Religare Finvest gets Rs150cr from Avigo Capital

Transaction complete for Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS)

New Delhi, November 28, 2011: Religare Finvest Limited (RFL), one of India’s largest capitalized NBFCs and a wholly owned subsidiary of Religare Enterprises Limited, today announced that Avigo Capital (Avigo) has completed an investment of Rs150cr in the form of compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS).

Religare Finvest Limited is on a fast growth trajectory, focusing on small and medium enterprises (SME) financing. It has recently successfully raised Rs754crore from a retail issue of non-convertible debentures earlier this year and its loan book size stands at Rs11,380cr(as on September 30, 2011). 

Avigo Capital, as an Indian private equity fund manager focuses on private equity investments in the country’s SME sector.

Confirming this development, Mr. Kavi Arora, CEO, Religare Finvest Ltd said: “We are pleased to announce the completion of capital infusion by Avigo Capital in Religare Finvest Limited. This transaction is a great milestone for us as it reaffirm sour commitment towards our SME-focused business model.”

“With this investment, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the existing business opportunities while delivering superlative value for all our stakeholders. We welcome Avigo to the Religare family.” He added.

Mr. Achal Ghai, Avigo Capital said: “Avigo Capital, an Indian private equity fund manager was formed in Sep 2003 with a focus on Private Equity Investments in the SME sector in India. As we strategically look for SME focused growth stage companies, we found an excellent opportunity in Religare Finvest Limited which is a SME focused non-banking financing company. We are happy to be part of the Religare family. This transaction is in sync with our investment philosophy and investee companies.”

About Religare Finvest Ltd –www.religarefinvest.com

Religare Finvest Ltd. (“RFL”) is a Systemically Important Non-Deposit Accepting NBFC, focusing on small and medium enterprises (“SME”) financing and capital market financing. Through its reach and focus on the SME segment and the broad product offering, RFL provides the debt capital to power the growth of the small and medium enterprise. RFL’s lending products aimed at providing financing to the SME segment include:

·         Loans against property      

·         Working capital loans

·         Loans against plant & machinery

·         Loans for Commercial vehicles & construction equipment

·         Loan against Marketable Securities

About Avigo Capital - www.avigocorp.com/

Avigo Capital, an Indian private equity fund manager was formed in Sep 2003 with a focus on Private Equity Investments in the SME sector in India. Avigo Capital manages Growth Capital & Buyout SME fund in India and seeks equity investments in pre-dominantly growth stage companies, across different sectors. Avigo has over USD 365 million under management and has successfully raised and invested two funds (Avigo SME Fund I and Avigo SME Fund II). Currently Avigo is in the process of investing its third Fund (Avigo SME Fund III), which had its final closing in June 2010 at USD 240 million. Till date Avigo have made more than 25 investments in 15 companies with successful exits from 6 of their portfolio companies.

Pipavav Defence issues preferential shares to international strategic investor

MUMBAI, November 22: Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company Limited has successfully delivered “The Golden Suek”, one no. 74,500 DWT Panamax Bulk Carrier toGOLDEN SAPPHIRE INC. nominated by GOLDEN OCEAN GROUP LTD., a company headquartered in Norway.

This is the largest dry bulk carrier ever built in India, Pipavav Defence said in its communique to BSE..

Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company Limited has successfully delivered “The Golden Suek”, one no. 74,500 DWT Panamax Bulk Carrier toGOLDEN SAPPHIRE INC. nominated by GOLDEN OCEAN GROUP LTD., a company headquartered in Norway.

This is the largest dry bulk carrier ever built in India, Pipavav Defence said in its communique to stock exchanges.

The Board of Directors of the Company, through resolutions passed by circulation has approved the following:


Increase in the Authorised Share Capital of the Company from Rs. 800 Crore to  Rs. 1,000 Crore.
Issue of up to 81,880,000 (Eighty One Million Eight Hundred Eighty Thousand) fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs. 10/- (Rupees Ten only) each of the Company to an International Strategic Investor (“the Investor”), in one or more tranches, at a price not less than Rs. 110/- (Rupees One Hundred and Ten only) per equity share or price to be determined pursuant to formula prescribed in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009, whichever is higher, subject to the approval of Members of the Company and other requisite approvals.
The aforesaid investment will be a long term strategic investment in the Company. The Investor will initially subscribe to 5% of the paid-up capital of the Company and within specified time will increase its holding in the Company upto 10% of the paid-up capital of the Company.
The Investor is a leading and extremely reputed global conglomerate with strong interest in defence sector. The Investor will bring in critical technology required for manufacture of complex and critical equipments, systems required by armed forces i.e. Navy, Army and Air force. The Investor will have a right to nominate one director on the Board of the Company.

