Unitech Scouts For Foreign Partners

Unitech''s supremacy might have been taken over by DLF but Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director of Unitech is now taking off in another direction by moving into Airport Development. The company is now actively scouting for some international players as partners. Unitech has a fancy for foreign partners in most projects it undertakes. Unitech has tie-up with Canadian company for expressway and is in pact with a Dutch firm for building a 3.6-kilometer long and 50-meter high bridge on Hooghly river.

Apart from all these Unitech also diversified into hospitality sector and would build 28 hotels and is also exploring opportunities for ''Project Management'' tie-ups with foreign players. Quarterly numbers reflect the optimism with income for first quarter up by 158 per cent at Rs 788 crore while profit was up by 371 per cent at Rs 347 crore. For unitech, the next couple of years will be critical. With Rs75, 000 crore to be spent on Noida projects and further big investments in hotels, there''s a lot to look forward to.

UII Targets Retail Segment

CHENNAI: Public sector United India Insurance will increase its concentration on retail segment by concentrating on bancassurance, microinsurance and customisation of products. The company, in a bid to tap the vast potential in the personal insurance, planned to set up 50 more one-man offices in the rural areas before the current fiscal. The company already had 230 such offices. The company declared a dividend of 70.51 per cent, amounting to Rs.105.77 crore to the Centre.

MRPL Receives Award For Energy Performance

Mangalore: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has been awarded the ''Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Award for Energy Performance of Refineries'' for 2006-07, by the Centre of High Technology, Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. This award, which is in recognition of a refinery''s annual energy performance, is decided after all refineries are evaluated by an awards committee for their specific energy consumption. A decreased energy index reflects not only optimum energy consumption but also reduced operational cost overheads. MRPL''s ''encon number'' (energy consumption number) for 2006-07 is 63.57 mbn the lowest amongst all refineries.

Asian Paints To Establish Emulsion Unit In Rohtak

Asian Paints will be setting up a new manufacturing facility at Rohtak in Haryana, which will be its biggest. The plant, which will produce emulsion paints initially and then diversify into other products, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2009. Additionally, the country''s largest paints company plans to invest Rs 200 crore for capacity expansion and its R&D centre in Turbhe near Navi Mumbai in view of the good growth in industrial and decorative paints. The distribution centres and the storage facility will also be increased substantially before the festive season sets in.

United India Insurance Registers 24Pc Net Profit Growth

Chennai: United India Insurance Company, the Chennai-headquartered public sector insurance company, has recorded a 24 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 529 crore for the year 2006-07. The company has also declared a 70.5 per cent dividend of Rs 105.77 crore on the enhanced capital of Rs 150 crore. Gross premium of the company climbed 11 per cent to Rs 3,499 crore. Of this, Rs 664 crore was contributed by fire segment, Rs 263 by marine insurance (both cargo and hull) and Rs 2,570 crore by miscellaneous items including engineering, motor, health and other insurance.

Mr Raju Sharan, Financial Advisor, said profits might have been higher but for an additional provision of Rs 163 crore on account of Accounting Standard – 15 (employee benefits). The company had taken the decision to absorb the additional provision this year itself (instead of spreading it over the next few years). The company could maintain a growth rate of 11 per cent despite a 25 per cent decline in fire and engineering insurance rates. In 2005-06, there had been a higher target for sale of shares in view of the requirements to meet wage arrears. The company hopes to attain a premium income of Rs 4,000 crore in the current fiscal.

IOC Mulls To Enter Into Bio-Crop Biz

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), a major fuel supplier in the country, proposes to enter into agri-related activities, particularly bio-crops. IOC has taken measures to bring in suitable amendments in its memorandum of association that will enable the company to carry out business in bio-fuels and allied products. This in effect will permit IOC to go for cultivation of plants like jatropha to be used for blending with diesel. The company expects to incorporate a clause enabling it to carry out, organise, develop, exploit and manage within the country or overseas any business relating to and allied to discovery, development, farming, cultivation, extraction, processing and manufacture of bio-fuels and allied products and services. IOC proposes to take up amendment in its annual general meeting scheduled for September.

There is still not much clarity on the bio-diesel policy, hence, the company wants to progress cautiously. For entering into jatropha plantation, IOC is looking for availability of continuous land areas, and has applied to the Madhya Pradesh Government. The company has called expression of interest from seed vendors and those who can undertake large-scale plantation activities. States like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan were keen on bio product activities. IOC is expecting to initiate plantation activity in another six months.

ONGC Searches For New Offshore Ships

Mumbai: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country''s biggest oil explorer, has started hectic talks with shipping companies to keep oil from its Bombay High oil fields flowing after the Directorate General of Shipping recalled its 27 offshore supply vessels for safety reasons. The top management of ONGC, led by its Chairman R S Sharma, flew to Mumbai during the weekend to meet top Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) officials to procure offshore supply vessels (OSVs) urgently for deploying into the fields situated 160 km off the Mumbai coast in the high seas. ONGC has urged them to give more vessels to support them. At present, SCI takes care of operations and management of 22 vessels of ONGC (16 OSVs and 6 specialised vessels).

ONGC will need over 30 vessels to maintain the uninterrupted oil exploration activities. ONGC is unlikely to get more than 15 vessels from the open market at this point of time. The problems for ONGC, however, could flare up as Sical, which has been accused by DG Shipping for plying a non-seaworthy vessel squarely blamed ONGC for the July 9 accident that killed five people on board. It is also to be noted that there was increasing pressure to report the readiness of the taken-over ships to sail immediately after the handing over and taking over were completed as a minimal workforce level had to be maintained on the vessels in the fields to keep the offshore operations going. The DG Shipping is mulling to file a first information report with the Mumbai police against Sical for the July 9 accident.

GMR Infrastructure To Mop Up Rs 5,000Cr Overseas

Bangalore: GMR Infrastructure, a Rs 1,000 crore Bangalore-based infrastructure company with a focus on airports, power and roads, eyes overseas markets to fund its expansion plans. The company is seeking a shareholders clearance to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore through various financial instruments including or either FCCBs, GDRs and ADRs. The company is also increasing its authorised share capital to Rs 750 crore from the current Rs 400 crore. In addition to raising resources via equity dilution, the company is also seeking to double its debt limit to Rs 10,000 crore. The company recently secured a contract to revamp an airport in Turkey. GMR and two other international partners will form a consortium, in which the Bangalore-based company will hold a 40 per cent stake, to execute the project. The company is already involved in revamping the Delhi international airport and is close to completing a greenfield international airport in Hyderabad.

ICICI Prudential Life increases Capital Base

Mumbai: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has hiked its capital base by Rs 300 crore to Rs 2,372 crore. The capital has been invested by the promoters ICICI Bank and Prudential plc, in the existing proportions of 74:26 respectively. The additional capital will be utilized to fund the high up-front expenses and meet the solvency norms. It will also enable ICICI Prudential to continue driving its expansion strategy over the next year, which comprises opening new branches and offices across the country as well as scaling up operations. ICICI Prudential recorded a growth of 22 per cent in new business-weighted premium in the first quarter of 2006-07 at Rs 987 crore.

ICICI Bank Credit Card To Foray 50 More Cities

NEW DELHI: The country''s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank is mulling to expand its credit card business to another 50 cities and hopes 20-25 per cent increase in business during the current fiscal. They already have presence in 125 cities and plans to spread our footprint to another 50 cities this year. By far, ICICI is the market leader in the credit card business with 85 lakh credit card floating in the market against the total market size of 2.3 crore. With almost 35 per cent market share, the bank hopes 20-25 per cent growth in the card business during the year. At present, it is offering over half a dozen cards such as Gold, Titanium, Platinum, Silver, Truevalue Star. During early this month, the bank launched Visa Signature card for high networth individual with a joining fee of Rs 25,000 and an annual subscription thereafter of Rs 2,500.

JK Paper On Expansion Spree

JK Paper Ltd is planning to increase capacity of maplitho and copier papers with an investments of Rs 500-700 crore. The company has started trial production at its 60,000 tonnes multi-layer duplex board project at its Gujarat plant. The company is also setting up a 12-MW power plant at its Gujarat plant. JK papers has reported a gross income of Rs 932.81 crore for financial year ended June 2007. The company''s PBIDT stood at Rs 156.35 crore, up 15.8 per cent against Rs 145 crore reported in the previous financial year. Profit after tax for the year was Rs 46.10 crore, up 29.8 per cent compared with Rs 35.52 crore in the previous year.

CCS Infotech Secures Orders From Various Educational Sectors

CCS Infotech Ltd, on July 27, 2007, has announced that it has bagged orders worth Rs 1 crore from various prestigious Educational Institutions, leading engineering colleges, school etc in Tamilnadu. Through this order the Company will supply and maintain PCs, high-end Servers and laptops to these educational institutions.

Elaboration on this Mr. Hasan Abdul Kader, Managing Director of the Company said that, We are very happy with the way we have started this financial year. We are getting lots of domestic orders from the beginning of this financial year and a significant portion of it is from the educational sector. We are proud that leading educational institutions have shown their trust on us and we will continue to provide the best service to them.

According to Mr. H Ratna Kumar, Director, The increase in orders from the domestic market will largely help us in achieving our targeted turn-over for this financial year. We are expecting to get more domestic orders this year.

The Company is more focusing on the Educational sector that has been proven by the orders they have got recently and are expecting to bag more orders. The Company is getting continuous orders from the educational sector all over Tamil Nadu.

Suzlon Battles Pressure On Margins

Suzlon Energy is in a trans, its acquisitions have not yet started to add to earnings, the employee additions during the quarter are adding to costs and, worse, the rupee is throwing it''s weight around putting pressure on the company''s margins and Q1 performance.Suzlon is paying high interest amounts as acquisition cost of REpower and Hansen, while the REpower revenues are still to start trickling in. The company is paying Rs 13 crore and Rs 28 crore as interest costs for Repower, Hansen respectively.

First quarter is traditionally weak for Suzlon Energy and the company is expected to gain steam from the next quarter, also a big difference will be the inclusion of REpower numbers.While consolidated sales in Q1FY08 stood at Rs 1,944 crore the company posted a net profit of Rs 18.89 crore. In the first quarter Hansen contributed Rs 3 crore as profit to Suzlon. All eyes are now on Suzlon Energy''s next quarter results when RE Power''s revenues will reflect on it''s balance sheet. Moreover the company is ramping up its international business. In Europe they are expanding on the back of REpower and also have identified South Africa as one of the destinations for lucrative business.

Bajaj, Renault May Tie Up For Small Car

The race for the $3,000 world car just got hotter after Tata Motors, the other Pune based company Bajaj Auto is going big on the small car.The Renault-Nissan alliance has been working hard on its cheap small car platform for over a year now and its boss Carlos Ghosn had gone on record to say that any such car would have to be made using India''s low cost or as Ghosn puts it - frugal engineering.

