Emkay Shares and Stock Brokers entered the capital market today for subscription, with an initial public offer, IPO, of 62,50,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each through a 100% book building route. The issue will close on April 7, 2006. The price band has been fixed between Rs 100120 per share.

At least 9.07 lakh shares have been reserved for subscription by noninstitutional investors and at least 21.17 lakh shares have been reserved for subscription by the retail investors.

The proceeds of the issue will be utilized for expansion of the companys operations and branch network in India and overseas as well as technology investment in the companys existing business, scaling up of its ebroking business, investment in subsidiaries and augmenting working capital requirement.

The company holds membership of BSE, NSE, and is a depository participant with CDSL. Emkay also plans to acquire membership of MCX and NCDEX through its 100% subsidiary. For the six months period ended September 30, 2005, Emkay had a total income of Rs 19.86 crore (Rs 198 million) and profit after tax of Rs 6.96 crore (Rs 69.6 million).

The company proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE.

Centrum Capital is the book running lead manager and Intime Spectrum Registry is the registrar to the issue.

Source: http://in.biz.yahoo.com/060331/65/6399g.html

IPO

IPO

IPO

M&A activity is on the rise in the Indian IT industry with the last couple of years having seen a few large mergers and acquisitions. Whether it was the merger of Polaris with OrbiTech or Wipro’s acquisition of Spectramind and GE Medical Systems Information Technology (India) or Mphasis BFL’s acquisition of a Chinese firm, mergers and acquisitions in the Indian IT industry are here to stay and more are expected to follow in the near future. Why do Indian IT companies opt for M&A?

The size factor
Many companies have undertaken M&A to grow in size by adding manpower and to facilitate overall expansion. The Polaris-OrbiTech merger saw a spurt in the merged entity�s revenues from $60 million to $125 million. The merger also added 1,400 employees to Polaris, taking the total employee strength to 4,000.

Similarly, for Bangalore-based vMoksha Technologies, the logic behind the acquisition of two US-based companies, Challenger Systems and X media, was to increase in size by widening its customer base. Pawan Kumar, chairman and CEO of vMoksha Technologies says, �The size of a company does matter when interacting with customers and clients. These acquisitions added 120 people to our staff.�

To gain new customers
One likely reason behind M&A has been to gain new customers. Polaris Software had six major customer wins after it acquired the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of OrbiTech�s Orbi suite framework of banking solutions. vMoksha also saw a rise in the number of its customers (four new customers) due to acquisitions as it expanded considerably in the US market and leveraged on the existing customer base. Mphasis also added new customers in the Japanese and Chinese markets after the acquisition of Navion.

The need for skill set enhancement
The need for skill set enhancement seems to be a major reason for companies to merge and make new acquisitions. The Polaris-OrbiTech merger helped in combining skill sets of both companies, which in turn led to growth and expansion of the merged entity. While Polaris Software was looking for a specialised product suite, OrbiTech was looking forward to efficient marketing and service support for its products. Post-merger, Polaris got the Orbi suite framework and combined it with its service expertise to win more customers. After the merger, Polaris has become a large, specialised company in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space, offering solutions, products and transaction services. Polaris has had some recent post-merger wins, including ABN-AMRO Bank, Kuwait Commercial Bank and Deutsche Leasing.

What does the future hold?
Many Indian software players see a rise in the number of mergers and acquisitions by Indian IT companies in the near future. Kumar says, �A rise in the number of mergers and acquisitions by Indian IT companies is likely in the near future due to competition ushered in by the influx of MNC IT companies. In order to compete with global IT majors setting up base in India and to expand their global reach, more and more Tier-1 Indian IT companies would acquire global Tier-2 IT companies.� Similarly global Tier-1 IT companies in order to penetrate deeper into the Indian market would look at Tier-2 Indian IT companies in the near future. vMoksha would always keep its options open for further acquisitions and would do so as and when it gets good opportunities, he adds.

Many players feel that Indian IT companies look at M&As due to the size factor, the niche factor or for expanding their market reach . Many are also of the opinion that acquisitions help in the inorganic (and quicker) growth of the business of a company and the decision to acquire or grow organically depends on the business targets that the companies have set for themselves. Some feel that in today�s competitive economic environment, size and focus are factors that matter for surviving the onslaught of competition. In this scenario, mergers and acquisitions have emerged as key growth drivers in the Indian software services landscape. Apart from this, the importance, size, pricing pressures and global companies consolidating and building offshore capabilities have made M&A relevant for Indian IT enterprises.

But Ravi Ramu of Mphasis terms the whole spate of mergers and acquisitions as premature and says that although there will be a few acquisitions and mergers in the near future there won�t be a whole lot of them. However, according to him, Mphasis will always be on the lookout for further acquisitions.

Mergers and acquisitions are primarily aimed at expanding a company�s business and earning profits for it. Acquisitions bring in more customers and business, which in turn brings in more money for the companies thus helping in its overall expansion and growth. More and more companies will move towards acquisitions for a fast-paced growth.

