Mumbai, July 18

Even as the fate of Fortis Healthcare’s bid for acquisition of Singapore-based hospital chain Parkway Holdings remains unclear, a consortium of Indian and foreign lenders led by Axis Bank is busy arranging the funds required to finance the deal.

Other banks which are a part of the consortium include the Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and four to five foreign lenders, a source directly connected to the deal told PTI here.

The number of banks in the group could eventually go up to 10-12, the source said.

According to the offer made by Fortis early this month, the company will pay $ 2.3 billion (around Rs 11,000 crore) to acquire the remaining stake in Parkway Holdings, if the deal goes through. Fortis, owned by billionaire brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, own 25.3 per cent of Parkway.

The general offer to acquire all shares of Parkway was made at 3.8 Singapore dollars per unit as against the SG$3.7 per share offer made by Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah’s arm, International Healthcare Holdings Ltd, in May.

Out of the $ 2.3 billion, Fortis was looking at raising around $1 billion to $1.5 billion through bank loans if it won the acquisition bid, but there was a possibility of this amount going up, the source said.

Interestingly, IDBI Bank, which was earlier keen to part-fund the deal, is understood to have backed out from the consortium. An IDBI Bank official said the bank is no longer part of the Fortis-Parkway deal owing to some internal technical problems.

Fortis Healthcare on Thursday said its offer to acquire Parkway will close on August 12. — PTI

Inflow nears Rs 40K-cr mark this year

Mumbai, July 18

Foreign investors are turning more bullish on the domestic markets, with their investments in equities already touching Rs 40,000 crore so far — nearly half the record amount infused by them in 2009.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are expected to pour in more money into the local markets in the coming weeks especially with improving economic conditions, according to analysts.

The net investment by overseas investors into domestic stocks reached Rs 39,360 crore ($8.6 billion) till July 16, data available with SEBI showed.

So far this month, these entities have already pumped in Rs 8,283 crore ($1.7 billion.) In 2009, foreign fund houses pumped in Rs 83,400 crore into the local equities, the highest inflow in a single year.

India is one of the fastest growing economies and has been resilient in past turbulences. Gains from Indian markets have been higher than many other developed markets and investors would like to put in money here, Elara Capital chairman and chief executive Raj Bhatt said. The London-based Elara Capital is recognised as an FII by Sebi.

Though the Eurozone debt turbulence had led the FIIs to pull out a whopping Rs 9,400 crore from local markets in May, confidence started resuming in June and they infused over Rs 10,000 crore in that month.

FIIs invested a net $2.33 billion into domestic markets in the April-June quarter. Risk appetite among the foreign buyers is resuming and they are bullish about the India growth story. FII inflow is likely to jump in the coming period, Bonanza Portfolio assistant vice-president Avinash Gupta said.

The FIIs play a significant role in the domestic equity markets and their movement (inflow as well as outflow) causes fluctuation in the benchmark indices.

In the past week, they were net purchaser of shares worth Rs 6,590 crore. During the period, the stock market benchmark BSE Sensex recorded a net gain of 0.69 per cent.

We are bullish about the India growth story and hope it will continue to attract heavy fund inflow from the overseas, Way2Wealth Brokers chief operating officer Sunil Ramrakiani said.

Foreign fund houses were the net seller of shares valued over Rs 52,000 crore in 2008, which triggered a record annual decline. However, in 2009 the story was entirely different.

But they again started selling shares in early 2010. In January, they were net sellers worth Rs 500 crore. However, from February, the scenario started changing and they turned net buyers. — PTI

New Delhi, July 18

The wait is now over for US investors who want to bet on the Indian stock markets, with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange starting the trade in Nifty Futures from tomorrow.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is introducing two new contracts — E-mini and E-micro S&P CNX Nifty (Nifty 50) Futures — designed to access the Indian market opportunities.

The 50-share Nifty is the benchmark index of the National Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the country. The index accounts for 22 sectors of the economy.

The investors will be able to trade for nearly 23 hours on the CME Globex. These hours include the market hours in India (except the last one hour before the Indian market opens).

The introduction of these two new contracts will make the Nifty 50 available to a much larger community of traders and investors across various exchanges and time zones, NSE managing director and CEO Ravi Narain had said last week.

According to the NSE, these new contracts are intended to give investors a more efficient means to gain exposure to the India-related asset classes.

A futures contract is an agreement that allows an investor to bet on the underlying asset — an index or stock — for a pre-determined price and period. CME is launching the future contracts on the Nifty, after a cross-listing agreement with NSE.

Under the agreement, inked in March this year, the S&P Nifty has been made available to the CME for the creation and listing of the US dollar-denominated futures contracts for trading on CME.

Under the deal, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 —the two leading US indices — will be traded on the NSE platform in India. — PTI

Mumbai, July 18

Canara Bank yesterday reported a 82.48 per cent jump in the net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 at Rs 1,013.37 crore. It had a net profit of Rs 555.33 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal, Canara Bank said.

The lender also reported an increase of 17.15 per cent in the total income for the first quarter at Rs 5,894.85 crore, against Rs 5,031.95 crore in the year-ago period.

It had reported a revenue of Rs 1,115.39 crore from the segment in the first quarter of 2009-10. The bank’s retail banking operations in the first quarter of this fiscal, however, saw a dip of 11.02 per cent at Rs 1,496.20 crore, from Rs 1,681.58 crore in the year-ago period. — PTI