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| Friday, September 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Hiten Dalal gets 3 years’ RI
SEBI moots 6-point action plan to check manipulation
Open offer for Digital hinges on deal |
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Outstanding in HFCL scrip cause of crisis Invest in cellos to save Rs 50,000
cr
89 industrialists get
awards Maruti to launch VRS this
month UTI to unveil 4
schemes
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Hiten Dalal gets 3 years’ RI
Mumbai, September 6 Co-accused and former funds manager of CBMF, T. Ravi, was however, acquitted by the court which gave him the benefit of doubt. The verdict was delivered by Justice Sarosh Kapadia who stayed his order until October 8 to enable the accused to move the Supreme Court in appeal. Acharya and Dalal were fined Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs 1.10 lakh respectively on various counts. Dalal got three years’ RI for four offences under IPC, namely conspiracy (Section 120-B), criminal breach of trust (Section 409), falsification of accounts (Section 477-A) and dishonestly receiving stolen property (Section 411). Acharya was also awarded the same quantum of punishment for each of these offences. In addition, he was sentenced to three years’ RI under Section 13(1) (d) read with 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). However, Dalal and Acharya would have to serve three years RI in jail because all the sentences would run concurrently. Dalal is undergoing one year jail term in another case. He was brought to the court today from Central prison to hear the verdict. This is his third conviction in cases relating to the multi-crore securities scam. According to CBI, Dalal conspired with Acharya and Ravi in 1991-92 to obtain pecuniary advantage for himself by causing wrongful loss to CBMF. On March 9, 1992, he wrote a letter to CBMF claiming brokerage on investment of Rs 65 crore in CANCIGO although he was not entitled to such commission. Acharya sanctioned the commission by endorsing the letter and referred the matter to Ravi who prepared a cheque of Rs 32.5 lakh and deposited in the account of Dalal in Andhra Bank on March 11, 1992, CBI prosecutors V.C. Gupte and Raja Thakre told the court. It was the case of the prosecution that Dalal had not acted as a broker in the investment of Rs 65 crore in CANCIGO and as such was not entitled to brokerage of Rs 32.5 lakh. CBI submitted that Rs 65 crore investment was made in the names of Andhra Bank (Rs 11 crore), Andhra Bank Financial Services Ltd (Rs 22 crore), IDBI (Rs 10 crore) and Sahara ISICL (Rs 22 crore). CBI alleged that investments of Rs 11 crore and Rs 22 crore in Andhra Bank and Andhra Bank Financial Services Ltd respectively was in fact the investment of Dalal himself as the money was paid by debiting his own account.
PTI
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SEBI moots 6-point action plan to check manipulation New Delhi, September 6 In a voluminous report spread over 1500 pages and four parts, the SEBI said “brokers received large finances from banks and corporates and used it for stock market operations”. The comprehensive investigation, undertaken in the aftermath of the stock market crash early this year, SEBI examined 15 highly traded scrips which included HFCL, DSQ Software, Pentamedia Graphics, Global Trust Bank, Ranbaxy, Lupin Laboratories, Zee Telefilms, Sliverline, SSI Limited, Padmini Technologies, Shonkh Technologies, Adani Exports, Aftec Infosys and Global Telesystems. “Big Bull” Ketan Parekh manipulated the prices of the Global Trust Bank (GTB) in association with Credit Suisse First Boston Securities and Vidyut Investment Limited, before its merger with UTI Bank. “The price of the scrip of GTB rose 100 per cent from October 13, 2000 to November 21, 2000 from Rs 57 to Rs 114. The price rise did not appear to be justified on the basis of any fundamental or corporate development”, the SEBI said in its report. It said every person and entity participating in the securities market should be monitored by the central authority by allotting “unique client code” on the lines of security number. SEBI has mooted that declaration of brokers income should be made a mandatory requirement and should be asked to disclose the source of their own, borrowed and client funds to the central authority for trading in excess of a certain limit. Under the current system, there is no regulation or monitoring of flow of funds in and out of the securities market and this was a major contributor to stock market upheavals.
Rathi misused office
SEBI has said former Bombay Stock Exchange President Ananth Rathi has misused his position to obtain price-sensitive information from the surveillance department on positions taken by broking members, including Credit Suisse First Boston and Kotak Securities.
PTI
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Open offer for Digital hinges on deal
New Delhi, September 6 “In case, HP-Compaq deal is a merger, then HP gets an automatic exemption under Regulation (3), sub-regulation (1), clause (J), sub clause (2) from an open offer for Compaq’s listed company,” the official said on conditions of anonymity. “But if it is an acquisition, that too an overseas, they will have to make an open offer for Compaq’s 51 per cent listed arm,” he said, adding that in case they want an exemption of making an open offer, they will have to apply to the takeover panel citing the reason as to why they sought the exemption. The takeover panel headed by the SEBI Chairman would then look into the matter to such issues as are considered on a case-to-case basis, sunderasan said. “But the question now is whether it is merger or an acquisition,” he said. HP India President Arun Thiagarajan has refused to comment on the open offer issue yesterday in Kolkata. Digital GlobalSoft, the rechristened Digital India, is 51 per cent owned by Compaq Computer Holdings, while the balance is owned by FIIs, overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) and the public. Analysts said the most likely scenario would be that HP would do some asset stripping from Digital GlobalSoft and make an open offer and delist the company. The analysts say asset stripping would be in the form of asking DigitalSoft employees to resign and join HP’s 100 per cent subsidiary in India. The Bangalore-based company currently has 1,300 staff and it was planning to increase the staff strength to 1,700 by the year-end. A decision on ADR was also in the pipeline, but nothing was firmed up apart from an investment plan of Rs 750 crore over a three-year period. The company’s shares have fallen by 35 per cent from a peak of Rs 748 in February and had started picking up from then low of Rs 245.60. Following the HP-Compaq deal, the scrips had a bull run where it hovered around Rs 420.
