 |
||
|
||
| YES Bank to
raise $70 mn from pvt placement, QIP MUMBAI, Dec 25: Private lender YES Bank plans to raise USD 70 million within the next three months and is in talks with a few investors for share placement.. .........more BHEL in talks with US, European nuclear cos, may form JV NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Within days of the US clearing the way for supply of nuclear equipment to India, state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals .......more Indian pharma companies expand global footprint in 2006 NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Indian pharmaceutical companies' huge appetite to expand overseas through acquisitions, while being at loggerheads with the ......more ITC to invest Rs 1,540 cr by 2008 NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Diversified conglomerate ITC plans to invest Rs 1,540 crore in the next two years to expand production capacity for paperboards and specialty papers.......more |
|
GM India may bring back Opel marque
in niche segment NEW DELHI, Dec 25: General Motors India is pondering over bringing back its Opel brand in the niche segment of .......more Most stock, commodity markets close for Christmas NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Stock exchanges across the country and some major commodity markets remained closed today on account of Christmas. All . ......more UPA Govt's performance satisfactory: ASSOCHAM NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The performance of the ruling UPA Government at Centre under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is satisfactory both on the internal and external fronts, getting 6.5 marks out of 10.. ......more New Year to ring in higher car, bike prices NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Cars and bikes are set to become dearer from the New Year with most of the companies, including market leaders Maruti, Hyundai, .. .........more |
YES Bank to raise $70 mn from pvt placement, QIP MUMBAI, Dec 25: Private lender YES Bank plans to raise USD 70 million within the next three months and is in talks with a few investors for share placement. "We will adopt either the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) or private placement route for raising this capital," YES Bank Managing Director and CEO Rana Kapoor told PTI here today. This would be part of USD 150 million capital raising programme this fiscal. The bank is already negotiating with a few investors, Kapoor said, adding the plan was to issue around 10-12.5 million shares to these investors. "We are trying to negotiate a higher-than-market price from these investors," he said. Its aim is to rope-in marquee investors of the calibre of Swiss Re which recently took a 3.57 per cent stake in the bank for Rs 120-crore (USD 26.5-million). The bank had issued one crore shares as a part of this transaction. When asked whether there was a possibility of Swiss Re increasing its holding to five per cent, the maximum allowed under present banking regulations, Kapoor said: "It was up to them to decide. They are, anyway, free to buy our shares from the market." Rabobank presently holds 19.29 per cent stake in the bank, the highest foreign holding, followed by three private equity investors - CVC, ChrysCapital and AIF - who together hold around 18 per cent. Fidelity holds a further 4.5 per cent while HSBC and a US-based pension fund hold 2.45 per cent and 1.6 per cent stake respectively in the bank. (PTI) |
BHEL in talks with US, European nuclear cos, may form JV NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Within days of the US clearing the way for supply of nuclear equipment to India, state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd today said it is in talks with global players such as GE and Siemens and may invest up to Rs 500 crore to expand its nuclear production capacities. "We are talking with equipment suppliers like GE, Alstom, Areva and Siemens. Our primary objective is technology tie-up, but we are not averse to form a joint venture," BHEL Chairman and Managing Director Ashok K Puri told PTI in an interview. As things become clear over nuclear issues, more players have been approaching BHEL, he said, adding the "government is encouraging us to go for such technology tie-up." US President George W Bush had on December 18 signed the nuclear energy cooperation law that allows American companies to sell nuclear fuel and equipment to India. As such, BHEL is in the market for acquiring European and US companies to strengthen its technology base as part of its endeavour to go global and has estimated that it may require a total of 8,000-10,000 crore investment in the next few years. Asked to elaborate on the possible joint venture and investments, Puri said: "Joint venture will be only for assembling and testing... We shall leverage from our existing facilities... At this juncture I feel the investment involved to be at the most Rs 500 crore." BHEL, India's largest power equipment supplier, has set up about 80 per cent of the country's installed nuclear power generation capacity of about 3,300 MW. The company is now focusing on 700 MW and higher rating nuclear units. The company is currently supplying equipment of up to 540 MW capacity to Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for its projects, BHEL officials said. (PTI) |