SKIL Infra denies Pipavav share sale rumours

MUMBAI, November 22 (Newsbank): SKIL Infrastructure Ltd has denied rumours that it has sold its shares held in Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering.

“Pipavav shares held by SKIL group are completely intact and not even a single share has been sold as rumored by some interested parties with vested interest to hammer down the prices in the last four working days,” said a SKIL spokesperson pointing out that “Until then, Pipavav shares have been one of the most stable mid-cap shares.”

SKIL Infrastructure Ltd. raised medium term and long term loans to acquire stake in Pipavav Defece of one of its shareholders M/s Punj Lloyd and from others in the open offer.

The said loans are a specific tenure loans for project financing and increasing the SKIL Infrastructure’s stake in Pipavav. Long term loans has 10 year tenure and medium term loans falls due between 2012 to 2014. We have the mechanism in place to repay the loans on time.

SKIL has offered adequate collateral security including shares it owns in Pipavav as NDU (non-disposable undertaking) and primary collateral.

None of the Pipavav shares held by SKIL group are on the margin funding.

“We would like to state categorically that Pipavav is India’s first world class and global scale infrastructure company engaged in building ships and other critical maritime assets for the export market, offshore industry and defence forces among others,” the spokesperson said.

Pipavav is making a good progress with a robust order book and the company’s intrinsic value is extremely strong. Its quarterly result announced on 18^th November 2011 was encouraging on a growth trajectory, he added.

Pipavav Defence is an underleveraged company from both; financial institutions appraisal of the project debt-equity ratio and compared to other peer groups in the market, being extremely conservative.

SKIL group is committed to pay back its loans to its lenders as per the mutual agreement as it has done in the past 20 years.

Infosys tops Investor Relations Global Rankings

• IRGR maiden event rocks at BSE
• Concept PR's efforts highly appreciated

MUMBAI:  Bagging four awards in different categories, Infosys has walked away with top honours at the first event of the Indian Investor Relations Global Rankings’ award, which provided a unique platform to the Indian corporate sector to benchmark investor relations practices against their global peers.

 The IR Global Rankings (IRGR), the world renowned ranking body that indexes companies globally, has done the exercise for the first time for the BSE and NSE listed entities and over 100 companies registered themselves for the rankings. Instituted in 1999, this was the 13th edition of the rankings that were earlier conducted at New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Sao Paulo and Taipei.

 IRGR is regarded as the most comprehensive ranking system for investor relations practices that include corporate governance practices and financial disclosure procedures. The ranking is based on an extensive technical proprietary research of publicly traded companies through a clear and transparent methodology and is supported by key global institutions such as Arnold & Porter, KPMG, MZ and Sodalie.

 Mr Madhu Kanan, MD and CEO of BSE that hosted the award event, said the rankings and awards were a good way to recognize performers of the best IR practices.

 Ms. Luar Huber, Head of IR Global Rankings, said: “We are overwhelmed with the response in India and I am sure going forward more and more companies would come forward to their IR practices.”

Co-organised by Concept PR, the afternoon started off with an interesting panel discussion on “Creating shareholder Value through Investor Relations – Trends and Challenges in Emerging Markets.”The discussion, moderated by Ms. Damini Kumari, Senior Editor, ET Now, had India’s leading five corporate  leaders as participating panelists - Mr. Amit Tandon (MD, Institutional Investor Advisory Services), Mr. Vikram Kotak (CIO Birla Sun Life Insurance LTD), Mr. Nirmal Jain (Chairman, IIFL), Mr. Nalin Nayyar (MD, Head – India Investment Banking, Religare Capital Markets ltd) and Mr. Kumar Ramachandran (Managing Director, Concept IR).

Infosys, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Consultancy, Tata Steel, Wipro, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Edelweiss Capital Limited, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Persistant Technologies, Oberoi Realty, Godrej Consumer Goods, Piramal, Godrej Properties, ONGC, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Pipavav Defence and Offshore and Power Finance Corporation were among those companies that participated in the rankings.

 The other awardees in each category were :

 1. IR WEBSITE : Firstsource Solutions Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, Wipro Limited & Infosys Technologies
 2. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE : Nucleus Software Exports, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Persistent Systems Ltd,
3. ONLINE ANNUAL REPORT & FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE : Infosys Technologies