Mastek to hire 5,000 IT professionals

IT company Mastek will hire 5,000 professionals for a new campus at Mahindra Industrial Park in Chennai.

In the first phase, which is expected to be completed in the next one year, the company will recruit 1,100 professionals, it said in a release on Thursday.

The company also said it is building a centre of excellence at the recently launched Chennai facility to acquire competencies in mainframe technology, mainly in the insurance vertical.

The recruitments for this unit are under process, Mastek added.

Mainframe technology provides massive storage capacity and improves data security and flexibility in the client/sever design.

ABN Amro raises stake in India Cements

India Cements Ltd said on Thursday ABN Amro Bank has acquired 2 million shares or a 0.91 per cent stake in the company to raise its stake to 5.09 per cent.

Bank unions call off proposed 3-day strike

Customers of state-run banks can heave a sigh of relief with bank unions on Wednesday calling off their three-day proposed strike from March 28.

The proposed strike could have paralysed the entire banking services and put customers to severe inconvenience as it would have affected financial work for most of next week, since March 27 (Tuesday) is already a holiday on account of Ram Navami.

The three-day strike from Wednesday would have rendered the whole week futile for carrying out any emergency bank work. In fact, the income-tax department had already asked people to pay their taxes by March 23 to avoid inconvenience on account of disruption in services due to the proposed strike. Even the government would have faced problems as tax refunds etc for 2006-07 have to be made by March 31.

Read more at The Economic Times

Govt to scout wheat import markets despite good crop

Despite prospects of a bumper crop and sizeable stocks, India will likely be tapping world markets for wheat in a big way again this year and could once again pay dearly for its needs.

Firms might start scouting the market by mid-May, when purchases by state agencies from farmers taper off and output estimates become clear.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has given strong indications that the government will be proactive on imports this year, after scrambling for costly purchases last year as output and stocks fell.

Read more at The Economic Times

Indian inks deal with Jupiter Aviation for Airbus MRO

State-owned carrier Indian on Thursday signed an agreement with Rajeev Chandrasekhar-owned firm Jupiter Aviation and Logistics to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at an estimated investment of Rs 300 crore. This facility -- for which aircraft maker Airbus is the advisor -- will be used for maintenance of airframes, the mechanical structure of an aircraft excluding engines.

Airbus’s parent EADS, which last month signed an MoU with Jupiter Aviation and Logistics to collaborate in aviation ventures, has authorised the Bangalore-based Jupiter to enter into the joint venture with Indian to set up an MRO. This facility is being set up under the offset agreement signed between Airbus and Indian.

The MRO facility will initially cover Airbus A 320 aircraft but later it will also cater to other Airbus family planes. The facility, to be set up in the next 24 months, would not only deal with the Airbus fleet of Indian, but would attract business from several airlines in the South Asian region using Airbus aircraft, Indian CMD V Trivedi told reporters here.

Read more at The Economic Times

Tatas eyeing Deutsche Telekom's German IT unit

In line with its strategy of global expansion through acquisitions, corporate giant Tatas are reported to be in advanced stages of talks for buying the IT business unit of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom.

According to a report by German business weekly Focus Online, the Tata Group is currently studying the books of Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems unit. The Tatas are planning this deal through the European unit of Tata Consultancy Services.

T-Systems is one of the smallest units of Deutsche Telekom. It had reported a revenue of 12.5 billion euro (about Rs 73,000 crore) last year and has a total workforce of over 55,000 people.

When contacted, a TCS spokesperson in Mumbai said the report was completely speculative and the company did not comment on speculations.

Govt expects Rs 24,000cr inflow in chip making

The government expects to attract an investment of around $6-10 billion (approx. Rs 24,000-44,000 crore) by luring two-three fabrication units with at an investment of $2-3 billion each by 2010 now that it has notified (given formal consent) to the semiconductor policy it had announced on February 22 this year.

Union Minister for IT and Communications Dayanidhi Maran told reporters here: "An appraisal committee to be headed by Additional Secretary in the Department of IT will be formed very soon. The committee will receive expression of interest from interested parties and will submit its recommendations to the government." He said he would reopen negotiations with Intel and other companies to explore possibilities of them setting up units in the country.

An Intel spokesperson had then said: "Once the comprehensive policy document is circulated, we will evaluate and respond."

Read more at Business Standard

Rs 1 lakh car a global case study: J D Power

The much-touted people's car from Tata Motors could create a major dent in the top-end motorcycle sales with its lucrative price tag, which has become a global case study, global consultancy firm J D Power said today.

"If Tatas are able to get quality and customer satisfaction parameters right, People's Car could shift buyers from a top-end two-wheeler on account of its safety and convenience factors," it said.

"The two-wheeler market in India could see a dent at the top-end because of the Rs 1 lakh car, but how far reaching will it be will depend on the product's performance, after-sales service and overall customer satisfaction," Mohit Arora, director (India), JD Power, said.

Read more at Business Standard

FIIs net buyers of Rs 713cr in cash mkt today

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 712.70 crore (provisional) today, according to data released by BSE.

While FIIs made gross purchases of Rs 2,439.25 crore, gross sales totalled Rs 1,726.55 crore.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 164.50 crore on Wednesday, March 21, according to data released by Sebi today. While FIIs made gross purchases of Rs 1,395.40 crore, gross sales totalled Rs 1,230.90 crore.

ITC's Rs 300cr WB cigarette unit may be delayed

The Left Front has one more reason to be upset with the shipping ministry, which has already irked Left MPs by shifting the apex marine training college to Chennai at the expense of the existing college in Kolkata.

This time round, the ministry was reportedly sitting on the proposal forwarded by Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) to hand over to the company a plot of surplus land contiguous to the existing ITC cigarette factory in the port area in west Kolkata.

In consequence, the investment plan of ITC to expand the Kidderpore cigarette factory at a cost of Rs 300 crore may be delayed.

Read more at Business Standard

RIL, Rohm and Haas sign MoU for acrylic unit

Reliance Industries (RIL) and Rohm and Haas Company have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore the joint construction of a world-scale acrylic-monomer complex in Jamnagar, India.

According to a release issued by Reliance to the BSE today, the proposed facility would have the capacity to make approximately 2,00,000 tonne of acrylic acid and its esters annually. "Materials from the facility are intended to serve as building blocks for environmentally-advanced products for paints and coatings, packaging adhesives, detergents, textile and construction materials. The new facility is expected to spur development of super absorbent polymers used primarily in the manufacture of baby diapers," the release added.

FM talks tough, asks cement cos to cut prices

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked cement manufacturers to cut prices claiming that a section of them was keen to co-operate with the government in this regard.

"We have information how much your (cement makers) sales have increased. How much your PBT has increased. How much your PAT has increased. So, you should come forward with some proposals (on moderating cement prices)," Chidambaram told reporters after meeting a delegation of cement companies.

