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May 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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RPL appoints lead managers for GDR issue New Delhi, May 21 The government today cleared 47 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 6,020 crore, including Reliance Petroleum’s Rs 5,000 crore Global Depository Receipt (GDR) issue for setting up petroleum refinery project.
Tehelka.com to sell shares
Business barons at CPM HQ |
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| Notification on new funds in June Chandigarh, May 21 Work is underway in Haryana for creating two funds which were proposed by the Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh in his Budget speech on March 12. The Sinking Fund and the State Economic Renewal Fund, would be both public account funds (meaning money set aside for the funds could only be used for specific purposes) and were expected to be notified sometime in June, official sources said. MTNL plans new
tariff packages Seminar on aviation on June 2 AI, IA selloff may result in 250 cr loss Allahabad Bank profit touches Rs 300 crore Hilton to open hotels in India
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RPL appoints lead managers for GDR issue Mumbai, May 21 “Both the investment banks have been appointed as lead managers. They will take care of the entire float, which will be offered in one or more tranches to strategic or financial investors,”
RPL sources said. RPL has already made a public announcement seeking participation of all its shareholders in the offer, on a pari passu basis, they said. “The lead managers will also determine the size, timing and pricing of the GDR offering”, sources added. There are two options on pricing for RPL shareholders—to indicate a minimum price, at which they would be willing to offer their equity shares as part of the GDR or to opt for the cut-off pricing, as determined by the investment bankers, they said. The shareholders would have to keep their tendered shares in an escrow account
up to March 2002, or till completion of all tranches, whichever was earlier. The private sector petroleum major would benefit by the proposed GDR by way of broadening its international investor base, enhance international profile and access new markets in the future in marketing, distribution, pipelines, storage, terminals among others, the sources informed. RPL’s promoter Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which holds approximately 64 per cent, has already expressed its desire to divest around 13 per cent of its equity in the company, again in appropriate tranches thus bringing down its stake to 51 per cent. The proposed transaction would help RIL and shareholders realise substantial capital gains, generate incremental cash resources which would be reinvested for future growth in oil and gas, infocom among others. The offering would also lower the cost of RIL’s balance shareholding in RPL and unlock value from RPL’s shareholding, without impacting management control in the 27 million tonne grassroot refinery, the sources said. “Based on RPL’s current market price of equity shares, the unrealised capital gains on RIL’s 64 per cent stake in the company was over Rs 11,000 crore”, they added.
PTI |
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47 FDI proposals cleared New Delhi, May 21 Among the other major proposals cleared by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is the Rs 823 crore HDFC Bank Ltd’s ADR/GDR issue for expansion of its banking operations. It major Moschip Semiconductor Technology’s Rs 30.8 crore proposal for manufacturing computer chips and semi-conductors has been approved. Besides, Rediff Communications has been allowed ADR linked stock option involving no fresh FDI. The government also cleared Rs 46 crore worth FDI proposal for 20 per cent equity stake in Mahindra Realty and Infrastructure Developers Ltd for infrastructure projects like roads, highways, bridges, airports, rail, bus and truck terminals. Besides, Malaysian company General Labels & Labeling (M) SDN BHD has been allowed to set up a wholly-owned venture for manufacturing pre-printed paper and film-based self-adhesive and security labels. ABB Holdings (South Asia) has been given the go-ahead to increase its equity stake in the investment holding company to 100 per cent from 51 per cent now; this involves FDI worth Rs 4.13 crore. Sona Investment has been allowed to bring in almost Rs 19 crore FDI for investment in shares/securities of auto components manufacturing bodies corporate.
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Tehelka.com to sell shares New Delhi, May 21 Earlier this month Tehelka launched an appeal for funds to pursue "public interest journalism", saying it was fighting for survival after its sensational sting operation. But it will now offer 20-25 per cent of its Rs700 million($14.9 million) equity to "friends and personal contacts", issuing one share for every Rs1,000 ($21.3) received. The shares will not be listed on any exchange. Two months ago Tehelka.com released secretly shot video which showed politicians, military officials and bureaucrats apparently accepting money from journalists posing as arms dealers. The scandal led to the resignation of the Defence Minister, the President of BJP and the leader of another party in his coalition government. Last year the maverick news service carried out a sting on cricket match-fixing that shook the game to its foundations. Tehelka Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal told Reuters he was hoping to raise at least Rs140 million, and possibly up to Rs 200 million, from "a whole slew of Indians around the world". In the advertisement for its fund appeal, the website said that its now-celebrated Tehelka Tapes had spawned letters, e-mails and phone calls of support from around the world. "But at the same time we have also had to face the brunt of an incensed government; and among other things we find our associates cornered, and our credit lines choked," it said. "In a way we find ourselves fighting for survival. As it is, we are a very small and independent media group, and our resources are limited and were in fact stretched to the limit with our last major story." The arms procurement story cost Tehelka Rs1.1 million, and Tejpal said with more money its journalists could have probed further into a web of bribery and influence-peddling. Tehelka.com is now 100 per cent owned by media firm Buffalo Networks Private Ltd. It will become Tehelka.com Ltd after its equity dilution, details of which are still being worked out.
