Chennai is on the radar of foreign real estate funds and large developers after the southern city recently witnessed two big-ticket property deals.
AIG Real Estate Fund along with the Bangalore-based real estate firm RMZ Corporation has purchased an 11-acre plot at Guindy belonging to Hindustan Teleprinters (HTL), a subsidary of telecom equipment maker HFCL, for Rs 298.10 crore.
Read more at Apnaloan.com
Consumer credit may slow down to 20-25 per cent due to rising interest rate and the base effect, ICICI Bank CEO, K V Kamath said.
"Growth has to slacken a bit. Instead of a growth of 40-45 per cent, it will now be in the range of 20-25 per cent due to base effect and interest rate," Kamath said on the sidelines of a CII function.
Read more at Apnaloan.com
Indian realty has emerged as the apple-eye of domestic and overseas investors as listed and private equity funds are looking to pump in more than Rs 32,000 crore in the real estate sector, a news report says.
"The transparency in real estate has contributed to the increase in interest by domestic and financial institutions, resulting in greater availability of financing for real estate developers," an ICICI Property Services-Technopak paper said.
Read more at Apnaloan.com
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today expressed confidence that the average net non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks would come down to 0.5 per cent shortly.
Speaking at a function organised by Indian Overseas Bank here, Chidambaram said the net NPA of public sector banks was 1.3 per cent and would be brought down to 1 per cent in the coming financial year.India's wholesale price index rose 6.46% in the 12 months to 3 March 2007, up from the previous week's annual increase of 6.10% due to higher edible oil and naphtha prices, data showed on Friday.
The figure was higher than a forecast of 6.31%.
The annual inflation rate was 3.86% during the corresponding week of the previous year.
Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2007, will offer RBI flexibility on SLR front
The Lok Sabha today passed the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2007, which aims at allowing more operational flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the conduct of monetary policy.
The bill seeks to amend Section 24 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to enable the RBI to specify the statutory liquidity ratio without any floor rate. At present, banks are required to invest a minimum of 25% of their deposits in government securities, as dictated by the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR).
Inflation will continue to pinch consumers' pockets till May, by when the government's measures to bring down prices are expected to take effect in a wholesome way, analysts believe.
The rate of price rise soared to 6.46 per cent in the week ended March 3, primarily due to rise in vegetable and cement prices, the latest government data shows.
Read more at Financial Express
Leading processor maker Intel will soon introduce 'Classmate', a portable computer for children priced between Rs 9,000-11,000, in India under its World Ahead programme, aimed at adding a billion new global computer users.
The company will soon begin talks with PC manufacturers and the government to support commercial production of 'Classmates' in India.
Read more at Financial Express
Pushed past his limit of tolerance for inflation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government will neither plead helplessness nor remain passive to rising cement prices, while asking states to act against those hoarding primary articles.
Winding up the debate on Budget 2007-08 in Lok Sabha amid noisy protest by the Opposition, the minister said the government "cannot plead helplessness or remain passive" to abnormal rise in prices of the construction material.
Read more at Financial Express
Having played “Who blinks first?” for a long time, FMCG majors are finally opting to hike prices to account for rising input cost and improve financials. For starters, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has recently hiked prices of its detergent brands Surf Excel Blue and Surf Excel Quick Wash.
Following suit, HLL’s arch rival Procter & Gamble India (P&G) has just hiked prices of its Ariel (detergent) and Head & Shoulders (shampoo) brands. According to analysts, the price rise could be around 4% to 5%. Meanwhile, other players such as Colgate Palmolive and Marico Ltd are also planning to revise their pricing strategy to drive volumes in domestic markets, according to sources.
Read more at Financial Express
Zydus Cadila, a Ahmedabad based pharma company, has acquired majority stake in Liva Healthcare.
The Zydus group has picked up 97.5% stake in Liva Healthcare. The all cash transaction will be funded through cas accruals and debt, informs Zydus release. With the acquisition of Liva Healthcare, the company expects to establish its presence in the Rs 1500 crore derma segment which is the seventh largest therapeutic segment in the Indian pharma market.