The Finance Minister had called cement manufacturers for the second time after the Budget, which imposed dual excise duty structure on cement to rein in prices. The budget hiked excise duty to Rs 600 a tonne from Rs 400 if cement is sold higher than Rs 190 per bag of 50 kg and reduced it to Rs 350 per tonne if sold up to Rs 190. The move, however, failed as cement makers hiked prices by up to Rs 12 per 50 kg bag.

Read more at Business Standard

Cabinet clears 74% FDI in telecom

The Cabinet today approved amendments to Press Note 5 of 2005 that impose stiff monitoring needs for telecom service providers, increasing foreign direct investment from 49% to 74%.

Accordingly, remote access to networks in India will be permitted from approved locations, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet. Such access will only be allowed to equipment suppliers, manufacturers and affiliates and will not allow access for monitoring calls and content.

It will also be mandatory for operators to keep an audit trail of all remote access activities for six months, send a compliance report twice a year to the government and maintain a 'mirror image' of all remote access information for online monitoring.

Read more at Business Standard

Sebi to allow short-selling by institutions

Sebi chairman M Damodaran said in Mumbai this evening that the board, which met today, has approved a proposal to allow short-selling by institutions.

The board also approved a proposal for mandatory grading of IPOs, which will be reviewed periodically.

On real estate IPOs, Damodaran said land bank details should be accompanied by ownership status, and valuations should be based on current prices.

On delisting via the book-building process, Damodaran said a final decision on the issue would be taken at the next board meeting scheduled in May.

Sensex soars 362pts, gains 878pts in four days

The Sensex opened with a significant positive gap of 126 points at 13,072, and did not bother to look back. The markets, which were on the recovery path, got another booster dose as the US Federal Reserve kept the benchmark interest rates unchanged yesterday.

Unabated buying saw the index rally to a high of 13,326. The index thus gained 1,010 points from the low of 12,316 hit last Friday.

The Sensex finally closed today with a hefty gain of 362 points (2.8%) at 13,308. In the process, the index is now up 878 points (7%) in the last four trading days.

Read more at Business Standard

DLF, Nakheel in $10 bn townships venture

To develop 40,000 acres in Gurgaon, Maharashtra.

DLF Ltd is forging a 50:50 joint venture with Nakheel, a large property developer of the UAE, for two integrated townships in India at a whopping investment of $10 billion.

Set up under the auspices of the Dubai government, Nakheel functions as a private commercial enterprise and is currently developing 17 major projects worth more than $30 billion, and also has projects like The Palms, Dubai Waterfront and The World to its credit. This will be its maiden foray into India.

Interestingly, Nakheel’s main competitor in residential development in Dubai is Emaar Properties. Emaar operates in India as a 50:50 joint venture partner in Emaar-MGF. This joint venture competes with DLF at Gurgaon, the latter’s main market in India.

Even as DLF awaits the green signal from the Securities & Exchange Board of India for its Rs 13,600 crore initial public offering, it has announced a slew of joint ventures in the last one year. Read more at Business Standard

Intra-day call rate touches 9-year high

Hits 60% before closing at 17% as banks see outflows of Rs 40K cr towards tax payments.

Money market rates today touched nine-year highs as the liquidity squeeze in the banking system worsened. The overnight call money rate touched 60 per cent intra-day and some banks, particularly foreign and private banks, used dollars to raise rupee resources for a day at a record rate of 105 per cent, dealers said.

Banks chased rupee resources as they saw outflows of around Rs 40,000 crore towards tax payments. Government bond auctions further squeezed liquidity. A liquidity crunch in 1998 had seen the call rate touch 100 per cent.

The swapping of dollars for a day, by banks which had exhausted their borrowing limits in the call money market, helped the rupee to appreciate 0.7 per cent and close at a 19-month high of Rs 43.74 per dollar. Dollar swapping involves exchanging dollars for rupees. Read more at Business Standard

Liquidity crunch to end in few days: FM

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the current liquidity tightening is mainly due to advance tax payments and it will ease in few days as departments spend money.

"Liquidity (tightness) is mainly due to advance tax payments, it will be alright in few days as the ministries, departments start spending money," Chidambaram said on the sidelines of the release of a report by UNEFCAP. The government has collected around Rs 40,000 crore in advance tax payments in the last quarter ended March 15.

Poverty rate drops to 22%

Poverty in the country declined to 21.8% of the population in 2004-05 from 26.1% in 1999-2000, according to data released by the Planning Commission today.

Narayana Murthy opposes SEZ policy

BANGALORE: Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday opposed the practice of acquiring farm lands for special economic zones (SEZs), saying that the earlier practice of companies building their own campuses was good enough.

"I agree that we cannot take land from farmers", the non-executive chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited told reporters, who sought his views on the raging debate over SEZs.

"The earlier policy, where individual companies were building their own campuses, was a good one," he said, adding that bringing real estate players in between was probably not the best thing to do.

Read more at Economic Times

Make calls abroad, it's getting cheaper

NEW DELHI: Consumers have all the reason to smile. Their telephone calls abroad would become cheaper beginning April 1. Following a steep cut in Access Deficit Charges (ADC) announced by the Telecom Regulatory and Development Authority (Trai), the telecom operators are bound to bring down the tariff outgoing and incoming international calls across the spectrum.

The ADC on outgoing ILD calls has been abolished completely. The access deficit charge rate on incoming international calls has been slashed to Re one from the prevailing Rs 1.60 per minute.

This will lead to lower telecom tariffs on services provided by the operators. Trai has directed the telecom operators to pass on the reduction in ADC charges to the consumers.

Read more at Economic Times

IBM deal valued up to $800 mn: Idea

MUMBAI: Idea Cellular Ltd, India's fifth-largest mobile phone firm, said on Wednesday its 10-year contract for IBM's Indian unit to develop its business processes and technology infrastructure was valued at up to $800 million.

Earlier ET had reported, Idea was set to close the deal at $600-700 mn.

The value of the 10-year contract could still go up depending on the scope of services to be offered by the Big Blue during the duration of the deal. Sources said the contract would be somewhat different from the one that IBM inked with Bharti in 2004. “This deal is also expected to cover billing, call centre operations, customer care management and data management for Idea,” said sources. A formal announcement is expected shortly.

Read more at Economic Times

ICRA IPO opens for subscription

ICRA, a leading provider of investment information and credit rating services in India, is open for subscription with a public issue of 2,581,100 equity shares of Rs 10 each, for cash, at a price to be decided through a 100% book building process through an offer for sale by IFCI (18.6 lakh shares), administrator of the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (7 lakh shares) and State Bank of India (20,500 shares).
The price band for the issue has been fixed between Rs 275 to Rs 330 per equity share. The issue closes for subscription on March 23, 2007. The issue size at the higher price band is at Rs 85.17 crore.
It is also an associate of Moody’s Investors Services. Moody has 29% stake in ICRA. Remaining stake is held by leading financial institutions and banks like SBI, LIC, IFCI etc.