Ghosn got the idea to develop such a car after the success of its other low cost experiment the Dacia Logan, which sells well in markets as diverse as Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. The trick says that Ghosn is to be able to make money and yet offer a good sticker price to the consumer. So it was crucial to find an Indian partner.

The logical choice may have been Mahindra, given the big partnership the two groups already share. But given the smaller margins that a small car would make and the big scale of infrastructure needed to support a global small car model, Mahindra could not commit.Enter Bajaj, which has been scouting for the perfect platform to go from two wheels to four and Renault''s plans fit in perfectly.The idea is to produce a small car powered by a fuel efficient motor that can be serviced easily and be sold at that all attractive $3,000 price point, which roughly translates to between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 1.4 lakh, the same market that Tata Motors is going for.

Lanco Infratech Looses 10.13% On 25 July 2007

Among the day''s top 10 losers Lanco Infratech lost 10.13% on 25 July 2007 as it closed at 210.30 compared to previous close of 234.00 on 24 July 2007. This loss in the stock prices of the company will detriment various mutual fund schemes, which have invested in the stocks of the company. Principal Resurgent India Equity Fund (G) is likely to lose as it has the highest percentage hold of the stocks of the company compared to its peer groups who have invested in the stocks of the company. Principal Resurgent India Equity Fund (G) has 3.85% of its total portfolio size invested in the stocks of the company as on June 2007. The scheme holds 3.99 lakh units of the company in June 2007 compared to its peer groups who have invested in the stocks of the company.

Principal Large Cap Fund (G) is also likely to loose as scheme holds 2.75% of its portfolio with 3.31 lakh units of the company as on June 2007. However the scheme like Lotus India Arbitrage Fund (G) is likely to gain as it completely exited from the stocks of the company in June 2007 compared to 3.21% in May 2007.

ONGC Unveils Plan To Boost Gas Output

State owned exploration firm ONGC is finally playing catch up with its private sector peer Reliance Industries. ONGC''s KG basin find may end up being bigger than it expected, at least that''s what the management told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

ONGC to produce up to 50 mmscmd of gas from 98/2 block from 2102. It has planned to spend around $5 billion over next 10 years. India''s total gas availability today is 90 mmscmd and Reliance to produce 80 mmsmcd gas from next year.

These big discoveries will alter the demand supply scenario for gas in the country but more importantly it will help re-rate ONGC as an exploration firm. The company''s stock right now is grossly undervalued because of the subsidy hangover and poor track record of discoveries. Other problems like shortage of rigs are also beginning to impact it in a big way. That apart, ONGC will have to first get a nod from the upstream regulator for its ambitious KG basin plans and the big test will be how quickly it manages to step on the gas.

Ranbaxy Settles US Patent Litigation

Investments in R&D coupled with smart litigation strategies are yielding dividends for Ranbaxy Laboratories.The company has reached an out of court settlement with Glaxo SmithKline for Valtrex, a drug used for treatment of Herpes infections.

Under the agreement Ranbaxy will have 180 days of exclusivity to sell the generic version of Valtrex starting 2009 end.According sources Ranbaxy expects $400-$500 million sales during the 180 day exclusivity period and company sources say it expects the market size of Valtrex to be about $1.7-1.8 billion by 2009 end. And it expects that the drug launch will help improve margins significantly. Ranbaxy''s share price rose nearly 10 per cent on Thursday, its biggest single day gain in more than a year. Analysts expect the stock to be re-rated on a forward earning basis.

Ranbaxy''s management says it will continue to leverage and monetise it''s pipeline of first-to-file opportunities, which currently stands at $29 billion. It also plans to release one generic copy of a top selling drug each year to meet its revenue target of $5 billion by 2012.

Castrol India Takes A Lead

Among the days top 10 gainers in the A group Castrol India gained 11.03% on 24 July 2007 as it closed at 280.35 compared to previous close of 252.50 on 23 July 2007.Castrol India declared its Q2 results on 24 July 2007. Company posted a net profit after tax of Rs. 65.93 crore for the quarter ended June 2007as compared to Rs. 50.31 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006. Gain in the stock prices of the company will benefit various mutual fund schemes, which have invested in the stocks of the company.

Kotak MNC is likely to benefit the most as it has the highest percentage hold of the stocks of the company compared to its peer groups who have invested in the stocks of the company. Kotak MNC has 4.26% share of its portfolio invested in the stocks of the company with 80000 units in June 2007. Principal Dividend Yield Fund (G) is also likely to benefit as scheme has invested 3.20% of its portfolio with 1.66 lakh units in the stocks of the company in June 2007. ABN Amro Dividend Yield Fund (G) was holding 49198 units on 31 May 2007 has sold 29319 units as on June 2007 and thus likely to benefit to limited extent.

United Bank Plans Marketing Gold Coins

Kolkata: United Bank of India (UBI) plans to kick off marketing of gold coins for which the Reserve Bank of India approval is being sought. Its net profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal amounted to Rs 88.21 crore (Rs 70.35 crore), thus posting 25.4 per cent growth on a total business of Rs 61,112 crore. On year-on-year basis, the total business during the period under review showed a growth of 32 per cent and deposits stood at Rs 38,380 crore, up by 28.2 per cent, and advances were at Rs 22,732 crore, up by 38.9 per cent. The credit-deposit ratio improved to 59.2 per cent (54.7 per cent). The bank''s capital adequacy in end June improved to 13 per cent from 12.02 per cent in end March and the Tier I capital accounted for 7.12 per cent and Tier II 5.88 per cent. The bank raised Rs 575 crore by way of Upper Tier II bonds in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Avaya Ties Up With ICICI Bank For Easy Finance Options

Avaya GlobalConnect Limited, one of India''s leading enterprise communications solutions'' company has partnered with ICICI Bank, India''s second largest bank, to offer easy finance options to the small and medium business (SMB) segment. This partnership would help the SMB customers across India to benefit from the EMI (equated monthly installment) buying options. Avaya GlobalConnect offers a wide range of solutions catering to the needs of the growing SMB market in India. With easy payment options, SMBs would be able to acquire the vast range of Avaya GlobalConnect''s products that build end-to-end converged IP networks and develop management and other technologies needed to improve market environment. The vast reach of ICICI Bank along with the EMI options would not only facilitate quick adoption of latest technology but also cater to the markets across India. This would enable the small and medium business units to derive a competitive edge in terms of efficiency and productivity. With this scheme, Avaya GlobalConnect''s channel partners will now be able to tap a wider spectrum of customers in other markets. The market size would not only expand but the opportunities would increase and the growth would be phenomenal.

HDFC Likely To Bring Down Home Loan Rates

HDFC Bank, mortgage finance major, is likely reduce lending rates if the central bank does not tighten rates or resort to a monetary squeeze by hiking the cash reserve ratio (CRR). Although interest rates have gone up during the first quarter of 2006-07, liquidity generated by forex inflows has helped bring down rates in the money markets. Towards July, interest rates have eased and borrowing costs have come down for institutional borrowers. Some banks, which had hiked their lending rates in the fourth quarter of last year, said they would bring down home loan rates. HDFC''s profits are expected to see substantial upside in the second quarter owing to exceptional items. HDFC would gain close to Rs 311 crore from the sale of its stake in Intelenet to Blackstone. In the second quarter, HDFC will also finalise a non-life partner to whom it will sell 74% stake in HDFC Chubb General Insurance at a premium. The second quarter would also see Rs 3,114 crore of capital coming in following the preferential allotment of equity shares to Carlyle Group through CMP Asia and Citigroup Strategic Holdings Mauritius.

Reliance Energy Pitches For Gas

Out of the India''s total electricity requirement of about 80,000 Mega watts close to 35,000 mega watts has to come from gas alone.And there is no consensus on the price for gas and in fact Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Energy has now raised a question on whether there is a market for gas at all.

In high-energy fight between Ambani brothers, a tussle that could affect India''s energy future, it is all about gas from RIL''s KG basin on who will get it and at what price. And what it could do to the power and energy companies.For the first time management of the Reliance Energy is on a record arguing that it needs gas to power its electricity business. Power addition in this plan equal to power added in previous four plans, said JP Chalasani, Director, Reliance Energy.

But exactly how much power will be generated using gas? India needs to add 80,000 megawatts of electricity in five years. Coal, water and nuclear will contribute 45,000 megawatts. So India will need to produce 35,000 megawatts using gas. But nobody seems to agree on what price to pay for gas or even whether there is a market.

The fertiliser and power markets are regulated where is the market for gas? said JP Chalasani when asked about objections to RIL''s gas price first from Andhra government and fertiliser companies.The war of words between gas suppliers like Reliance Industries, ONGC and gas buyers like power and fertiliser companies is going to continue till the Prime Minister takes a call and gets a regulator for India''s gas market.

JSW Steel To Cut Raw Material Costs

Sajjan Jindal is lining up mega expansion plans for JSW Steel but he knows that wont be enough to get into the top league. JSW is now looking to plug its biggest handicap of captive iron ore mines and the country''s fourth largest steel maker is innovating ways to cut down raw materials costs.

It is not going to be easy though while Tata Steel and SAIL are 100 per cent self-sufficient in iron ore JSW Steel barely controls 20 per cent of its iron ore requirement. JSW''s raw material costs have risen by 9 per cent during the last quarter and coke prices are also hitting new highs. And JSW now wants to set up coke oven plants to make sure that he maintains its competitive edge.

Gas From ONGC''s KG Basin To Flow From 2012

Oil and gas major ONGC had serious differences with the upstream regulator over the authenticity of its KG basin finds.More than six months after ONGC announced its KG basin deep sea gas find, India''s largest exploration firm finally has some idea of how much gas lies below the waters of its KG basin block.

ONGC plans to produce 12 mmscmd gas from KG 98/2 block and the gas is expected to start flowing from 2012. Total reserves right now stand at 2 tcf as against earlier reports of 20 tcf.The numbers for ONGC''s KG find may seem quite disappointing given earlier estimates of around 20 tcf and when we compare them to Reliance''s mega find in the same area.Reliance''s estimates range between 35-50 tcf but ONGC''s management insists it is being a bit conservative given strict disclosure norms and hopes that the actual number will be much higher.

RBI Mulls Law To Regulate Moneylenders

Be it farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh or debt ridden families in Vidharba the finger has often been pointed at money lenders who squeeze rural India.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is now attempting to regulate them by recommending a model law to states.

For starters, the RBI has asked states to make it mandatory for moneylenders to register with the state and introduce stringent penalties for unregistered moneylenders. In addition, states have been asked to set a maximum rate of interest which all money lenders must adhere to.These rates will differ from state to state and will be calculated based on the cost of funds and the cost involved in deploying those funds. However the RBI has made it clear that this interest rate cap would only be applicable to money lenders and not NBFC or micro finance institutions.

