ICICI Bank to raise Rs 20,000 cr in June

Biggest fund-raising by an Indian firm: Rs 15,000cr public offer, Rs 5,000cr ADR.

ICICI Bank, the country’s second largest bank, will raise Rs 20,000 crore in June this year - a combination of Rs 15,000 crore follow-on public offer in the domestic market and Rs 5,000 crore American Depository Receipts issue. This is the biggest-ever fund-raising plan by an Indian bank.

The bank will also consider exercising a greenshoe option, which could almost double the bank’s net worth of Rs 24,313 crore as on March 31, 2007.

Read more at Business Standard

IT majors sit on growing cash mountain

The top five Indian IT firms have piled up net cash in excess of Rs 20,000cr.

Riding high on a booming economy and growing outsourcing opportunities, the top five Indian information technology players – Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services and HCL Technologies – have piled up net cash in excess of Rs 20,000 crore.

The net cash figure jumped 31 per cent to Rs 21,148.42 crore in 2006-07 from Rs 16,151.36 crore in the previous year. Analysts estimate the figure to increase by 60 per cent in the current financial year.

The logic lies in the revenue and net profit numbers of these companies. For instance, the total turnover of the five companies for the 2006-07 financial year stands at Rs 57,397 crore — a jump of nearly 40 per cent over last fiscal’s number of Rs 41,033 crore. Read more at Business Standard

Tatas eyeing Deutsche Telekom's German IT unit

In line with its strategy of global expansion through acquisitions, corporate giant Tatas are reported to be in advanced stages of talks for buying the IT business unit of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom.

According to a report by German business weekly Focus Online, the Tata Group is currently studying the books of Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems unit. The Tatas are planning this deal through the European unit of Tata Consultancy Services.

T-Systems is one of the smallest units of Deutsche Telekom. It had reported a revenue of 12.5 billion euro (about Rs 73,000 crore) last year and has a total workforce of over 55,000 people.

When contacted, a TCS spokesperson in Mumbai said the report was completely speculative and the company did not comment on speculations.