Bangalore: The venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India has picked up an equity stake worth $20 million in the Bangalore-based integrated coffee conglomerate Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. (ABCTCL) that runs the Café Coffee Day chain of retail outlets.

The equity investment provides boardroom representation for Sequoia Capital in ABCTCL, and its managing director, K.P. Balaraj, will join the Board of ABCTCL as a director.

This investment represents a strategic intent by ABCTCL to expand and consolidate its position in the fast-growing coffee industry where it already enjoys a strong position through various brand extensions under the mother brand name Coffee Day.

ABCTCL will use this investment to supplement its business with a fast-growing, high-margin line of products and services and will work on developing a larger international and national presence for itself. The funding from Sequoia is in line with ABCTCL's strategy of consolidating its position as a leader in the coffee industry.

"We are very pleased to have Sequoia Capital on board as an investor and look forward to their experience in helping achieve our business objectives. We see a significant opportunity to build ourselves into a strong market leader in the food services and coffee business globally and will leverage our dominant position in India to build a strong international presence. We are actively looking for well managed companies in the U.S. and European markets that we can partner with or acquire to help build a diversified, global business," said V.G. Siddhartha, chairman, ABCTCL.

BIAL signs pacts

Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) has selected LSG Sky Chefs and Taj SATS as strategic partners for operating two separate air-catering units at the new international airport coming up at Devanahalli, near Bangalore.

Each of the selected consortiums will be responsible for the design, construction, finance and operation of the flight kitchens at the airport with a combined investment of about Rs. 70 crore over a 15-year period.

BIAL signed the concession pacts with the two strategic partners here on Wednesday, a company statement said.

BIAL reserves the right to award a third licence for air catering at a later stage.

The winning consortiums were selected after an extensive technical and financial evaluation process.

Albert Brunner, CEO of BIAL said: "Through the selection of the flight catering concessionaires Bangalore International Airport will provide quality flight kitchen facilities to airlines. BIAL is committed to offer catering services to airlines at the best international standards and competitive prices. We wish to create a competitive environment between the selected caterers in order to ensure long-term quality, efficiency and innovation in catering services at the new Bangalore International Airport."

LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest provider of airline catering and in-flight solutions, caters to 270 airlines from some 190 customer service centres in 49 countries and produces around 369 million airline meals a year.

Taj SATS Air Catering Ltd. is a joint venture between Indian Hotels Company, popularly known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, and SATS (Singapore Airport Terminal Services).

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu