The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) spree that started with three big-ticket deals last week may have some fizz this week too, as a few more M&A announcements are on the cards.
Opto Circuits (India) is set to kick-start the process by announcing acquisition of a European firm early this week. Other M&A deals expected this week include an acquisition by Mahindra & Mahindra.
The Apollo Hospitals board will also meet on Monday to consider acquisition of a hospital. Sources close to Opto Circuits said the company might announce an acquisition early this week, though might not be on Monday. They were, however, reluctant to divulge the financial details.
Industry sources said the company was in the process of raising Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) through a public issue to fund its expansion and acquisition. And going by this, the European acquisition should cost less than Rs 100 crore, they added.
The company, which has been mulling over expansion for quite some time, has recently passed a host of resolutions pertaining to hiking the authorised share capital from Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million), increasing the borrowing limit to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) and raising FII investment to 40 per cent of the equity share capital.
Market sources further said Bajaj Hindusthan was in advanced stages of negotiations with two sugar mills in the eastern Uttar Pradesh. These two mills have a combined capacity of crushing 7,000 tonne a day. The company officials, however, denied this.
The Bajaj Hindustan board would meet on Monday to discuss the annual financial results, and might announce dividend for the last year, the officials said.
The big bang announcements in the last week included Merrill Lynch's acquisition of the management control of DSP Merrill Lynch, Bharat Forge's buy of 52 per cent stake in the forging division of the Chinese auto major FAW Corporation and Hitachi Construction Machinery's doubling its stake to 40 per cent in Telco Construction Equipment.