M&A Magazine

Caravan Talkies , which is owned by UFO Movies through its subsidiary is taking both Bollywood and regional films to the hinterlands of the country where there is no proper cinema hall. The company is also helping brands to promote their products through their screens in rural areas. UFO Moviez India Limited (UFO) is a listed company and engaged in the business of digital cinema distribution and in-cinema advertising. It wants to a leader in big screen entertainment and entered into a merger transaction with Qube in 2017 which was blocked by NCLT in January 2019 and the decision is contested by UFO currently . Valuable Digital Screens Private Limited (VDSPL) is engaged in the advertising business carried out through Caravan Talkies i.e. Caravan Talkies advertising business which contributes the major revenue for the company and exhibition business through Nova Cinemaz & Club Cinema. Caravan Talkies; is a movie-on-wheels concept, wherein sundown non-ticketed shows (co...

A consortium of 26 bankers led by State Bank of India (SBI) have finally decided to take the grounded Jet Airways to bankruptcy court after failing to revive the company and find buyers. Insolvency proceedings have been initiated against debt-ridden Jet Airways, which stopped flying on April 17. Before the bank consortium filed the bankruptcy proceedings for Jet Airways, two operational creditors – Shaman Wheels and Gaggar Enterprises – had already taken the airlines to National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT ) as the airline owes Rs 8.74 crore and Rs 53 lakh to the two companies, respectively. After the airline stopped flying, most of its domestic and international slots have been given away to other airlines by the government. Jet Airways will be the first airlines company in the country to go into bankruptcy, as it owes over Rs 8,000 crore to banks and thousands of crores to vendors, lessors and employees. Jet Airways was started by airline-ticketing-agent-turned-entrepreneur N...

In a long-standing battle between Western Maharashtra Development Corporation Limited (WMDCL), a Government of Maharashtra undertaking, and Bajaj Holding & Investment Limited ( BHIL ) overpricing of equity shares of Maharashtra Scooters Limited ( MSL ) has finally settled, and on June 17, 2019 MSL has become a subsidiary of BHIL. Upon the acquisition of 27% stake of MSL from WMDC, BHIL’s holding has increased to 51% in MSL. In 1975, Maharashtra Scooters Limited was incorporated jointly by Bajaj Auto Limited (BAL) now Bajaj Holding and Investments Ltd post demerger in 2007 and Western Maharashtra Development Corporation Limited to manufacture geared scooters.  With a gradual shift in consumer preferences from geared scooters to motorcycle, the company discontinued production of geared scooters in 2006. Currently, the company is engaged in two businesses --  manufacturing of die casting dies, fixtures and die casting components, primarily meant for the automobiles in...

Tata Steel has acquired Bhushan Steel (BSL) through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bamnipal Steel Ltd (BNL) through a resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code ( IBC ) . Tata Steel has taken a controlling stake of 72.65% in BSL and paid the admitted corporate insolvency costs and employee dues, as required under IBC. Bhushan steel was one of the few resolved amongst 12 companies recommended by RBI under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code . Tata Steel Ltd (TSL) is part of Tata Group and a public limited company engaged in the business of manufacturing steel and offers a broad range of steel products including a portfolio of high value-added downstream products such as hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel, rebars, wire rods, tubes and wires. The equity shares are listed on BSE and on NSE. The market cap of the company is Rs 57,123 crores (approx.). Bamnipal Steel Limited (BNL) is a public limited company incorporated on January 19, 2018 formed as an SPV (Special Purpose...

Reliance Industries Limited ( RIL ) is a Fortune 500 company and the largest private sector corporation in India. Reliance's products and services portfolio touches almost all Indians on a daily basis, across economic and social spectrums. The company has evolved from being a textiles and polyester company to an integrated player across energy, materials, retail, entertainment and digital services. The home-grown crude-to-yarn-to-telecom-to-e-commerce conglomerate, RIL, has purchased the 259-year-old British toy store chain Hamleys from C.Banner International Holdings for Rs 620 crore . This buyout, including a host of other stake purchases or outright acquisitions in the past six months, is the strategy of Mukesh Ambani to push for consumer business, which he feels will contribute nearly as much as to the conglomerate’s total earnings as its core energy business by the end of 2028. Globally, too RIL aspires to be among the top 20 companies and along with refining and petrochem...

There have been a lot of mergers/amalgamations over the years where the transferor and transferee companies are registered in different states and have assets in different states. Any Amalgamation is carried out by drafting a scheme detailing the transfer of business in whole for consideration in equity or cash. Currently, the schemes are to be presented to the NCLT of each state where the transferor and transferee companies have its registered office.  Respective NCLT passes the order sanctioning the scheme.  The ORDER , thus passed, is liable to levying of stamp duty . This is where the trouble is right now, payment of stamp duty is fine but the questions of which state should the stamp duty be paid, how much rebate can one get in case of paying stamp duty in both states, paying stamp duty in the respective state as per the value of assets which are transferred is to be considered or the worst to pay stamp duty in all the relevant states without rebate at full amount ap...

In order to streamline the group's business and maximise shareholder value, the country's largest private sector healthcare provider, Apollo Hospitals has spinned off its front-end retail pharmacy business into Apollo Pharmacies ( APL ), which in turn will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apollo Medicals Pvt Ltd ( AMPL ). Also, Apollo will enter brand licensing agreement with APL to licence the Apollo Pharmacy brand to the frontend stores and online pharmacy operations. The reorganisation, according to the company, will not have a material impact on the financials of Apollo as the backend business related to the standalone pharmacies will continue to be held by Apollo. The reorganisation enables Apollo to be compliant with the norms of foreign direct investment (FDI) limits and further grow the pharmacy retail business. At present, retail pharmacy business comes under the category of multi-brand retail, where FDI is allowed up to 51%. The organised pharmacy retail accoun...