PTI
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Outstanding in HFCL scrip cause of crisis
New Delhi, September 6 Four brokering companies each of D.K. Singhania Group and A.K. Poddar Group and two brokering companies of H. Biyani Group were among the large top brokers of the CSE and D.K. Singhania, who had the largest default, happened to be a member of the Committee of Directors as an elected member. SEBI recommended that CSE may investigate the books of those brokers who had large deliverable position to establish the bonafide of their transactions. “While large positions in HFCL and DSQ were built up by the defaulting brokers, there was adverse price movement in the market in those two shares during the settlement number 149 particularly after March 1,” SEBI said in its interim report on investigations into recent market behaviour. CSE followed an incorrect interpretation of SEBI directive of margin computations and allowed brokers to build up positions without paying proper margins, which are meant to contain the risks involved in position building in scrips, SEBI pointed out. “All the three defaulting groups had violated on several occasions the Rs 10 crore scrip-wise trading limit set up by the exchange around the period of “payment crisis” for which CSE did not take any preventive action,” it added.
PTI
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Invest in cellos to save Rs 50,000
cr Ludhiana, September 6 In fact, the states like Punjab are not ready to invest in them because of the successful political lobbies at the Centre to successfully sell the low-graded paddy and wheat to the Central procurement agencies. However, the low international prices of food grains and the international competition would force them to invest in this sector. These views were expressed by the agriculture scientists and agro industrialists, who had gathered here today in a regional workshop on “Agro-processing and value addition.” The workshop was conducted by the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology. Speaking on this occasion, Dr Anwar Alam, DDG, Engineering, ICAR, said, “We need to invest in the scientific handling of bulk food grains to save the post harvesting wastage. It means the traditional system of bag storage in godowns would have to be replaced by modern cellos that will need investments in the railways, platforms, trucks and other infrastructure. A beginning can be made by investing about Rs 5000 crore to store cereals in the cellos.” He said the in the next few years we would not be able to compete with the developed nations in the market, which had invested in the post-harvesting operations as well resulting in low cost of production and better quality of foodgrains. The ICAR was ready to provide the necessary technology inputs, however, demand could be generated by only the governments through legislative measures to encourage storage of foodgrains in the cellos instead of bags. It can be done in a phased manner. Dr S.M. Ilyas, Director, CIPHET, disclosed that an investment of $3 to 6 billion in the processing technology could result in 15 per cent processing of country’s total fruit and vegetable production. It could be exported to the European and US markets. The concept of ‘one village and one product’ could be tried in the state to promote agro processing units. Dr S.D. Sawant, Vice President, Agro Division, Shirke Structurals presented a paper on ‘status and scope in handling and storage of food grains.’ Among others the representatives of OSWA industries, Ambala, Nijjer Agro, Amritsar and Jain Irrigation, Jalgaon also participated in the discussion. |
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89 industrialists get
awards Chandigarh, September 6 Three types of awards — Export award, Vishwakarma award and State productivity award — were presented to the industrialists. Mr Jit Singh of Chandigarh, a lacquer expert, got the first prize in the category of Vishwakarma award. In exports category the top position went to Guru Nanak Exports, Phagwara, and in State Productivity category Frontier Cloth House bagged the top position. Prof Bhullar spoke about the initiatives taken by the state government to promote the industry. Mr D S Guru, Director Industries and Secretary, Commerce, Punjab, said the export promotion had been declared as the thrust area under the state industrial policy. “The draft of the export policy has been finalised in consultation with the industrialist and the policy would soon be notified”, he said. Ms Ravneet Kaur, Special Secretary, Administration, Industries Department, Punjab, was also present. |
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Maruti to launch VRS this month New Delhi, September 6 “This month, we will be notifying the VRS. It will be open for about a month,” Maruti Finance Director, A.R. Halasyam, told PTI here today but said it has not fixed a target for reducing the manpower from the present 5,600 employees. The VRS, which was recently cleared by the Maruti Board, will be offered to all the shop floor (factory) and office employees. “We have not earmarked any target (on the financial outgo) but approximately, for each employee, the cost would be Rs 7-8 lakh” Halasyam said. Maruti, a joint venture between the government and Suzuki Motor Corp., had recorded a loss of about Rs 250 crore over a turnover of Rs 9,250 crore during 2000-01. Halasyam said the VRS would be open to all employees who have attained the age of 40 or have served 15 years as per the guidelines set up by the Maruti management. Maruti has over 5,600 employees including about 4,500 in the shopfloor. The average age of the employees is 36 years, at present.
PTI |
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UTI to unveil 4 schemes Mumbai, September 6 Addressing the press after a meeting with various investors’ associations led by Investors Grievances Forum (IGF) President Kirit Somaiyya, Mr Daga said the draft prospectus and necessary formalities related to the schemes have almost been completed and the UTI may apply to SEBI within a day or two. Earlier in the day, 28 representatives belonging to 14 investors associations from different parts of the country met UTI Chairman M. Damodaran and demanded that the redemption of US-64 units to small investors should be made above the face value after the scheme is linked to NAV from January 1. Mr Somaiyya suggested that the difference between the actual NAV and the face value should be met by the government in case NAV declines below the face value.
UNI |
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Trade fair Awas Yojana Omsons Intl Daawat Basmati Bio-control lab Apple offer |
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