VENTURE CAPITAL POST

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector lender, has deferred its sale plan on home finance division. ICICI Bank has put its home finance division's valuation at INR 2,400 crore, while potential private equity (PE) buyers have asked for a 20 percent discount on valuation.

Israel is witnessing an increasing number of new venture capital (VC) firms coming up. The country registered an inflow of $665 million VC funding during the first two months of the year. Unfazed with the recent market crash, the funds inflows continue for Israel startups.

Bahrain-based Investcorp Bank BSC has acquired hedge fund business from SSARIS Advisors LLC. The acquisition of hedge fund from the fund business of the US company will enhance product range of Bahrain's bank as the business is expected to add $800 million in discretionary and advisory assets to Investcorp Bank.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's plan to acquire SABMiller Plc is expected to change the business dynamics in the global beer industry. Anheuser-Busch InBev is a multinational beverage and brewing company's takeover is considered to be the largest one this year and fourth largest takeover in the corporate history. Anheuser-Busch InBev is acquiring SABMiller for $104.2 billion.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is facing tough time in selling $2.8 billion of debt in the wake of ongoing drug pricing controversy in the pharmaceutical industry.

What matters the most in investing is the time when you exit. Loss or profit depends upon when you exit. If you can identify the bubble bursting, you can safely walk out of the market well before it happens. The tricky question is how to identify the market before it's blowing up. Investors, who made and lost money in dotcom bubble, fear that history may be repeated for the current tech bubble though the damage wouldn't as much as it was in dotcom crash.

Switzerland reinsurer Swiss Re AG has decided to acquire the UK-based Guardian Financial Services from private equity (PE) firm Cinven for GBP 1.6 billion ($2.45bn). The acquisition will help in strengthening the British business of the unit.

Global cable group Altice is acquiring New York-based Cablevision for $17.7bn including debt. This makes Altice as the fourth largest cable provider in the US. Cablevision's CEO James Dolan will hand over the control to a group of Europeans after the Altice deal. Altice will pay $34.90 a share in cash taking the valuation of Cablevision equity to $9.6bn.

Brazilian private equity (PE) major 3G Capital is mulling over a possible buyout of SAB Miller, maker of Miller, through its AnheuserBusch InBev, maker of Budweiser. Paving way for a major consolidation in the beer industry as the world's largest brewer AnheuserBusch InBev is bidding for SAB Miller, the second largest brewer. If the deal is successful, it'll be one of the top-6 global corporate takeovers in the history.

Jeb Bush in his latest speech and in his article in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) came down heavily on 'Carried interest' of the corporate big shots while maintaining focus on tax structure. As part of the tax reform plan, his aim to using capital gains tax rate is also raising many eyebrows. Market analysts forecast that the move would pinch Wall Street's wallet significantly.

The US stocks turn attractive on lower PE ratios. The latest market crash might have eroded $2.1 trillion value in the market capitalization in the US stock markets, but equities are no more overpriced as price-to-earnings (PE) ratios turn attractive. According to ConvergEx, after the recent 10 percent drop in the US markets, no one can say that American stocks are expensive.

Patriot Capital's latest PE fund raised US$250 million.