Tata Tea to buy Good Earth Teas

13th October 2005: Tata Tea Ltd said on Thursday it would acquire US specialty tea brand Good Earth Teas. Financial details of the deal were not immediately available. The world's second-largest branded tea company will buy California-based Good Earth, which sells herbal, fruit-flavoured, medicinal and traditional teas, through its subsidiary, Tetley USA. Tata Tea acquired UK's Tetley for $432 mn in 2000.

Bombay HC okays Indian Seamless Metal Tubes (ISMT) merger with Indian Seamless Steels & Alloys Ltd (ISSAL)

10th October 2005: ISSAL announced that Bombay High Court has approved the merger of Indian Seamless Metal Tubes (ISMT) with it. The High Court gave its nod to the merger scheme last week, the Pune-based company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

ISMT, the flagship company of the ISSAL group, was founded in 1979. It has two plant locations to manufacture 1,50,000 MT of speciality seamless tubes per annum. ISSAL, setup in collaboration with Germany's Schloemann Siemag, is a major supplier of speciality steel to the domestic bearing and forging industry. Its Jejuri plant has modern steel manufacturing facilities and an installed capacity to produce 2,40,000 MT per annum of alloy & carbon steels.

SBI acquires 76% stake in Kenya-based Giro Commercial Bank

8th October 2005: State Bank of India (SBI) yesterday announced its second overseas acquisition. It bought a 76% stake in Kenya-based GIRO Commercial Bank for about $7 million (Rs 31.08 crore). The Kenyan bank, which is promoted by persons of Indian origin, has six branches in Nairobi, Mombassa and Kisumu.

In a statement, SBI said it has executed the necessary documents for acquiring the stake, along with management control, subject to regulatory approvals. Earlier this year SBI had bought for $10 million a 51% stake in Mauritius-based Indian Ocean International Bank, having a network of 10 branches and 10 ATMs. SBI chairman A K Purwar said, “With the proposed acquisition, SBI would increase its footprint in Africa, where we are already present in four other countries.”

This step would benefit not only the expatriate Indians but also facilitate trade and investment between the two countries, he added. As per banking sources, SBI is also going to bid for Rupali Bank of Bangladesh, for which it has already obtained permission from the RBI. It is in the process of acquiring two more banks with similar asset sizes ranging from $50 million to $200 million.

As part of its organic overseas expansion plans, SBI is setting up branches in South Korea, Shanghai and Angola. It has already established representative offices and branches in Sydney and Muscat. The premier state-run bank is, in fact, rather upbeat in repositioning itself as a global bank.