Kotak Mahindra Plans To Mop Up $300 Mn

Kotak Mahindra Bank is expected to come out with a fresh issue of over $300 million in the third quarter of the current financial year. The group''s capital market exposure has exceeded the Reserve Bank of India''s mandated 40% of net worth because of the buoyant capital market. The bank proposed to issue up to 17 million equity shares.

The promoter shareholding, at present, in the bank is at 55.5%. The new issue will see a dilution of around 5% capital. The promoter shareholding, post-issue, would go down to around 52%. There would also be a fall in stake on the back of ESOPs. The bank could raise the money through a QIP or GDR route. Though the capital market exposure of the bank is only at around 25%, the group exposure is above 40%. The exposure of Kotak Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company has increased the group exposure limits to above 40% of the net worth. The total net worth of the group is around Rs 3,500 crore. However, these exposures vary depending on whether the investment banking outfit underwrites any capital market issues or any spurt in volumes in the stock market.

GMR Infrasructure Takes A Lead

Among the days top 10 gainers in the A group GMR Infrastructure gained 8.94% on 23 July 2007 as it closed at 960.00 compared to previous close of 881.20 on 20 July 2007. This gain in the stock prices of the company will benefit various mutual fund schemes, which have invested in the stocks of the company. Junior BeES is likely to benefit the most as it has the highest percentage hold of the stocks of the company compared to its peer groups who have invested in the stocks of the company. Junior BeES has 6.38% share of its portfolio invested in the stocks of the company with 3898 units in June 2007.

LICMF Unit Linked Insurance Scheme (G) is also likely to benefit as scheme has invested 3.80% of its portfolio with 30000 units in the stocks of the company in June 2007. Sahara Midcap Fund (G) is likely to loose as scheme completely exited from the stocks of the company in June 2007compared to 2.00% in May 2007.

NFL To Tap Markets To Fuel Growth

When supply of feedstock is crippling growth of most fertiliser companies PSU National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) is actually planning to buck the trend and go for mega expansions.To fund its growth it is planning to tap the capital markets with an public offer. The company is planning to raise Rs 2,000 crore while the government diluted three per cent stake in NFL for the employees. Now it may dilute upto a maximum of 20 per cent equity.

The extra cash will help NFL to add capacity by acquiring two sick units of Hindustan Fertilisers and FCI in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.Three of its existing units at Bhatinda, Panipath and Nangal are already going through expansions and will switch to gas for fuel by 2010 helping the company cut costs by over two and a half times. Its fourth unit at Vijaypur will also see production going up by 25 per cent in the next two years. NFL''s current build up capacity is 32.31 lakh metric tonne per annum and it will go up to 40 lakh metric tonne per annum by 2010 giving it around 20 per cent market share.

But NFL''s growth story has not excited investors, the stock was down 9 per cent on Monday. With the government assuring gas supply to NFL at a subsidised rate the management is getting the courage to grow its operations. It has given the government two options to fund its growth, either a financial package and if that seems unlikely then the freedom to tap the Indian capital markets, either way it expects a final decision by the end of the year.

Volvo To Launch Its Flagship SUV In India

Volvo''s flagship SUV XC90 is almost ready for launch in India. It is one of the two vehicles that the Swedish carmaker part of the Ford family has lined up for the country. The other will be the S80 sedan which will take on the BMW 5 series and the Mercedes E class in India. Volvo has appointed its first three dealers for India in Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai.They will begin operations by November this year, Volvo will increase the number of dealers from January 2008 onwards. The Indian operations will be based on completely built import route and if the response is encouraging Volvo is already keeping the option open to use Ford''s plant in Chennai to assemble CKD units of its cars. It will also consider its smaller cars like the C70 post 2008.

Uco Bank To Come Out With Second Issue

Bhubaneswar: Kolkata-based Uco Bank is likely to go for a public offer during the current fiscal in order to restructure its capital base and achieve Basel-II compliance.

The time and the size of the issue have not been finalised. The bank also needs the approval of the government and the Securities and Exchange Board of India. This will be the second public offer by the bank, which had gone for its IPO in September, 2003 and raised Rs 240 crore from the market. Post-offer, the government holding in the bank is likely to decline from 74.98 per cent to 59 to 60 percent. The bank is also planning to convert the government equity of about Rs 300 crore into preferential shares. The bank has already raised Tier-I capital through innovative perpetual debt instruments for Rs 230 crore last year. It also issued upper Tier-II bonds for Rs 500 crore and subordinated debts for Rs 250 crore during 2006-07.

While the flagship corporate branches are able to provide credit in excess of Rs.60 crore, the mid-corporate branches are able to sanction loans between Rs 3 crore and Rs 60 crore. In another significant move to strengthen the sales marketing network, the bank recently appointed 400 retail sales executives to be deployed in 35 centres across the country, he said, adding that the bank has tied up with the Life Insurance Corporation of India for Bankassurance business. The bank is focussing on modernisation of technology and will take up linking branches under the core banking solution (CBS) in a significant measure during this year. Along with expanding network of CBS branches, the bank also plans to add 78 branches during 2007-08.

ICICI Pru Looks At North-East Business

Kolkata/ Guwahati: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (IPLI) is mulling to spruce up its market share in the North East considerably by the end of this financial year through an aggressive marketing. IPLI has decided to open at least 4 more braches in the region by this year end and is also in the process of evaluating the Arunachal Pradesh market which is the only state remained untouched by the company. In North East, IPLI presently has 13 branches in 11 cities. As part of its aggressive marketing plans, IPLI would double its advisor strength in the region from present 5,000 to 10,000 by this year end. This is aimed at increasing the number of policy holders in the region significantly.

Having established itself as a significant player in the life insurance and pension segments, said Arora, IPL now aspires to tap the opportunities in the health insurance space in North East. The company already has 6 products in the health insurance space and has now launched Hospital Care to cover over 1,000 surgical procedures and hospitalization. ICICI Prudential, which has a market share of 28.7 per cent countrywide, has become the first private life insurance company to cross the milestone of 4 million policies sold.

RCom Rolls Out Global Calling Card For Travellers

Mumbai: Reliance Communications has rolled out a calling card for Indian travellers abroad to make calls anywhere from any phone. Calls from USto India using the Passport Outroamer calling card will be charged Rs 5.5 per a minute, which is 92 per cent lesser than the international roaming rate. Travellers will be able to make calls from Canada, UK, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia to India and over 200 other countries at rates varying from Rs 5.5 to Rs 13.9 per minute. For making a call, customers have to dial in an access number that leads to an IVR (Interactive Voice response), which then guides the customer. For travellers coming into India, the companyhas launched Reliance Passport Advantage, in which the traveller can forward his overseas calls to any designated number in India. This service, according to RCom, will also provide up to 75 per cent savings over other international roaming services. It is now is available for travellers coming into the country from the US.

Honda To Replace Accords'' Relay Fuel-Pump

Honda Siel Cars India has decided to call back more than 2,000 units of its premium sedan Accord to replace faulty relay fuel-pump as part of a global campaign by its parent company in Japan. The company has asked 2,310 Accord customers in India, who purchased their cars in 2005 and 2006 to bring their cars to its service centres for the replacement of relay fuel-pump. The company said replacement would be carried out free of cost and the company was in the process of sending letters to the affected customers.

Dealerships have been updated about the replacement. The new part has been dispatched to the dealerships for speedy execution to avoid any inconvenience to customers. HSCI is carrying out the replacement as part of a global exercise by Honda Motor Company to ensure stringent quality standards for its products. Honda is pro-actively replacing the part even in vehicles which experienced no problem at all.

Zee Interactive Plans To Set Up 35 Kidzcare Centres

Kolkata: Kolkata, July 22 Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) has firmed up plans to set up a total of 35 Kidzcare centres across the country in the current fiscal. The education arm of the Essel Group of Companies already has seven such centres located in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The first Kidzcare centre in Kolkata was opened here on July 21. Earnings from the Kidscare initiative in the current fiscal is expected at around Rs 3-5 crore.

Canara Bank Inks Pact With Railways For Setting Up ATMs

Tiruchi: Canara Bank will be installing ATMs at eight Railway stations coming under the jurisdiction of the Tiruchi Railway Division. An MoU has been signed between the division and the bank in this connection. The bank''s Circle Office, Tiruchi will set up the ATMs at Tiruchi Fort, Tiruchi Town, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Adhiramapattinam, Aduthurai, Neyveli and Panruti stations. The bank has paid Rs 6.60 lakh as licence fee to the Railway authorities for the establishment of the ATMs. Apart from the eight locations, the bank also plans to set up ATMs at Tiruchi Junction, Pondicherry, Tiruvannamalai and Salem Town Railway stations.The bank had signed a similar MoU with the Madurai Railway Division a month back to set up ATMs at Dindigul, Palani and Pudukottai stations.

Pratibha Industries Secures Two Contracts For Water Supply Projects From Municipal Corporation Of Gr

Pratibha Industries Ltd has informed that the Company has secured two contracts from Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for water supply schemes. The total value of the contracts is Rs 434.86 crores.

Above projects are parts of Middle Vaitarna Water Supply Project and involve providing and laying of 3000 mm diameter M.S. pipes of total length of 20.7 km and allied works. The projects are to be executed in 45 months.

The Company is engaged in infrastructure business with keys focus on water segment. As the Company moves ahead, it has laid increased emphasis on devising its business strategy on aggressive top line growth, a de-risked business model and increased operational efficiencies.

UTI Bank Successfully Raises US Dollars 1050 Million

UTI Bank Ltd has announced that it has successfully priced its offering of 14.13 million GDRs, aggregating USD 218.07 million. Each GDR, representing one underlying share, was priced at USD 15.43 and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. This represents a discount of 1.7% to the closing price of the Banks GDR on July 20, 2007.

In addition, the Bank has determined the Issue Price of the equity shares to be offered in the proposed Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) to be Rs 620 per share. The size of the QIP will be Rs 1,752 crores.

Further, the Bank proposes to allot, on a preferential basis, 2,56,21,076 shares to its promoters at Rs 620 per share aggregating to Rs 1,588 crores.

The date of settlement for all 3 offerings will be July 27, 2007. Citi and Goldman Sachs acted as the Joint Bookrunners for the GDR and QIP offering.

Aurobindo Receives Approval From USFDA For Amlodipine Besylate Tablets

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has announced that the Company has received approval from the USFDA for Amlodipine Besylate Tablets 2.5 mg, 5 mg & 10 mg. This is the Companys fifth anti-hypertensive approval from USFDA.

Amlodipine Besylate Tablets 2.5 mg, 5 mg & 10 mg are the Generic equivalent of Pfizers Norvasc® Tablets and are indicated for the treatment of hypertension. The brand product has approximately annual sales of USD 2.8 billion.

