Haringhata Meat ties up with online grocery store Delybazar

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved has denied the Rs 9,000 crore acquisition offer for debt-ridden edible oils maker Ruchi Soya Industries.

Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala said, “Yes, Patanjali is interested in acquiring Ruchi Soya since we want to make use of their idle installed capacity but we have definitely not placed a bid for Rs 9,000 crore. After examining the company’s vitals and balance sheet, the value of the deal should be at most between Rs 1,800-2,000 crore.”

Patanjali, along with about 20 companies including Emami, Godrej Agrovet, ITC, Aion Capital Partners and global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is learnt to have bid to acquire Ruchi Soya Industries through the ongoing insolvency process under the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Ruchi Soya’s brand portfolio includes Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Gold and Ruchi Star. Patanjali Ayurved’s spokesperson said the acquisition was synergistic with the company since it is “swadeshi. Vital resources should be fully utilised and channelised for the benefit of consumers and farmers.”

Ruchi Soya’s debt stood at about Rs 12,000 crore as of December 31, 2017, and lenders dragged the company to the NCLT last year. The company has over Rs 4,000 crore of bad debts written off and a net worth deficit of Rs 498 crore.

Last year, the company had announced 51% stake sale to private equity firm Devonshire Capital for Rs 4,000 crore, but the deal fell through after NCLT admitted the bankruptcy case. The shortlisting of bids is expected next fortnight. Apart from being the country’s biggest edible oilseed extraction and refining company, Ruchi Soya is also the largest player in the cooking oil and soya foods category. It has 24 plants for crushing, milling, refining, and packaging.

Online marketplace for food delivery Foodpanda has announced its partnership with digital payments platform PhonePe to enable seamless digital payments for all its users.

The partnership allows consumers to choose from several payment options such as PhonePe Wallet, UPI (Unified Payment Interface), Credit and Debit cards to pay for their food orders on Foodpanda.

"The partnership with PhonePe is in sync with the country's swift movement towards digital payments considering they are less time consuming, secured and reliable. Like this, we intend to enter several other partnerships in the future to create a robust food tech ecosystem for all our stakeholders," said Head of Partnerships and New Initiatives, Foodpanda, Anuj Sahai.

"At PhonePe, we are working to create a smooth and secure payment ecosystem that is conducive to all types of digital transactions be it using wallets, UPI or debit, and credit cards. Online food ordering is a fast-growing use case that has gained significant popularity among consumers. With this partnership with Foodpanda, PhonePe customers would be able to pay for their food orders faster," said Head- Business Development, PhonePe, Pradeep Dodle.

After the primary investment of Rs 100 crores by Samena Capital in Series B round, Bloom Hotels (“Bloom”) is swiftly moving ahead with its expansion plans. The investment values Bloom at 330 crores and will help roll out the company’s innovative affordable brands to all Indian cities. With this investment, Samena Capital has taken a 35% stake in Bloom Hotels.

After pioneering its unique hotel concepts across key India markets like Bengaluru, New Delhi, Gurgaon, and Goa, Bloom has recently picked up the pace of expansion in pursuit of its aim to set up 100 hotels across South Asia. The expansion coincides with India becoming the world’s third-largest airline market. Demand growth is also being driven by the emerging middle-income group and growing discretionary consumption.

“We are delighted to partner with Bloom, a truly differentiated company that can bring transformational change to the industry. Bloom has proven its unique business model by achieving operational profitability across its current portfolio in a very short period of time.” Said Mr. Shirish Saraf, Founder, and Vice-Chairman of Samena Capital while commenting on the investment.

“We are proud to have Samena on board as we grow the Bloom brand across South Asia in quick time. We look forward to benefiting from the Samena team’s proven track record in working with consumer-facing companies at the high growth stage,” COO of Bloom, Sanjeev Sethi said.

As part of the pan India rollout, in February this year, Bloom Hotels opened two properties in Calangute, Goa. This included the official launch of the newly minted BloomSuites brand at a 140-room hotel. The company has also lined up hotel launches in 20 other locations across the country, from Hyderabad to Kochi to Mumbai.

FMCG major Dabur India has confirmed to have confirmed the acquisition of two South Africa-based companies D&A Cosmetics Proprietary Ltd and Atlanta Body & Health Products Proprietary Ltd, through its subsidiary.

Last year the company had claimed the acquisition of the two personal care products companies in South Africa for a total cash consideration of 50 million rands (about Rs 25 crore).

In a stock exchange filing, Dabur India said its wholly-owned subsidiary Dermoviva Skin Essentials Inc has acquired 100 per cent share capital of the companies. Both the companies have become step down wholly owned subsidiary companies of Dabur India Ltd.

In 2016, Dabur had acquired a South Africa-based Discaria Trading (PTY) Ltd.

In April last year, the company had announced the completion of the acquisition of personal, hair care and creams businesses of South Africa based-CTL group of companies valued at USD 1.5 million (Rs 10 crore).

As per the last year's announcement, while D&A Cosmetics is acquired at a cost of 4,79,40,000 Rands (around Rs 24 crore), Atlanta Body and Health Products' acquisition cost was 20,60,000 Rands (over Rs 1 crore).

Shares of Dabur India were trading 2.01 per cent up at Rs 343.35 on BSE.