Tata Chemicals Ltd is in advanced talks to acquire the industrial salt unit of Archean Group at a minimum valuation of Rs 450 crore ($61 million), a Bloomberg report said citing people familiar with the matter.
Archean Group was founded in 1982.
In November 2018, India Resurgence Fund, a joint venture between Bain Capital and Piramal Enterprises, had invested $156 million in Archean Group’s marine chemicals business.
Meanwhile, in one of the largest edtech acquisitions in the world, India’s biggest online education startup Byju’s has signed a deal to acquire test-preparation leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd for $1 billion (Rs 7,310 crore), reports said. The deal should close in up to three months.
In the deal, Aakash’s founders, the Chaudhry family, will exit while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5% equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake, one person told Bloomberg.
Separately, Simplilearn is in talks with global funds to raise up to $150 million (about Rs 1,095 crore) to provide partial exits to some early investors and raise primary capital for expansion, The Economic Times said citing people close to the development.
Simplilearn is expected to close the funding round in about a month and is being valued at around $700 million (Rs 5,117 crore), they said.
In another development, Arohan Financial Services, a part of the Aavishkaar Group, has resumed preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) of size up to Rs 1,500 crore ($205 million), including Rs 700 crore ($95 million) of primary issue, The Economic Times said.
The Kolkata-based microfinance institution has kept other options including a rights issue and private equity investment open. The firm is currently in talks with a group of investment bankers including SBI Capital Markets, ICICI Securities, and Nomura, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Also, commerce and payments enabler Dot is in advanced talks with payment gateway PayU to raise up to $25 million (Rs 183 crore) in funding at a valuation of around $75 million (Rs 548 crore), Entrackr said citing three people aware of the details.
“The contours of the deals have been finalised,” said one of the persons. “Dot is also in preliminary talks with DST Global to raise another $25 million (Rs 183 crore),” said another.
“If the size of the round crosses $50 million, Dot’s valuation will go up to $120-125 million (Rs 877-914 crore),” added the person quoted above.
In February last year, the company raised close to $8 million in its seed round of funding led by PayU Fintech Investments and Ruizheng Investments.