GE Shipping - New Building Order Placed For 2 State Of The Art PSV''s

Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (GE Shipping) has announced that Greatship Global Offshore Services Pte Ltd, Singapore has signed a contract for 2 new building Multi Purpose Platform Supply & Support Vessels with Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd, Singapore. These vessels are expected to join the Companys fleet in Q2FY 2009-10. The Multi Purpose Platform Supply & Support Vessels are of 4600+ dwt, fitted with DP-2 and have diesel electric propulsion. The vessels, which are also prepared for helideck and offshore crane, are larger and technologically more advanced than any PSV currently operational in the Indian waters.

Greatship Global Offshore Services Pte Ltd is wholly owned by Greatship (India) Ltd (GIL), which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

GIL and its subsidiaries already have a new building order book of 10 new building Offshore Supply Vessels (2 mid sized PSVs and 8 AHTSVs) and 1 new building 350 feet Jack up Rig. Apart from this, there is also 1 second hand modem PSV which is to be delivered in Q2 FY 2007-08.

Punj Lloyd Group Signs Up For A New AHF / AIF3 Plant In UAE

Punj Lloyd Ltd has announced that Simon Carves Ltd, a subsidiary of the Company, a global EPC services provider in energy and infrastructure domains, has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi based Gulf Fluor to provide a new Anhydrous Hydrofluoric Acid (AHF) / Aluminium Fluoride (AIF3) Plant incorporating a new Sulphuric Acid / Oleum Plant as part of a Dh2 billion Fluorides Complex to be built in UAE.

Swiss company BUSS CHEM TECH AG will provide the AHF / AIF3 technology and critical equipment for the plant. The Sulphuric acid / Oleum Plant will be designed and supplied by Simon Carves, which will be main contractor for EPC phase.

The Fluorides Complex will be built in the second phase of the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICADII) and this project will serve the growing demand for aluminium fluoride, an important additive in the production of aluminium, in the region. The complex will initially have 60,000 tonnes per annum of AIF3 and 10,000 tonnes per annum of AHF and is scheduled for completion in 2009.

Bajaj To Hold Talks With Allianz

Six years ago Rahul Bajaj along with his four cousins decided to take a plunge into insurance by joining hands with European insurance major Allianz. A good business decision then, but now Rahul Bajaj is being haunted by his decision to allow Allianz to use the call option to hike stake in the life insurance joint venture to 74 per cent something which the markets have already punished his stock for and there is still no scope of a renegotiations.They didn''t agree, I am meeting them next month in Europe. In hindsight I feel we should not have agreed to let them hike stake in the life insurance business to 74 per cent. We should have instead given them the option to hike stake to 50 per cent in both the life and general insurance business, said Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto. So round one of persuasion has failed and Bajaj on his part is regretting for letting the foreign partner to hike stake in such a cheap way.

Cochin Shipyard Attains Record Productivity

Kochi: Cochin Shipyard Ltd has attained an all-time high of 1,81,000 dwt in shipbuilding this year exceeding the previous best of 1,10,206 dwt achieved in 2005-06. The yard is hoping a net profit of around Rs 58 crore (provisional) in 2006-07, which is three times that of last year''s Rs 18 crore. The turnover is expected to be Rs 800 crore, which is twice that of the previous year''s Rs 418 crore. The yard has delivered a platform supply vessel Sea Angler to Deep Sea Supply, Norway on July 19. The first two vessels of this series were delivered in January and April and are rendering good service in offshore fields off Congo in West Africa.

The vessel is designed for meeting the specific demands of the offshore industry for transport of deck cargo, pipes, liquid cargo, cement / barrite etc and unloading to rigs and production platforms, pipe-laying barges etc. The yard is constructing 17 platform supply vessels for European clients. Apart from this, 2 bulk carriers for Clipper, Bahamas, are under advanced construction. Total order book of CSL is 19 ships amounting to over Rs 2,000 crore.

GAIL Issues Dues Notice To Agra Units

Agra: The minimum consumption guarantee conflict between the GAIL (India) Ltd and Agra industrialists has taken a serious turn. Taking measures to recover its dues worth Rs 7 crore, GAIL has issued dues recovery and disconnection notices to the foundry units of Agra, demanding the payment of all dues according to the minimum guarantee pact inked by the foundry units. Cornered by GAIL''s threats to close gas supply to the units, foundry unit owners of Agra and Firozabad recently held a meeting at the National Chamber of Industries & Commerce (UP) in which they decided to raise this issue before the Union petroleum ministry in Delhi on July 24.

The industrialists have also decided to demand an increase in the gas quota of Agra and Firozabad from 1.1 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) to 1.4 mmscmd as the gas volume being supplied by GAIL currently in both cities does not meet the demand and a lot of industrial units are still awaiting to be connected to gas pipelines. According to GAIL sources, at the time it had laid pipelines to supply natural gas to foundry units in Agra and Firozabad, GAIL had inked minimum consumption guarantee pacts with individual units and in anticipation of the success of an indigenously developed cupola furnace, the industrialists had inked the pacts.

ABL Bio Inks MoU CMC Vellore

Chennai: ABL Biotechnologies Ltd, a Chennai-based marine biotechnology research and development company, has inked an MoU with Christian Medical College, Vellore for joint research in tuberculosis, cancer, cardio vascular diseases and nanotechnology-based therapy. ABL Biotech was also mulling to expand the reach of Invia Health, its pharmaceutical division launched last year The company will first take Invia Health to Kerala by August and later Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa. This expansion will see the company placing products in cardio-diabetic segment including medicines for the management of heart failure. The products identified for unveil this year comprise Glimod M, Glysense and Eunerv G.

ONGC Inks Pact With HPCL To Share Infrastructure

New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) have forayed into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to share infrastructure and expertise. The ONGC via its subsidiary MRPL and Tatipaka Refinery, will supply all grades of petroleum products to HPCL. HPCL, in turn, will give road and rail terminalling services from its Mangalore, Hassan & Devanagunthi units, LPG Import Facility at Mangalore (MLIF) and ATF handling facilities at Bangalore , Kozhikode and Goa.

Under the pact, HPCL will supply motor spirit and high speed diesel and extend infrastructure services ONGC-MRPL''s retail outlets. In turn, ONGC will source products (from its Tatipaka refinery) to HCPL customers in Visakhapatnam, Rajamundry, Vijayawada, Suryapet, Ghatkesar, Mumbai, Vashi, Loni, Hazarwadi and Pakni, for evacuation and marketing by HPCL. HPCL and ONGC willco-operate on training and development, and entry into oil exploration, refining, marketing, infrastructure development, petrochemicals and other energy-related ventures in India or abroad.

HC Defers RIL-RNRL Case Hearing

Mukesh Ambani may be finding more and more gas in India deep-waters but he still does not know what price he will get for all that gas. Bombay High Court on Wednesday heard the RIL-RNRL case. Even as the case was deferred, the good news for senior Ambani is that government can go ahead and approve the price.

In the case where RIL was prevented from selling the gas to any third party except for NTPC and RNRL, the hearing will now take place after two months. The only relief the Bombay HC has given is to allow the government to fix the pricing of gas under the production sharing agreement.Court will now hear the main case and it has also clarified that nothing stops government from deciding on price under production sharing agreement, said Harish Salve, Reliance Industries Council.

BSNL Receives Raja''s Approval For 23M Lines

New Delhi: The Communication and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, on July 18, gave his clearance to BSNL to place an order for 23 million GSM cellular lines instead of the earlier declared 45.5 million lines. While the size of the contract is only 50 per cent of what BSNL had earlier planned, it includes both third-generation (3G) and second-generation cellular lines. The value of the contract has also been reduced from $107 per line to around $90. Mr Raja had wanted the price to be brought to under $100. Ericsson will get 60 per cent of the contract and Nokia the rest. The move would permit BSNL to increase its network capacity to some extent, though the reduced size may impact long-term growth. Ericsson has said that it would comment on the development after studying the revised conditions of the contract. Mr Raja urged BSNL to hold back the contract on the grounds that the company had not followed due process.

GAIL, IOC Strengthen Ties For City Gas Projects

New Delhi: GAIL (India) Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd have firmed up their partnership for a second joint venture for city gas distribution (CGD) project. Although an umbrella pact between the two entities was inked earlier this year for floating their second joint venture for city gas distribution projects in West Bengal, a formal commitment was reached today. During the signing of the agreement, GAIL had said that the new joint venture will have 22.5 per cent equity holding each by GAIL and Indian Oil, 5 per cent by the State Government or its nominee and 50 per cent by strategic investors/public/financial institutions. The scope of the joint venture includes distribution and marketing of compressed natural gas for vehicles, and piped natural gas for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. The joint venture company shall source its requirement of LPG from Indian Oil or its affiliates.

Cairn Receives DGH Approval For Appraisal Programme

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has declared an appraisal programme for Cairn India''s northern appraisal area (NAA) in Rajasthan Basin. As per the approval Cairn would be need to drill five more exploratory wells in the area. This move of DGH follows a directive from the Petroleum Ministry, urging Cairn India to work on an appraisal programme for the area in consultation with the technical regulator. The Ministry''s decision asking Cairn to get an appraisal programme permitted had gathered significance in the backdrop of the DGH earlier rejecting to recognise the two recent discoveries Kameshwari West-2 and Kameshwari West-3 in the Rajasthan Basin announced by Cairn. The DGH had fell the two discoveries on the grounds that both the wells were drilled after the expiry of a minimum work programme period. Cairn had notified DGH about Kameshwari West-3 on May 9 and about Kameshwari West-2 on December 16, 2006.

Record Mobilisation For LIC Vellore Division

Puducherry: Vellore Division of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has mobilised Rs.157 crore as first premium payment within 108 days since commencement of the current fiscal (2007-2008) by selling 1,45,500 new policies so far, according to the Senior Divisional Manager (Vellore) M.K. Balakrishnan. Addressing presspersons at the LIC Anna Salai branch office here on Wednesday, Mr. Balakrishnan said that this record performance registered a growth rate of 166 per cent and put the divison in the top slot in the country. LIC had also recorded a growth of 51 per cent in premium collection.

Mr. Balakrishnan said that the achievement of the division (comprising the Union Territory, Vellore, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Tiruvannamalai districts in Tamil Nadu) was due to overwhelming response to the Market Plus and Money Plus policies. Under these two plans alone, Rs 150 crore had been mobilised from more than 1.15 lakh investors. The Senior Divisional Manager said that a satellite office had been functioning in Chengam near Tiruvannamalai. Five more such satellite offices would be opened in Villianoor in Puducherry, Sankarapuram, Ambur, and Kattumannarkoil and in a village near Vellore.

