Deals India: Morning News Roundup

News roundup from Indian newspapers, news wires and Web sites on Monday, June 20, 2011. Deals India has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Nokia may no longer remain the only Finnish company that closely touches the lives of Indians. A slew of other Finnish firms present in India are scaling up their operations, while a few others are readying for venturing into the world's second-fastest growing economy to tap opportunities in oil and gas field services, power generation, municipal water management and large scale industrial effluent treatment, the firms confirmed to FE. (Source:The Financial Express)
Even as confectionery major Perfetti Van Melle India is foraying into the branded snacks business, leading FMCG firm CavinKare is planning to enter the Indian confectionery market as part of its growth strategy. After acquiring the Mumbai-based Garden Namkeens, a traditional snacks company, CavinKare is now gearing up for a national roll-out of Garden Snacks with effective marketing plans. (Source:The Financial Express)
The Centre has decided to reach out to states to elicit their support for its plan to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. A Committee of Secretaries (CoS) headed by Cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth met here over the issue on June 15 and resolved that states should be encouraged to give their consent for 51% FDI in multi-brand retail as the measure would have multiple benefits, including an easing of inflation. (Source: The Financial Express)
Close on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raising its policy rates by 25 basis points in its mid-term monetary policy review last week, banks are gearing up to go in for another round of hikes in their lending and deposit rates. Some public sector banks that have confirmed their plans to increase the interest rates soon include Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Corporation Bank. (Source: The Financial Express)
India is likely to allow foreign individuals to invest in mutual funds in the next two weeks but with a cumulative cap of $10 billion, an official said on Sunday. (Source: The Financial Express)
Survival of the best' seems to be the mantra in the $12.4-billion Indian BPO industry. The last three months saw big acquisitions like Genpact buying Headstrong for capital market expertise and EXL Service acquiring Outsource Partners International (OPI) for deeper domain in finance and accounting (F&A). The reason here is clearly possessing vertical skill, having a bigger portfolio to offer to existing customers, and acquiring new customers. Another important acquisition which happened recently was that of Serco gobbling up Intelenet, which analysts feel was for acquiring domestic BPO market capability. But dig deeper and there is a bigger background behind these acquisitions, which one could rightly describe as the 'fourth wave' of acquisitions in the IT-BPO industry last decade—the BPO consolidation wave. (Source: The Financial Express)
NR Narayana Murthy's venture capital firm Catamaran, the Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Venture Asset Management and some foreign investors have invested in Mumbai-based healthcare services provider Wellspring Healthcare . (Source: The Economic Times)
The Cabinet has approved the merger of ONGC's Russian assets with Sistema-promoted Bashneft and RussNeft in a deal that will give the Indian company access to Trebs & Titov oilfields, boost profitability of its Imperial Energy and ownership of 25% stake in the merged entity with a management say. (Source: The Economic Times)
Max Healthcare, the 1,100-bed hospital subsidiary of Max India Group, is likely to enter into an equity-cum-strategic alliance with a private equity (PE) firm-backed global hospital major. (Source: The Economic Times)
After making four-fold profit by selling its stake in Paras Pharma in one of the largest private equity (PE) exits in India, UK's Actis is looking for another big payday. Six months after the Paras deal, Actis wants to exit Sterling Hospitals, a Gujarat-based multi-speciality hospital chain with six centres, according to three independent sources in the know. (Source: Business Standard)
After three ventures in India, US-based spice and seasonings major McCormick is now eyeing more. The company, with its revenues in excess of $3 billion, is looking to invest in the branded packaged foods space in the country by making an acquisition or getting into a joint venture with a local company, Satish Rao, McCormick's vice-president, business development, said in a conversation with Business Standard. (Source: Business Standard)
In its bid to become a leading player in the telecom space, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) may have to acquire younger brother Anil-run Reliance Communications (RCom), a report said. (Source: Business Standard)
Ushdev Power Holdings, arm of metal trading house Ushdev Industries, is looking to buy out a bankrupt wind power company listed on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). (Source: Business Standard)
Business process outsourcer Genpact Ltd appears to be paving the way for its large shareholders General Electric Company, General Atlantic, Oak Hill Capital Partners and Wells Fargo to easily sell all or part of their holding in the company. (Source: DNA)
Private equity interest in India's bustling education sector only continues to grow. And this time, Kota-based Resonance Eduventures Pvt Ltd, a test preparation company offering coaching for IIT-JEE and other engineering entrance exams, is raising Rs 100 crore ($22 million) from CLSA Capital Partners, two persons with direct knowledge of the development told VCCircle. (Source: VCCircle)