Read more at MoneyControl

Trai willing, ISD calls may cost less from April 1

International long distance calls (ISD) may become cheaper as telecom regulator Trai is considering reducing levy on both outgoing and incoming ISD calls from April 1.According to sources, Trai will be meeting this week to finalise the annual review of access deficit charge (ADC), a levy being paid by private operators to BSNL for rolling out services in remote and rural areas, which may be reduced on ISD traffic.The ADC on both outgoing and incoming ISD calls may be reduced by up to 50% and the current total ADC of 1.5% of gross revenue is also likely to come down to 1%.As per the road map, the total ADC, currently at Rs 3,335 crore, should be lowered to Rs 1,600-1,800 crore for FY08 before being phased out by next fiscal to 0.

Read more at Business Standard

RIL has $12 bn for gas find, transport

$5.2bn will be spent on gas production, while a larger chunk of $7bn on building gas pipes.

Reliance Industries is lining up investments of over $12 billion for production of gas from its fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin and its transport to consumers across the country.

While $5.2 billion will be spent on bringing the gas to production, a larger chunk of $7 billion will be invested in building gas pipes to transport it to consuming locations.

Production of gas from the K-G basin will begin by June 2008, the company’s president (oil and gas), PMS Prasad, told reporters.

There are three key pipelines that are being planned by the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh — a 1,386-km pipeline to Bharuch in Gujarat at an investment of $4 billion, and two coastal pipelines to West Bengal and Chennai at an investment of $3-3.5 billion.

Read more at Business Standard

Ranbaxy in Lipitor patent suit with Pfizer in 17 countries

NEW DELHI: India’s largest drug-maker Ranbaxy has locked horns with the US-based world’s largest drug-maker Pfizer in 17 countries over infringement of patent of the latter’s blockbuster cholesterol lowering drug Lipitor. The company’s launch of the atorvastatin (the generic drug of Lipitor) is crucial in its plan to generate nearly $2 billion in sales over the next five-six years.The countries where Ranbaxy is into litigations with Pfizer for atorvastatin include the US, the UK, Norway, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Australia. Lipitor is the world’s largest selling drug with sales worth about $13 billion last year. The patent for Lipitor expires in 2010. During 2004-05, Ranbaxy had to reportedly shell out around Rs 160 crore to fight against Pfizer’s Lipitor drug. Ranbaxy has about 20 first-to-file (FTF) applications pending in the US, of which about 10 are in litigations — with atorvastatin being the big bet. FTF gives 180-day exclusive marketing period along with the patent holder.

Read more at Economic Times

India Inc carts money to pvt banks to duck strike

MUMBAI: India Inc, small businesses and cautious individuals have started transferring money to private sector and foreign banks in the wake of a strike call given by public sector bank unions for next week. Private banks have already sent letters to corporate customers having payroll accounts with them, to transfer money to these accounts to avoid a cash crunch during the last week of the financial year. Customers would face major problems as the next clearing operation after March 23 would, in all likelihood, only be on April 2. If talks do not fructify, bank trade unions have threatened an indefinite strike from May 3.

Read more at Economic Times

GoM on insurance likely to meet in few days

The Group of Ministers on insurance is likely to meet in a couple of days to take up the long-pending issue of raising FDI cap in the sector to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent, opposed vehemently by the UPA's Left allies.

"They are trying to fix time. I am told it (the meeting) will happen tomorrow or day after tomorrow," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of joint venture asset management business between Canara Bank and the Netherlands-based Robeco.

Since only three days are left for Parliament to go for recess, the proposed comprehensive bill on insurance sector, in case approved by the Cabinet, could come only in the second leg of the Budget session.

Read more at The Financial Express

Land rows worry POSCO

A tense stand-off with farmers unwilling to give up their land threatens India's largest-ever foreign investment project, a USD 12 billion steel plant planned by South Korea's POSCO.

Opponents of the project have taken heart from events in neighbouring West Bengal, where plans to seize farmland for a chemicals complex were shelved after police killed 14 protesters.

"This has had a very good effect on the people struggling against the POSCO project," said protest leader Abhay Sahu. "This is an opportune time for us to move forward."

Read more at The Financial Express

Murthy is now chairman of Asia Biz Council

In yet another recognition to India Inc's growing prowess, Infosys Technologies Ltd Founder N R Narayana Murthy takes over as Chairman of the prestigious Asia Business Council (ABC).

The Asia Business Council announced key leadership changes at its Spring Forum held in Hong Kong on March 15-17, a press release said.

Murthy, who takes over as the chairman of the organisation with immediate effect, promised to take the Council to the ‘next level’.

Read more The Financial Express

Media, Showbiz set for a big show

The size of the Indian media and entertainment industry is expected to more than double to Rs 100,000 crore in the next four years on rising demand, technological improvements and greater investments, according to a report by industry body FICCI and consulting firm PWC.

The sector is projected to post a growth rate of 18 per cent annually to Rs one trillion (Rs 100,000 crore) by 2011 from about Rs 437 billion (43,700 crore) at present, according to a FICCI-PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report.

Technological advancements, policy initiatives taken by the government to encourage investments and initiative by private companies will be the key drivers, it said.

Read more at The Financial Express

India to curb inflation without hurting growth

India is confident it can moderate inflation and the aim is to do so without hurting growth, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Monday.

"Government, in conjunction with Reserve Bank of India, has taken and will take fiscal, monetary and supply side measures to moderate inflation," Chidambaram told reporters.

"I recognise the burden of the people, but this burden will ease over the next weeks and months."

Read more at The Financial Express

Bharti goes into reinvent mode

Brand Bharti Airtel is on a reinvent mode. The northbound and highly diversified subscriber base and rapidly changing technology have prompted the Bharti Airtel management to look into its brand identity for the second time in its 15-year history.

With subscriber diversity growing by the day, the company is looking at increased segmentation of its consumers while delivering a common overarching message that binds all subscribers under one umbrella.

While on the one hand, the company is mulling value-based segmentation of its subscribers, on the other, it plans to segment its consumers both demographically and psychographically. Never mind the size of each segment, Bharti Airtel plans to have one universal message going across to all of them.

Read more at The Economic Times

Dutch firm to buy 49% in CanBank MF

Dutch asset manager Robeco Groep NV, a part of European banking giant Rabobank Groep, will buy 49 per cent stake in Canara Bank's asset management arm to gain a foothold in the country's robust mutual fund industry.