Source: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20030407/indtrend1.shtml

M&A

M&A

M&A

DUBAI— Declaring that there is a clear convergence of interests between India and the Gulf countries in the present global economic environment, Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath yesterday said a GCC-India partnership would be capable of redefining the contours not just of global trade, but of global dynamics.

Speaking at the Khaleej Times International Forum, Kamal Nath said with the centre of gravity of the globe shifting from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, India is well-placed to provide refining services to the Gulf countries, while facilities located in India would enhance Gulf capacities. "There is a shift in trade winds. Given that India’s bilateral trade with the Gulf countries — our natural partners — is growing at about 30 per cent, we want to engage with GCC in more ways than trade — by enhancing investment and co-operation," the minister said in his presentation "India on the fast Track."

Dignitaries present at the event included Indian Ambassador to the UAE Chandra Mohan Bhandari, Indian Consul General in Dubai Yash Sinha and prominent NRIs. Kamal Raj Shah, Chief Operating Officer of Khaleej Times delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of Mohammed  A. R. Galadari,  Chairman of Galadari Group.

He said the GCC-Indian free trade talks which has been under way for the past two years, would be sealed in March 2007. "In August 2004 I had the privilege of signing the Framework Agreement with the GCC. I am extremely happy that we have made significant progress in our talks, and last week in Riyadh we committed ourselves to finalising the India-GCC FTA by December. Not only that, we decided to expand the scope into an ‘FTA Plus’, by including services and investment. We want to enhance investment in infrastructure such as highways, ports, airports and power."

He said India’s non-oil trade with the Gulf will exceed $20 billion, totalling its trade with Europe, and in a couple of years, its is set to exceed trade with the USA, which is currently the country’s largest trading partner. At present, 70 per cent of India’s trade with the Gulf is with the UAE. 

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In a move having far reaching implications, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has, for the first time, decided to entrust the stock exchanges (SEs) with the responsibility of registration of sub-brokers. The decision to this effect was taken at the last board meeting of the regulator held in Mumbai on March 20.

The regulator, however, will continue to monitor the registration process and retain the final authority of according the approval as it will have electronic connectivity with the bourses in this aspect.

The Sebi decision, according to market participants, is a practical one as it will speed up the registration process of sub-brokers, which currently takes anywhere between six to nine months. The reason for the delay on the part of Sebi was lack of manpower and other infrastructural and technical problems. This delay use to create hurdles in the expansion plans of the brokerage houses and in the current bull run no one wants to miss the bus.

In the new set up, the application for registration is expected to be cleared within a fortnight and this could prove to be a great boost for the sub-brokers, as they will be able to launch their operations almost instantly, said market observers.

The number of applications pending with Sebi for the registration of sub-brokers run into thousands. As per rough estimates, the number of pending applications of two major SEs �the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)� is more than 5,000 and this does not include the applications of sub-brokers affiliated with the Regional Stock Exchanges

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/1246.html

Investment

Banking

Investment Banking

BANGALORE:  Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the Government is at a "striking distance" of implementing the Tarapore Committee Report on capital account convertibility and criticised "some employees" of RBI for opposing the full float of the rupee.

"Today, we are at a striking distance of the goals set by the Tarapore Committee", he said at a function that marked the launching of SyndBank Services Limited, a wholly-owned BPO subsidiary of Sydicate Bank and its 525th centralised banking solution branch.

Why should some employees of the Reserve Bank of India question the wisdom of this idea", Chidambaram wondered.

They should examine the idea and contribute to the debate if they so wish. But an idea should not be opposed merely because one is not familiar with it." He said the idea of capital account convertibility was formally proposed in 1997 and the report presented.

(Then) Asian crisis overtook us. Nevertheless, we kept that report at the back of our mind. We moved towards containing fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, increasing our foreign exchange reserves and containing inflation, Chidambaram added.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com

News About Corporate World

Corporate News India

Corporate World News

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New Delhi: Convergence India 2006, touted to be South Asia’s largest communications and IT event, has claimed to have generated Rs 100 crore business during the three days of exhibition.

Exhibitions India group, one of co-organisers’ Managing Director Prem Behl said "business worth Rs 100 crore has been generated in the last three days of Convergence India exhibition".

He said the objective of the event was to bring closer the communication and mobile fraternity and also provide an international platform to make business happen, a press release said.

"We are highly satisfied with the national and international participants and visitors in this year’s exhibition," Behl said.

The exhibition jointly organised by Cellular Operators Association of India and Exhibitions India saw participation from 23 countries with 386 exhibitiors, including companies like Alcatel, Aperto Networks, Spice Communications and other global companies.

Cellular Operators Association of India was the other organiser.

Source: http://www.newkerala.com/

News About Corporate World

Corporate World News

News About Corporate World