PE DEALS SURGE 55% in H1 2008 DRIVEN by REALTY SECTOR

Private equity investments in the country witnessed an increase of 55 per cent in terms of value to touch $10.4 million during the first six months of this year, driven by significant deals announced in the realty and infrastructure sector. Overall, there were 207 deals worth $10.4 billion during first half of 2008, as against 178 transactions with a value of $ 6.69 billion during the corresponding period a year-ago.

Business Standard

India’s market cap crosses Rs 70 lakh crore-mark

Investors’ wealth on the Indian bourses has crossed Rs 70,00,000-crore milestone for the first time in history, with an average increase of over Rs 40 crore in every minute of trading during 2007. The total wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed Companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange, has surged to a record high of Rs 70,38,538 crore (over $1.7 trillion), the latest data available with the bourses show. This marks a ten-fold surge in the total market value in just about four and a half years. It stood at about Rs 7,00,000 crore in May 2003. The investors’ wealth has grown by Rs 34,14,181 crore, or about $970 billion, since the beginning of 2007. Taking into account the 249 days of trading so far this year, this means an average gain of about Rs 13,711 crore a day or about Rs 41 crore a minute.

The Financial Express
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/
Indias-market-cap-crosses-Rs-70-lakh-croremark/255870/

2007: A year of big deals

It has been a year of frenzied deal-making. From mega public floats such as the DLF Ltd’s domestic initial public offer (IPO) and and ICICI Bank Ltd’s mega overseas offering, Indian companies raised resources to fund its breakneck pace of growth in 2007. Huge amounts were raised both from the domestic and international bond and equity markets. New avenues such as the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route gained in importance, while convertible offerings were also a hit. The amounts raised in 2007 have been higher than in the preceding years except for domestic bonds, while the number of deals done have also been higher, except for overseas equity offers and domestic bonds. Foreign investment banking firms topped the league tables in five out of six categories, including managing domestic bond issues and QIPs.

MINT
http://www.livemint.com/2007/12/28015000/
2007-A-year-of-big-deals.html

India Inc sells record shares in '07

Indian Companies sold shares worth a record 451.37 billion rupees in 2007 through public issues, with real estate Companies dominating the initial public offer (IPOs) route, a primary market monitoring firm said on Wednesday. The amount raised in 2007 was 83 per cent higher than last year's mobilisation of 246.79 billion rupees, Prime Database said in a statement.

The Financial Express
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/
India-Inc-sells-record-shares-in-07/254448/

World's top IPO - $8-bn; India's total - $8.3-bn

Indian bourses saw over eight billion dollars worth of initial public offers in 2007, but this is just a shade higher than the world's single-largest IPO that was brought by a Russian company, latest data show. The worldwide IPO activity raised a record capital of 255 billion dollars till November in 2007, including 8.3 billion dollars on Indian bourses, according to data compiled by international consultancy firm Ernst and Young. India was the fifth largest market in terms of number of IPOs and seventh largest in terms of the proceeds for the year, E&Y said.

The Financial Express
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/
Worlds-top-IPO-8bn-Indias-total-8-3bn/254467/

Mukesh trails Anil in creating wealth for investors

Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian and head of market leader Reliance Industries Ltd, was not the leading wealth creator for small investors in 2007 but was pipped for the top spot by younger brother Anil. A comparison of cumulative share price gains for the listed companies from the two groups puts the surge for Mukesh Ambani group at 153 per cent, as against about 232 per cent for the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).

The Economic Times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
Mukesh_trails_Anil_in_creating_wealth_for_investors/
articleshow/2650121.cms

The IndusView Publication - Volume 3, Issue 7

Indian Airspace: More Planes, Fewer Names

Market dynamics can create strange bedfellows. Kingfisher Airlines, a subsidiary of UB Group, India's largest alcoholic spirits manufacturer is looking to acquire Deccan Aviation, India’s top low-cost carrier to become India’s largest airline with a 34% market share. The transaction will bring together two contrasting companies. Kingfisher, run by Vijay Mallya, India’s flamboyant entrepreneur often compared with the U.K.’s Richard Branson and Air Deccan founded by Capt. G. R. Gopinath, a former Indian Army Officer who popularized low-cost air travel in India.

The merger follows the recent acquisition of Air Sahara by Jet Airways, until now, India’s largest private sector airline with a 32% market share, and the merger of two state owned carriers Air India and Indian – to create the National Aviation Company of India (NACIL).

The wave of airline consolidation we first predicted in Vol3 | Issue 5 clearly continues.

Wireless Telecoms: Size Matters

Consolidation also continues in the wireless sector, evident from the expected merger of Idea Cellular Ltd owned by Aditya Birla Group, one of India's largest diversified conglomerates, with Spice Telecom, which is 49% owned by South East Asia’s second largest phone company Telekom Malaysia Bhd.

Idea Cellular and Spice Telecom will have a combined subscriber base of 17.3 million in 11 circles making it the fifth largest mobile operator, surpassing Tata Teleservices Ltd, part of the Tata group, India's largest private sector business group.

The world’s fastest growing mobile phone market, which is expected to more than double to 348 million subscribers by 2010 has undergone consolidation worth more than $12 billion in transaction value so far this year compared with $2 billion last year. The most significant deal has been the acquisition of Hutchison Essar Ltd, second largest GSM mobile service provider, by the U.K.’s Vodafone Group Plc.

Real Estate: Billion Dollar Opportunities

General Electric Company (GE), the world’s second largest company by market value, is boosting its commitment to India’s real estate market by allocating $2 billion for real estate projects such as townships, special economic zones (SEZs), information technology (IT) parks, retail and residential developments.

Industry experts forecast demand, precipitated by India’s burgeoning Information Technology (IT) industry, for as many as 80 million housing units over the next 15 years and 200 million square feet in office space in the next five years.

More insight into India’s property market can be gotten from the Company Watch section of this issue where we’ve profiled DLF Ltd, India’s largest real estate developer slated to have the country’s largest initial public offering (IPO) when it lists $3 billion worth of new shares this month.

Bundeep Singh Rangar
Chairman, IndusView
Bundeep.Rangar@IndusView.com
www.indusview.com
www.rangar.com