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Lavasa Corp IPO is coming soon. Its a subsidiary of HCC.

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Reliance ADAG , Universal Studios Joint Venture for Theme Park in India

Reliance ADA Group is in talks with Universal Studios to build a $1.5 billion, 400-acre theme park and resort in India, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Reliance’s Big Entertainment unit and Universal, a unit of General Electric’s NBC Universal could reach a deal this year, although one person familiar with the matter warned the talks were at an early stage and could break down, the newspaper reported.

Reliance ADA is controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani. The newspaper cited a source as saying that Reliance ADA would have full ownership of the venture but would pay Universal royalties and fees for using content linked to popular movies like Jaws, E.T, Spider-Man and the Harry Potter franchise.

The park will look like Universal’s parks in Los Angeles. Universal declined comment and officials for Reliance were not available.

The main cities being considered for the park are New Delhi and Mumbai, according to the report.

Economictimes reporting

Infotel Broadband Services has raised $500 million from a Royal Bank of Scotland and other banks.

The issue was completed by June end, the bankers said. “The cheque has already been presented to RIL,” said a banker, who was one of the three people. The tenure of the loan is six years.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance recently bought 95% in Infotel Broadband for `4,800 crore, in addition to paying `12,848 crore for 20 MHz of spectrum in all 22 service areas in India. The company is the only telecom player to win all-India, high-speed data spectrum among bidders for third generation, or 3G, and broadband wireless access spectrum sold at government auctions.

The funds were raised at an interest rate of 250-300 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (Libor) that is the benchmark lending rate in Europe. One-year Libor at the moment is at 1.03-1.04%.

The money will be used for network rollout to start services, the second banker said. Infotel is expected to use data technology in its rollout, which may take around eight months after the company receives spectrum. A spokesman for Reliance Industries declined to comment.

Khaitan & Co were the legal consultants for Reliance Industries in the deal. It was handled by one of its partners, Shishir Mehta.

RIL’s re-entry into the sector came after an agreement between Mukesh and his younger brother Anil Ambani to scrap their no-compete agreement. Investors fear it can mean more turmoil for the already beleaguered sector. However, RIL’s strategy will not be to tap the crowded telecom services customers, but customers with broadband connectivity .

There has been a debate regarding the technology the company will use. However, the second banker said Infotel was sticking to its earlier stance of using a technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) .

“A single 20 MHz TDD spectrum, when used with LTE , has the potential to provide greater capacity when compared with the existing communication infrastructure in the country,” RIL had said in a statement, when it acquired Infotel.

LTE is a technology patented by Qualcomm, like CDMA for cellular telephony, which is what Reliance chose when it started services under Mukesh Ambani. The Indian telephone operator, now known as Reliance Communication and owned by Anil, has since launched parallel services in GSM.

With this technology, RIL will need to deploy fewer base stations, or points from which wireless signal is emitted because a single point covers 50 km on an average. “RIL will save on both tower-leasing costs and electronic-equipment cost,” said a regional telecoms head at an international research firm.

The technology can also be used to share capacity with other operators, which may be one of the objectives, another analyst said.

On Friday, Global Group — the parent of GTL and GTL Infrastructure — and Tulip Telecom announced an investment of `140 crore each for 13% stake each in Qualcomm’s company that won the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in Mumbai and Delhi.

The technology will allow operators to share active infrastructure, like they share passive telecom infrastructure such as towers, said Manoj Tirodkar, chairman of Global Group.

“LTE has components that can be shared by 3G, BWA, and possibly 4G networks,” he said.

However, the Indian government doesn’t allow such sharing as it can involve spectrum trading. After the recent spectrum auction, industry players are expecting a change in policy.

This news is as reported in Economictimes

Century Textiles is planning to re start shipping business again.

No other details are available now.

Reliance and Essar trying to get BP’s African Retail operation

Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries and Essar Oil are among about half a dozen firms in race to buy crisis-hit British energy giant BP’s fuel marketing assets in east African countries.