Reliance Strikes Gas In Cauvery Basin

Despite being India''s largest company Reliance Industries (RIL) rarely calls a press conference. The company held press conference on Tuesday to announce oil and gas findings in Cauvery basin. If one compares the oil and gas find in the Cauvery basin to its last one in KG Basin the indications are that Reliance could have stumbled upon its biggest ever discovery, but still no confirmations on the exact find. In a market which hardly saw any buying strength the RIL stock kept up its move. Reliance''s stock rose by nearly 3 per cent or Rs 50 to its life high of Rs 1,827. Whatever the size, what''s fuelling a lot of interest right now is the prospects of the entire east coast of India. In fact Reliance alone has made discoveries all along the east coast in the Mahanadi basin and then of course the prolific KG basin where it struck the world''s biggest gas find and now further south in the Cauvery basin where again it has found both oil and gas.

Orchid Chemicals Unveiling 3 Products In US This Year

Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals will unveil three drugs in the US market this year. The company hopes a 25 per cent jump in its revenues for the current year. The three drugs are: Cefepime and Cefdinir in the Cephalosporin range and Tazobactum-Piperaillin in the penicillin range. Giving a calendar for growth. In 2008-09, Orchid would launch a few antibiotic drugs in the carbopenam range. The company has about a dozen products in that range. The year 2009-10 would see another step function jump because of unveil of another clutch of carbopenams and a range of non-antibiotic products in the US. Further in 2009-10, Orchid would foray the Japanese market. Meanwhile, the anti-diabetes drug that Orchid has been trying to bring in has suffered further delay. Orchid is working on one new drug for cancer and another for inflammation.

Bharti Airtel Signs Record Networking Deal With Ericsson

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel and Swedish telecom major Ericsson are set to ink the country''s largest networking deal on July 17. This will be Bharti''s second billion dollar networking outsourcing deal with Ericsson in under an year, where the latter will upgrade and expand Airtel''s GSM and GPRS network in 15 telecom circles as well as provide managed services to increase network capacity and services footprint. Ericsson already manages about 70% of Bharti Airtel''s network in India. In February 2004, Bharti inked a similar agreement with Ericsson valued at over $400 million to build and manage networks across 13 circles, followed by a $250-million deal in June 2005 to offer managed services and expand its GSM/GPRS network in 15 circles. Bharti then topped it up with a $1-billion network expansion deal with Ericsson for the same 15 circles in August 2006.

Current Interest Rates Likely To Affect Growth: ICICI

Chennai: The Indian growth story could be affected if interest rates continued to increase or even remained at the same level, said K V Kamath, managing director and chief executive officer, ICICI Bank. Interest rates currently seemed to have peaked and might probably fall. Kamath''s comments on interest rates come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India''s (RBI) first quarter review of the annual statement on monetary policy is less than a fortnight away. Credit growth has clearly slowed down across all sectors and lay consumers are under pressure. Credit offtake has relaxed and deposit mobilisation and liquidity are strong. Inflation is well under control at around 4 per cent and call rates are at 0.1 per cent. Kamath said that while the overall industrial momentum was continuing, there was some slowdown in a few sectors.

Jessop & Co Mulls Strategic Alliance Global Cos

Kolkata: Jessop & Co is planning strategic partnership with overseas majors for foray into new generation coaches segment including those used in metro railway and other mass rapid transit systems. The company is also planning to establish a new facility at its existing premises in Durgapur for the fresh business initiatives. There is little doubt that promoters have too high a stake of over 90 per cent which should be diluted. Jessop currently has about one per cent public shareholding and the stock is rarely traded. Meanwhile the company has done a revaluation of assets. As per the fresh valuation, the asset is now valued at Rs 800 crore up from Rs 35 crore. The asset value increased primarily due to increase in land prices. Jessop has possession of over 73 acres in Kolkata and 115 acres in Durgapur.

BSNL Board Meets To Review GSM Tender

New Delhi: The BSNL board will not to go for a re-bid for its 45.5-million cellular line but work around the existing tender. The board, which met on July 16, to discuss the controversial contract, will submit its proposal to the Communications and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, on July 16, who will take the final decision. The tender unlikely to be scrapped, which could mean that Motorola and ZTE may find it difficult to re-bid for the contract. Mr Raja had urged BSNL to review the contract on the grounds that the price offered by the lowest bidder, Ericsson, was on the higher side. The Minister had advised that BSNL should reduce the number of third-generation cellular lines in the contract in order to bring down overall costs. Mr Raja had also asked clarification as to why BSNL disqualified Motorola from bidding for the project.

ICICI Prudential Life Mulls Healthcare In UP

Lucknow: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, in a bid to attract the potential in healthcare sector, has joined hands with private hospitals and nursing homes of Uttar Pradesh. The Company at present has joined hands with about 60 hospitals and nursing homes in the state to offer its hospital care plan. This will cover major cities like Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi and Agra. Hospital care is structured to ensure that customers get a pre determined insurance amount for each procedure or hospitalisation, ranging from room charges, doctor and surgery fees and other incidental expenses.

MTNL Gets Rs 1,461 Crore I-T refund

Mumbai: The NYSE-listed Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has got a refund of Rs 1,461.68 crore from the income tax (I-T) department, following the settlement of a decade-old litigation. Further, the state-owned telecom major is also hoping to get another Rs 2,000 crore as refund from the I-T department. The refund is in pursuant to an order from the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), which ruled in favour of MTNL''s arguments that its licence fee should be given a discount under the Section 80IA of the I-T Act. MTNL said that the appellate tribunal has accepted its views and granted it a deduction.

GEECL Starts CBM Production

Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL) plans to mop up Rs 300-350 crore ($83-88 million) loan finance from domestic and foreign sources to finish the first phase of development of Ranigunj CBM block. The company listed in the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange has earned the reputation of pioneering the commercial production of coal bed methane (CBM) in India from its Ranigunj block in West Bengal. They have already infused approximately Rs 175 crore through equity in drilling 23 production wells.

Ashok Leyland, Siemens VDO Signs Agreement To Set Up Joint Venture

Chennai: Ashok Leyland and Siemens VDO Automotive AG of Germany on July 16, inked an agreement to establish an equal joint venture. The joint venture would be a design, development and marketing company. It will design and develop a range of electronic components and software for vehicles. Manufacturing will be outsourced, although where possible Siemens VDO in India will be engaged in the production. The partners hoped the joint venture to reach a turnover of € 100 million (Rs 550 crore) in the fifth year of operations. Infotronics content is hoped to grow significantly in India following the introduction of BS III compliant vehicles with electronically controlled fuel injection. Ashok Leyland witnesses three areas of marketing Civilian applications, defence applications and production for the Siemens group worldwide. The joint venture with Siemens is the second that Ashok Leyland declared in two weeks. The first was with a Finnish company called Alteams, for production of high pressure die-cast aluminium components.

Aviva Life Mulls To Join Hands With Co-Op Banks

Aviva Life Insurance is planning to tie up with the cooperative banks in India to expand its reach besides augmenting its direct sales force significantly. Bankassurance has been one of its strongholds in India and we prefer to make cooperative banks a channel to reach the countryside in India.The company has done lot of homework and a fool-proof strategy is already in place for partnering with the rural banks. The UK-headquarted company has already tied up with the Basix Group for its micro insurance product. Currently, Aviva (which holds 26 per cent stake in the joint venture company with Dabur) has tie-ups with Centurion Bank of Punjab, ABN Amro, American Express Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank and IndusInd Bank, among others.

BSNL Factories Likely To Produce Hi-Tech Equipment

New Delhi: In a bid to renovate its manufacturing arm, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is mandating its telecom factories to move into production of equipment based on newer technologies comprising broadband modem and SIM cards for mobile phones. BSNL has seven telecom factories, which at present manufacture equipment such as coin box telephone for Public Call Offices and optic fibre cable accessories used by fixed line operators. BSNL is also exploring the option of foraying into a joint venture for manufacturing CDMA based fixed wireless terminals. Indian Telephone Industries, for example, has ventured into GSM equipment and is now looking to entry into production of CDMA and Wi-Max technologies.

Tata Metaliks Iron Pipe Project Likely To Start Production By 2009

Kolkata: Production from Tata Metaliks ductile iron pipe project being established at Kharagpur in joint venture with Kubota and Metal One of Japan is hoped to start by early 2009. The 1,10,000 tonnes per annum facility is being set up at an estimated investment of Rs 150 crore. While Tata Metaliks will hold 51 per cent of the equity stake in the joint venture, the overseas partners will hold the balance. The joint venture will be called Tata Metaliks Kubota Ductile Iron Pipes. The DI pipes manufactured by the company would be marketed in India under the Tata Kubota Pipes brand even as pipes sold in the export markets would be under the Kubota Pipes brand.

Nokia Sets Eye On Rural Market

Pune: The rural markets account for around 5 per cent of the national GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) handset sales. The figure is likely to increase to 25-30 per cent, adding around 100 million new cellular subscribers by 2009. The statistics are significant for vendors such as Nokia, LG and Motorola, who are engaged in major brand-building initiatives across villages via touch-and-feel experiences. Under the initiatives, the handset firms will introduce low-priced entry-level handsets and make them available in mandis, haats and rural retail chains. Nokia, for instance, has already announced localisation measures, which include developing strong regional content capabilities. Mobiles have the potential to increase a family''s savings by reducing the rural consumers unnecessary travel expenses for procurement of raw materials. Nokia has declared a partnership with Malayala Manoroma and launched a portal, where all the Nokia GPRS-enabled handsets users in Kerala will be able to get national and international news in their native language.

Mastek Acquires Insurance-Focused IT Company In USA

Mastek Ltd on July 16, 2007 has announced the acquisition of Vector Insurance Services LLC (Vector), a technology solutions provider and third party administrator that focuses on the North American life & annuity insurance industry. Under the terms of the agreement, the Companys wholly owned US subsidiary MajescoMastek will hold 90% equity stake in Vector. The consideration for this acquisition will be paid partly in cash and partly by way of future cash earn outs.

Vector provides policy acquisition, administration, and processing solutions to customers in the North American life insurance industry. Among its customers are two of Americas largest insurance carriers that have chosen Vector as their service provider of choice. The Company had revenues of USD4.2 million in its financial year ended December 31, 2006. The Company has 26 employees, with significant domain expertise in the insurance space. The Companys larger scale of operations and strong IP-led capabilities, combined with Vectors robust client track record and presence in the US insurance space, is expected to enable significant leverage across multiple points in the value chain. Following this transaction, Vector will operate as VectorMastek.