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Business barons at CPM HQ Kolkata, May 21 The industrialists meeting at the party office — the first such meeting in the CPM history — was organised at the instance of the pragmatic Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, who had been publicly advocating the induction of private investments and NRIs in the state, contrary to their traditional allergic attitude towards the industrialists. CII Director General Tarun Das, the Chairman, CII, and vice-chairman, RPG group, Mr Sanjiv Goenka, and Bengal Ambuja’s Harsh Neutia, among others, were present at the Alimuddin Street’s meeting. They all welcomed the CPM’s new attempt at revitalising the industries in Bengal and hoped this would result in the quick and smooth industrialisation which would help solve the state’s present acute unemployment and various other problems. Mr Das said if a favourable situation prevailed, there was no reason why rapid industrialisation would not take place in Bengal. He assured Bhattacharyya and other CPM leaders that the CII would directly get involved in the state’s industrialisation. Both Goenka and Neutia also made a promise for large investment in Bengal. Mr Bhattacharyya said he would soon meet other industrialists step by step inviting them to come forward in the state’s industrialisation. He will also meet the trade unions separately to discuss how better labour-management relations, could be ensured in the industries. The new government under Mr Bhattacharyya’s chief ministership today assumed the office formally at Writers Building — though soon after the oath-taking on May 18, all the ministers went to Writers Building from Raj Bhavan and took over the charge. Mr Bhattacharyya met his cabinet colleagues and sought their help and co-operation in running the government in a better way. Mr Bhattacharyya also met the leaders of the co-ordination committee and sought their help. Mr Bhattacharyya said the first duty of his government was to bring back normal work culture in offices and speed up the works, pending for several years. “To remove poverty and
unemployment will be our priorities and for that matter, we will seek help and co-operation from all industrial houses”, Bhattacharyya told mediapersons, adding that for that matter, they would not even hesitate to change their basic policy towards
industrialisation.
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Notification on new funds in June Chandigarh, May 21 While the Sinking Fund is being created to meet sudden debt-servicing contingency in a given year, the State Economic Renewal Fund will be used for rationalisation of state government departments and agencies. The sources said that the volume of the Sinking Fund would be around Rs 40 crore which would be used for emergency re-payment of debts taken by the public sector enterprises (PSE) of the state government from financial institutions. The money for this fund would be mobilised from budgetary allocations as well as by charging 2 to 2.5 per cent guarantee fee from the PSEs. The total debt of the PSEs of Haryana Government was more than Rs 2,841 crore at the end of the last financial year, the sources said, adding that the debt had been guaranteed by the state government. Officials said that the need to create such a fund was felt in view of the stringent procedures lately being followed by financial institutions for recovering debts from PSEs. “Take for instance the IDBI, even if it agrees to restructure a loan due to political pressure, it will make sure that the state government does not get another loan till the last loan is settled”, said a senior government functionary. He pointed out that the situation may turn for the worse if a government comes to power in Delhi which is inimical to the regime in Haryana, and added that state government should be prepared for such contingencies. While stating that the state government was particularly worried about the loan of about Rs 1200 crore taken by the Power Utilities from various financial institutions, the sources said that under the Sinking Fund, the state government would try to collect Rs 200 crore over a period of five years, and in case this money was not needed for debt-servicing contingency, it would be used for repayment of central loans taken by the state government for various schemes and development projects. The sources said Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had already written a letter to the Union Government for allocation of a grant of Rs 100 crore for setting up the State Economic Renewal Fund. This fund would be used for giving severance package to employees if a particular government department or corporation was to be pruned for increasing its efficiency. If a department or a corporation was to be winded up and the dues of the employees was to be settled from this fund, the assets of the corporation or the department would be handed over to the Finance department which would sell these assets in the market to refurbish the fund, according to the guidelines being prepared for it, the sources said. The State Economic Renewal Fund (SERF) would also be used for hiring consultancy services for studying state government departments and agencies and suggesting how to go about rationalizing them to get maximum result. Apart from the writing to the central government for Rs 100 crore as grant, the Haryana Government was also planning to approach the former for giving matching grant, besides using the state government’s own budgetary allocation for building the (SERF). “We will also welcome participation by private parties for this fund”, the sources said. |
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MTNL plans new tariff packages New Delhi, May 21 “A variety of introductory tariff packages are on the anvil to meet individual customer requirements in the cellular market. We shall approach the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India soon with the proposal,” Narinder Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL, said. Asked about the new packages, Sharma said various combinations of rentals along with incentives were being worked out, but declined to give details saying MTNL would first seek TRAI’s approval on the matter. On the quality of network, Sharma said the corporation had fixed June 30 as deadline to complete the optimisation of the cellular network to take the private operators head-on, especially in terms of quality of services. UNI
