Amazon in talks for stake in Spencer’s
Amazon India is on a retail buying spree. After agreeing last week to acquire Aditya Birla Retail’s More, it is in early talks for a minority stake in Spencer’s Retail, which focusses on food and grocery, The Economic Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Mint reported on August 20 that Amazon and Samara Capital are in talks to acquire More Supermarkets. While the talks for Spencer’s are still in preliminary stages, Amazon Prime’s hourly delivery will be its strategy if the deal goes through, says the report. Read more here.
PVR leading race to buy Wave Cinemas
India’s largest cinema multiplex player, PVR is looking to buy north-focussed Wave Cinemas, The Economic Times reported. This comes two weeks after PVR’s decision to buy SPI Cinemas, south India’s biggest multiplex player, for Rs 633 crores, Mint reported on August 13. Citing two people, the ET report valued Wave at around Rs 450 crores. However, Ajay Bijli-owned PVR denied any such ongoing talks. Read more here.
Google, Xiaomi in talks for about $40 million investment in Where Is My Train app
Search engine giant Google and smartphone maker Xiaomi are among investors lining up for two-year-old start-up Where Is My Train, an app that provides live updates on trains without the use of internet and GPS, The Economic Times reported. Google is in talks to acquire the company for $30-40 million, while Xiaomi has held discussions for an investment, two sources told ET. If the deal goes through, it will be the first product acquisition in India by a large global internet company, said the report. Read more here.
Government to give nod for UTI AMC IPO
US Fund manager T Rowe Price withdrew a writ petition against the government, the market regulator and the shareholders of UTI Asset Management Company, after the finance ministry agreed to issue a no-objection (NOC) letter for UTI AMC’s initial share sale, and direct state-run financial institutions to cut their stakes in the local asset manager, Mint reported. On May 24 last year, Mint reported that UTI AMC is looking to go public and offload 26-30% of its stake. The government will ask Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC), State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) to slash their stakes in UTI AMC from 18.25% to 10% each, within a deadline. T. Rowe Price owns 26% in UTI AMC, but the four government institutions together command a majority on its board. The IPO is likely to be about Rs 5000 crores. Read more here.
Aditya Birla Capital and Varde Partners form $1 billion JV for stressed assets business
Aditya Birla Capital Ltd (ABCL), the financial services arm of Aditya Birla Group, has announced a joint venture with US-based alternative assets manager Varde Partners to invest in distressed assets in India, Mint reported. Founded in 1993, Värde currently manages about $14 billion globally, and has invested nearly $500 million in India in the past five years across corporate stressed, distressed, special situations and lending assets. Business Standard reported that the JV could be for about a billion dollars. Read more here.
Airtel-Tikona merger approval rests on paying Rs 1626 crore to DoT
The department of telecommunications (DoT) has in a letter dated 17 August asked Bharti Airtel Ltd to pay in cash and through a bank guarantee a total of ₹ 1,626.89 crore to clear its merger with Bharti Digital Networks (formerly known as Tikona Digital Networks), Mint reported. The merger was first reported by Mint on March 24, 2017. Airtel has already approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking a stay on the payment order. Read more here.
Reliance Infra sells power utility business to Adani for Rs 18,800 crore
Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s chairman Anil Ambani on Wednesday completed the sale of its Mumbai city power distribution business to fellow industrialist Gautam Adani for ₹18,800 crore, Mint reported. Though Reliance Infra has sold one of its profitable business ventures, it will help bolster the company’s financials by repaying debt of ₹13,800 crore from an accumulated debt of ₹22,000 crore. Adani, which will now be one of the utilities in Mumbai, will house the business under Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML). It will serve 3 million customers in Mumbai. Read more here.