Robeco, which has assets under management of 139 billion euros worldwide and posted operating profits of 233 million euros in 2005, will pay Rs 115 crore to Canara Bank for its stake in Canbank Investment Management Services Ltd (CIMS).

"The total valuation of our asset management entity is Rs 230 crore and 49 per cent stake sale will bring about Rs 115 crore," Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director M B N Rao told reporters after signing an MoU with Robeco.

Reat more at The Economic Times

Imbalance in financial sectors can increase risk

Reserve Bank Governor Y V Reddy today said an imbalance in the growth of financial sector and real economic sectors such as agriculture and industries could lead to bubbles and possibly increase risk in the economy.

"Without the real sector development in terms of physical infrastructure and improvement in supply elasticities, the financial sector can even misallocate resources, potentially generate bubbles and possibly amplify the risks," Reddy said at a conference here.

While financial sector is the money-issuing part of the economy, the real sector, which comprises of agriculture, industries and non-financial services, is the money-holding segment that produces goods and services.

Read more at The Economic Times

FBT on ESOP: Sacrificing equity for the sake of convenience

Is ESOP (employee stock option plan) a 'fringe benefit' or a perquisite (salary)?
"Answer to this question should have held no terrors before the introduction of Finance Bill, 2007," says Mr V. Ranganathan, a Chennai-based chartered accountant. "Whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable has been a vexed question, long eluding a botanic ally convincing reply, essentially due to forces of nature that made tomato what it is."

'Is the lawmaker in India invested with such supernatural qualities to cause such confounding that can have only one answer in any other part of the world?' he asks in return, and fumes: "It is a untoward act of distortion that ESOP has been characterise d as a 'fringe benefit'." Here's more that Mr Ranganathan has to say, in a quick interaction with Business Line.

Read more at The Hindu Business Line

Residual stake in Maruti to be sold by next fiscal: Chidambaram

The Government on Monday said it will sell its residual 10.27 per cent stake in car maker Maruti next fiscal.

"The Government has decided to do it in the next (financial) year,'' the Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram told reporters here. Sources attributed the decision to uncertain stock markets.

"The financial bids for the government's remaining shares in Maruti will be invited next year,'' the sources said. They, however, said the disinvestment process would be completed in the first half of 2007-08 itself.

Read more at The Hindu Business Line

Cadila Healthcare bags US FDA nod for three drugs

Pharmaceutical firm, Cadila Healthcare on Monday said USFDA has given its nod it for the company's three products, taking the group's total number of approvals to 22.

The company would market all the three drugs -- Azathioprine Tablets, belonging to the immuno-suppressant segment, Divalproex Sodium Extended Release, an anti-convulsant and Venlafaxine Hydrochloride Tablets, an anti-depressant -- through its US subsidia ry Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc.

The group received approvals to market Azathioprine Tablets of 50 mg, tentative approvals for Divalproex Sodium Extended Release Tablets of 250 and 500 mg and Venlafaxine Hydrochloride Tablets of 25, 37.5, 50, 75 and 100 mg, Cadila Healthcare informed BSE.

Read more at The Hindu Business Line

Reliance to invest $9 b in KG basin gas field

Reliance Industries Ltd will invest more than $9 billion in developing a gas field off the east coast of India and building pipelines to sell the fuel to consumers.

The company will spend $5.2 billion in bringing to production Dhirubhai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 fields in block KG-D6 in Krishna Godavari basin by June 2008. It will invest another $4 billion in laying a 1,386-km pipeline from this city in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat to transport the fuel.

It will begin producing about 40 million standard cubic metres per day in June 2008 and raise it to peak output of 80 mmscmd in next five months, RIL CEO (Oil and Gas) P M S Prasad told reporters here.

Read more at The Hindu Business Line

Reliance in JV talks with Nova Chem

Reliance Industries, the country’s most valued firm, is understood to be in advanced stage of discussions with North American plastics and petrochemicals major Nova Chemicals as part of its bid to spread wings to foreign shores.

Reliance Industries (RIL) Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who leads India Inc on the world’s list of billionaires with a net worth of over $20 billion, is in the US with his top confidantes to discuss a potential joint venture with Nova Chemicals, sources close to the development said.

No official comments could be obtained from executives of RIL, which is also looking for a possible acquisition in the global retail space and is understood to be talking to Carrefour and the likes of Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer.

Read more at Business Standard

Direct entry for hedge funds

The lure of the much-feared participatory notes, through which hedge funds now invest in the Indian stock markets, may soon wane.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the capital markets regulator, has for the first time directly invited hedge funds to register with it and participate in the Indian stock markets without the cover of participatory notes.

Participatory notes are often seen as tools for money laundering and there have been numerous calls, including from the Reserve Bank of India, to curtail them.

Read more at Business Standard

Wadia, Danone to part ways

The move will result in Britannia, Wadia BSN being dismantled.

The Wadia family of Bombay Dyeing and France-based dairy product giant Groupe Danone, equal partners in biscuit maker Britannia Industries, may soon decide to go separate ways, albeit amicably.

The move will result in their two joint ventures in India, Britannia Industries and Wadia BSN, being dismantled and will help them pursue their ambitions separately in the growing Indian food and dairy sector.

Read more at Business Standard

India's first gold ETF lists on NSE

Benchmark Asset Management Company, a Mumbai-based mutual fund house, has listed India's first gold exchange traded fund (GEFT) - Gold BeES - on the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai today.

Listed at Rs 950 per gram BeES soon gained momentum with the price surging to Rs 1104 but due to profit booking slumped to Rs 947 within an hour of the launch. Allotment price, however, remained at Rs 945.7 per gram.

The trading unit for BeES has been fixed at one gram with a tick size of one paise. This instrument offers only trading in and holding of gold in DEMAT account and not the physical delivery of gold.

Read more at Business Standard

Lok Sabha passes bill for CST phase out

The Lok Sabha today passed the bill to cut Central Sales Tax (CST) by one percentage point annually starting from April 1 this year.

The CST rate will be reduced to 3% from 4% in 2007-08 and will be phased out by March 31, 2009.

The government aims to merge the goods and services levies into a single goods and services tax (GST) by 2010.

Read more at Business Standard

Cap iron ore exports to 90MT: Industry to govt

In a move to keep more of the raw material at home, the Indian steel industry today demanded that the government place a quantitative restriction on iron ore export at 90 million tonnes for the current year.

"Iron ore export needs to be limited because there is a shortage in the supply of iron ore to the domestic steel industry," Moosa Raza, president, Indian Steel Alliance, today said at a press conference organised by industry body Assocham.

The industry has also asked for a 15% reduction in the cap on iron ore export every year until the exports are brought down to zero per cent. India currently exports 90-100 million tonnes of iron ore, mostly to China.

