, Trent Ltd, said, "We are happy to be partnering in the growth strategy of Landmark. Landmark has one of the finest retail concepts in India and we see significant synergies in this partnership." Trent at present operates two formats: Westside and Star India Bazaar. Westside has a national presence with 18 stores and Star India Bazaar launched its first hypermarket recently in Ahmedabad.

Speaking to Business Line, Ms Ramaiah said that a few considerations necessiated the stake sale: to fuel expansion of Landmark, to corporatise the chain, and also to offer an exit option for the future. The deal with Trent was structured by Veda Corporate Advisors Pvt Ltd.

Ms Ramaiah said that now the Landmark chain will look to gain a pan-India presence from the predominantly southern base that it has. It is planning one more store at an upcoming mall in Chennai and later in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi.

Shares of Trent on Tuesday closed higher on the NSE at Rs 902.70, up from Rs 826.70 on Monday.

LANDMARK IPO IN 2 YEARS
The Economic Times, Aug 31 2005

Veda Corporate Advisers, a boutique investment banking firm, was the sole advisor the deal.

"We are looking at a fairly aggressive and profitable growth. While internal accruals will take care of the need for funds for the current expansion, infusion of capital in future will be based on the board's decision", Mr Subramaniam said.

Landmark will come out with an IPO in the two years to fund its future expansion. This will see the chain set up large format stores in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi, it is reliably learnt.

The acquisition by Trent brings the curtains down on this over one-year exercise. Funds were a constraint to the growth of this retail chain. A move to raise private equity from Kotak Ventures was abandoned close to finalisation about three months back. The promoters then decided to go for a strategic partner. It attracted the attention of several big players, including Lifestyle, Reliance and Pantaloon, before being clinched by Trent.

"There were a lot of synergies between Trent and Landmark, with both the chains brandishing similar customer profiles. Besides, Trent was also looking at expanding only to metros and first class cities, which suited well with Landmark's planned expansion. What clinched the deal finally was the ease of the structure, where a major stake holder was totally exiting the scene", sources privy to the development said.

KOTAK TAKES EQUITY IN SABARE FOR RS 30 CR
The Economic Times, Jul 06 2005

Co Is A Rs 150-crore Home Textile Products Exporter Catering Mainly To The US Market

Kotak Private Equity has picked up a significant equity stake in Sabare International, a leading home textile products manufacturer and exporter, with an investment of Rs 30 crore.

Promoted by a first generation entrepreneur, Mr S Susindran, in 1991, Sabare has manufacturing facilities in Karur (Tamil Nadu), Noida, Panipat in India and overseas facilities in Shanghai, China and Atlanta, USA.

The Rs 150-crore company largely exports to the USA and caters to major retail chains like Wal-Mart, Target and JC Penney. It is present in product segments like table & kitchen, window curtains, floor coverings and bedding.

"Global retailers are increasing their sourcing of home furnishing products from India. We believe, Sabare, with its global manufacturing and distribution model, is uniquely positioned to leverage this,"
said Mr Nitin Deshmukh, head, Kotak Private Equity Fund..

"The equity participation from Kotak is to part-fund our Rs 100-crore expansion plan," said Mr Susindran. However, he refused to divulge the exact holding of Kotak following this deal, which was structured by Veda Corporate Advisors, an investment banking firm.

The balance funds required for the expansion has been tied up through a term loan from Canara Bank and internal accruals. As part of the proposed expansion, the company intends to increase its capacity across all facilities and to strengthen its marketing presence in the US.

"Our pioneering efforts at creating our own distribution and supply chain infrastructure in the US markets has become a key differentiator for us. We have a large warehouse (3.5 lakh sq ft) in Atlanta and our products are delivered at the doorsteps of our customers. We are planning to set up one more warehouse in Phoenix," said Mr Susindran.

Sabare's game plan is achieve a turnover of Rs 250 crore for 2005-06 and sale up to over Rs 500-crore size by the year 2009. "By setting up a facility in China, we have remained competitive even in the price-sensitive product segments. Further, with the manufacturing facility in the US, we have achieved the true global manufacturing model and became a one-stop shop for our customers," he said.

The global home textiles industry is a $50-billion market, which promises to offer vast potential for Indian and Chinese manufacturers as a result of abolishment of the quota system with effect from January 1, 2005. Winding up of several leading US-based home textile majors is also expected to accelerate the growth of Indian and Chinese players.

Having established itself in the US market, Sabare is currently looking at Europe as the next biggest market. It is exploring opportunities with large retail chains.

Godrej buys US BPO company
www.indiadaily.com, Apr 03 2005

The acquisition will also strengthen the group's global base in IT operations. Godrej Global Solutions,
the wholly owned subsidiary of Godrej Industries, has acquired US-based Outsource Offshore Inc for
an undisclosed sum. Outsource Offshore specialises in health care transaction processing, data
capture solutions and IT-enabled offshoring services.

It has over 300 employees on its rolls. "We have signed a deal to acquire Outsource Offshore Inc, "a Godrej group executive said. The company, however, declined to furnish any details. The acquisition strengthens the group's presence in health care. The group has been operating in this area through Godrej Remote Services. This arm was merged with Cbay Systems, following which the Godrej group holds around 12 per cent in Cbay Systems.

Not only does the acquisition beef up the group's presence in the IT industry, it also strengthens its global base. OutsourceOffshore has its global operations centre in Chennai. The slowdown in the fast-moving consumer goods industry and the need to capitalise on the IT boom has prompted the group's foray into the sector. The group has been acquiring controlling as well as non-controlling stakes in several IT companies.

Apart from Cbay Systems, the group has interests in Geometric Software Solutions, Godrej Upstream, Compass Connections, KarRox Technologies and Personalitree Academy. The group has identified Godrej Industries as the vehicle for new economy businesses.

Carlyle invests $10 mn in Newgen Imaging
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, Oct 29 2004

CHENNAI: In what is billed as one of the first venture capital investments in the e-publishing services sector in India, Carlyle Group has invested $10 million in the Chennai-based Newgen Imaging Systems in the first round outside funding for the company.

The nine-year old Newgen Imaging is an integrated services provider addressing end-to-end needs of the ePublishing industry, handling the projects in books, journals, and reference works.

Carlyle Group is understood to have picked up a substantial equity stake in the firm, which is estimated to have a topline of $5-6 million with a very high profitability. When contacted, Mr V.Prabhakar Ram, the core promoter of Newgen Imaging said, " We have not yet officially announced it. The deal is also not fully completed".

However market sources confirmed the deal was inked a couple of weeks ago. Carlyle Group is one of the active investors in the IT sector and it earlier invested in companies like Financial Software Solutions (FSS), Quest and Usha Telecom. It is also learnt from the market that the deal was facilitated by the city-based investment banking firm - Veda Capital.

Newgen's clientele include 12 of the world's leading publishers, across Europe and USA. With a combination of traditional typesetting skills and high-end ePublishing technologies, the company offers an attractive outsourcing proposition for the western world from India.

It has close to 600 trained publishing professionals. Using the fresh funds raised from VC investment, it is learnt that the company's plan is to expand its operations by doubling its workforce over the next one year period. The company employs professionals holding a Masters / Ph.D. in Science, Engineering or IT.