BP is selling retail outlets, terminals and aviation fuel stations in Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi and possibly also in Zambia, to cover costs related to the worst oil spill in US history, industry sources said.

Reliance and Essar have offered between $400 to 500 million for BP’s assets in the East African nation, they said.

A South African firm and National Oil Corp of Libya are said to be other serious bidders among about half a dozen firms who have evinced interest.

While Essar Oil spokesperson did not offer any comments, a Reliance spokesperson said: “We do not comment on market speculation as per company policy.”

Sources said Reliance may be looking at supplying gas oil, gasoline and jet fuel from its twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat to the east African nations.

It also exports fuel to Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp, a firm it had acquired in 2007. Gapco owns retail outlets in countries like Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Essar Oil had last year acquired a 50 per cent stake in 4 million tons a year Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa.

The British energy giant BP intends to sell $30 billion of assets — mainly upstream oil and gas fields– over the next 18 months to help pay for the Gulf oil spill clean-up and compensation.

BP owns retail outlets selling gasoline (petrol) and gas oil (diesel) as well as aviation refueling facilities at major airports in Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi and Zambia.

The acquisition would give a company a ready market for auto and aviation fuel with scope for further expansion into neighbouring high growth countries, sources said.

In Botswana, BP operates 30 retail sites, mostly in the country’s main cities of Gaborone and Francistown and supplies fuel to the booming mining industry. Air BP in Botswana sells aviation fuel at Sir Seretse Khama Airport in Gaborone and Maun airport, on the edge of the famous Okavango Delta.

Besides selling fuel, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), BP is the largest aviation fuel supplier in Tanzania with about 92 per cent market share.

BP owns half of BP Malawi, which operates 46 service stations. Press Corp has the remaining 50 per cent. It is the sole supplier of aviation fuels and aviation lubricants to the nation’s two international airports at Lilongwe and Blantyre.

BP Namibia’s network includes 29 service stations, five depots and aviation services.

In Zambia, BP owns 53 out of the 196 pumps and a largest number of fuel storage and handling depots in the country. It sells aviation fuels at Lusaka International Airport and also Ndola, Livingstone and Mfuwe airfields.

SKS Microfinance IPO is opening today for subscription. Its a very unique IPO as market has not seen such company tapping investors.

Yes. SKS Micor finance is in the business of Microfinance as the name suggests.

About the issue:

SKS Microfinance’s IPO of 16.8 million equity shares would open on July 28.

Price band : Rs 850-985 per share

About the company:

SKS Microfinance is the largest microfinance company in India with loan portfolio of ~US$1bn, 2,000+ branches spread across 19 states and 6.8 million members. Its strengths include pan-India presence, scalable operating model, diversified product revenues and access to various sources of capital.

Lending primarily to poor women, the business model involves village centered group lending, thereby ensuring a check on asset quality. The huge demand-supply credit gap and inability of banks to penetrate into unbanked areas have driven the growth of microfinance industry. While valuations appear expensive, the scalable business model, market leadership position and high earnings growth provide comfort. Recommend Subscribe,” the report said.

On the valuations front, the report added that the company is “valued at a FY10 P/B of 3.6x at the lower price band and 4.2x on the upper price band post dilution. This is significantly higher as compared to average P/B for NBFCs at 2-2.5x, PSU banks (1-2x) and private banks (2.5-4x). International MFI companies have however traded at higher multiples due to their longer operating history and higher returns ratio. RoE for SKSMF at 21.7% (end FY10) is largely in line with domestic NBFCs and banks.

Objects of the IPO:

It plans to utilise the proceeds to augment capital base to meet future capital requirements and to achieve the benefits of listing on the stock exchanges. The issue closes Monday.

It plans to double its headcount to 42,000 by the end of the current fiscal as it expands capacity.