Indian pharma companies expand global footprint in 2006 NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Indian pharmaceutical companies' huge appetite to expand overseas through acquisitions, while being at loggerheads with the government at home over price control marked the year gone by for the drugs industry. While as many as 18 firms, including biggies Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Labs, Nicholas Piramal and Jubilant Organosys, were busy shopping on foreign shores and spent a whopping 1.5 billion dollars (about Rs 6,900 crore), the government was working overtime to finalise the Pharmaceutical Policy, 2006. The controversial draft policy, even after incorporating suggestions from Sandhu Committee and Pranob Sen Committee, is yet to be finalised, but it managed to generate enough interest, so much so that it prompted Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to quip that his 'forgotten' ministry was suddenly 'rediscovered' by the media. The government, bound by UPA's Common Minimum Programme agenda to provide affordable medicines to the less privileged as well as Supreme Court's order of making essential medicines accessible to the poor, tried its best to impose price checks. The policy aimed at expanding National List of Essential Medicines to 354 drugs from the current 72, but the move was strongly resisted by the domestic industry. What followed was a series of inconclusive meetings, a new 14-member panel of government and industry officials chaired by Chemicals and Petrochemicals Secretary Satwant Reddy, which was mandated to bring an amicable solution. The Reddy Committee succeeded in bridging gaps on most provisions of the draft, including on setting up Drug Banks, a Rs 200 crore cancer fund and reviving state-run companies to manufacture anti-retroviral drugs. (PTI) |
ITC to invest Rs 1,540 cr by 2008 NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Diversified conglomerate ITC plans to invest Rs 1,540 crore in the next two years to expand production capacity for paperboards and specialty papers. "We are creating two centres of board manufacturing in Bhadrachalam and Coimbatore units. In Bhadrachalam (Andhra Pradesh), we will make an overall investment of Rs 1,100 crore by April 2008," ITC Paperboards and Specialty Division Chief Executive Pradeep Dhobale told PTI. The company would invest Rs 440 crore by October 2008 in a plant near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, he added. With the expansion, total paper production capacity at the Bhadrachalam plant would go up to four lakh tonnes per year by April 2008 from three lakh tonnes now, he said. He said the total Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp production would increase to 2.2 lakh tonnes annually by the last quarter of 2007, from the current one lakh tonnes. ECF pulp is a state-of-the-art fibre line which meets effluent norms set by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India and Pollution Control Boards and is based wholly on plantation wood introduced in 2002 by ITC. Pulp and paper industry is one of the 17 major polluting industries identified by the Central government. ITC has got clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for expansion of Bhadrachalam plant and was awaiting clearance for investment in Coimbatore plant, Dhobale added. (PTI) |
GM India may bring back Opel marque in niche segment NEW DELHI, Dec 25: General Motors India is pondering over bringing back its Opel brand in the niche segment of the domestic market, months after it slammed brakes on local manufacturing of products of the marque early this year. The company's thinking of re-launching the Opel brand in the Indian market comes in the wake of a possible revival of fortunes of German technology here with the entry of the likes of BMW and Volkswagen. "There is a possibility of re-introducing the Opel badge in the niche segment," a company source said. GM, which had shifted its focus to the Chevrolet brand after the global acquisition of erstwhile Daewoo, has found the latter's technology not only cost-efficient but much more suitable to the Indian market. "If and when the company brings back any Opel badge, it would definitely be not in the lower end of the market," the source added. Earlier this year, General Motors India had announced stopping of local production of the mid-sized sedan Corsa, the last of the Opel badge to be produced in India. GMI had struggled nearly a decade to make a cut in the Indian market with 'Astra', 'Corsa', 'Sail' and 'Vectra' from the Opel stable. However, General Motors India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba insisted that the company has no plans to bring the Opel brand back in India right now, despite the company announcing an ambitious target of selling two lakh vehicles annually by 2010. "We are looking at the total sales coming from the Chevrolet brand only," Chaba said. (PTI) |
Most stock, commodity markets close for Christmas NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Stock exchanges across the country and some major commodity markets remained closed today on account of Christmas. All wholesale commodity markets, including bullion, oils, grains, pulses, kirana, steel, metal and chemicals, were shut in the national capital. In Mumbai, select markets, including the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange, Foreign Exchange, Money Market, Oilseeds, Cotton and Grains, remained closed. However, bullion market in Kolkata as well as Mumbai were open during the day. In Hyderabad, traders in major markets such as oilseeds, bullion, commodities, vegetables and Hyderabad Stock Exchange, did not operate, while in Chennai also Madras Stock Exchange, oil and seeds and foodgrains markets kept their shutters down for the festival. (PTI) |