Read more at Business Standard

ABN Amro buyer will get strong India base

Dutch banking giant ABN Amro, the target of intense takeover speculation, would give the winner enhanced presence in a range of financial sectors such as retail banking, mutual funds and brokerage services in India, the world's second fastest growing economy.

Even as UK's third largest bank Barclays Plc said in a statement it will make an announcement tomorrow on reports about its interest in ABN Amro, industry observers say that India could be one of the key reasons behind a possible bid.

Barclays CEO John Varley said at an analysts conference last month he was looking for "aggressive" growth and would consider acquisitions to enter the emerging markets.

Read more at Business Standard

Sensex ends up 215pts; BHEL, Rel Comm soar

The Sensex opened wtih a positive gap of 55 points at 12,485. Lacklustre movement in early trades saw the index slip a wee bit to 12,427, before bouncing back to higher levels.

Fresh buying in select stocks like BHEL, ONGC and Reliance Communications saw the index surge to a high of 12,655. The index finally settled with a gain of 215 points at 12,645.

Read more at Business Standard

Mittal rings in structural rejig at Bharti

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 The Economic Times

Mittal not doing an Arcelor at Posco

South Korean media reports about the world’s largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal eyeing a hostile takeover bid for Posco, the third largest steel company in the world, have been denied by both companies. A top Arcelor Mittal executive told ET that there was no truth in these reports.
Posco, too, has has denied a Korean newspaper report that a senior Arcelor Mittal executive expressed interest in Posco’s M&A strategy when he visited South Korea last month. “The Arcelor Mittal executive and Posco CEO talked about the consolidation in the global steel industry at that time but the executive did not mention Poscos’s M&A strategy,” a Posco official told news agencies.

The Korea Economic Daily on Friday reported that Arcelor Mittal could be interested in making a hostile takeover of South Korean steel maker. Citing an unnamed Posco executive, the local paper reported that Arcelor Mittal’s interest in the Korean major’s M&A strategy means the firm has put Posco on its M&A target list. Roland Junck, a member of Arcelor Mittal’s management board, had met Posco chief executive Lee Ku-taek last month.


Read more at The Economic Times

Rabobank bullish on Indian telecom

Top Dutch financial conglomerate, Rabobank International, is betting big on the Indian telecom and media segments which it says are on the threshold of an explosive growth over the next two-three year period.

"We are very bullish on Indian telecom," Rabobank International's Global Head for Telecom, Media and Internet Group, Ed Smith, told PTI here.

Given the kind of growth anticipated in telecom over the next few years, "we could be scaling up our exposure to the sector in the next three years. In fact, our exposure could more than double during this period," Smith said.

Read more at The Economic Times

Merrill Lynch to double pvt banking biz

Global financial services major Merrill Lynch is planning to double its private banking business in the country, with an aim to provide financial services for the growing wealthy population.

Merrill Lynch, which provides wealth management advisory service to High Networth Individuals (HNI), is aggressively building the private client business in India with an aim to double the number of its financial advisers this year and is also planning to expand into tier-II cities.

"Merrill Lynch is aggressively building the private client business in India and will invest in people, technology and infrastructure to support expansion plans. We plan to double the number of financial advisers this year, which already doubled from the year before," Merrill Lynch head of India Global Private Client Rahul Malhotra said.

Read more at The Economic Times

Interest rate war to push up cost of deposits for banks

Top bankers here have said the rate war among banks, that has pushed up interests on deposits to as much as 9 and 9.5 per cent, have increased the cost of deposits for lenders.

Anil Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Baroda, said higher rates could increase the cost of deposits for banks by 1 to 2 percentage points.

The cost of deposit for many banks worked out to about 4.5/5 per cent last year.

Read more at The Economic Times

Sun Pharma to invest $60-70 mn in research ops

Mumbai-based drug firm Sun Pharma is planning to hive-off its research operations into a separate entity with an overall investment of USD 60-70 million in the next three years.

The new research entity, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC), will invest USD 60-70 million to support research operations over the next three years, Sun Pharma Chairman and Managing Director Dilip Sanghvi said.

Sun Pharma would initially pump in USD 45 million in the new company while the remaining sum would be met through internal accruals of SPARC once it starts generating revenues, a company official said.

Read more at The Economic Times

Ambani Vs Ambani or Ambani & Ambani

It is fashionable for Indian media to describe any bickering in the Ambani household as Ambani vs Ambani. For a moment, spare a thought for Ambani & Ambani. If the net worth of the two Ambani brothers is combined, it will propel them to the fourth slot globally in the Forbes list of billionaires and to the No.1 position among Indian billionaires, even ahead of Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.

Think about it. Their combined wealth of $38.3 billion will make them the second-richest business family in the world, next only to the Waltons of Wal-Mart whose combined wealth tots up to a staggering $83 billion. As Mukesh Ambani gears up to meet the threat of Wal-Mart in India, he might appreciate the irony.

Leave aside the irony, it would have made the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani proud. Strategy gurus around the world may see this as a great opportunity for a Harvard or a Kellogg case study - call it 'Divide And Grow.' It is possible that the emergence of the Ambanis as one of the biggest business families in the world would not have taken place if the two brothers had not split.

Read more at The Economic Times

RIL signs $4.5 bn deal for gas fields

Reliance Industries Ltd has signed contracts worth $4.5 billion to develop its gas fields off India’s southeast coast. The spending will be part of $5.2 bn of investment the company plans for the area, RIL’s president for oil and gas PMS Prasad said here today. Gas production will start on schedule in 2008, he added. “Investment has already been committed to ensure that all suppliers meet their deadlines, which will enable us to start production,’’ Prasad said.

Commercially viable deposits in the fields may help Reliance meet India’s growing requirements for gas for power plants and fertiliser companies. India, Asia’s third-biggest oil market, is promoting exploration to reduce dependence on imports as prices rise to records and output declines from ageing fields. India’s current gas supplies of 85 million cubic meters a day, including imported liquefied natural gas, falls short of the potential demand of 170mn cubic meters, according to estimates by the Oil ministry. Gas consumption may rise to 400 million cubic meters a day by 2025 if the economy grows at the projected rate of 7-8 % a year.

Read more at Financial Express

Overseas bourses take cue from India markets

Often, in the absence of a visible domestic trigger, the behaviour of Indian stock markets is explained as a result of global developments, mainly the rise or fall of overseas markets. Curiously, it will not be far-fetched to state the contrary, that the global stock exchanges follow the Indian markets’ cue.

A study of the movements of world markets since May 2006 by Mumbai-based Man Financial shows that the S&P CNX Nifty recorded its high ahead of all major international indices. It recorded its intermediate top during February 6-12 this year and all-time intra-day high of 4,245.30 on February 8.

