Aprés l'acier les indiens achètent l'aluminium

Source : Economic Times

Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco on Sunday announced the acquisition of US-based aluminium firm Novelis for six billion dollars in an all-cash deal.

Announcing the acquisition, Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Sunday said the deal would include $2.4 billion in debt.

The shareholders of Atlanta-based Novelis, a demerged entity of Canadian aluminium giant Alcan, would meet after the court's approval, Birla said.

Novelis shareholders would recieve $44.93 per share as part of the deal, which is 16.5 per cent over Saturday's closing price. The deal requires approval from shareholders of two-third of the company's total equity capital.

Following the acquisition of Novelis, Hindalco world's largest aluminium rolling company, one of the biggest producer of primary aluminium in Asia and India's leading copper producer.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2007, the two companies said in a joint statement.

Birla said, "The acquisition of Novelis is a landmark transaction for Hindalco and our group. It is in line with our long-term strategies of expanding our global presence across our various businesses and is consistent with our vision of taking India to the world."

The combination would establish a global integrated aluminium producer with low-cost alumina and aluminium production facilities combined with high-end aluminium rolled product capabilities, Birla added.

Novelis' acting CEO Ed Blechshmidt said in a statement that the board unanimously agreed that the deal delivers outstanding value to the company's shareholders.

Hindalco's Managing Director Debu Bhattacharya said that there are significant geographical market and product synergies and the acquisition would give the company immediate scale and a global footprint.

The two companies said in a joint statement that the deal was unanimously approved by their respective boards and the closing of the transaction was not conditional on Hindalco obtaining financing.

Suzlon veut acheter REpower Systems en mettant une meilleure offre qu'Areva sur la table

Source : Economic Times
Domestic wind energy major Suzlon Energy has placed a 126 euro per share bid to acquire German wind turbine manufacturer RE Power Systems, company sources said here on Friday.

The company will acquire Germany-based REpower Systems, engaged in the business of development and supply of wind turbine generators, jointly with PorMartifer SGPS of Portugal.

French company Areva has already made a 105 euro per share bid for acquiring the company, Suzlon Energy sources added.

Suzlon in a regulatory filing to the BSE said the board of company has approved of the acquisition in the foreign firm by a voluntary public tender offer through its overseas subsidiaries in concert with the Portugese firm.

The acquisition would be subject to certain conditions precedent as may be stipulated in the voluntary public tender offer, which would be approved by the German Stock Market Regulator (BaFin) and respective competent competition authorities, it added.

The board also approved the conclusion of a takeover, shareholders agreement among one or more of its overseas subsidiaries and Martifer SGPS, SA and its affiliates relating to the acquisition including the issuance of a parental guarantee.

The company would also provide a corporate guarantee to secure appropriate financial assistance being granted by various leaders to such overseas subsidiaries of the company for the acquisition, it added.

L'usine de BMW arrive à Chennai (Madras) en Mars

Source: Financial Times

Germany's BMW, the world's biggest luxury carmaker, will start assembling cars in India next month and expects to produce 1,000 vehicles in the plant's first year of operation, it said on Thursday.

The Munich-based company also said it would stick to its goal of selling 150,000 cars in Asia by next year, after sales in the region climbed 13.8 percent last year to a record 126,949 vehicles.

BMW's plant in Chennai in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu is the group's fifth factory in Asia and will make 3 and 5 series BMWs exclusively for the Indian market.

"It will be around a thousand units this year and we'll bring it up to the plant's capacity of 1,700 next year," BMW management board member Michael Ganal told journalists after a news conference.

BMW, the world's biggest premium carmaker ahead of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz, hopes to sell around 1,000 cars this year in India, up from just 257 last year.

Ganal said India was a difficult market but added that the firm expects to profit from rising demand for its luxury cars as a result of rising wealth.

Sales in the premium segment -- which includes such brands as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Audi -- in Asia's third-largest economy reached 5,400 cars last year and Ganal expects that figure to rise to around 10,000 by 2012.

The company also said sales of BMW brand cars in Asia rose 15.5 percent in 2006 from the previous year to 109,848 units.

Sales of its popular Mini in Asia rose 3.7 percent to 16,959 vehicles, while its ultra-luxury Rolls-Royce Phantoms sold 142 times -- 40 more than in 2005.

Sales of BMW motorbikes were almost unchanged at 3,620.

Japan, which accounts for the lion's share of sales in the region, recorded a 5.6 percent rise to 62,068 units, while China showed the strongest growth rate in Asia last year, up 35 percent to 44,700 vehicles.

Last month, BMW announced a 5 percent rise in 2006 group sales to a record 49 billion euros ($64 billion) and reaffirmed that its 2006 pretax earnings would hit 4 billion euros on the back of a 3.5 percent rise in unit sales to just over 1.37 million BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce cars. ($1=.7684 Euro)

EADS signe un accord avec L&T à Bengaluru Aero India 2007

Source : Business Standard

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and European aerospace and defence group EADS today took the first step towards joint exploration of business opportunities in defence and aerospace.

According to a release issued by L&T to the BSE today, M V Kotwal senior executive vice president of L&T and Daniel Baubil, executive vice president and head of global industrial development of EADS, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to establish a long-term, profitable and stable relationship to better address the needs of the aerospace and defence markets in India and around the world. The signing took place at the Aero India 2007 exhibition in the city.

M V Kotwal said that, "the opening up and rapid growth of the defence market represents a major opportunity. This can lead to new forms of cooperation involving innovative technologies. As a company that has been supplying critical equipment and systems to the strategic sectors of defence and aerospace for over four decades, we welcome this opportunity to induct state of the art technology, and expand our range of high value offering".

'The agreement between L&T and EADS defines the formation of working teams to build a joint business model and appropriate common strategies on several key segments of the aerospace and defence market', the release added.

Pas de Taittinger? Ce n'est pas grave, Il y a le Scotch

Source : Economic Times

Isle of Jura was among the favourite evening toasts of the late Vittal Mallya. This drink from the Whyte & Mackay portfolio figures in the bar cabinet of Conservative Party leader David Cameron-widely touted as the British prime minister in waiting.

Nearly 25 years after donning the mantle of UB Group chairman following the sudden demise of his father, Vijay Mallya looks set to swoop down on London to clinch the $1.06-billion acquisition deal for Whyte & Mackay. After seven months of negotiations and several failed deadlines, UB’s top financial honchos are seen hammering out a consensus with W&M chairman Vivian Immerman on a deal valued at £540 million, which is higher than the initial offer that stood at around £480-500 million.

A top UB source confirmed that a deal is in the offing any time, with final due diligence and bankers’ visit to W&M’s four distilleries likely to be completed next week. Both camps are still in talks to resolve some minor irritants, which are not exactly threatening, source added.