Mahindra Holidays has acquired 49% stake in the Arabian Dreams Hotel Apartment. Located in central Dubai, it consists of 75 rooms which are a combination of studios and apartments. The hotel is close to Dubai International Airport, Bur Dubai Shopping area, World Trade Centre and Bank Street. Mahindra Holidays was recently planning to raise funds from Institutional Placement Programme. These funds were going to be used for buying new resorts as a part of the company’s expansion plans. In Nov 2012 the company had declared its plans of buying properties in Dubai, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Access the complete story: Deal Curry
Join our Indiafocused services network by clicking here

Saudi based United International Transportation (UniTrans) has acquired 32.5% strategic stake in TranzLease Holdings India Pvt. Ltd. This acquisition has occurred through infusion of growth capital into TranzLease. This strategy will allow the company to stimulate its growth plans ahead.

UniTrans plans to expand into South Asia starting with India. Owing to high growth in the automobile sector and auto lease sector, the foreign investors are attracted to this region.

Access the complete story: Economic Times

Videocon Industries is on the lookout to sell its Direct-To-Home (DTH) business Videocon d2h to one of its rivals. The entire idea behind this move is to build scale with subscribers but with a lower stake.

Videocon is in talks with one of the largest DTH operator in the US in order to form a joint venture. However, conditions stemming out of a possible merger include minimal overlapping in the customer footprint and synergies in the DTH positioning. Though players like Tata Sky, Dish TV denied having any talks with Videocon, consolidation is slated to happen soon. Foreign DTH operators are keen to enter the Indian market but government’s restriction of foreign ownership to 26% in domestic concerns is stopping them. A rise in FDI limit is potent enough to spell a complete change in the DTH space with both foreign and domestic companies looking to come together. Another player who is also treading the same line is Reliance Digital TV who is planning to dilute stake to raise anywhere between INR 20-25 bn.

Source: TheFinancialExpress

Sony Pictures Television (SPT), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Pictures Inc is slated to buy around 32% of the shares of Multi Screen Media Private Limited (MSM). It has so far been owned by Grandway Global Holdings Limited and Atlas Equifin Private Limited.

SPT will be paying INR 15.12 bn in cash to Grandway and Atlas subject to government approvals. While around INR 7.5 bn will be paid by December at ten time hen the transaction is expected to close, the rest of the amount will be paid in three equal installments starting from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. This will help in raising SPT’s interest in MSM to a little over 94%.

Source: IndiaPE

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) had announced its plans of merging with Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL) to meet the rising demand for diesel vehicles in India. Following this merger, Maruti Suzuki’s Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) will hold a higher stake of 56.2% in MSI from the previous 54.2% owing to the share swap agreement at a fixed swap ratio of 1:70. This implies that for every share of MSI of INR 5, SMC will give away 70 shares of INR 10 each it holds in SPIL. After this, MSI will own 30% stake in SPIL, while the rest 70% will remain under SMC.

Every year, MSI receives 0.3 mn diesel engines and transmissions from SPIL. Board of Directors of MSI has approved the merger proposal of SPIL as it will help in reducing costs and integrating its diesel engine operations under a single management.

Source: Zee News