News You Can Use

JK Paper - Goldman Sachs Has Invested $17 million (about Rs 76 crore)

JK Paper last month concluded a $12 million gross depository receipts (GDR) issue and $5 million foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) to part finance its Rs 335 crore expansion plan, said Harsh Pati Singhania, managing director of the company. Nearly 7.7 million GDRs were placed at a price of Rs 69 per share, representing a premium of 16 per cent over the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closing price on the date of issue. The FCCBs with a coupon of 1.25 per cent and due in 2011 have a conversion price of Rs 95 per share, representing a premium of 60 per cent over the BSE closing price. “After IFC Washington’s Rs 50-crore investment at Rs 65 per share and Goldman Sachs’ Rs 76-crore investment, the company has concluded its equity raising programme for current expansion,” Singhania added.

Emami - Sinks Its Teeth Into Oral Care

Emami, the Kolkata-based personal care and cosmetics major, is marking its foray into the oral care segment by launching a toothpowder called Nirog. "We are making investments of Rs 6 crore for marketing and R&D for the tooth powder and two other products in the wellness segment -- a blood purification syrup and a uterine tonic," said Aditya Aggarwal, MD, Emami group. The market size of the toothpowder category is Rs 250 crore approximately, of which, Emami is targeting a 10 percent market share in three years. It plans to grow its presence in this category to Rs 5 crore in the first year of launch. If successful with the test launch of the tooth powder -- priced between Rs 12 and Rs 15 for a 50-gm pack -- the company will introduce a tooth paste in the next 2-3 months. "All three categories (tooth powder, blood purification syrup and uterine tonic) are not very big, but with marketing initiatives, we plan to grow the categories along with our brands," said Mr Aggarwal.

Emami's other brands include Boroplus antiseptic cream, Navratna oil, Fair and Handsome and Sona Chandi Chyawanprash. "The company has been growing steadily in its personal care category and faces competition from multi-national as well as domestic players. Its foray into the oral care category will help it to grow, provided the products are marketed in the right way," said an FMCG analyst.

Biocon's - Cancer Drug By Year End

The Bangalore-headquartered biotech major Biocon has made a filing with the Drug Controller General of India seeking okay for its latest anti-cancer drug Biomab EGFR, which is a monoclonal anti-body for the treatment of cancer in head and neck. Talking to mediapersons here on Monday, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that the drug had already entered into the drug development stage having already undergone clinical trials at three places in Karnataka. The approval for the new drug is expected to be completed in 3-4 months and it will have to undergo another round of trials.

The drug is expected to be developed by the end of ‘06. Ms Shaw said that it’s looking to add revenues of Rs 500 crore when this drug is launched in the market by ‘10. The molecule and the research for the drug was done by the Centre of Molecular Immunology, Cuba. Monoclonal antibody is becoming a fast-growing segment, especially in oncology and auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, etc. In India, there are about 3m cancer patients and about 7 lakh new cases added each year, of which 2.3 lakh are tobacco related.

Ms Shaw said that it will also be looking at marketing this drug in Europe and the US through alliance partners. There are about 18 monoclonal antibodies approved globally for therapeutic use with a market size of $15bn, and is expected to double by ‘10.

3i Infotech - Acquires Bangalore’s Datacons

3i Infotech (earlier ICICI Infotech), has acquired Bangalore-based Datacons, a software products company with annual revenues of $5 million. The company did not reveal how much it paid for the acquisition. The mid-sized 3i Infotech provides technology solutions to over 500 customers in more than 45 countries. Datacons, which offers niche products for the mutual funds segment in the banking financial sector and insurance space, has 250 employees and with a global client base and offices across the globe.

V Srinivasan, MD and CEO, 3i Infotech said, “The acquisition will further enhance our BFSI offering and bridge the current gap in our product portfolio by addressing the needs of the mutual funds, which is a high growth segment.” While industry biggies chase the US and UK markets for business, 3i Infotech has already made a stronghold in non-traditional markets like Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore), UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

3i Infotech has recently forayed into the surveillance and fraud detection software market with Amlock, an anti-money laundering and fraud detection software tailored for insurance, banking and capital market intermediaries like brokerages, mutual funds and registrars. The software is capable of providing round-the-clock transaction monitoring across the organisation, besides a wide array of predictive and early warning alerts by using artificial intelligence techniques. The company has won six deals for the bank alert software through Hyderabad-based SDG Software Technologies, which it acquired in November 2005. UTI Bank (India & Singapore), Karnataka Bank, Bank Dhofar (Sultanate of Oman), Alliance Housing Bank (Sultanate of Oman), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (UAE) and Permata Bank (Indonesia) would be deploying it.

TV 18 - To Raise Rs 250 cr For Acquisitions

Television Eighteen (TV 18) has decided to raise Rs 250 crore for investment in new ventures and potential acquisitions. The majority of these projects are intended to be in the television, internet and triple convergence areas. While some of these investments will create greenfield projects, others are likely to be acquisitions of companies, according to a notice sent by the company to the stock exchanges. The company also stated that a significant amount of the investment would be raised by the sale of strategic stakes in some of the downstream subsidiary companies to globally reputed investors.

TV 18 subsidiary companies are Moneycontrol.com - in which TV 18 holds over 90 per cent - CNN-IBN with a holding of 74 per cent and commoditiescontrol.com where the company has an 80 per cent stake. According to Raaghav Behl, managing director, TV 18, the company has a blueprint for a lot of new businesses and the offloading of stake may not necessarily be from TV 18’s existing companies, but could also be in future initiatives that the company invests in. Behl also said the expansion of TV 18 will be within the realms of its core business which is news and information. “We are currently in negotiations and one of two of the projects should be finalised in the near future.” He added that by the end of this calender year, all the four projects planned would be in various stages of implementation. TV 18 board also authorised the management to seek shareholder approval for raising Rs 300 crore in equity funds over a period of time. At present, the management is seeking only an enabling approval from its shareholders.

TV 18 recently picked up 50 per cent stake in of JobStreet.com India, a unit of the Malaysian online recruitment firm JobStreet Corporation, with an initial investment of Rs 90 crore.