Merger & Acquisitions

TATA TEA PEPSI STRIKE DEAL FOR BEVERAGES JV: Tata Tea and World No 2 cola maker Pepsico on April 9 said they had signed a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture for non-carbonated beverages focused on health and wellness.

AIR INDIA-SATS JV: National air carrier Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) have signed an agreement to form a single 50:50 joint venture company to house their three existing ground-and-cargo-handling JVs in Banglore and Hyderabad.

INDIA INC’S M&Ms TOUCH %19BN IN 2010: Driven by Bharti Airtel’s %10.7 billion takeover deal for the African assets of kuwait’s Zain Telecom, the total value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the country in the first quarter of 2010 has nearly quadrupled to $19 billion.

VODAFONE TOUCHES 100MN CONSUMER BASE: Vodafone, which acquired a majority stake in Hutchison-Essar for a massive %11.1 billion, has now a consumer base of 100 million as compared to 28 million in 2007.

NALCO LISTS RECORD METAL PRODUCTION: National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), a Navratna unit, has achieved the highest-ever metal production of 4.31 lakh tones in 2009-10, in 2008-09, with 19.4 percent increase.

SANY GROUP OPENS FIRST PLANT IN INDIA: China-based Sany Group, a global major in the construction machinery industry, on April 12 inaugurated its first manufacturing facility in India at Chakan near Pune. This plant, with an investment of %70 million, is the group’s second manufacturing facility in Asia after China.

TATAS RENEW SINGUR LEASE:Tata Motors has paid the lease rent of Rs 1 crore till March next year for its land to Singur, where the company’s small car Nano was initially scheduled to roll out from.

RELIANCE INFRA COMMISSION 600MW UNIT: Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Infrastructure on April 4 said it has commissioned a 600 MW power unit at the Rajiv Gandhi Khedar Thermal Power Plant in Haryana that after completion will provide 15,000 jobs.

GEMS AND JEWELLERY EXPORTS UP:India’s gems and jewellery export continued to shine for the fourth consecutive month with consignments growing by an impressive annual 55 percent of $2.2 billion in February , 2010.

UNITED SPIRITS BECOMES WORLD NO 2: United Spirits (USL), the flagship company of the Vijay Mallya-promoted UB Group, said on April 7 that it had crossed sales volume of 100 million cases in 2009-10, making it the world’s No 2 spirits company in volume terms and is certain to be the number one by next fiscal.