Thomas Cook India to acquire 3 cos

29th March 2006: Thomas Cook India Ltd would acquire three companies in the travel and tourism space in the next two months. "We are going for acquisitions... we will be making three acquisitions in next two-three months. We are looking for domestic as well as international options," Thomas Cook India CMD Udayan Bose said.

India will be the hub for acquisitions and expansions in Asia and Middle East, he added. Thomas Cook AG had sold its entire 60 per cent stake in its Indian subsidiary Thomas Cook India Pvt Ltd to Dubai Financial LLC in January.

Dubai Financial LLC is the subsidiary of Dubai Investment Group, one of the leading venture capital funds in the Middle East. Dubai Financial LLC had also acquired an additional eight per cent stake through an open offer closed recently, he said.

Melstar to merge Fashion biz

28th March 2006: Software services company Melstar Information Technologies Ltd today said it will merge Melstar Fashions Pvt Ltd with itself. The board of directors gave their approval to the scheme of amalgamation pursuant to which the company would issue its shares of Rs 10 each for every 50 shares of Rs 10 held in MFPL.

A token consideration of Rs 20,000 would be discharged to the shareholders of Melstar Fashions, who are promoters of the company. The amalgamation scheme would be deemed effective from April 01, 2005, and would also enable the transfer of the trademark 'MELSTAR', currently owned by MFPL, to Melstar Information.

This scheme is subject to approval of shareholders, lenders, sanction of the Bombay High Court or other regulatory authorities, Melstar Information informed the stock exchanges.

Oracle buys 4% more in i-flex for Rs 394 cr

25th March 2006: Oracle Global bought 28.20 lakh shares on the NSE for Rs 1,397.54 a piece. US business software giant Oracle today scaled up its stake in i-flex solutions by 3.71%. Oracle Global Mauritius, the arm through which Oracle holds 43.08% stake in the city-based i-flex, purchased this additional stake for a total consideration of Rs 394 crore.

Oracle Global bought 28.20 lakh shares, representing a 3.71% stake, on the National Stock Exchange for Rs 1397.54 a piece. Post this acquisition, Oracle’s holding went up to 46.79%.

Oracle had bought 41% stake in i-flex from OrbiTech Ltd, a Citigroup Venture Capital International, for $ 900 million last year. Post this acquisition, Oracle Global came out with the mandatory 20% open offer which managed to scoop only 517,375 shares, representing 0.68%.

Industry sources said the Oracle move showed that the company aimed at scaling up its stake in i-flex to 51%.

“After its abortive attempt to jack up its holding through the open offer, it waited for a while as the Sebi rules demand cooling off period. Now, it will slowly raise its holding so that it could have absolute majority in i-flex,” they added.

Priced at Rs 882.62 a share, the open offer was not accepted by the shareholders as it was below the market price. The i-flex stock closed at Rs 1395.95 on the NSE, 7.58% higher than yesterday’s close. The stock opened at Rs 1299, reached to the 52-week high of Rs 1405. The i-flex has 7.6 crore equity shares of Rs 5 each.

As on December 31, Oracle had 43.08% stake in i-flex. Mutual funds held 7.16%, FIIs 16.99%, private corporate bodies 4.38%, NRIOCB held 6.59% and the public holding was 20.95%.