1. 1
Top Headlines
Skype co-founders music streaming venture Rdio acquires
Dhingana.
Silk and jewellery retailer Kalyan Group in talks with top
PE firms to raise up to $250M.
Sequent Scientific plans to sell specialty chemicals
business.
Wholesale inflation eases to 9-month low of 4.68% in
February.
Classifieds site Quikr raises $90M led by Swedish
investment firm Kinnevik.
DataRPM secures $5.1M in Series A led by InterWest
Partners.
Fairbridge Capital injecting $82M more in Thomas Cook.
IOC to buy 10% stake in Petronas' LNG export project in
British Columbia
Inside The Story
Skype co-founders music streaming venture Rdio acquires
Dhingana
San Francisco-based digital music service Rdio has acquired Dhingana,
an India- and US-based social music streaming service, which was
apparently shut down last month. The transaction details of the deal are
not disclosed but the deal paves the way for Rdio to enter India with
Dhingana’s catalogue of music.As per the deal, Dhingana founders
Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde will join the executive team at Rdio
and will work towards its expansion efforts.Rdio has a subscription-
based revenue model as it competes with global rivals like Spotify and
Pandora. Rdio’s proposed plans would mark the entry of first large

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Global player in the Indian music streaming space, a market where
Spotify and Pandora are not available as yet.
Silk and jewellery retailer Kalyan Group in talks with top
PE firms to raise up to $250M.
Indian silk and jewellery retailer Kalyan Group is holding separate talks
with Blackstone, TPG Capital Management and Temasek Holdings to sell
a minority stake for $200-$250 million, two sources with direct
knowledge of the matter told Reuters.The sources said the talks with
the private equity firms were ongoing, and no decisions had been made
as to the exact amount of the stake sale.When contacted, Ramesh
Kalyanaraman, executive director of Kalyan Group, told Reuters the
company is in talks with various investors, but declined to name them
or provide details.
Sequent Scientific plans to sell specialty chemicals
business.
Custom research and manufacturing services provider Sequent
Scientific Ltd plans to sell its specialty chemicals business on a slump
sale basis, as per a stock market disclosure.Bangalore-headquartered
Sequent, a fully integrated pharmaceutical company, seek to develop
products and services that meet the requirements of industries like
pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, plastics and personal care (cosmetics).
It operates in three segments: pharmaceuticals, speciality chemicals and
analytical services.The pharmaceuticals segment comprises human and
animal active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), veterinary
formulations and contract research and manufacturing services
(CRAMS) and the company's APIs in human health sector include
Albendazole, Lumefantrine, Midazolam, Artesunate, Efavirenz,
Frusemide and Miconazole Nitrate.

3. 3
Wholesale inflation eases to 9-month low of 4.68% in
February
India's wholesale price-based inflation eased to a nine-month low in
February as food and fuel prices moderated, raising expectations that
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would leave interest rates unchanged at
its policy review next month.The wholesale price index (WPI), long
regarded as India's main inflation measure, rose 4.68 per cent last
month, data showed on Friday, compared with a 4.99 per cent jump
forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.A 10 per cent drop in wholesale
vegetable prices from January helped overall inflation ease for the third
straight month.
Classifieds site Quikr raises $90M led by Swedish
investment firm Kinnevik.
Classifieds site Quikr.com, owned and operated by Mumbai-based Quikr
India Pvt Ltd, has raised $90 million (Rs 550 crore) in its sixth round of
funding, led by Swedish investment firm Investment AB Kinnevik. Quikr
India is in turn owned by a Mauritius-based parent, which has attracted
the VC investment.This round of funding will enable Quikr to continue
to grow its business while staying focused on aspects that are important
from a long-term perspective. “Kinnevik brings a great understanding of
the classifieds model as an investor and its experience in other markets
will be very valuable to us as we continue to build our business,” said
Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr.

4. 4
DataRPM secures $5.1M in Series A led by InterWest
Partners
DataRPM, a Big Data analytics startup selling business intelligence
software, has secured $5.1 million in a Series A round of funding from
US-based investor InterWest Partners with participation of existing
investor CIT Gap Funds.Ruban Phukan, co-founder and chief product
officer of DataRPM, said the deal is for a minority stake without
disclosing the valuation.The firm was started two years ago by
Shyamantak Gautam, Sundeep Sanghavi and Phukan.Major chunk of the
funding will go into sales and marketing efforts besides R&D activities.
Also, the company is planning to double up the employee strength from
the current 25 over the next three months.DataRPM is headquartered in
the US and has its R&D centre in Bangalore.
Fairbridge Capital injecting $82M more in Thomas Cook.
Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Ltd, an affiliate of Canada's investment
firm Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, is investing additional Rs 500
crore ($82 million) in tour operator Thomas Cook (India) Ltd through a
preferential allotment, according to a disclosure on BSE.Presently,
Fairbridge Capital owns a controlling 74.96 per cent equity stake in
Thomas Cook. It is picking 62,50,000 compulsorily convertible
preference shares (CCPS) of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 800 per share
convertible into 6,25,00,000 equity shares of the company having face
value of Re 1 per share.Fairbridge Capital acquired 77 per cent in
Thomas Cook (India) from its UK-based parent for $171 million in 2012
and hiked its stake to over 87 per cent stake through the open offer. It
later diluted its holding to 75 per cent through an institutional
placement programme (IPP) to meet the regulatory requirement of
minimum public shareholding.

5. 5
IOC to buy 10% stake in Petronas' LNG export project in
British Columbia
India's largest oil refiner Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) has agreed to acquire
Malaysian firm Petronas's 10 per cent equity stake in a shale-gas assets
and liquefied- natural-gas (LNG) project in British Columbia, according
to a stock market disclosure. Financial details of the deal are not
disclosed.Last month Petronas said it has agreed to sell a 25 per cent
stake in its Canadian shale gas assets to an Indian company and an Asian
gas buyer. It had not named the buyers but media reports had said the
Indian firm is IOC.IOC has entered into a transaction agreement with
Progress Energy Canada Ltd, Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd and Petroliam
Nasional Berhad to acquire 10 per cent equity stake in Progress
Energy's LNG-destined natural gas reserves and in the proposed PNW
LNG export facility on Canada's West Coast, the disclosure said.