This was followed by all major international indices recording their respective highs. The only exception has been the Hang Seng index of Hong Kong, which recorded its high on January 24 this year.

Read more at Business Standard

Beauty mart

The company wants to tap the huge opportunity in the beauty and wellness retail space.

Look good and feel better. That’ll be easy to do once the Rs 2,000 crore Dabur India rolls out its 350 health and beauty stores. With a fairly large portfolio in the health and beauty segment and a wide range in the healthcare category, the FMCG major’s foray into the retail space was almost a given.

Says Sunil Duggal, CEO, “There’s a need for quality service and store environment in the health and beauty retail market in India today and no major player has entered this space so far. We’re looking to tap the growth prospects in both the retail market and the health and beauty segment.” Read more at Business Standard

RIL,OVL to bid jointly for oil blocks in Iraq

In a bid to leverage their oil exploration and production expertise, Reliance Industries (RIL) and ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), are planning to jointly bid for oil and gas blocks in Iraq.

The two companies are already renegotiating for a stake in the Tuba field and the Block-8 in western Iraq.

OVL, Reliance and Algeria’s Sonatrach were in talks with the Saddam Hussein regime before the US took over Iraq in 2000. The UN sanctions that came in after 2000 prevented further talks from talking place.

“We are ready to partner OVL in overseas search for oil and gas exploration blocks. OVL is in the process of getting approval for a joint business with us,” a senior Reliance official said. OVL official declined to comment. Read more at Business Standard

Dow, Reliance JV this week

Dow Chemicals, the US-based petrochem giant, may announce its intent of floating a joint venture with Reliance Industries this week.

Sources close to the development said the foreign company would announce this week, if not Sunday, that it would spin off its underperforming commodity businesses into a separate entity in which Reliance would pick up a majority stake. However, the valuation of the joint venture might be not immediately announced, they said.

It means the announcement may not give a sense of Reliance’s investment for picking up a majority stake in the venture. Dow, perhaps, would announce the appointment of a valuer to ascertain the worth of the venture, they added.

Both the companies are keeping mum on the issue. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment while an e-mail sent to Dow remained unanswered. Read more at Business Standard

FM confident about reigning in prices, inflation

Expressing confidence about checking soaring prices, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said inflation would be controlled step by step following a series of measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India.

Admitting that inflation had not come down in the last six weeks, he said: "It is 6.1, 6.3..6.05..6.4 per cent etc... not a big rise in inflation nor a steep fall. It has remained above 6% on an average. I agree it is there."

Inflation surged to 6.46% during the week ended March 3 as against 6.10% in the preceding week.

Similar inflation rates were witnessed in 2000-01 continuously for 48 weeks, and for 22 weeks it even crossed 7%, Chidambaram told reporters at Sivaganga, about 60 km from here, after reviewing various on-going projects in the district.

Read more at Business Standard

China hikes rates to slow inflation, investment

China raised interest rates for the third time in 11 months to curb inflation and asset bubbles in the world's fastest-growing economy, according to a report on the website of Bloomberg.

The one-year benchmark lending rate will be raised to 6.39% from 6.12%, starting tomorrow, the Beijing-based People's Bank of China said today on its website. The one-year deposit rate will be increased to 2.79% from 2.52%. A central bank spokesman confirmed the increases, the report added.

Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan is concerned that cash from a record trade surplus is stoking excess investment, raising the risk of accelerating inflation and boom-and-bust cycles in asset prices. Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday the nation's economic expansion is unstable and environmentally unsustainable, the report said.

Mkt Outlook: Sentiment weak, but rally possible

The Sensex continued to drift lower for the fifth straight week, and, in the process, has shed 14.5% (2,109 points). The index had last posted weekly gains during the week ended February 9 when the Sensex hit its peak at 14,724 and ended at 14,539.

The Sensex started on a positive note for the week ended March 17, and went on to log gains on three of the five trading sessions but the upmove lacked conviction - the index could not hold gains and ended the week with a significant loss of 455 points at 12,430.

The Nifty rallied to a high of 3781 early in the week, and then dropped to a low of 3574 - down 208 points from the high. The index finally ended with a loss of 109 points at 3609.

Read more at Business Standard

BSNL to invest Rs 4,500 cr for convergent billing system

MUMBAI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) will invest over Rs 4,500 crore for introducing a convergent billing system across India. The PSU telco is close to finalising the winner for what will be one of the world's largest tenders for billing systems.

IT giants Wipro Infotech, HCL Technologies, TCS, Satyam Computers and Tech Mahindra have qualified technical evaluation and financial evaluation is underway. The contract will be split between two players and the winners are likely to be announced next month, sources told ET.

Read more at Economic Times

Outbound air fares to soar 10%

NEW DELHI: Your summer holidays just got costlier. Air travel to international destinations will cost more after March. While airfares dipped by around 10% last year in April, this year they will increase by 10%. Sample this: Jet Airways’ return fare (excluding taxes) to London will go up from Rs 24,000 to Rs 26,800. Air India’s fare to New York will increase from Rs 35,000 at present to Rs 45,000, while a flight to Mauritius will go up from Rs 19,700 to Rs 21,700.

Read more at Economic Times

Go South: Foreign realty funds flock to Chennai

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: Kamath

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

Real estate sector to receive Rs 32,000 cr investment: Study

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

Banks` NPAs to come down to half per cent soon: FM

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.

Read more at Apnaloan.com

Inflation rate rises to 6.46%

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.

Lok Sabha passes banking regulation bill

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).

Despite govt efforts inflation to remain: Citigroup

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

Intel to launch low-end 'Classmate' PCs in India

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

Hound hoarders, act: Finmin

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

FMCG cos go for price hike

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 acquires Liva Healthcare

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

Mittal planning hostile bid for POSCO: Reports

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 to build bio-ethanol plant in UK

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

Forex reserves dip $224mn to $194.41bn

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.

Stocks you can pick up this week

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

Mittal rings in structural rejig at Bharti

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

Future ramping up presence in West Bengal

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

Satyam eyes 10 deal; each over $50 mn

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

Govt to review SEZ approvals

After violence in Nandigram, the Government has decided not to give further approvals for Special Economic Zones where acquisition of land is being resisted.

"When land is to be acquired and it is not decided how the land will be taken and justice done to farmers the freeze would remain (on SEZs even if they have other approvals)," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Study Conference.

Yesterday, he had said that the Empowered Group of Ministers on SEZs would look "distinctively" at the cases where land was not an issue and where acquisition was a problem.

This would ease the way for notification of around 172 proposals of SEZs, where land was available and formal approval of the Board of Approval has been received.

Read more at Financial Express

Govt to review FDI regulation: Kamal Nath

The Government said it is looking at having an uniform Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in different business segments within a sector as part of the review to streamline foreign investment regulations.

