Bank of India is returning to the asset management industry after a long interval, by buying a 51% stake in Bharti Axa Investment Managers. Bharti Axa is a joint venture between Bharti Ventures and the Axa group. Bharti had decided to exit its financial services joint ventures with Axa, in the insurance and asset management businesses.

Alfa Laval (India), a listed multinational and maker of specialised engineering equipment such as heat exchangers, separation and fluid handling equipment, may get delisted from the Indian stock exchanges. The company said its board will meet on September 19 to consider a delisting proposal from its parent company Alfa Laval Corporate AB Sweden.

In the Indian banking scene, regulation can often trip up intermediaries. Axis Bank’s acquisition of Enam’s investment banking business appeared to be stuck in a regulatory quagmire, first announced in November 2010.
 

Apollo Global Management had announced in end-June that it proposes to invest about Rs 1,575 crore in steel pipe-maker Welspun Corp and affiliated companies. Welspun’s share closed at Rs 169 the day before the deal was announced. Apollo was to invest in a combination of debentures and global depositary receipts, at a conversion price of Rs 225, indicating a premium of about 33%.

If Bharti Airtel led the way with an asset-light model in the telecommunication industry, Hotel Leelaventure (Hotel Leela) is attempting to do something similar in the hospitality industry.
 
The 5-star hotel operator said it will sell its Kovalam property to Ravindran B Pillai, or Ravi B Pillai, who owns the Saudi Arabia-based Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation, an industrial contractor operating in the Middle East.

 

GMR Energy joined a growing number of Indian companies who are tying up their coal requirements in Indonesia. The country has large reserves of the black gold which is used chiefly for power generation and steel-making, apart from other uses.

Vodafone Plc announced that Piramal Healthcare, Ajay Piramal’s group flagship, will pay $640 million or about Rs 2,900 crore to acquire a 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar. This will help raise cash for Vodafone as well as allow it to remain compliant with India’s foreign direct investment rules for the telecom sector, which mandate a 74% foreign shareholding cap.

Ipca Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, has acquired UK-based Onyx Scientific (Onyx), by buying out the holding company Onyx Research Chemicals. The move adds to Ipca’s contract manufacturing business, for which it has set up a separate division called Covenance. No financial details have been disclosed.

Hinduja Global Solutions, a business process outsourcing company with Rs 1,070 crore revenues in 2010-11, has acquired On-Line Support Inc, a Canadian outsourcing company. It will pay Canadian $74.85 million dollars or about Rs 350 crore to acquire On-Line, giving it a business with about Rs 295 crore in revenues in 2010-11. This is a significant acquisition for Hinduja Global, as this acquisition would have added about 28% to its revenues in 2010-11, notionally speaking.

India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) and Malaysia’s CIMB Group Sdn Bhd have decided to join hands to source business in select countries in the Indo-ASEAN corridor (Association of South-East Asian Nations). ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.