Bangladesh urges India not to block rice export

Indian IT firms going global, even in boardrooms

BG keen to take stake in ONGC oil and gas blocks...

SBI slashes lending rate by 0.25 pc..

BoI likely to buy foreign bank by May

MUMBAI, Feb 11: State-owned Bank of India may acquire a mid-sized foreign bank in the next 2-3 months, as a part of strategy to increase its global footprint, a senior bank official said.

"We are mulling the acquisition of a mid-sized bank overseas. This is likely to take place in next 2-3 months," the official said.

BoI recently completed a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) of Rs 1,360 crore, in which it issued 3.78 crore shares at a price of Rs 360 per share.

With the QIP, the government's holding in the bank will come down to 64.47 per cent from the earlier 69.47 per cent.

BoI currently has 25 foreign branches in 13 countries, and plans to grow bigger in the global market through the acquisition, the official said.

"We are considering all geographies to identify the right target," the official said.

The bank is also scouting for a partner for its proposed mutual funds business. BoI will appoint a consultant in the next one month. "We are likely to select our partner by mid-this year," the official said.

With a total networth of Rs 8,116 crore and a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 13.85 per cent, BoI is amongst the leading players in the country's banking sector.

The bank has also tied-up with another public-sector giant Union Bank of India (UBI) and Japanese firm Dai-Ichi for its proposed insurance venture in India, in which BoI holds a 51 per cent stake.

"We expect this (insurance JV) to be operational in another three months. A new office will be set up for the venture and is set to operate from Mumbai," the official said. (PTI)

Bangladesh urges India not to block rice export

DHAKA, Feb 11: Dhaka has urged India not to block the export of rice under the letters of credit already opened by Bangladeshi traders, although New Delhi has since enforced an export restriction.

"I have already talked with the foreign adviser (Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury) to look into the matter," Food and Disaster Management Adviser AMM Shawkat Ali said as rice import from India remained suspended for the second day yesterday.

Ali said he has written a letter to the foreign ministry, asking it to persuade the Indian authority to help execute the already opened L/Cs.

Officials said several meetings between the Indian exporters and customs officials at the Petrapole land port, failed to yield any result regarding export to Bangladesh.

"India has imposed restrictions on rice export through private sector. We have no scope for doing anything in this regard," Ali told reporters here adding that even Indian exporters had reacted to the ban.

He, however, said that the restrictions would not hamper the import of 5 lakh tons of rice from India which was earlier pledged by the Indian Government.

The Indian High Commission in Dhaka has said the restriction is "applicable to all countries and is not specific to Bangladesh", but the February 7 notification will not affect procurement of the 5 lakh tons of rice by Bangladesh Government and the process of the procurement is underway.

Ali said the interim Government already issued work orders for the import of 2.1 lakh more tons of rice in an alternative way to keep the market stable.

But analysts and officials feared that the halt in rice import from India following the February 7 notification could further lead to an increase in rise prices. (PTI)

Indian IT firms going global, even in boardrooms

NEW DELHI, Feb 11: It’s not just the business where Indian IT companies are expanding to the global shores, even their boardrooms are getting an international flavour.

A dozen of Indian IT firms, including giants like Infosys, TCS and HCL Technologies, have a minimum one foreigner sitting on their boards, according to an analysis of their board of directors compositions.

Other major firms in IT space with non-resident Indians as their directors include Mahindra group’s Tech Mahindra, Patni Computer, iGate, iFlex, Mphasis and Moser Baer.

Besides, BPO majors Genpact, WNS and EXL Service also have one or more foreigners as their board members.

According to industry experts, having people with significant experience in the global markets, even if as independent directors, helps a company establish a global brand value and it becomes more relevant for IT companies whose most of the revenue come from overseas markets.

A number of these companies, although having most of their operations in India, are also listed in the US. Such companies include Infosys, Patni, Genpact, WNS and EXL.

"Infosys is a truly global Indian company.....We became the first company to get listed on the Nasdaq in 2006," Infosys co-Chairman and founding member Nandan Nilekani said on the sidelines of a conference here.

According to Infosys, its board consists of senior officers of the company, as well as external members who are "global leaders with high achievements in business and society."

"Infosys board brings together a team of technology, business and social visionaries who provide direction to Infosys’ executive management in a dynamic economic and business environment," the company says on its website.