The same FDI limit in different segments within a sector would reduce the complexity and result in caps going up in different business area in sectors like media and aviation.

"We will see that...," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said when asked whether the government plans to have a single FDI cap for an entire sector.

Nath said that the status review of the FDI policy and regulations was in progress to see how they can be streamlined.

Read more at Financial Express

Essar, Iran in talks for Azadegan oilfield

Essar Group is in talks with Iran to develop the giant Azadegan oilfield, where a deal with a Japanese firm ended last year, to ensure fuel for a planned refinery and steel plant in the Islamic nation, a company official said on Friday.

Azadegan is Iran's biggest oilfield with in-place reserves of 26 billion barrels. Japan's INPEX Holdings Inc. lost control of the field in 2006 but retains a 10 percent stake.

"December-end or early January we met Iranian authorities ... We are again meeting them later this month or early next month to take forward the issue," said Kharak Singh, head of exploration and production at Essar Oil Ltd.

Iran is drawing interest from Indian and Chinese firms, keen to help tap the world's second-largest reserves of oil and gas.

Read more at Financial Express

Ranbaxy gets tenative US nod for zolpidem

MUMBAI: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd said on Friday it had received tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market zolpidem tablets, used to treat insomnia.

POSCO denies hostile bid by Arcelor-Mittal

SEOUL: POSCO Co Ltd , the world's third-largest steel maker, denied a media report on Friday that a senior Arcelor Mittal executive expressed interest in POSCO's M&A strategy when he visited South Korea last month.

The Korea Economic Daily said Arcelor-Mittal, the world's biggest steel maker, could be interested in making a hostile takeover of South Korean steel maker POSCO Co. Ltd.

Roland Junck, a member of Arcelor-Mittal's management board, met POSCO Chief Executive Lee Ku-taek last month, but M&A issues were not discussed, the South Korean firm said at the time.

"There was no discussion on issues related to M&A when the Mittal executive met POSCO CEO last month," an official reiterated on Friday.

The official also said the company was seeking to increase the number of investors supportive to POSCO's existing strategy to ensure stable management.

Significant concessions for Essar in deal with Vodafone

Shareholders' agreement announced, Ravi Ruia on Vodafone Plc board.

The Ruias of Essar have acquired significant concessions from global telecom major Vodafone, even as it announced the much-debated shareholders’ agreement in New Delhi today.

These include a favourable put option, a seat for Ravi Ruia on the Vodafone global board, veto rights, a comprehensive right of first refusal (ROFR), and the promise to use Essar’s proposed national and international long-distance infrastructure as well as assets of Essar Infrastructure Ltd, a specialised telecom tower company.

With an eye on becoming the leading mobile player in the country – it is currently India’s fourth-largest mobile service provider – Vodafone-Essar has drawn up a $5 billion investment plan for the next two and a half years. Read more at Business Standard

RIL to divest in oil and gas arm abroad

Chevron may be the partner.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will induct a strategic partner in its overseas oil and gas projects which are being spun off into a new entity.

Sources familiar with the development said RIL is to divest 20 to 25 per cent in the Dubai-based Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, the holding company for RIL’s foreign oil and gas projects.

Global energy major Chevron Corporation, which has equity interest in RIL’s subsidiary Reliance Petroleum, might be the preferred partner for Reliance Exploration, they added. An RIL spokesperson declined to comment.

Reliance Exploration will house RIL’s interest in a discovered oil block in Yemen and an offshore exploration block in Oman and exploration projects in northern Iraq, East Timor and Columbia.

RIL is keen to acquire gas fields in central and West Asia.

Read more at Business Standard

RIL inches closer to mega JV with Dow

There’s yet another big global deal brewing and this might turn out to be a real blockbuster. It’s actually a global petrochem powerhouse in the making. Reliance Industries, which has been talking to the $49-billion Dow Chemicals-the world’s second-largest chemicals company-has inched closer to signing an MoU with the US company.

According to sources, talks are at an advanced stage and the two sides are expected to make a formal announcement by this weekend. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, along with a top-level team, including Nikhil Meswani, Kamal P Nanavaty, Alok Agarwal and Haresh Shah, is scheduled to meet Dow CEO Andrew N Liveris and the rest of the senior team for the final round of negotiations.

The Reliance official spokesperson, however, denied that a deal like this was in the offing. Even an email to Reliance failed to elicit any response. Dow Chemical’s media relations leader Andrew Wood expressed his inability to answer ET’s queries, stating that it is Dow’s policy not to comment on rumours about the company or its activities.

Read more at Economic Times

Orbit Corp to raise Rs 106 cr from IPO

Real estate company Orbit Corporation plans to raise up to Rs 106 crore from its initial public offering (IPO) opening on March 20 to part fund its existing and new projects.

"We expect to raise between Rs 100-110 crore from our IPO and would use the proceeds to part fund our existing and proposed projects in Mumbai," Orbit Corporation Head Finance and Strategies Ramashrya Yadav told reporters here today.

Based on the upper-end of its price band the company would raise around Rs 106.47 crore.

The company is offering 91 lakh equity shares of face value Rs 10 each with a price band of Rs 108-117. The offer would open on March 20 and would close on March 23.

Orbit would also issue one detachable warrant with each equity share and the investor would have the option of converting the warrant into an equity share after 18 months of the issue date, Yadav said.

Read more at Economic Times

Lehman sees GDP growth at 10% in '07-08

India's economic growth rate will touch nearly 10 per cent in the next fiscal year ending in March 2008, driven by robust investments and exports, a senior Lehman Brothers economist said.

"You have got rising incomes, very strong credit growth still, positive wealth and confidence effects from the high asset prices, that is countering what is happening on the monetary policy front," Rob Subbaraman, Lehman's chief economist for Asia, excluding Japan, said in an interview this week.

The US investment bank forecasts the Indian economy to grow at 9.9 per cent in the fiscal year that starts on April 1.

Subbaraman said expansion would be boosted by manufacturing.

Data on Monday showed industrial production rose an annual 10.9 per cent in January and manufacturing, which represents more than three-quarters of industrial output, grew 11.6 per cent.

Read more at Financial Express

RIL opts out of Super Bazar race

Reliance Industries Ltd said on Thursday it was withdrawing its bid for ailing cooperative retail chain Super Bazar over the government's refusal to hand over management and control.

"We would like to withdraw our offer in view of the government's refusal to change the law," Soli Sorabjee, a senior counsel for Reliance, told the Supreme Court of India.

Reliance, which recently forayed into retail, had bid Rs 2.88 billion for the chain.

Reliance had said at the previous hearing it would not want to invest a huge amount of money unless it had effective management and control over Super Bazar, which would require a change in the existing law for cooperatives.

