ICICI Venture eyes 100% gain in Express Towers exit

Business Standard

ICICI Venture, one of the largest private equity firms in the country, is looking to sell its 49 per cent stake in Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd (IENL), which manages Express Towers, located at Mumbai’s Nariman Point.

ICICI Venture was currently in talks with a number of investors like Blackstone, two executives in the know of the plans said. It was looking at getting around Rs 1,000 crore for its stake, which is double the Rs 500-crore investment it had made four years ago, sources familiar with the developments confirmed.

IENL is jointly owned by the Indian Express Group and IAF III, a fund managed by ICICI Venture.
“They have received a number of enquiries from private equity funds and investors who want to buy the stake. But the talks are preliminary so far,” said the executive.

When contacted, an ICICI Venture spokesperson said the company neither confirmed nor denied any speculation on its deals/transactions, as a matter of policy. A senior executive of Blackstone, which, in fact, occupies a floor in the 25-storey building owned by housing finance major HDFC, offered “no comments”.

Though the executives said investors had also shown interest in buying stake from the Express group, this could not be independently verified. Mails sent to Indian Express Group Chairman Viveck Goenka did not elicit any response.

In early 2008, ICICI Venture had picked the stake in the company through its fund IAF III. After buying the stake, the private equity firm also renovated the lobby area and installed high-speed lifts in the building.

ICICI Venture was earlier planning to list yield-generating assets such as Express Towers, but the tough market conditions played spoilsport.

Punjab entrepreneur sets up 10-storey building in Mohali in 48 hours

IANS | Dec 1, 2012, 08.20PM IST

MOHALI (Punjab): It was a promise delivered floor by floor. In just 48 hours, an entrepreneur has constructed a 10-storeybuilding in this suburban town in Punjab.

The red and grey facade building, Instacon, stood tall on an industrial plot in Mohali, 10 km from Chandigarh, Saturday, two days after Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had laid its foundation stone.

Work on the building's construction started around 4.30 pm Thursday. By Friday evening, the building saw seven floors in place.

As the deadline of 48 hours approached, all the 10 storeys of the building were in place even though the glass-panes on the windows and other fittings inside were still being put by the workers and engineers.

The building used pre-fabricated material, including 200 tonnes of steel.

"Our effort was to put the 10-storeyed structure in place within 48 hours. We wanted to prove that this could be done. That feat was achieved well within 48 hours. Just some finishing touches remain. This is only a sample structure," an official of Synergy Thrislington infrastructure company told IANS at the site.

Entrepreneur Harpal Singh, who heads the Rs.1,000-crore infrastructure company, had promised that the 10-storey building would be completed within 48 hours.

"This will be the first building of its kind in the country to be built in just 48 hours. The model has been cleared for Zone-V seismic area, the highest risk area (for earthquakes)," Harpal Singh, who owns the JW Marriot Hotel in Chandigarh, said here earlier.

Three floors of the building were constructed in just six hours Thursday.

Over 200 skilled workers, technicians, engineers and equipment were engaged in the building construction.

The material being used was manufactured in the past two months in a nearby factory.

"No bricks and sand has been used. The outer wall is a double-skinned PUF panel. The cost is almost the same as of conventional construction material. It saves a lot of time that goes into construction otherwise," said officials at the site.

Harpal Singh said that the idea to construct such a building came to him when he was constructing his own house, which took two years to complete - thanks to truant workers.

Singh's company, Synergy, took over Britain-based Thrislington Products, a re-locatable steel partition manufacturer, to set up the new infrastructure company here.