UPA Govt's performance satisfactory: ASSOCHAM NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The performance of the ruling UPA Government at Centre under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is satisfactory both on the internal and external fronts, getting 6.5 marks out of 10. In a survey conducted by industry body ASSOCHAM, based on a random opinion poll consisting of about 300 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Managing Directors (MDs) of large, medium and small size industries, Dr Singh led Government got 6.5 marks out of 10. The survey said 65 per cent of the CEOs and MDs voted in favour of the Govenment, keeping in mind the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to over eight per cent, maintaining export buoyancy by over 50 per cent and taking savings rate to 31 per cent and containing inflation a little over 5.3 per cent. While, 35 per cent of the CEOs and MDs have rated the current Government's performance an average. However, 85 per cent of CEOs said Dr Singh did all humanly possible during the year on almost all front under coercion of coalition politics and particularly in maintaining an excellent foreign policy with equally balanced approach towards economies of scale and those of developing countries. It said 55 per cent of CEOs and MDs have hailed the leadership of Dr Singh in handling the nuclear issue with United States of America without any offensive and belligerent approach to some of its nuclear partners. Resurgence in the global economy will help India touch a figure of 125 billion dollar in exports by end of current fiscal, while the widening trade deficit will be contained provided fiscal reforms and reforms in financial sectors are introduced with aggressive speed, it said. "Improvement in the investment climate, particularly in the infrastructure sector, both in the rural and urban areas captured attention of the CEOs surveyed by the body," ASSOCHAM president Anil K Agarwal said. It said 80 per cent of the CEOs complimented the UPA Government for taking the sensex to all time high heights of 14,000 marks, as the capital market maintained almost a steady pace during the whole year 2006, barring an exception of few weeks. As many as 90 per cent of the industry leaders agreed that the buoyancy in the steel, cement, banking, metals, construction material is a result of the boost given to the infrastructure and housing sectors apart from a global firmness in prices. The survey said corporate firms in most of the sectors, be it steel, cement, fast moving consumer goods, real estate, manufacturing, retailing, banking, infrastructure finance, hospitality or aviation have remained beneficiaries of the booming conditions in the demand-driven markets. With big time investments taking off in the construction of roads, bridges, ports and railway, many of the infrastructure companies like Larsen and Toubro and Hindustan Construction have been re-rated among the investment bankers and the stock market. (UNI) |
 |
New Year to ring in higher car, bike prices NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Cars and bikes are set to become dearer from the New Year with most of the companies, including market leaders Maruti, Hyundai, Hero Honda and Bajaj, saying they will raise prices to offset higher input costs. With an eye on nursing bruised margins and also push up sluggish December sales, most of the companies have announced increasing prices from January. Maruti, the country's biggest carmaker, has already informed its dealers that it will raise prices across the model range by up to Rs 12,000 from next month. The company, which had last raised prices in August this year due to increase in freight and input costs, has decided to go in for another revision. However, it has not disclosed the exact quantum of price increase each model will attract. On the other hand, Hyundai India has also cited similar reasons for its decision. "The margins have been under pressure and, thus, we have decided to go in for a price revision from New Year," Vice-President Arvind Saxena said. The company will be raising prices by around two per cent across models, including the flagship 'Santro'. Japanese car major Honda will also be raising prices of its models like 'City', 'Civic' and 'Accord' by 1.5-2 per cent. Other carmakers like Toyota and Skoda have also indicated they will be increasing prices from January. On the two-wheeler side, both market leaders Hero Honda and Bajaj have said they will be increasing prices in a range of Rs 500-1,000 from the New Year. Bajaj has said it will raise the prices of all its bikes, except the 'Pulsar' model, by up to Rs 500. On the other hand, Hero Honda, which has seen margins bleed due to competitive pressures and increased production costs, will hike prices by up to Rs 1,000 from January 2007. "We will be raising prices by up to Rs 1,000 across various models," Hero Honda Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Anil Dua said. He, however, added that the exact quantum of hike on various models would be known only in January. (PTI) |
Indian Bank unlikely to change interest rates. NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Indian Bank is unlikely to tinker with lending rates and will improve efficiency to protect the margins due to increase in cost of funds. "I don't see any change in interest rates," Indian Bank Chairman K C Chakrabarty said responding to a question if the bank has any plans to raise lending rates. The bank had recently raised deposit rates making them competitive when compared to other banks, he said. Many banks like ICICI, HDFC, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Centurion Bank of Punjab had increased both deposit and lending rates last week after RBI's decision to hike Cash Reserve Ratio, the percentage of deposits banks park with the central bank, by 0.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Most of the banks were under liquidity pressure as the CRR hike means they would keep additional reserves without any return, while the demand for credit is at its peak and deposit rates have moved up. "Margins are under pressure because of competition. We are increasing efficiency to maintain margins," Chakrabarty said. Rise in interest rates for deposits need not be passed to customers (borrowers), he added. Repo rate, the rate at which RBI lends to banks, hiked in October and the CRR increase in December were signals from the central bank for financial stability to which market players should respond, he said. Indian Bank has improved its net interest margin to 3.59 per cent as on September 2006 from 3.49 per cent a year ago. It would set aside an additional Rs 200 crore to maintain CRR at 5.5 per cent, for which it would not get interest income. (PTI) |
