NEW DELHI, JUNE 29:  India approved a proposal from news and information provider Reuters Group Plc to invest in Times Global Broadcasting Co Ltd’s news and current affairs television channel, a government statement said on Thursday.
The proposal was among 20 foreign investment plans worth Rs 7.62 billion approved by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Reuters Group Plc and The Times of India group run a 24-hour news and current affairs television channel which aims to take advantage of growth in India’s cable and television market.
The market is the world’s third largest, with an estimated 61 million subscribers.

The government approved an investment of Rs 221 million by Reuters in Times Global Broadcasting for uplinking and broadcasting news and current affairs television channels from India, the statement said

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Malaysian companies’ mergers and acquisitions (M&As) overseas are expected to increase further as their appetite for new markets, resources and networks is still strong.

Between January and mid-June this year, Malaysian companies made 43 acquisitions abroad, valued at over RM3.5bil. But though the number of firms making overseas acquisitions seems to have risen, the value of the deals has declined compared with a year ago.

RAM Consultancy Services Sdn Bhd managing director and chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng said Malaysian companies were expected to remain active in M&As despite the lower value of the first-half acquisitions.

The underlying forces driving these activities remain unabated.

Yeah said some companies, particularly those in manufacturing, were venturing abroad, motivated by potential efficiency gains such as lower production costs and economies of scale. Others were lured by new and larger markets, as the domestic base became saturated.

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HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - UBS AG (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s largest wealth manager, plans to double its investment banking staff in India from 60 and is open to a partnership in stock broking in India, a top company official said on Monday.

"Growth characteristics of Asia-Pacific are much stronger. We aim for 15 percent of revenue in five years from Asia-Pacific," Chief Financial Officer Clive Standish told Reuters in an interview.

Asia-Pacific now contributes less than 10 percent of the revenue of UBS, which started a back-office unit in the southern city of Hyderabad on Monday.

"We can give the headcounts rather than an investment number. I could easily say we are committed to doubling it," Standish said, although he gave no time horizon.

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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has picked up its pace in India. Less than a half-year after unveiling its first two investments there, the firm that has stuck close to Silicon Valley for some 30 years is watching one of these companies go public.

Info Edge India Pvt. Ltd., the company behind jobs site Naukri.com, may be the first venture-backed Internet start-up to go public on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company has filed to raise $29 million in an initial public offering, though the current yo-yo market makes an offer date uncertain, said investor Ajit Nazre, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. The venture firm invested $4.7 million in Info Edge earlier this year along with Sherpalo Ventures.

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Mumbai, June 25: Foreign banking majors have evinced interest in picking up an equity stake in leading Indian private sector bank IndusInd Bank.

The foreign banks initially plan to pick up a five per cent stake in IndusInd, the upper limit prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Confirming this here, IndusInd Bank’s Managing Director, Bhaskar Ghose, said, "Currently a few foreign banks are in negotiations with us to pick up a five per cent stake in the bank."

These banks may hike their stake post-2010 when it is widely expected that the banking sector will be thrown open to foreign investors.

Refusing to disclose the names of the foreign banks, Ghose, however, said that all the banks were `big names’ and belonged to the g-8 countries.

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NEW DELHI � India’s headline inflation rate rose to a 56-week high of 5.24 percent in the week ended June 10, the government said Friday, reinforcing fears of further hike in interest rates.

The weekly inflation rate based on whole sale prices rose largely because of increases in government-administer prices of gasoline and diesel, according to data released by the government.

A surge in prices of food items like lentils and sugar _ apparently caused by supply shortages _ also contributed to increasing the inflation rate.

The latest data reinforced fears that the country’s central bank would increase interest rates when its monetary policy comes up for a quarterly review next month.

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