Bennett Coleman buys stake in online merchandising company eYantra

Bennett, Coleman & Company has acquired a stake in Hyderabad-based eYantra Industries, a corporate brand merchandising company. Established in 2001 by ex-PriceWaterhouseCoopers consultants, eYantra offers a range of 5000 products across 150 categories. It is headquartered in Hyderabad and has various offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. More than 15 corporates have partnered with eYantra for their online brand stores, and 100 such online stores are expected to be hosted by the end of this year. eYantra has entered into long term exclusive merchandising contracts with several industry majors like Tech Mahindra, TCS, Accenture, Sasken, HCL, Genpact and ING Vysya Life Insurance.

The company has been growing at a CAGR of 73%. It has now forayed into internet- and intranet-based customized online brand stores. Named eTail, this new SBU will synchronize and energize its online brand store vertical across the globe.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

BCCL to buy 3.5% in Refex Refrigerants

The Economic Times reports that Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) will pick up a stake of around 3.5% in Chennai-based Refex Refrigerants, for an undisclosed sum. Refex is engaged in refilling-ozone friendly refrigerants and marketing refrigerant products in India. Refex is the only player in the country which has the distinction of refilling and marketing hydro-fluoro-carbons, which is a non-ozone depleting, environmentally safe refrigerant developed to replace chlorofluorocarbons in several air conditioning and refrigeration applications.

The Times Group acquires 5% stake in Ahmedabad-based IT firm

Bennett, Coleman & Company (BCCL) will acquire around 5% stake in Ahmedabad-based IT firm Sai InfoSystem (SIS), for an undisclosed sum. SIS offers total IT solutions to end users comprising hardware, software, networking and related services. It operates in the area of system integration, call-centre solutions and has been focusing on four verticals namely telecom, power, defence and the state government, and has added two more verticals, retail and gaming.

The company may come up with an initial public offering in three years.

Read The Economic Times article.

Times Group to acquire 667,000 shares in textile firm Sumeet Industries

Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) has entered into an agreement to acquire 667,000 equity shares in Surat-based textile firm Sumeet Industries. Sumeet is a public-listed company engaged in the manufacturing and export of synthetic textile yarn and export of yarn and fabrics. The funds raised may be used to fund the company’s expansion plans that include increasing its polyester spinning capacity from the existing 12,000 tonne per annum to 56,000 tonne per annum. They are also setting up another 10 lines of polyester spinning plant with an annual installed capacity of 44,000 tonnes.

The company is also planning to develop an industrial park for medium & small industries near Kandla port in Kutch. The company owns 55 acres of land in this area and will be adding another 200 acres on which they will set up the infrastructure like roads, water and power supply.

Article in The Economic Times.

Bennett Coleman picks up 5% stake in YOU Telecom

Bennett & Coleman Company Limited (BCCL), the holding company of the Times of India, has acquired a 5% stake in YOU Telecom India Private Limited for an undisclosed sum. YOU Telecom is India’s first ISO 9001:2000 accredited broadband company. Citigroup Venture Capital International is already an investor in YOU Telecom.

The Times Group buys stake in Hyderabad-based IT company

Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL), the parent company of The Times of India and The Economic Times, has acquired a stake in Hyderabad-based IT products company SatNav Technologies. SatNav is a pioneer in products in navigation, telematics and business infrastructure management. It was founded under the Satyam entrepreneur incubation program focusing on services and products. In 2004, SatNav took over the products developed by Satyam Navigation and is today an independent venture run by ex-Satyam employees. The company is expanding its customer base across the globe; it already has partners in eight countries, The company’s client list includes ICICI Bank, Genpact, Satyam, ISB, UBS and HSBC.

Read the article in The Economic Times.

Avesthagen sells 20% stake for €25 mn

Bangalore-based integrated life sciences company Avestha Gengraine Technologies Limited (Avesthagen) has closed Series C of private equity fundraising of around €25 mn by divesting 20% equity to external investors. The investment values the company at € 115 mn (Rs. 667 crores). The investors in the company are Fidelity International (10%), the Limagrain Group of France (5%), Daninvest of the Danone Group (4.57%), and Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (2.4%). The total foreign investment in the company is now over 31%. The existing investors of Avesthagen include ICICI Ventures, Cipla, Godrej Industries, Tata Industries and bioMerieux. The company has also commenced preparations for its initial public offering scheduled to hit the market by mid-2008.

The company commenced its operations as an agri-biotech company in 2001 and then moved on to become a healthcare technology company, pursing its vision of convergence of food, pharmaceuticals, and population genetics, leading to preventive personalized medicine. The other activity of the company has been agri-biotech product development of scientifically validated bioactive nutraceuticals, derived from Indian medicinal plants, as well as the development of bio-similar drugs. The company has four strategic business units: bio-pharmaceuticals, food for medicine (bio-nutritionals), seed for food (agri-biotech) and science and innovation. The company registered Rs. 1.1 crore in profit and Rs. 18 crore revenue in 2005-06.

The funds will be used for Avesthagen’s infrastructure expansion plans, including setting up of manufacturing units and research and development laboratories, and acquisition of technology companies to scale up production and marketing.

Read the article in Business Standard.

Bennett Coleman buys 15% in Kanpur-based UPTEC for Rs. 5 crores

Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited has invested Rs 5 crore at Rs 1,714 a share for a 15% stake in UP-based IT company UPTEC. UPTEC was established in 1993. Since then it gave dividends regularly till 2003, after which it skipped paying for three years, ploughing back the profits in the company. It resumed paying dividends this year. Its turnover is likely to cross Rs. 30 crores this year with revenue coming from IT training, hardware & networking solutions, content development, and software services. Its current student strength is about 10,000 and 50,000 students have passed out of its ten centres in Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Noida. The latest offering from UPTEC is e-learning and e-testing. The company is testing its interactive e-learning software developed in-house, and it will be launched this summer in at least three subjects. All the company’s courses have won the ISO 901-2000 certificate for all education centres and allied services, including management education.

Read the article in Business Standard.

The Times Group invests in stem cell processing company LifeCell

LifeCell, a Chennai-based stem cell processing and banking facility, has divested stake to the Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL), proprietors of The Times of India and The Economic Times.

LifeCell was launched in November 2004 and is a pioneer in India for stem cell banking, research and therapy. It has 21 marketing and collection centres across India, and has enrolled over 5000 customers. LifeCell recently forayed into international markets with the launch of its Dubai operations and will soon expand its presence to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Pakistan. It also has a technology tie-up with US-based CRYO-CELL International, which is the pioneer in the field of cord blood banking, and is the world’s biggest cord blood bank with over 130,000 members.

Read the article in The Economic Times.

Premier Tissues to acquire UK tissue converting company

Bangalore-based Premier Tissues, a manufacturer and exporter of tissue papers, is acquiring an UK-based tissue converting company in a deal worth £8-10 mn. In addition to the company’s bankers, Bank of India and the EXIM Bank have also shown interest in financing the deal. The company is also holding talks with a couple of venture capital firms to fund the deal. The acquisition is expected to be consummated by March 2007. Presently, Premier Tissues is one of the largest exporters of tissue products to UK. By February 2007, with this expansion, the company will be able to export about 700 tonnes of tissue products per month.

Read The Economic Times article.

It is to be noted that Bennett, Coleman & Co. (BCCL), the media group that owns The Times of India and The Economic Times, had recently picked up 6.42% stake in Premier Tissues. The company was set up in 1998 in technical collaboration with Premier Tissues of Malaysia. It now has a sales revenue of 35 crore, of which up to 25% comes from exports.