Finance Ministry defends TRP scheme in Delhi High Court.. NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The Finance Ministry has defended its pet project to train educated youths as Tax Return Preparers (TRP), saying it did not infringe on the rights of the Chartered Accountants or other tax professionals. The TRP scheme has been introduced only with a view to help in preparing and filing returns of small and marginal individuals and HUF tax-payers for more tax compliance, as per the affidavit filed by the Ministry in Delhi High Court. This was stated in reply to a PIL challenging the scheme introduced by the ministry to assist tax-payers in filing their returns. The petitioner, a Chartered Accountant, had sought directions from the court to the ministry to stop the scheme. The Delhi High Court, on November 20, had issued notices to Finance Ministry and Director General of Income Tax. The affidavit submitted that the scheme was as per the provisions of Section 139B of Income Tax Act. There was no challenge to this Section and no public interest was involved, it said and argued that the PIL should be rejected. The ministry's document said that none of the statutory functions of Chartered Accountants have been affected with the launch of the TRP scheme as preparing and filing of IT return was not a statutory function of CAs alone. Section 139(1) of the IT Act casts a liability or onus on an assessee to prepare and furnish IT return by himself or he can get it prepared and filed through any other person, including a professional like CA, advocate or IT practitioner. Therefore, the assertion that only CAs were authorised to prepare and file IT returns was incorrect, it said. The affidavit, further, said a committee appointed by CBDT had submitted that 80 lakh tax payers stopped filing returns and many more may not file their returns. Hence, a simpler mechanism needed to be evolved which could help these individuals to file returns, it said. As per the scheme, those who have done graduation in commerce, law, economics, mathematics and statistics will be trained as Tax Return Preparers by the I-T department in collaboration with NIIT in a nine-day training programme. About 5,000 TRPs were to be trained on a pilot basis from this financial year at 100 centres across 80 cities. Earlier, the petitioner had contended that the scheme encroached on the jurisdiction of Chartered Accountants, and claimed they alone were eligible to prepare tax returns. The TRP scheme envisaged a mere nine-day training to graduates, who would practice as CAs in filing returns with the Income Tax Department, thereby giving a go-by to the canon and law in its true spirit, the petitioner had argued. Terming the very scheme contrary to the provisions of Chartered Accountants Act, the petitioner had contended that its implementation would render CAs jobless. (PTI) After Nokia, Saregama in talks with Motorola, Sony Ericsson. NEW DELHI, Dec 25: After its tie-up with Nokia, RPG group entertainment firm, Saregama India, has initiated talks with other mobile handset manufacturers such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson to market its music tracks. "The Nokia N Series phones come pre-loaded with songs from our albums and now we are holding talks with other cellphone manufacturers for similar agreements," Saregama Managing Director Subroto Chattopadhyay told PTI here. The company, which expects profits to nearly double this fiscal from Rs 8.87 crore in 2005-06, has initiated a series of measures, including digitizing its content. Its collection comprises over 3,00,000 tracks spanning all languages and genres and from the greatest artists of the past 100 years. "We are talking to Motorola for pre-loading of songs from our collection on some of their phone models. Also, Sony Ericsson is on our radius for a similar tie-up," he said. The boom in FM radio and telecom industry has also seen the company re-work its marketing and distribution network. "In radio, we have 36-38 per cent share in content and now we are also looking at how to improve the marketing and distribution of our content," he said. Saregama, popular for its HMV brand, is also looking to exploit the potential with cellular operators by selling music tracks which could be used as ring tones, ring-back tones, background music and SMS. The company is also strengthening its interactive e-portal for attracting more music lovers. Saregama's music is marketed in overseas markets through two subsidiaries, RPG Global Music and Saregama Plc. Saregama Plc focuses on the UK, USA, Europe, Canada, the Caribbeans and South Africa, while RPG Global looks at Middle East, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. (PTI) |
JP Group to carry out Taj Expressway project AGRA, Dec 25: The Rs 1,200 crore Taj Express Way -- an ambitious project for connecting Greater Noida and Agra with state-of-the-art highway, would be completed in four to six years. The project, which was under controversy for various reasons, has been cleared and the Jai Prakash (JP) Group would carry out the work. JP Group Executive Vice President Sushil Joshi here today said the task of setting up the 162 Km Taj Express way was handed over to the JP Group after the investigation commission passed the project. "The State Government would allot land for the project which is self-financing and it would be completed within 4 to 6 years," Mr Joshi informed. He said the five to eight-lane highway would be connected with five Satellite townships to be developed alongside the expressway. (UNI) |
|
