TMT
Samara Capital acquires NewsWire18 for $16.5m
Samara Capital has entered an agreement to purchase a majority stake in Indian news terminal business NewsWire18 for INR900 million ($16.5 million).
Tata Capital acquires stake in Pluss Polymers
Tata Capital has acquired a stake in Pluss Polymers for INR150 million ($2.7 million). The investment was made through the Tata Capital Innovations Fund and is intended to help the company, a specialized polymer maker, to further its R&D and manufacturing...
New Zealand’s Xero raises $49m from Valar, Matrix
New Zealand-based online accounting software company Xero has raised NZ$60 million ($49 million) in new capital from US VC firms Valar Ventures and Matrix Capital Management. Valar is backed by Peter Thiel, best known for his early investments in PayPal...
L Capital-backed PVR to buy Cinemax India
PVR, a cinema chain backed by L Capital, will pay INR5.43 billion ($99 million) for a majority stake in domestic rival Cinemax India.
CITIC Capital in advanced talks on AsiaInfo take-private – report
CITIC Capital is reportedly close to securing a management buyout of AsiaInfo-Linkage, the US-listed telecoms software manufacturer, to take the company private. The companies are said to be in advanced talks and the deal was thought to be worth around...
Sequoia backs Chinese online lender Ppdai
Sequoia Capital has invested in a Series A financing round of Ppdai, a Chinese peer-to-peer online lending firm. The capital is expected to expand the company’s capacity on technology infrastructure and marketing campaigns.
Bain-owned MYOB to cut debt through notes offer
Accounting software firm MYOB plans to issue A$125 million ($131 million) in subordinated notes to pay down debt used to finance its acquisition by Bain Capital and also to return capital to the private equity investor. The notes will be issued on the...
VC-backed China tech firm YY jumps 7% on NASDAQ debut
Shares in venture capital-backed social networking platform YY climbed 7.7% on their NASDAQ trading debut after the company completed the first IPO by a Chinese firm in the US in seven months.
Australia's Starfish Ventures invests in email company Atmail
Starfish Ventures has invested $2 million in Atmail, a Australia-based enterprise email and web communication company. The capital will help the Atmail scale-up its technical team and expand into overseas markets.
IDG-Accel China in take-private bid for US-listed Memsic
IDG-Accel China has submitted a takeover bid for NASDAQ-listed Memsic that values the semiconductor manufacturer at $96.8 million. The prospective investor would like to work with Yang Zhao, Memsic’s founder and CEO, to formulate a definitive proposal...
VC-backed Happiest Minds targets IPO by 2019
Happiest Minds Technologies, an Indian cloud-based services provider backed by Canaan Partners and Intel Capital, is targeting an IPO by 2019.
Silver Lake-owned Allyes names new CEO
Silver Lake-owned Allyes, a Chinese digital marketing company, has appointed Hanhua Wang as CEO, effective December 1. He replaces Eric Chen, a managing director at Silver Lake, who had been serving as interim CEO. Chen remains chairman of the Allyes...
Northstar set to complete Nera telecommunications take-private
Northstar Pacific Partners has agreed to buy a controlling 50.05% stake in Nera Telecommunications from power conversion specialist Eltek and is offering to buy the entire company for S$177.3 million ($145 million). This is the Indonesian GP's first...
Ontario Teachers leads funding round for China’s 360Buy.com
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has led a $300 million round of funding for 360Buy.com, China’s second-largest business-to-consumer e-commerce website by revenue.
Phoenix Media to launch $300m fund
Phoenix Media is in the process of raising a $300 million private equity vehicle to invest in growth capital in Chinese media and culture companies. Hong Kong-listed broadcaster Phoenix TV is said to be one of the co-general partners of the fund.
Baidu to acquire Providence Equity Partners' stake in iQiyi
Providence Equity Partners, the specialist media and communications GP, will sell its stake in China-based online video portal iQiyi.com to Baidu. Providence held the asset for two-and-a-half years, having reportedly invested $50 million.
DAR Capital launches India movie fund
DAR Capital Group, a London-headquartered investment banking and private equity firm, has launched a INR1 billion ($18.6 million) movie fund that will provide financing to projects throughout India. It is among the first vehicles to be approved under...
South Korea VC: State subsidies
South Korea’s venture capital industry is the fourth-largest in the world thanks to generous government support. But is this support helping or hindering the development of self-sustaining investment ecosystem?
Guanxi secures Series A funding from SingTel Innov8
SingTel Innov8, the corporate venture capital arm of SingTel Group, has led a Series A round of funding in Guanxi, a mobile social network services (SNS) spin-off from Chinese mobile search and marketer mInfo.
Australia’s Kaz Capital to launch venture fund
Australian boutique financial advisor Kaz Capital is planning a venture fund that will support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in need of expansion capital. The company claims to have received conditional regulatory approval to establish an...
TPG, Affinity-backed UTAC seeks to refinance debt – report
United Test & Assembly Center (UTAC), the Singapore precision engineering firm owned by TPG Capital and Affinity Equity Partners, is said to be seeking to refinance a portion of its debt through a $600 million bond issue.
INCJ-led consortium to complete $2.5b Renesas rescue - report
A consortium led by Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) is said to be nearing a JPY200 billion ($2.55 billion) deal to buy ailing Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronic Corp.
Standard Chartered commits $35m to India’s Prime Focus
Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) has agreed to invest $35 million in Prime Focus, an Indian company that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, advertising and media industries.
CVC-backed Nine makes new restructuring proposal
The management of Nine Entertainment, the beleaguered Australian media company owned by CVC Capital Partners, has put forward a new proposal for restructuring its A$3.8 billion ($3.9 billion) in debt. Adrian McKenzie, CVC’s Australian managing partner...