Infosys’ board consists of Claude Smadja, David Boyles and Jeffrey Lehman along with its founding members-NR Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, TV Mohandas Pai and S Gopalakrishnan.

While Jeffrey S Lehman is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Claude Smadja is the President of Smadja and Associates, a strategic advisory.

Commenting on this trend, Alan Rosling, Executive Director at the country’s leading corporate house Tata group’s holding company Tata Sons, said, "The Indians firms are now becoming truly global. They not only have non-Indian employees working for them but also representation on their board from non-Indians."

The group’s IT arm and the country’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) has three non-Indians-Prof Clayton M Christensen, Laura Cha and Ron Sommer as its independent Directors on board out of total 12 members.

Christensen is a Director at Harvard Business School, while Sommer is the Director Member of International Advisory Board of Blackstone Group. Laura Cha is a member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Non-Executive Chairman of HSBC Investment Asia Holdings Ltd.

Besides, the country’s fifth largest software exporter HCL technologies also has one non-Indian Robin Abrams, formerly COO of e-commerce solutions provider Chemdex, on its board.

However, some of the leading IT firms such as Wipro, Satyam and NIIT Tech have no representation from non-Indians, though these companies also have considerable operations in various parts of the globe. (PTI)

BG keen to take stake in ONGC oil and gas blocks...

NEW DELHI, Feb 11: BG Group of the UK is keen on picking 25-30 per cent stake in state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp’s (ONGC) Krishna Godavari and Mahanadi basin deepsea oil and gas exploration blocks off the east coast.

BG has expressed interest to take 30 per cent interest in KG basin Block KG-DWN-98/4, which ONGC had won in the first round of auction under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and 25 per cent in Mahanadi basin Block MN-DWN-2002/2 that the state-run firm had won in NELP-IV.

"We have approached the Government for approval of the farm-in," a company official said.

If the deal happens, cost of exploration and production would be shared between ONGC and BG in the ratio of their participating interest, while BG would also share the past exploration cost incurred by ONGC in proportion to its shareholding.

For Block KG-DWN-98/4 that sits next to Reliance Industries’ gas rich KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block, BG would bear ONGC’s share of forward exploration expenditure to the extent of 15 million dollars.

Past exploration costs for Block KG-DWN-98/4 would be paid by BG on declaration of commerciality while the same for Block MN-DWN-2002/2 would be paid on approval of stake buy by the Government, the official said.

Besides, discovery bonus at a rate of one dollar per barrel of oil in case of oil find and 0.50 dollars per barrel of oil equivalent for gas discovery would be paid by BG on its share of recoverable reserves on commencement of commercial production.

Previously, BG had wanted to farm-into ONGC’s three pre-NELP blocks but the proposal was turned down by the Petroleum Ministry. (PTI)

SBI slashes lending rate by 0.25 pc..

MUMBAI, Feb 11: Country’s largest lender State Bank of India today slashed Prime Lending Rate by 0.25 per cent to 12.50 per cent, a decision that will make housing and car loans cheaper.

"Benchmark Prime Lending Rate is revised downward by 0.25 per cent from 12.75 per cent to 12.50 per cent with effect from February 16," SBI said in a communication to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The reduction in PLR is likely to moderate lending rates for all category of borrowers, including housing (floating rate), corporate, car loan etc. The decision follows the up to one per cent cut in housing and consumer loan rates announced by Canara Bank and Allahabad Bank.

Housing finance company HDFC and PNB Housing Finance too had reduced interest rate on housing loan. While HDFC reduced its RPLR by 0.25 per cent effective February 1, PNB Housing Finance slashed the rates by 0.5 per cent.

RBI Governor Y V Reddy, while announcing the quarterly monetary policy review on January 29, had asked bankers to explore the possibility of reducing interest rates in the light of high net interest margin.

Even Finance Minister P Chidambaram, after meeting bankers on January 4, had underlined the need to cut deposit and lending rates by half a per cent to spur investment and consumption so that the economy can be sustained on a high growth path.

"I would like, I can’t wish this, that banks cut lending and deposit rates by 50 basis points so that it stimulates investment and consumption," he had said.

Chidambaram is again meeting heads of public sector banks tomorrow in the national capital for a review of the banking sector. (PTI)