TECH MAHINDRA BECOMES NO 4 IN IT COS' LIST

Maimed and left gasping for a lifeline, Satyam Computer Services has finally found its new knight in shining armour, Tech Mahindra (TechMa).

The bidding process for the beleaguered software firm culminated on Monday with TechMa emerging as the highest bidder with an offer price of Rs 58 per share. TechMa's price outbid other suitors, engineering giant Larsen & Toubro and private equity player Wilbur Ross, by a comfortable margin. L&T's bid of Rs 45.90 per share and Wilbur Ross' Rs 20, were not even within striking distance of TechMa's deal-winning bid.

The Economic Times

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT: AN EMERGING HOTBED

Prospects of the Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector estimated to grow to about twice its current size of $11.6 billion by 2013 prompted global media and entertainment companies such as The Walt Disney Company, The Warner Group, Viacom, Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., The Financial Times and the Dow Jones & Co. to enter the market that has grown at a sustained pace of about 15% annually during the last five years by either acquiring a stake or partnering with an Indian counterpart.

Among the most recent expansion plans in India, News Corporation, the world's largest media conglomerate by market capitalization, had announced that it will strengthen its presence in the country by investing more than $100 million to launch six new regional television channels last year.

The potential for growth in India’s M&E sector is underscored by the low penetration base. For instance, the print media with low penetration rate of 38% and the cable & satellite penetration in the country of just about 50% offers a large market that remains to be tapped. See our Special Report highlighting the trends in the sector.

PHARMA M&A WAVE SET TO REACH INDIA

While merger-mania is gripping the global pharma industry, a similar trend may soon spill over to the Indian market, with pharma companies quoting at low valuations and saddled with huge debt.

Recently, there have been a spate of deals in the pharma space led by Pfizer Inc's acquisition of Wyeth for $68 billion, followed by the merger of Merck and Schering Plough. Experts believe that Bristol-Myers Squibb may be the next target of an acquisition, and many more deals are inevitable. Back home, there has been speculation about Wockhardt and Piramal Healthcare being potential acquisition targets.

The Times Of India

M&A IN TELECOM LUCRATIVE EVEN IN SLOWING MARKETS

Even as the slowdown has taken toll on the merger and acquisition space, the Indian telecom growth story continues to buy investors’ confidence as the sector has accounted for 33% of the total M&A deals in the fiscal so far with the valuations crossing US$9.15bn.

India Infoline

TATA CONSULTANCY TO BUY CITI ARM FOR $505 MN

Notwithstanding the crisis in the global financial system, leading Indian information technology major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said it will buy the outsourcing arm of Citigroup for $505 million. In addition to the acquisition, TCS has entered into a $2.5 billion pact with US-headquartered Citigroup to provide outsourced services for a period of nine-and-a-half years

Hindustan Times

INFY MAY TOP HCL AXON BID

Infosys is likely to make a one-time move to match or surpass HCL’s offer to acquire London-headquartered SAP consulting firm Axon, but would guard itself from entering into an expensive bidding war..

Indiatimes - Infotech

OVL GETS RED CARPET FROM IMPERIAL FOR 61.9% STAKE

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the foreign investment arm of the country’s largest exploration company, ONGC, on Tuesday put in a formal bid to acquire UK-based oil firm Imperial Energy at 1,250 pence per share. Imperial Energy, with assets in the Russian Federation and CIS countries, is valued at $2.58 billion at the bid price.

The Economic Times

Japanese firm Daiichi to buy stake in Ranbaxy

Leading Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd, will acquire majority stake in India's largest drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. The companies have announced a binding share purchase and share subscription agreement (the "SPSSA") between Daiichi Sankyo, Ranbaxy and the Singh family, the largest and controlling shareholders of Ranbaxy.

Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/common/
storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=
IN&autono=39729

Tata, Jaguar and Land Rover : Now What

What the Indian conglomerate will do with two luxury-car brands...

DEPENDING on which way you look at it, in acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) from Ford for $2.3 billion, Tata Motors has either got itself two of the most famous brands in the car business at a bargain price—or a sea of troubles. In India there is both pride in Tata's global ambition and a fair dose of scepticism. Tata Group, the parent of Tata Motors, may be India's biggest industrial conglomerate, but there are concerns that it may have taken on more than it can manage. ....

The Economist
http://www.economist.com/business/
displaystory.cfm?story_id=10925609

Google winner as Microsoft, Yahoo face off

Neither Microsoft Corp nor Yahoo Inc wants to blink first in the software giant's proposed $41.7 billion takeover of the Web pioneer but as the gamesmanship drags on, archrival Google Inc, the merger's raison d'etre, is the biggest beneficiary.

