VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Qatar-based oil and gas drilling company Gulf Drilling International (GDI) is poised to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gulf International Services (GIS) with the latter acquiring the entire 30% stake held by Japan Drilling Corp (JDC), according to a GIS spokesman.

Shenzhen, China-based taxi app Didi Dache is reportedly raising $100 million in a Series C funding round from investors Citic and Tencent for the integration of a payment platform into the app.

The Development Bank of Japan will acquire a 24.95% stake in the Gunfleet Sands Facility, a 172-megawatt offshore wind project located in England. DBJ will buy the stake from Marubeni Corp., which bought its holding originally for $329 million.

Yasushi Ando, a Liberal Democratic Party adviser on pensions, said that Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund should invest $95 billion in private equity and venture capital over a decade. GPIF is the world's largest pension fund with ¥124 trillion under management.

Japan's Softbank Corp is likely to tap the US bond market to fund the $20 billion acquisition of US wireless carrier T-Mobile, according to a report by the Nikkei business daily.

Sources said Japan is preparing to introduce guidelines for institutional investors known as the Japanese Stewardship Code, which would improve returns, transparency and corporate governance, Reuters reported.

The Japanese government will shoulder the decontamination costs from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster through the sale of its shares in Tokyo Electric Power Co. Decontamination costs are estimated to reach ¥2.5 trillion.

Japanese insurance firm Sompo Japan Insurance Inc will acquire private British company Canopius in a deal valued at $970 million to expand its overseas operations, according to a report.

At a luncheon meeting hosted by Keidanren lobby group and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, corporate leaders expressed the key importance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the revival of the Japanese economy.

US-based telecommunications company Sprint is eyeing the purchase of rival T-Mobile USA next year in a deal worth $20 billion, according to sources cited in a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Australia-based energy company Ambassador Oil and Gas Ltd has sold its 52.5% stake in South Australia's Cooper Basin, a potential gas field, to New Standard Energy Ltd for USD42.5 million.

Google acquired seven robotics firms in the past six months to create manufacturing and logistics robots for a project under Android founder Andy Rubin to compete with Amazon's flying delivery drones.

Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp. may spend JPY10 billion on a chip plant it intends to buy from Renesas Electronics Corp. Sony is reportedly increasing its chip output to boost its profits.

Japan's Toshiba Corp. and German real estate major Gagfah SAS entered a joint venture to sell energy directly to residents in Germany. The deal could bring in a revenue of USD184 million to USD233 million to the Japanese conglomerate.

The purportedly massive USD53 billion economic stimulus package by the government of Japan was to aid the country from its high tax rates imposed in April this year, said government ministers.