Pankaj Patel, chairman & managing director, Zydus Cadila: "Our strategy over the last few years has also been to relentlessly focus and exploit opportunities for growth in the Indian pharma market". He further said that the acquisition unlocks great value for the group as it enables us to extend our expertise in a new therapy segment and cater to the needs of this segment. "We see this as a opportunity to fortify our presence in the Indian pharma market and lead by extending our reach", adds Patel.
Read more at Business Standard
India-born steel tycoon L N Mittal is planning a hostile takeover bid for South Korea's POSCO, even as the Korean giant is looking to build up its defence against any such move by raising friendly shareholding in the company, media reports said.
The Korea Economic Daily today reported that the world's largest steel maker Arcelor-Mittal was mulling hostile takeover of Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) and a message about Arcelor-Mittal's interest was conveyed to the Korean major last month.
The paper said that Roland Junck, an adviser to Arcelor- Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal had in February asked POSCO specific questions about its merger and acquisition strategies in Asia.
Read more at Business Standard
Punj Lloyd subsidiary Simon Carves, a global EPC services provider in energy and infrastructure domains, has been engaged by the Ensus Group to design and construct what the company claims will be the world's largest wheat based bio-ethanol production facility.
According to an official release issued by the company to the BSE today, the facility will be built at the Wilton International site in Teesside, an integrated petrochemical complex in the North East of England.
The project will employ approximately 800 people during the construction phase and approximately 100 people once the plant is fully operational. This facility, will substantially underpin UK's entire target of bio-fuels, once the plant is fully operational, the release said.
Read more at Business Standard
After a dream run of almost one month, the country's forex reserves dipped by $224 million to $194.410 billion during the week ended March 9 as against $194.634 billion during the week ended March 2.
The reserves were up by $1.51 billion during the week ended March 2 compared to the preceding seven-day period.
The foreign currency assets also decreased by $224 million to $187.058 billion during the seven-day period ended March 9, according to figures released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Foreign currency assets in dollars include the effect of revaluation of non-US currencies such as Euro, Sterling, Yen held in reserves.
Reserve position in the IMF, SDRs and gold reserves remained unchanged at $467 million, $2 million and $6.683 billion respectively.
M&M
CMP: Rs 731
TARGET PRICE: Rs 1,030
HSBC Securities has retained its ‘overweight’ rating on M&M with a 12-month price target of Rs 1,030. “M&M has overcome input cost pressures through a combination of factors: production in tax-free zones in H2FY06; benefits from consolidation in the tractor industry; greater contribution from diesel generator sales; the transfer of the light commercial vehicle business to a separate JV called Mahindra International; an increase in returns to scale and economies of scale after diversification into the auto parts business; and bargaining harder for raw material procurement,” the HSBC note to clients said.
Read more at Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Bharti Enterprises on Friday announced a new apex-level organisational structure effective from April 1, 2007, under which it will only play a supervisory role and be the strategic architect of all businesses of the group.
“Bharti Enterprises will now be responsible for evaluating new business opportunities, mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances for the group,” its chairman and CEO Sunil Mittal told ET.
The group, best known for its cellular services under the Airtel brand, also has interests in diversified business areas including retail, communication and media devices, insurance and financial services, agri, BPO and software.
Read more at Economic Tmes
KOLKATA: Kishore Biyani’s Future Group is ramping up its retail presence in West Bengal. The group has silently signed up properties in Howrah, Siliguri, Bardhaman, Kharagpur, Darjeeling and even Asansol to open stores and occupy approximately 29 lakh square feet (sq ft) of the state’s retail space.
Total investment being envisaged is over Rs 500 crore. The move is expected to shore up the group’s overall business from the state to Rs 800 crore by financial year ended June 30, 2008, from an estimated Rs 450 crore in the current year.
Read more at Economic Times
NEW DELHI: In a reflection of Indian IT services companies gaining appetite for larger deals, the country’s fourth largest software exporter Satyam Computer Services is pursuing 10 large contracts of over $50 million each. “These are large deals and have a 9-12 month gestation period,” a source said.
The company had clinched four large deals of over $100 million last year. Satyam had won a contract from the North American division of Nissan Motor to maintain, support and enhance the application software portfolio. The services to be provided by Satyam covered business functions such as product development, sales and marketing across multiple manufacturing units and locations.
Reat more at Economic Times