The Financial Express
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/
Google-winner-as-Microsoft-Yahoo-face-off/
277654/

Land Rover & Jaguar Deal to Mark Indian Auto Sector’s First Billion Dollar Acquisition

The Indian automotive sector is under-going a fundamental shift as companies set out to unlock the benefits of global scale of operations, propelled by ambitions to gain in-roads into the premium league by acquiring state-of-the-art engineering platforms, future proof technology masterpieces and iconic brands patronized by a niche customer segment.

The outcome of the bidding war which will be known by the end of the week for Jaguar and Land Rover, the U.K. based iconic marques owned by Ford Motor Company, the U.S. based world’s third largest automaker, for an estimated price of approximately $2 billion, which features Tata Motors Ltd, India’s biggest automobile company, and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, tractor & utility vehicle manufacturer is symbolic of the evolving Indian businesses making a mark in the global market place.

Tata Motor’s parent company Tata Group, with revenue of $55 billion and equivalent to about 5.5% of the country's GDP, is not new to such inorganic growth that has eased the group’s access to new markets, product categories, technology and world-class brands. Tata Motors' international footprint includes Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle in South Korea; Hispano Carrocera S.A., a bus and coach manufacturer in Spain in which the company has a 21% stake; a joint venture with Marcopolo, the Brazil-based body-manufacturer of buses and coaches; and a joint venture with Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Company of Thailand to manufacture and market pickup vehicles in that country.

Tata Motors that has been facing critical reviews concerning quality and reliability with its passenger cars ‘Indica’, the small car that it marketed badged as CityRover as per tie-up with British automaker MG Rover in Europe, with the two cult luxury brands Land Rover and Jaguar in its armory will see itself take the first steps in to the un-explored premium segment and graduate to state-of-the-art engineering expertise from a combined workforce of 20,000.

With the deal expected to go to the Indian conglomerate, the moment will be historic as it will mark the automotive sector’s entry into the elite billion dollar acquisitions club.

The sector has already exhibited growing merger & acquisition (M&A) deals worth more than $633 million from 20 deals so far this year, i.e. surpassing the value of deals done by the sector in the whole of last year at $517 from 23 deals.

The other reason why Jaguar-Land Rover deal will be significant is that it will further reinforce the prominence of the Indo-U.K. merger & acquisitions deal activity which has already seen the country’s two of the largest deals – the acquisition of Hutchison Essar Ltd India’s second largest GSM mobile service provider by the U.K.’s Vodafone Group Plc and the acquisition of the U.K.’s largest steel maker Corus Group Plc by India’s Tata Steel Ltd.

Key to such billion dollar acquisitions is the management of the post acquisition integration costs. As skepticism looms large among industry analysts with regards to the loss making Ford’s marques - Jaguar and Land Rover, one company I would bet on being able to get the integration cost down is Tata Group. It is a company that has been brilliant in execution pretty much so far.

Of the $46 billion worth of cross-border M&A deals so far this year, the U.K. contributed to about 40% of all overseas acquisitions by Indian companies (Outbound) in deal value and about 83% of the deals clinched by overseas companies in India (Inbound).

Tata Group has been active in the U.K. market for long. The group had previously acquired U.K.’s top steel maker Corus Group Plc after intense rounds of auction proceedings with rival Brazilian steel company, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN). Prior to that, the group had acquired U.K.-based Tetley Group, then the world’s largest manufacturer of tea, for $407 million in February 2000. The group has already spent more than $15 billion to fulfill its inorganic growth strategies and the acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar will likely be the second most expensive buy for the group after Corus.

The investments by India Inc. in Britain during the fiscal year 2006-07 has created 5,130 jobs, second to the U.S., according to the U.K.’s Department of Trade and Industry. In terms of the number of new projects, India has been ranked third with 69 new projects, after 540 new projects of the U.S. and 95 new projects of France.

Indian investment in the U.K. had gone up 111% to 76 projects, creating almost 4,000 jobs during 2005-06. The Indian investment has contributed $67 million (£33 million) to the London economy in 2006-07, according to Think London, an agency promoting investment into the city.

Bharti eyes Big Apple as starter for retail feast

Bharti Enterprises, slated to start its retail business in the first quarter next year, may acquire Big Apple — the Delhi-based supermarket chain with 65 stores. Bharti’s acquisition blueprint in the retail sector may be a replay of its telecom business, where the group built up a pan-India mobile presence by acquiring telcos such as JT Mobile in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Skycell in Chennai and Hexacom in Rajasthan.

The Economic Times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/
Bharti_eyes_Big_Apple_as_starter_for_retail_feast/
articleshow/2646207.cms

Indian chip design firms acquiring for scale, R&D

Indian information technology companies, such as Wipro Ltd, Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd and MindTree Consulting Ltd, which offer chip-design services, are in an acquisitive mode to consolidate their position in the global market. In the last two years, these firms have together made five acquisitions totalling Rs502 crore, mainly to broaden their customer base and intellectual property (IP) assets.

Mint
http://www.livemint.com/2007/12/23234905/
Indian-chip-design-firms-acqui.htmll