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Seminar on aviation on June 2 Chandigarh, May 21 Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, will be the chief guest while Raja Narinder Singh, Punjab Minister for Civil Aviation, will preside over the seminar being hosted jointly by the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends (ITFT), the Tourism Department of the Chandigarh Administration and the Civil Aviation Department of the Punjab Government. Mrs Neeru Nanda, Adviser to the Administrator of UT, has been also been invited to the attend the seminar. Other issues to be discussed at the seminar include the possibility of starting chartered flights to Chandigarh to bring in special interest groups, to start direct flights from Mumbai to Chandigarh for the convenience of film and TV produces who are keen to do location shooting in J and K, HP, Punjab and Chandigarh, to upgrade Amritsar airport and to discuss participation of the private sector in airport infrastructure development and in starting air taxi services in northern states. According to Dr Gulshan Sharma, Director of ITFT, in the new millennium, airlines, travel and tourism, information technology, telecommunications, including conferences and events managements, will be the fastest growing areas capable of generating direct and indirect employment on a large scale besides making significant contribution to the economies of the nations. Today, the airlines industry is one of the most dynamic industries with a wide range of reach and scale of operations. With the information technology revolution now sweeping the globe, airlines industry is going through various changes, such as multi-tier agreements, dynamic management and integrated computerised control systems including introduction of ticketless
travel.
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AI, IA selloff may result in 250 cr loss Patna, May 21 Disinvestment of the two national air lines was likely to result in an estimated loss of Rs 250 crore during 2001-2002, Yadav told reporters. “Despite my personal objection to the Centre’s bid, it has already been decided to go ahead with disinvestment and I will have to stand by the government’s decision,” Yadav said. He, however, declined to specify any time-frame for completing the disinvestment process saying that these questions should be put to Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie. Yadav said keeping in view the Kandhar hijack, the crash in Patna and other constraints, Indian Airlines was likely to incur an estimated loss of Rs 250 crore during 2001-2002. Indian Airlines had incurred an accumulated loss of Rs 175 crore during 2000-2001. Indian Airlines’ traffic came down from 22,000 per week to 16,000 per week after Kandhar and crash in Patna. The situation was gradually changing and the traffic at present had increased to 23000 per week.
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Allahabad Bank profit touches Rs 300 crore Kolkata, May 21 Samal said the bank had earned a higher profit as compared to last year due to lowering of PLR which had a direct bearing on the advances. The bank had been able to earn a gross profit of Rs 46 crore through retail banking, which disburses various advances like consumer loans, personal loans and car loans. Out of the Rs 2,000 crore advances earmarked during the year, Samal said that Rs 800 crore would be pumped through the RBBs. Talking about the net NPA of the bank, Samal said that in the last year, the percentage figure was around 10 per cent, which is expected to be the same in the current year given the recessionary trends in the economy. Opens ATM Chandigarh: Mr R. J. Tewari, Deputy General Manager , North zone, Allahabad Bank, today inaugurated the first ATM at its fully computerised branch here in Sector 8 . Mr Deepak Narang, Assistant General Manager, Chandigarh, and Mr Vijay Chopra, AGM, Jalandhar, were also present. PTI, TNS
Hilton to open hotels in India New Delhi, May 21 “We are in advance stage of talks with some Indian companies for launching one hotel each in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai,” said Koos Klein, president of Hilton International. “We hope to sign the agreements within two to three months, and the first hotel is expected to start operations in 12 to 14 months,” he told reporters here. While refusing to disclose the investment Hilton has earmarked for the hotels, he said: “We will invest as much as required to set up world class hotels. It could range from $ 50 million to $ 500 million. We will increase our investment as our network grows.” Hilton Hotels would hold up to 26 per cent stake in the new ventures while the domestic partners would hold the majority stake, Klein said, adding the company would set up a total of 10 hotels in India over the next eight to 10 years. “We have realistic growth plans for India. We are looking at expanding our presence in the country through a mixture of business moves. It could be through equity participation, joint venture or lease facility,” he said. Hilton would open its first resort in the country on the outskirts of Bangalore tomorrow. The Hilton Golden Palms Resort and Spa, managed by Hilton International and developed by India’s movie and television serials producer Sanjay Khan, is a 150-room resort.
IANS |
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Aptech SBI MF Birla cement PNB rate Balco
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Enron sells stake in Dolphin project Matsushita, Hitachi to sign pact Pak positive on Indo-Iran pipeline McDonald’s allays fears of vegetarians |
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Eicher slips into red Blue Dart ties up with Franch Express No breach of takeover code Jindal to set up power plant Sony announces restructuring German Remedies to pay 70 pc Kochi Refineries net down 60 pc |
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