IndiaNivesh - Open Offer to the Shareholders of Luminaire Technologies

VC Corporate Advisors Pvt. Ltd., (Manager to the Offer) on behalf of M/s. IndiaNivesh Ltd (Acquirer) has issued this Public Announcement (PA) to the shareholders of Luminaire Technologies Ltd (Target Company), pursuant to Regulation 10 & 12 and as required under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares & Takeovers) Regulations, 1997 and subsequent amendments thereto (Regulations).The OfferThe Acquirer is now making this open offer to the shareholders of the Target Company (other than the parties to the Agreement) to acquire from them upto 80,49,000 fully paid-up Equity Shares of Re 1 /- each, representing 33.54 % of the fully paid-up equity and voting share capital at a price of Rs 1.10 per share (Offer Price) payable in cash (offer or Open Offer).Schedule of ActivitiesSpecified Date: August 03, 2007Date of Opening of the Offer: August 31, 2007Date of Closing of the Offer: September 19, 2007

KEC International wins Rs 130 Crore Project

KEC International Ltd has announced that the Company has bagged a contract valued at Rs 130.15 crore from Karnataka Power Transmission Company Ltd for design, fabrication, testing, supply, erection and commissioning of a 400 KV D/C Line. The length of the line is 151.15 kms. This is located in Karnataka.

The project, awarded on a turnkey basis, is to be completed in December 2008.

This is a significant win for us. Coming, as it does, immediately on the back of our largest single value contract worth Rs 380 crore in Kazakhstan and another Rs 176 crore win in the Middle East, is indeed special, said Mr. Ramesh Chandak, Managing Director, of the Company.

The Companys current order book is over Rs 3300 crore.

Nagreeka Exports - Conversion of Equity Warrants

Nagreeka Exports Ltd has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on June 30, 2007, has allotted 3,13,000 Equity Shares of Rs 5/- each to Mr. Sunil Patwari, Managing Director of the Company, following conversion of 3,13,000 Equity Shares Warrants.The Company has further informed that his total shareholding in the Company, after the above allotment, stands at 7,12,000 Equity shares, which constitute 5.69% of the total paid up capital of the company.

Indusind Bank opens its 15th Branch in Gujarat at Amalsad

Indusind Bank Ltd has announced that on July 13, 2007 the Bank has inaugurated its 15th branch in Gujarat at Amalsad. Shri Pujya Acharya Swami - Swaminarayan Mandir, Navsari (BAPS) was the Chief Guest.

Speaking at the inauguration, Shri. Bhaskar Ghose, MD & CEO of the Bank said, We hope to present a new face to banking in the flourishing agricultural town of Amalsad. Our endeavour will be to support the banking needs of co-operative societies and the NRI population in and around this town. With our emerging capabilities in rural financing and agricultural banking, Amalsad is an ideal location for the establishment of the newest branch of our Bank - our 15th the State of Gujarat.

Apart from Amalsad, the Bank has branches in Ahmedabad, Bardoli, Baroda (2 outlets), Bhavnagar, Dharmaj, Gandhidham, Jamnagar, Mehasana, Morbi, Rajkot, Surat, Valsad and Vapi.

Indusind Bank Opens Its First Offsite ATM in Hubli

Indusind Bank Ltd has announced that on July 13, 2007, the Company has inaugurated its first offsite ATM at Wali Complex, Koppikar Road in the city of Hubli. Shri. Haridas N Shetty, Chairman, Shri. Gajanan Urban Co-operative Credit Society Ltd. Hubli was the Chief Guest.Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Minakshi Bhattacharjee, Regional Head, Karnataka, of the Bank said, Indusind Bank today is one of the most preferred banks in the county with its fast growing and expanding network of branches. Considering the growing significance of electronic distribution channels of which ATMs form an integral part for all retail transactions, we are making available Multi Delivery Channels for better reach and convenience. The opening of the first off-site ATM in this region takes us a step further towards our objective of reaching out to all corners of the city. We already have our fill-fledged branch operating in the city, offering quality products and best services to its residents.

Biz School, ICICI Prudential Forge Alliance

Chennai: Chennai Business School (CBS) has forged alliance with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company to introduce a yearlong post graduate programme in Management and Insurance this academic year. The programme will be jointly developed by the two parties and students enrolling for the programme will be hired by ICICI Prudential after course completion. The institute will also offer new specialisations in IT, telecom and marketing streams starting this academic year, according to Ms Minnie Menon, Associate Dean and Director of the institute. Currently, CBS offers a yearlong post graduate management programme in three specialisations - human resources, marketing and communications and retail (offered through a tie up with Pantaloon Retail, now a Future Group company). CBS would set up institutes in Mumbai, Bangalore and Bhubhaneshwar and courses would commence from August. All the new institutes would offer the programme in Management and Insurance. Additionally, the institutes at Mumbai and Bangalore would offer the retail stream of specialisation to students. Other streams available at the Chennai institute would be introduced at these centres.

Colgate Eyes Unilever''s Personal Care

Unilever or at least a part of it is up for grabs and Colgate is targeting it, which has become a big buzz in all international markets. Sources say that Unilever may find it more lucrative to sell its units such as personal care where it is not the largest player. This could unlock maximum value. Though the going price for Unilever as a whole in the deal street is 18 pounds against the 16 pounds where the stock ended on Thursday.

Unilever''s dual structures currently being streamlined, is a reason for heavy costs. But this merger buzz surely foamed up the stock back home. Hindustan Unilever rose three per cent in the session. However, keeping aside these takeover talks, brokerages are turning negative on Hindustan Unilever. In India, Morgan Stanley on Thursday cut its forecast on HUL on concern that rising costs will limit increases in profit margins.

DLF Bags 112 Acre DCM Land In Delhi

DLF is not just sitting on its laurels after a firm listing earlier this month. In fact, the realty major is beginning to make good use of the proceeds from its IPO. So DLF has just bagged close to 112 acres of land in west Delhi for about Rs 1,750 crore from DCM Shriram, beating archrival Unitech. DLF outbid Unitech by Rs 150 crore, part of the cost will be funded by IPO proceeds. The only rider could be the Supreme Court order that may restrict its construction plans.

Apollo To Buy Huntsman For $6.5 Bln, Trumps Basell

Chemicals maker Huntsman Corp. said on Thursday it agreed to be bought for $6.5 billion by Apollo Management''s Hexion Specialty Chemicals, which trumped an earlier bid for the U.S. company by rival Basell. Huntsman''s board unanimously approved the $28 per share cash bid from Apollo, the private equity firm founded by Leon Black, after Basell said late on Wednesday it would not raise its earlier bid of $25.25 per share.

India Requires 2.3Mn People For IT Sector By 2010: Nasscom

Mangalore: The country requires 2.3 million people in IT (information technology) and ITES (IT enabled services) sectors by 2010, according Nasscom. At the valedictory of ‘Finishing School’ for engineering students, conducted by the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), in Mangalore, on July 12, it said that the country has been able to produce 1.6 million employable people for these sectors. The country will need 11 million people for IT and ITES sectors by 2020. These sectors require people with communication skills and problem-solving skills. The candidates who appeared for Finishing School will have an opportunity to do NAC-Tech (Nasscom Assessment of Competence-Tech) an employment benchmarking test followed by a job fair. The school was conducted for eight weeks during May and June this year, and 56 students appeared for the school.

Dena Bank Forges Alliance With Postal Department

Mumbai: Dena Bank has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Posts to extend credit in the rural areas. Under the scheme, postmen will market the bank''s loan products, process applications and recommend the same to bank branches. Dena Bank will implement this scheme in Maharashtra, where it has around 253 branches, comprising 22 per cent of total branch network.

ICICI Bank Selects Markit CDS Pricing To Improve Risk

Markit, the leading provider of independent data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing to the global financial markets, today announced that ICICI Bank, India''s second largest bank with assets of over USD 79 billion, has subscribed to its Credit Default Swap (CDS) pricing service.Under the terms of this agreement, ICICI Bank will receive Markit''s daily CDS pricing to assist in the bank''s management of credit risk, particularly in the complex arena of structured credit. Markit provides mark-to-market CDS pricing on around 3,300 CDS entity-tiers of debt drawn from daily price contributions from 85 dealing firms.

Dabur Foods Merges With Dabur India

The Burmans of Dabur are hungry to grow their food business. Dabur has merged its 100 per cent food subsidiary Dabur Foods with the parent Dabur India to explore synergies with the parent by using the health and wellness platform.

It would tap the production, distribution and marketing strength of Dabur India and of course give them financial strength to acquire bigger companies on the way.Currently, Dabur Foods is a Rs 300 crore company growing at a CAGR of 35 per cent. Its portfolio includes the juice brands Real, Real Active, Coolers and Twist, which alone contributes Rs 200 crore. Also culinary products like Homemade pastes, Lemoonez lemon juice and Capcico chilli sauce.It now wants to expand into three main categories and is targeting Rs 500 crore revenues by 2010. These include ready to cook, yogurts and energy drinks and is especially looking at the southern markets to grow the business further.

Megasoft To Buy US Firm For $65 Million

Hyderabad: Megasoft Ltd, telecom technology solutions provider, has completed a definite agreement to acquire US-based Boston Communications Group, Inc (BCGI) in an all cash deal valued at $65 million. The boards of both the companies have approved the deal. Megasoft will be filing a tender offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of BCGI at a price of $3.60 per share at a premium of 120 per cent over BCGI''s average closing at Nasdaq during the 30 days ended July 6, 2007.

IQMS Software Secures USD 1.5 M Order

IQMS Software Ltd has informed that the Company has bagged an order worth USD 1.5 M to be executed over a span of 12 months for implementing software development for office enterprise resource planning on-site jobs in Philippines.

With the procurement of the above order the Company is poised for showing a turnaround during the current financial year.

Commenting on the above, the Companys director P Ganesh Babu stated that with the above order, the Company got a break through after a long gap and this would definitely help us in strengthening the revenues of our Company.

ICICI''s Growth Signals Global Presence Not Far Off

India''s ICICI Bank will double its overseas business in the next three years but is not ready to become a truly global bank in the mould of HSBC or Citigroup, says the bank''s chief executive. Currently the bank is still small in comparison to the biggest international giants. The bank''s assets jumped 40% to US$79-billion in March, 2007, from US$56.3-billion a year earlier. But those figures still pale in comparison to Citigroup''s US$1,884-billion in assets.

Still, the bank has already quickly established itself on the global scene. ICICI opened representative offices in London and New York in 2002 and has since gained a foothold in 18 countries including the U.K, Russia, the U.S., China, Malaysia and Indonesia.In the past three years, the proportion of the bank''s assets arising from foreign operations has grown from almost nothing to 18%, or US$17-billion.The pace of growth has been quick but ICICI is not done on the global scene yet.

Wockhardt Hires ICICI To Arrange Loan To Buy France''s Negma

Wockhardt Ltd., an Indian drugmaker that makes copies of Amgen Inc.''s Epogen for anemia, hired ICICI Bank Ltd. to arrange a loan of 110 million euros ($150 million) to pay for the acquisition of France''s Negma Group. The seven-year loan has an interest margin of 175 basis points more than the Euro Libor or London interbank offered rate, ICICI Bank said in a release yesterday. The three-month Euro Libor rate was fixed at 4.2 percent yesterday. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Mumbai-based Wockhardt is expanding overseas as increased local competition and government price controls weigh on earnings. Negma is Wockhardt''s fifth acquisition in Europe and the largest at $265 million, according to the company''s May 16 statement. Wockhardt reported a profit of 663 million rupees ($16.4 million) in its first quarter, turning from a loss of 37 million rupees a year earlier. The Indian government controls prices of 74 bulk drugs, or active ingredients, and their finished products, to make them affordable in a country where about 35 percent of the population of more than 1.1 billion earns less than $1 a day.