“We will expand our branch network from the current 2,000. We have been doubling our headcount for the past two years. Going by previous records we can be hopeful of doubling the headcount in the current fiscal too,” SKS Microfinance chief executive and managing director Suresh Gurumani said here today. At the end of the last fiscal, the company had 21,000 employees.

Shareholding:

Venture capital firm Sequoia is the largest shareholder in SKS, while other leading stakeholders include Kismat Capital, Mutual Benefit Trust and Sandstone, amongst others. Post-issue, holding of Sequoia will come down to around 15.1 per cent from the current 22.3 per cent.

Aban Offshore counter has seen a good junp today after months of lull.

The reason for todays jump is due to claim settlement of $235 million. The company has said it has received 975 of the amount and the balance will be on way soon.

The shares gained almost 9% today . I have been holding Aban Offshore long position for the past 2 weeks without any gain. Today i have seen 2% gain in my position.

Endhiran Audio launch on July 31 2010.

Rajni fans enjoy

Think Music has paid Rs 7 crore for Audio rights of Endhiran.This is among the highest amount for audio rights in Indian Film history.

There was a strong bidding war between Sony Music and Think Music. Think Music won the deal by paying a huge sum.

If audio rights of Endhiran fetches Rs 7 crores then think about the Television rights and other rights. Sun TV which is producing this India’s highest budget movie is sure to keep the Television rights with themselves.

Telecom sector IPO after years. Im excited so do you.

Vodafone Essar IPO might go live soon. Essar group is trying to sell stake in vodafone through IPO.

Essar is British firm Vodafone’s partner in India’s No. 3 mobile firm, Vodafone Essar, in which it holds a 33 per cent stake. The talks are preliminary, and Essar has not yet appointed banks to handle the process, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak with the media. Essar and Vodafone declined to comment.

In 2007, Vodafone bought a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s mobile business in India, in which Essar had been a partner. The deal gave Essar the option to sell its entire 33 per cent stake in the telecom venture to Vodafone for $5 billion between the third and fourth years after the deal’s completion.

Alternatively, Essar could sell shares worth between $1 billion and $5 billion in the company to Vodafone at an independent valuation. The option for the sale opened in May and runs for 12 months. News of the potential listing of Essar’s stake in the venture was earlier reported by Bloomberg. Vodafone has yet to decide on its response and is waiting for Essar to make a proposal, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In April, Essar, controlled by billionaire brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, raised 1.27 billion pounds through a London IPO of its energy and power businesses. In February, Essar sold its telecoms tower unit to American Tower Corp for about $432 million, and in November, it agreed to buy a majority stake in Dhabi Group’s telecommunication businesses in Uganda and Congo.

Adani Enterprises is acquiring coal mine in Australia from Linc Energy.

Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises is close to acquiring a coal mine for $1 billion in Queensland, Australia from Linc Energy, two independent sources close to the development said. The coal block is expected to have reserves of 7-8 billion tones.

The acquisition is under Adani Enterprises’ subsidiary, Singapore based Adani Global. Out of the $1 bn, Adani is expected to give the first tranche of $435 mn in the next few days. The rest of the payment will be made over the next few months.

Sources said, Adani Enterprises will invest in the project and aims to produce over 50 million tones of coal in the next 3-4 years.

Sources said the final announcement of the deal is expected by the middle of the next month. Adani Enterprises declined to comment on the development.

Essar Power buys Navabharat Power

About Essar Power:

Essar Power Limited, a subsidiary of London-listed Essar Energy plc, is acquiring a 100% stake in 2250 MW Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd in Orissa. Essar Power plans to initially acquire a 76% stake, with the balance 24% being acquired upon completion of certain project milestones.

About NavaBharath coal power:

Navabharat is a joint venture between Malaxmi Energy Ventures and Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd. Navabharat has sold about 52% of its existing shareholding in Navabharat Power, the company informed the exchanges today. Malaxmi has sold its entire stake in the firm. The deal size was not disclosed.

