Govt to fuel SBI's growth plans

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The government, which is now the dominant shareholder of the State Bank of India, is planning to provide capital to the bank. Capital infusion by the government to the country’s largest bank may well be called for considering the business needs of SBI over the next couple of years. The move will also give SBI more leeway in raising funds which is capped due to the law that prevents the owner (now the government) from diluting its stake below 55%.

Government officials said the Centre would provide assistance to the bank to ensure that its business growth is not hampered. Assuming that the government infuses Rs 10,000 crore and if this is leveraged to build a portfolio by an additional Rs 1,00,000 crore, the resulting dividends and the tax on increased profits will make up for the government’s capital costs. Even at a 1% return on assets, the government could recover a significant amount from the bank, sources said.

Read more in The Economic Times

34 Indian firms in Forbes' list

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation leads the pack of 34 Indian companies, a chunk of them from the banking sector, which have found place on the elite Forbes' list of 2000 corporate giants across the world.

In the ranking based on sales, profits, assets and stock market value, there are five oil and gas companies, four software giants, three each dealing in materials and capital goods, two utilities, and one each food, consumer durable, and telecommunications majors.

At the top of the Indian list is ONGC that finds 239 spot in the overall rankings and is followed by Reliance Industries (258), State Bank of India (326) and Indian Oil (399).

Tata Consultancy finds 1047 spot in the overall list but tops Indian companies ranking of software and service outfits. Following it in the category are Infosys Technologies (1130), Wipro (1233) and Satyam Computer Services (1874).

Bharti Airtel is the only Indian telecommunications company to find spot among 2000 giants with a rank of 1149.

State Bank of India Group finds top spot among the Indian banks and is ranked at 326 in the overall list. It is followed by ICICI bank (536), HDFC-Housing Development (1197), Punjab National Bank (1308), Canara Bank (1360), HDFC Bank (1376), Bank of Baroda (1585), Bank of India (1691), Indl Dev Bank of India (1767), Union Bank of India (1772). UCO Bank (1931), Syndicate Bank (1943), Indian Overseas Bank (1946) and

Oriental Bank of Commerce (1974).

In the materials category, Steel Authority of India, Tata Steel and Hindustan Zinc find slots in the coveted list. ITC is the only Indian company to make the list in food, drink and tobacco category. NPTC, TATA Motors, Gail India, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharat Petroleum, Larsen and Toubro, Hindustan Petroleum and Bajaj Auto are among other Indian companies that find spot among 2000 top companies.

The first seven top spots go the American companies. Two firms from Netherland and one from Switzerland are among the first ten companies.

The top spot goes to Citigroup and following it are Bank of America, HSBC Holdings, General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, American Intl Group, ExxonMobil (all American), Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands), UBS (Switzerland) and ING Group (Netherlands).

Forbes says this year's comprehensive list of global super stars values the world's largest public companies, including the hottest companies and best performers across 27 industries.

The 2007 rankings indicate that globalization is the essential element for business to prosper, the magazine says.

China brings 16 new companies to the Global 2000 and the United States has 34 fewer in the list. Among the giants, 116 are oil and gas which pulled down more revenue than any other industry but banks lead in profits.

A highlight of the analysis is that total revenues of the companies headquartered in Switzerland exceed that nation's gross domestic product.

The US companies included on this year's list have a combined market capitalization of 13.9 trillion dollars.

Argentina is represented on the Global 2000 for the first time ever.

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