HDFC Bank Kicks Of Earnings Season

HDFC bank has always been a steady bet when it comes to private banks and once again it has delivered what the markets are expecting. Q1 income stood at Rs 2,642 crore compared and profit after tax came to Rs 321 crore, almost exactly what the markets expected.But there weren''t any new buyers for the HDFC bank stock on Dalal Street on Tuesday. In fact the stock dropped sharply as soon as the results were announced, it closed Rs 20 down, the second biggest loser among Sensex stocks.

Shasun Inks Pact With Danish Firm

Chennai: Shasun Chemicals & Drugs Ltd has said that its wholly owned UK subsidiary Shasun Pharma Solutions Ltd has forayed into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with H Lundbeck A/S, a research-based Danish company engaged in finding new drugs for treatment of CNS (Central Nervous System) disorders. As per the agreement, Shasun Pharma grants H Lundbeck A/S the use of its proprietary cross-coupling technology (also known as Buchwald technology) to manufacture and comme rcialise new APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients).

United Rolls Out Three New Health Covers

Chennai: United India Insurance (UII), general insurance company, has unveiled three new health insurance policies, which would replace the existing mediclaim policy. The new policies Platinum, Gold and Senior Citizens was launched today and would be administered strictly through third party administrators. The entry age will be from 3 months to 35 years for the Platinum category, 36 years to 60 years for the Gold category, and 61 to 80 years for the Senior Citizens category. The minimum sum insured for all the three polices would be Rs 50,000 and can be increased in multiples of Rs 25,000. The maximum sum insured for Platinum, Gold and Senior citizens would be Rs 10 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.

HPCL Makes maiden Discovery Of Oil In Exploration Block in Cambay

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has announced that the exploration Block CB-ONN-2002/3 of about 285 Sq km of area was awarded to the consortium of GSPC (55%), Jubilant Oil & Gas Pvt Ltd (20%), Prize Petroleum Co. Ltd (15%) and Geo Global Resources (Barbados) Inc. (10%) under the IVth round of NELP by govt. of India MoPNG in the year 2004. PPCL has assigned its 15% Participation Interest (PI) to its promoter and parent Company HPCL.The exploratory location M#1 was drilled to fulfill the MWP in phase-I of the PSC. This well was drilled to a depth of 2479m, targeting the deeper prospects Deccan & Olpad formation and also test and evaluate the reservoir potential of Dholka & Kalol pays. Based on quick interpretation and drilling observations it was decided to carry out detailed testing to evaluate the reservoir potential in different formations.

ICICI Bank In The List Of Elite Global Club

ICICI Bank ranks around 82 in terms of market capitalisation (M-cap) among banks worldwide. ICICI Bank, of late, turned into a trillion rupee (one lakh crore) bank following its follow-on issue, is a minnow in terms of its global ranking. Once all the shares are issued, the increased equity base would give ICICI Bank a M-cap of around $25 billion at current prices. While this is much bigger than State Bank of India, it is one-tenth the size of Citibank - the largest bank globally. China''s largest bank, ICBC, too, is worth nearly 10 times as much as ICICI Bank, with a M-cap of $225 billion.

KPIT Cummins Mulls China Plans

KPIT Cummins management is ready to roll out its China plans but the company knows that it needs a solid local partner to crack into China. That is why the company is now looking to tie up with Symbio, a local Chinese company. KPIT is looking to leverage language & ERP skills of Symbio to cater to its global clients and serve Japanese clients as well.Symbio has an employee base of 500 and offices across China including Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian and Chengdu. Other players like Tech Mahindra and Patni have delayed China ventures. Experts say it is a market that no player can afford to miss.

Experts say going into the Chinese market with a local partner is a business model that will sustain in the long run, a model that TCS already follows with its partnership with Microsoft and Chinese government.Players on their own, even a stalwart like Infosys has not been able to scale up substantially in China. KPIT Cummins seem to have learnt its lesson in advance, finding a strategic partner in a market which is crucial to service its global clients.

JK Tyre To Spend 11 Bln Rupees To Expand Capacity

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. said it plans to invest 11 billion rupees in the next three years to expand capacity by 30 percent. Its present capacity stands at 9 million tyres per year. JK is eyeing 50 billion rupees in turnover by 2010, aided by this capacity expansion, the company said in a statement.

About 1.2 billion rupees will be invested in the coming months for increasing capacity by 50 percent in the off-the-road segment, including tyres for mining, cement and coal sectors.In the passenger radial segment, the company plans to invest about 2 billion rupees in expanding production through brownfield projects. JK plans to raise funds for the expansion through internal accruals and debt.

ICICI Prudential Opens Office In Dubai

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has set up a representative office in Dubai. This is ICICI Prudential''s second overseas office, after its first one in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The company hopes to service the vast Non-Resident Indian population in the Gulf. ICICI Prudential will offer a range of products including wealth creation, education insurance, retirement solutions and health solutions.

ICICI Bank All Set To Double Borrowing Limit

Mumbai: ICICI Bank is all set to double its borrowing limit to Rs 2,00,000 crore, largely to fund expansion of its international business. Additionally, the bank is proposing to seek an enabling authorisation from its shareholders to issue depository receipts (DRs) against preference shares, subject to legal and regulatory amendments. The bank''s borrowing limits linked to Tier-1 capital has increased following the just-concluded Rs 20,000 crore domestic and American Depository Receipts (ADR) issues. The bank''s net worth has increased to about Rs 44,500 crore from over Rs 24,300 crore as on March 31, 2007. In a notice to the shareholders for its thirteenth annual general meeting on July 21 in Vadodara, ICICI Bank explained that the bank would need to borrow more it has identified international business as one of the key growth drivers. The expected growth in its international banking group would entail higher funding requirement. The bank had last increased its borrowing limit on May 3, 2002 to Rs 1,03,550 crore from Rs 3,000 crore set on June 15, 1998.

ITC''s Cigarette Sales Likely To Fall

The cigarette sales volumes of diversified conglomerate ITC may come under pressure in the current financial year, owing to the bleak taxation and regulatory scenario for tobacco. The management discussion and analysis paper prepared by the company pointed out that the cigarette industry was in an extremely challenging environment. The combined impact of a 6 per cent rise in excise duty and imposition of 12.5 per cent ad valorem VAT was equivalent to a 33 per cent increase in excise tax incidence on cigarettes.

FIPB Likely To Consider ICICI Fin Foreign Stake This Week

The appeal of ICICI Bank for permission to sell equity in ICICI Financial Services to foreign investors is expected to be considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on July 13. The board will examine a letter submitted by ICICI explaining its case for clearing the proposal. The bank has already highlighted its arguments to representatives of the FIPB and the finance ministry since clearance for the proposal was not accorded. The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) has already indicated that it has no objection to the proposal. The insurance division in the finance ministry and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) have also said the proposal does not violate foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines for the insurance sector. Apart from submitting representations and meeting government officials to explain its case, the bank has also submitted legal opinion supporting FDI in ICICI Financial Services. Finance minister P Chidambaram, it is understood, is also in favour of FIPB looking at the ICICI Bank''s application afresh in the light of views expressed by DIPP and the insurance division of the finance ministry

LIC Ernakulam Division Sets Rs 955 Cr Premium Income Target

Ernakulam Division of LIC has set itself a target of Rs 955 crore first premium income through the sale of 6.2 lakh policies in 2007-08. According to the source, the Ernakulam Division has crossed 5 lakh policies for the first time in 2006-07 and was the only division to do so in the south zone States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The division showed 94.1 per cent growth in single premium at Rs 510.35 crore. Likewise, non-single premium grew 58.99 per cent at Rs 182.78 crore during the period.The major contribution (75.32 per cent) came from unit linked plans. The division sold over one lakh ULIP policies with premium collection of Rs 253.98 crore. The Ottappalam branch with 10,717 policies stood first for the number of policies and the Thrissur branch with Rs 20.31 crore stood first in first premium income.

Exim Bank Infusing In SEL Manufacturing

Mumbai: Exim Bank has made an equity investment of Rs 4.94 crore in SEL Manufacturing Company Ltd. SEL is mulling to tap the capital market in the third week of July with an initial public offering of 46.38-lakh equity shares. The bank has subscribed to 7,60,800 equity shares of Rs 10 each of SEL at Rs 65 per equity share, including a premium of Rs 55 per equity share. The equity stake accounts for 5 per cent of the fully diluted paid up capital of SEL after the IPO. A 100 per cent export oriented garment producer, SEL has manufacturing facilities at Ludhiana in Punjab and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. SEL has already raised Rs 103.79 crore via TUFs (technology upgradation fund). The consolidated total income of SEL has increased by 40.99 per cent to Rs 206.31 crore in FY07 from Rs 146.32 crore in FY06.

LIC Aims More Income From Traditional Products

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has set aim of increasing the share of new business premium from traditional products to generate resources for investments in longer-term infrastructure projects and government bonds. The public sector life insurer has framed a plan to increase the share of new business premium income from traditional insurance products to 35 per cent in 2007-08 from 20 per cent in 2006-07. The popularity of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) unexpectedly pushed up the growth of LIC''s new premium income to over 100 per cent in 2006-07. LIC''s requires for long-term funds cannot be met from Ulips, as individuals prefer to invest most of their funds in equities. The insurer also benefits because the risk premium is borne by the policyholder.

GVK Power Signs MoU With Govt Of Tamil Nadu To Set Up SEZ

GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd has informed that the Company has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Government of Tamil Nadu to jointly develop a multi product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Perambalur District. The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. M Karunanidhi, Chief Minister, by Mr. G V Krishna Reddy, CMD of the Company and Mr. S Ramasundaram, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO).The project is being implemented as a Joint Venture between TIDCO and the Company through a Special Purpose Vehicle. GVK Infratech Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

ONGC - MRPL To Supply Petroleum Products To Mauritius For 3 More Years

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has announced that the Companys subsidiary Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) will supply all petroleum requirements of Mauritius, for 3 more years. The one-year contract between MRPL and Mauritius State Trading Corporation (STC), signed in 2006, expires in July 2007. The new contract for 3 more years from August 2007 to July 2010, has been inked by MRPLs Managing Director Mr. R Rajamani and STCs General Manager Mr. R S Soomarooah at New Delhi on July 06, 2007, in the august presence of Indian Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Mr. Murli Deora, the Mauritian Minister of Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce and Cooperatives Dr. Rajesh Jeetah, High Commissioner of Mauritius in India Mr. M Choonee and CMD of the Company Mr. R S Sharma.In June 2006, for the first time, STC of Mauritius finalized import of its entire petroleum product (Gasoline, Diesel, Jet Fuel, and Furnace Oil) requirement for the country from MRPL, adding to around 1 million tonne. Based on satisfactory experience over the year, the import arrangement has been extended for a further period of 3 years.The products, imported by STC from MRPL, are sold to the local oil companies in Mauritius, viz. Shell (Mauritius), Total Mauritius Ltd, Caltex Oil (Mauritius) Ltd and IndianOil (Mauritius) Ltd.