About the power plant:

Navabharat Power, which has already got all major clearances and coal-linkages, is a 2,250 MW coal-fuelled power plant being set up in Dhenkanal district of Orissa, India. The $2 billion project is being implemented in two phases, with the first phase of 1,050 MW
and phase two of 1,200 MW.

The project includes the allocation of the Rampia Coal block of 112 million metric tonnes and a 4.7 million metric tonnes per annum coal linkage with Coal India Ltd. Phase 1 of the Navabharat already has in place a number of approvals including environment clearances and other approvals like land acquisition are being progressed. The phase 1 is expected to achieve financial closure by end of CY2010.

CEO Talk:

“Navabharat Power is a major part of our power phase II development projects. This acquisition is in line with the plans announced at the time of our IPO and will keep us on track to develop over 11,000 MW of power capacity by the end of 2014, thereby maintaining our leading position in the private sector power generation market in India,” said Naresh Nayyar, CEO of Essar Energy.

Capacity Expansion:

Essar Power, part of the telecom to steel conglomerate owned by the Ruias, is planning to expand its installed capacity to 6,000 MW by 2012, as per its website. It has three more coal-based power plants coming up in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Essar Power raised Rs 350 crore in funding from IDFC Project Equity last year.

Piramal Healthcare is all set to sell off its diagnostic business arm, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting sources. Malvinder Singh’s Super Religare Laboratories is likely to be the buyer.

This comes less than two months after Piramal struck the USD 2 billion Abbott deal. CNBC-TV18 learns that this deal is expected to be between Rs 600 to Rs 700 crore.

Piramal’s diagnostic business currently has revenues of close to Rs 200 crore. CNBC-TV18 had in May reported that the Piramals plan to shut down their diagnostic business due to losses sustained over the last two years.

Karuturi Global raises cut rose prices by 15-20 per cent

“Prices may move upwards this year by at least 15-20 per cent,” said Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, founder and managing director of the world’s largest rose plantation, spread over 300,000 hectares in India, Ethiopia and Kenya. The head office is in Bangalore.

Currently, the short cut rose is sold at 10 euro cents (Rs 6) per stem) while the large cut rose is quoted at 18 euro cents (Rs 10.50) per stem).

There has been a sharp increase in transportation cost, linked to oil prices. High labour cost is also forcing many European floriculture units to close operations. Several floriculture producers in Spain have converted their rose farms into holiday villas, leading to the growth of newer floriculture hubs across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, including in Ethiopia, Ecuador, Colombia, India, China, Kenya and Tanzania.

Demand has risen faster than supply, pushing prices up. The average US cut rose price increased from $0.377 per stem to $0.430 per stem in the past year.

Recently, the demand for cut roses has re-emerged from European countries, especially from Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom after over a year of lull. Hence, a price rise is imminent, said Karuturi on the sidelines of a seminar organised by ICICI Bank here on Wednesday.

Europe contributes about 80 per cent of the company’s annual turnover of over Rs 500 crore. KGL is the global leader in cut rose production, with a current capacity of 650 million stems a year. The company is implementing a plan to raise annual capacity to a billion stems. Most of the production comes from Ethiopia and Kenya, due to favourable climate, support from the government, a tax advantage given to these countries, proximity to the European markets, availability of land and, above all, cheap labour.

Currently, KGL has 250 hectares (a ha is 2.5 acres) under cut rose cultivation of which 174 ha is in Kenya, 70 ha in Ethiopia and 10 ha in India.

The government of Ethiopia has allocated 450 ha to the company and they are planning to bring all these under cultivation in the next two to three years. The company has another 311,700 ha in Ethiopia and Kenya and it plans to use these for other agricultural forays over the next two years.

The sales target is Rs 2,500 crore by financial year 2011. Karuturi sees no further need for land acquisition in African countries: in the past decade, land prices in Ethiopia and Kenya have surged. The global cut rose business, now $70 billion, has been growing at 10-15 per cent for the past two years and this pace is likely to continue, he said.