Serco's Rs 2,770-crore acquisition of Intelenet Global Services Pvt Ltd, a leading provider of business process outsourcing services, was the highpoint on a day on which at least five deals were reported.

The UK-based Serco, an FTSE 100 international services company, will pay nearly £385 million to buy Intelenet, which boasts of clients in the UK, the US and India. Intelenet's clients include Barclays, State Bank of India, Travelport, Apria Healthcare, BSNL and Aircel.

Serco has said that this acquisition will help it get access to attractive markets, broaden its customer and geographic reach, and add to scale and depth of capabilities.

In yet another cross-border deal, the French electrical equipment and power-management company Schneider Electric will pick up a 74 per cent stake for Rs 1,400 crore in Luminous Power Technologies. Luminous is a leading player in the Indian inverter and power storage market and this acquisition gives Schneider an entry into the fast-growing inverters market.

The Mumbai-based Sezal Glass Ltd has signed an agreement to sell its float glass business to Saint-Gobain Glass India for Rs 686 crore. Sezal Glass' float glass unit in Gujarat started production towards the end of 2009-10 and the last financial year was its first full year of operations. Sezal's decision to sell the float glass business was part of its business restructuring exercise and will be used to reduce debt.

For the Indian subsidiary of the French multinational Saint-Gobain, buying Sezal's 550 tonnes a day float glass business will give it a manufacturing base in the western region, the second largest market in the country. Saint-Gobain Glass India has a 1,500 tonnes a day float glass plant near Chennai and is setting up a plant in Rajasthan.

Fertiliser maker Coromandel International, part of the Chennai-based Murugappa group, will pick up a 42 per cent stake in Gujarat-based Sabero Organics, which makes a range of fungicides and herbicides, for Rs 250 crore. Coromandel will make an open offer to buy another 31 per cent from the shareholders, spending in all up to Rs 450 crore.

The Pune-based Persistent Systems Ltd, which is into outsourced software product development, signed an agreement to buy Agilent Technologies' software marketing and development business based in Grenoble, France.

These deals come just a day before the new mergers and acquisitions norms come into effect in the country.

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