Larsen To Launch $1 Bln Infrastructure Fund

India''s top engineering and construction firm, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T), said on July 5, it will launch a $1 billion infrastructure fund in one to two months.Various institutions around the world will invest in that fund...L&T will invest $50 million in that. The fund will work independently to promote various infrastructure projects in India, Chairman A.M. Naik said. Naik also said that L&T will form 3 wholly-owned units for power, shipbuilding and railways to tap growing business potential as Asia''s third-largest economy steps up investment on infrastructure projects to boost growth.

We are creating these separate companies so that we can attract the best talent to be the CEOs...It will take more than 5 years before these companies mature for an independent existence without L&T''s support. In the power business, Nayak said L&T had tied up with Japan''s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to make super-critical boilers in India

JSW Bullish On European Plans

Sajjan Jindal may not be taking the cue from Ratan Tata about mega leveraged buyouts but he''s surely going big on the European market. It plans to have service centres in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. JSW plans to invest $70-75 million for five service centres in Europe to cater to the automobile industry. Currently, only 1 MT out of total 4 MT steel at Jindal is value added products. But once the capacity at the group increases, JSW hopes valued added steel would be atleast 50 per cent of the revenues. And whats going to help is a technology that is a combination of blast furnace and corex technology to cut costs.

For the Jindal group, the ongoing capacity expansion will soon come on stream, particularly the cold mill and the hot strip expansion while the fresh crude steel capacity will come through by September. For now, even though prices may be seeing a slight correction, Indian steel companies seem to be banking on the long term, making sure that India''s cost advantage plays out well in the global market.

CIL Inks Areement With Transparency Intl

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to weed out possible corruption in future contracts for equipment procurement, Coal India Limited (CIL) has decided to foray into it labelled an Integrity Pact (IP) on July 9 with the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Transparency International. A special meeting would be held on that day between the IP signatories to prepare the road map for future procurement of equipment by CIL from different parties. Former Navy personnel will also be present as also the past chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) Subir Raha.

Raha was the first in the country to implement IP during his tenure as chairman of ONGC. IP was a tool developed during the 1990s by Transparency to help governments, businesses and civil society fight corruption in the field of public contracting. IP would set up mutual contractual rights and obligations to decrease the high cost of distortionary effects of corruption in public contracting. IP was being inked to prevent any possible corruption in future contracts.

BHEL In Negotiations To Purchase 10Pc In 2 State Power Projects

New Delhi: Power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals is in negotiations with Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra governments to establish power plants in a joint venture with state-owned utilities there. They are in negotiations to establish one project of two units of 800MW each in Tamil Nadu and two projects of 800 MW each in Maharashtra. BHEL proposes to buy around 10 per cent stake in the projects while the rest will be held by state utilities. In any power project, the debt-equity ratio is 70:30. They intend to take around 30 per cent of the 30 per cent equity portion, which comes to a share of around 10 per cent in the project. Supplying equipment in lieu of money ensured revenues and sustained market share for BHEL besides assuring completion of the project.

M&M Increases Stake In Punjab Tractors to 64.6Pc

Mumbai: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd has hiked its stake in Punjab Tractors to 64.6 per cent following the completion of an open offer to take over an additional 20 per cent in the company. M&M bought 12,151,140 shares of Punjab Tractors at Rs 360 per share and now holds 38,476,510 shares (63.3 per cent) in the company. The total valid shares tendered under the offer were 15,948,911 and the total shares accepted under the offer are 12,151,140 amounting to an acceptance ratio of 76.19 per cent. M&M had also proposed to buy a 20 per cent stake in Swaraj Engines. The companies along with Mahindra Holdings & Finance have managed to buy just 7,417 shares against the plan to purchase 2,483,964 shares. Therefore, post-offer M&M now owns 7,417 shares in Swaraj Engines or 0.06 per cent of the total paid-up equity capital of the company. The stock of Swaraj Engines fell 4.91 per cent to Rs 189.70, while Punjab Tractors declined 0.71 per cent to Rs 281.40.

Hackers lift the bonnet on iPhone

Hordes of hackers and security researchers have been poring over Apple''s iPhone in an effort to discover vulnerabilities in the handsets. Top of their list has been cracking the code that ties the phone to operator AT&T, the iPhone''s exclusive network.

If successful, it would allow iPhone owners the ability to use their handset on other networks, including in Europe.

Some have already worked out ways to activate the phone without having to register it with AT&T through iTunes.

One prominent hacker, Jon Lech Johansen, has published an activation tool on his website. Mr Johansen - better known as DVD Jon - rose to fame at the age of 15 when he wrote and distributed a program that cracked the encryption codes on DVDs. Although the new tool allows people to switch on the device and use many of its functions, it does not allow users to make phone calls.

Unitech unveils mega township project

As real estate giant DLF prepares to its debut on Dalal Street on July 4, its closest rival Unitech is ready to make a splash the same day with the launch of India''s largest residential township in Noida. The Unitech Grande will come up at an area that is spread over 340 acres on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. Last year, Unitech managed to outdo DLF when it bagged the land for Rs 1,583 crore, making it India''s largest land deal. Around three-years from now, Unitech completes its project and the residential township will have a 9-hole golf course and 80 highrise buildings with the tallest being 50 storeys high.

But what''s surprising is that at a time when most analysts are talking about a price correction in the real estate market. Unitech has gone ahead and launched the project at a 50 per cent premium over the going rate in this area. Unitech to launch Noida project at Rs 7,750/sq ft. Omaxe, and Eldeco are selling at Rs 5,000/sq ft. While three years back, going rate there was Rs 1,700/sq ft.

RIL, Rajesh Exports likely to enter JV

A new big deal may be around the corner as Reliance Industries is in talks with Rajesh Exports for a joint venture in jewellery retail.After buying out Oyzterbay, Rajesh Exports has been reworking its retail strategy and now just like competitor Gitanjali Gems, its on the expansion move. Even as the talks are in early stages, the joint venture plans to invest over Rs 4,000 crore with an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore. According to sources, Reliance will do the majority of investment and some of that will be raised by the joint venture as debt.In terms of the roll out of the real infrastructure, its not yet clear whether Rajesh Exports may use its current stores or will add a fresh chain named after Reliance.

Mastek Ranked Among the Top 50 Global Outsourcing Providers

Mastek Ltd on July 05, 2007 has announced that its been ranked in the top 50 global outsourcing providers in The Black Book of Outsourcing published by the Brown-Wilson Group.According to The Black Book of Outsourcing, the Company was rated number one by insurance vertical clients in large part for developing end-to-end mission critical solutions. This independent ranking of global outsourcing vendors is based on surveys of C-level executives and other outsourcing decision makers.Mr. Sudhakar Ram, CEO, Mastek group said on the occasion, I am delighted to receive this great honor on behalf of the Mastek family. This recognition is a manifestation of the success of our strategic focus on providing world class IT solutions to all our insurance clients. This ranking validates the steady growth and customer acceptance from top life and annuity global insurance Companies of the end-to-end solutions we are providing at Mastek. We are pleased to have received the highest rating in the insurance segment.

Tata Steel looks for limestone import from Vietnam

Kolkata: Tata Steel, which recently lost a bid to take over Vietnam''s Vinausteel and SSE Steel, is exploring the possibilities of importing limestone from that country for its steel plants. They are eyeing at the possibilities of importing quality limestone from Vietnam, which will help bring down the freight cost of the raw material as the country is close to India. Currently, Tata Steel imports limestone, which is used in the steel-making process, from West Asia. The company is also looking at taking over iron ore and coal mines overseas to feed its growing demand for raw materials to expand its steel-making capacity. Tata Steel has limestone mines in Madhya Pradesh.

L&T To Set Up 5 New Companies

Mumbai: In a major revamping exercise, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the country''s largest engineering conglomerate, is establishing at least five new companies. The verticalisation effort is targeted at ensuring better corporate governance as well as attracting talent to the 70-year-old company. L&T has also unveiled a global hunt for CEOs. These CEOs will be a part of the group corporate management committee but would not get a berth on the L&T board. The companies will operate in L&T''s new business areas of power projects, boilers, turbines, water and shipbuilding. The new structure will also open up opportunities for L&T insiders to move up the ladder. L&T has been facing a high attrition rate, forcing the company to go in for extensions to existing employees. L&T has a complex structure having 62 different areas of operation.

Temasek Has Option To Buy 5Pc In Bharti Airtel

Mumbai: Singapore-based Temasek Holdings has been given the option to take over 4.99 per cent in Bharti Airtel Ltd, India''s largest private telecom company. The stake, which is estimated at Rs 8,200 crore at the company''s current market capitalisation, will be sold by one of the group companies of Bharti Enterprises. Bharti earlier had an pact with Vodafone for an option to buy its 5.6 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for $1.6 billion (Rs 6,720 crore) within 18 months. Vodafone also holds a 4.4 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel indirectly, which it retains. Bharti Enterprises maintains a controlling interest of over 45 per cent in Bharti Airtel Limited through Bharti Telecom Limited. Temasek has been eyeing for investments in India''s telecom sector and has a 9.6 per cent stake in Tata TeleServices. SingTel has a 15.6 per cent direct stake in Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel tops the league table of telecom companies in terms of market capitalisation with a value of Rs 1,64,407 crore.

Moody''s Cuts Tata Power Rating To Ba3

Mumbai: Moody''s Investors Service has downgraded the corporate family rating of Tata Power Company (TPC) to Ba3 from Ba1, on account of TPC''s aggressive capital expenditure plan for its ultra mega-projects. Moody''s has also downgraded its senior unsecured bond rating to B1 from Ba2, and the ratings outlook is negative. The downgrade reflects TPC''s aggressive capital expenditure plan in coming years to more than triple generation capacity from 2,323 MW to over 7,500 MW. Such an aggressive plan will mop up materially the company''s overall business and financial risk profile. By end 2008-09, consolidated debt of TPC is hoped to be over two and half times that at the end of 2006-07 and this is before the bulk of capital expenditure for Mundra ultra mega power project is needed. TPC''s business profile would gradually shift from its core predictable earnings stream from its Mumbai business to a less certain return from its new power investments.