Read more at Financial Express

Vodafone, Essar sign deal

British giant Vodafone and Indian conglomerate Essar group on Thursday reached an agreement for jointly running India's fourth largest mobile firm - Hutch-Essar, which would be rechristened as Vodafone Essar.

The two companies said in a joint statement that they have agreed on partnership terms for Hutchison Essar, in which Vodafone is acquiring 67 per cent stake from Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecom International Ltd while Essar would continue to retain its 33 per cent stake.

"The partners have agreed that Hutchison Essar will be renamed Vodafone Essar and in due course the business will market its products and services under the Vodafone brand," it said.

Under the terms of the partnership, Vodafone will have operational control of Vodafone Essar and Essar will have rights consistent with its shareholding, including proportionate Board representation.

Ravi Ruia will be appointed as Chairman of Vodafone Essar and Arun Sarin will be Vice Chairman.

Read more at Financial Express

Ranbaxy, Cipla in bids for Merck`s generic biz

Leading Indian drug makers Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and Cipla Ltd have submitted bids to acquire the generic drugs business, estimated to be worth $6 billion, of German pharma major Merck KGaA.

Ranbaxy is approaching the bidding race on its own and Cipla is part of a consortium of private equity partners. Cipla’s safe play seems to have impressed the market as its scrip rose 1.57 per cent to Rs 236.35 at the close of trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange today. The Ranbaxy scrip declined one per cent to Rs 320.65.

Confirming the development, Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla, said the company is not planning any investments in the deal but would be the technical partner to a consortium. He declined to provide further details.

Ranbaxy confirmed that it “has made a non-binding bid for the asset, at a value it considers fair and reasonable.” Malvinder Singh, CEO and MD, said, “We are looking to evaluate the asset and are going to be practical about it. We are not in a rat race for acquisitions but are focused on creating value for our shareholders.” Read more in Business Standard

Enam, JP Morgan in talks for alliance

Vallabh Bhansali-controlled Enam Financial Consultants, one of the leading home-grown investment banks in India, is learnt to be in talks with JP Morgan for a strategic alliance.

Sources close to the developments said that the alliance with JP Morgan might also include acquisition of equity in Enam. Talks were at an advanced stage, they said.

Lehman Brothers, which had also expressed interest in Enam earlier, is learnt to be out of the race, making JP Morgan the sole candidate for a strategic tieup.

When contacted, an official spokesperson for Enam said: "We do keep getting offers for a strategic alliance. It is a continuous evolution process. Presently, we are solo." An official spokesperson for JP Morgan said: "As a policy we don't comment on market speculations."The sources, however, said the JP Morgan was looking at buying 50 per cent stake in Enam. Read more in Business Standard

SAIL plans JV with Manganese Ore

To ensure long-term security of critical raw materials, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), which has earmarked Rs 40,000 crore for capacity expansion, has proposed to form a JV with Manganese Ore India (MOIL) besides picking up stake in an SPV to be floated for acquisition of coal mines abroad.

The proposed joint venture with MOIL, also a unit under the steel ministry, would produce ferro-manganese and ferro silicon with installation of three furnaces at Bhilai and a total proposed capital outlay of Rs 225 crore, SAIL chairman S K Roongta said yesterday.

He said SAIL has decided to pick up stake in a proposed special purpose vehicle to be floated by five PSUs including Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Coal India, National Thermal Power Corporation and National Mineral Development Corporation for acquisition of coal mines abroad. He, however, did not give details of the proposed SPV.

Reports said the five PSUs would invest Rs 4,000 crore in the proposed SPV, and SAIL is expected to contribute Rs 1,000 as equity.

Roongta said that besides the Rs 40,000 crore capacity expansion programme, SAIL has decided to set up a greenfield plant with a capacity of 6 million tonne in Jharkhand in lieu of the renewal of leases of iron ore mines at Chiria, which have reserves of two billion tonne. SAIL has already communicated its decision to the Jharkhand government, which wanted value-addition to iron ore sourced from the state.

RIL sharpens teeth to bite into Carrefour chunk

RIL wants a bite of retail giant Carrefour. The company is in preliminary talks to pick up one or two of Carrefour subsidiaries. A deal could be likely by June, reports CNBC-TV18.It is the season for big-ticket acquisitions and Mukesh Ambani is keen to join the party. RIL is going retail shopping and wants a piece of the world's third-largest retailer Carrefour.

Currently, Carrefour operates across 29 different countries and has a chain of 12,000 stores and saw sales of 93 billion euros last year. So that should explain why RIL couldn’t go after Carrefour itself. What is however possible and likely is RIL picking up one or two of Carrefour’s many subsidiaries.

RIL could look at picking up the supply-chain and commodities trading subsidiaries. Talks are said to be in preliminary stages but a final agreement is likely before June. This move is expected to strengthen RIL's supply-chain management and also help improve its sourcing abilities.That is not all - RIL is also said to be eyeing, an international tier-II retail chain.

Names doing the rounds are UK's Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer’s foods. While the names get bigger, so does the war chest. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Mukesh Ambani is getting ready to go shopping with a whopping USD 50 billion. That is enough to buy Corus eight times over! While the Ambanis are known to think big, this may be more than even they can chew.

Foreign banks can list in India from May 2009: RBI

HSBC, Citibank, ABN Amro and other foreign banks have the option of listing in India from May 2009. But this comes with a rider - they have to convert themselves into fully owned subsidiary foreign banks operate as branches in india, reports CNBC-TV18.This was stated by RBI Deputy Governor V Leeladhar in Washington. Leeladhar said that as per a two-phase roadmap released for foreign banks in consistence with WTO commitments, the RBI in the first phase between March 2005-09 had allowed them to operate through branches or set up 100 per cent wholly-owned
subsidiaries (WOS).

During this phase, permission for acquisition of shareholding in Indian private sector banks by eligible foreign banks will be limited to banks identified by RBI for restructuring.

They will also be allowed to list and dilute their stake after completion of a minimum prescribed period of operation. However, at least 26% of the paid-up capital of the subsidiary of the foreign bank should be held by resident
Indians at all times, he said.

Finally, foreign banks will be permitted to enter into M&As with any private sector bank, subject to the overall investment limit of 74 per cent.

However, foreign banks are not keen on listing in India as they are not eager for a fully owned subsidiary. They see no additional benefits from this.

Asian markets trading lower; Nikkei down 512 points

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 3% in morning trade today in the wake of a sharp sell-off on Wall Street and a strengthening of the yen against major currencies.

Japan's Nikkei plunged 2.98% 512.04 points at 16,666.80.

Singapore's Straits Times fell 2.78% or 87.82 points at 3,071.08.

South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 2.06% or 29.63 points at 1,406.42.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted tumbled 1.51% or 116.03 points at 7,567.97.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.56% or 109.28 points at 19,333.14.