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Indraprastha Gas
public issue by next month 3 shortlisted for
airport privatisation Punjab soon to
have more mobiles than landline phones
Norms on unified
licence soon |
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Industry bullish
on sharp economic recovery Hind Lever enters
Japan with tea bags
Book profit in
cement shares
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Indraprastha Gas public issue by next month
New Delhi, November 9 Besides, the company is expecting that the next big push for compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative transport fuel will come from the private vehicle market. “We are in the process of appointing consultants for preparing a detailed
feasibility report for extending our supply network to other areas of the NCR. The report is expected to be submitted by March, 2004. Moreover, if the opportunity comes we might go to other states also”, Managing Director of IGL A K De said in an exclusive interview. He said strategic objective of the company is to “capitalise on the significant growth opportunities” that are available in the business of distribution and sale of natural gas in NCR of Delhi. In addition, the company is increasingly going to focus on supplying natural gas to households for using it as a cooking fuel through a piped network. At present, IGL is supplying piped natural gas to 11,000 households in Delhi. “Our target for 2003-04 is make it available to 27,000 households. There are 3.4 million LPG consumers in Delhi and there is a huge market for piped gas market in the Capital”, Mr De observed. The present allocation to IGL for supplying natural gas to households is to the extent of 1lakh standard cubic meters (SCM) per day. “At present, we are supplying about 30,000 scm per day”, he said. The natural gas supplied by IGL to households is at least 10 per cent cheaper compared to the LPG which is supplied in a cylinder form. “We have set up our PNG distribution network in the selected areas and colonies of Delhi. PNG is safer, reliable and convenient to use as there is no need to order gas cylinder. It is also a cheaper alternative to LPG and currently being sold at 10 per cent lesser cost than the LPG of the same calorific value”. During the current year, IGL has earmarked a budget of Rs 147 crore to set up additional infrastructure of which Rs 36 crore has been set aside for the pipeline network to households. Mr De said tapping the private vehicle market was another priority area identified by the company. As on May 31, 2003, there were 70,394 commercial vehicles and 4,392 private CNG vehicles registered in the NCR Delhi. “Having reduced the queues in the CNG filling stations in Delhi, we now want to tap the private vehicle market. A study conducted by IMRB and commissioned by IGL found that there is a huge market for CNG in this segment”. The IGL Managing Director said talks have been initiated with several automobile manufacturing companies to work out the broader operational details. On the coming public issue of the company, Mr De said the pre-marketing of the IPO is at present under way and the issue is expected to hit the market by the “end of this month or early next month”. “The road shows for the IPO will be initiated within the next 10 days and will be held in all major cities in the country and some cities abroad as well”. Under the existing shareholding pattern GAIL and BPCL hold 22.5 per cent each of the paid-up capital and the government of the NCR of Delhi 5per cent. The remaining equity is shared among financial institutions (FIs) — IL&FS, IDFC and UTI. While IL&FS and IDFC holds 20 per cent equity each, UTI holds 10 per cent of the total paid-up capital. Under the shareholders agreement, the FIs will have to be provided with an exit route by 2005 and this is the primary reason why the IPO is being floated. The present paid-up capital of the company is Rs 140 crore with a total of 14 crore shares. A total of four crore will be for sale during the IPO. Mr De, however, does not indicate the size of the IPO in terms of value as it will be known only after the floor and reserve prices are worked out by the lead managers to the issue.
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3 shortlisted for airport privatisation
New Delhi, November 9 At its first meeting here, GoM, comprising Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, decided to finalise the name of the financial consultant at the next meeting on November 14, after their financial bids are opened. The shortlisted companies are ABN-Amro, Ernst and Young and KPMG, Rudy told reporters after nearly an hour-long meeting at the North Block. The empowered group also decided to appoint a global technical adviser to assist the Civil Aviation Ministry on the parameters of the design and construction of the ultra-modern airports at the two metro cities. The global technical adviser would be responsible for the approval of the design, construction and other technical details of both the airports, Rudy said. The empowered group also approved the terms of reference for the financial consultant to be appointed on Friday next, the minister said. The terms of reference pertain to the approval of request for expression of interest and broad heads of the terms of the draft concession agreement, besides the selection and appointment of the global technical Adviser.
— PTI |
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Punjab soon to have more mobiles than landline phones
Chandigarh, November 9 The latest figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) reveal that by the end of October this year, the number of mobile connections in the state had reached about 17 lakh. In the October alone, the state had added 93,725 new mobile connections, as against 79,822 in September, 99,638 in August and 1,54,495 in July this year. Enquiries with BSNL and Connect revealed that there were about 20 lakh landline telephone connections in the state, including about 70,000 of Connect. However, the actual number of "activated connections" was around 19 lakh, since a large number of fixed line phones had been lying dead due to non-payment of bills or technical problems. BSNL officials admit that they are also promoting the mobile connection due to lower cost involved in providing mobile phones to the subscribers. Said a senior official in the Punjab Telecom circle," To offer a landline connection, BSNL has to spend over Rs 20,000 on the infrastructure as against about Rs 5,000 spent on an average to provide a mobile connection. We have already chalked out a plan to promote mobile phones in the semi-urban and rural areas." The growth rate of mobiles was much higher as against the growth rate in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The BSNL, which had 2,02,400 mobile connections by the end of June this year, raised its mobile connections to 2,54,536 by October 30. The Monsoon Dhamaka scheme of the Reliance Infocom, under which customers were offered attractive handsets by just paying Rs 501, helped it registered highest growth in the state as compared to other operators. The company, which had just 76,043 connections by the end of June this year, increased its connections to 2,43,151 by October 30. |
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New Delhi, November 9 “Guidelines will be issued in a day or two. TRAI had given an indicative calculation of licence fee to be paid by basic service providers for migrating to the new regime and the final calculation has to come from the licensor (DoT),”
Trai chairman Pradip Baijal told PTI.
Hearing on WLL order today Cellular operators’ petitions against the telecom tribunal majority judgement upholding the legality of WLL(M) services will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court tomorrow. A Bench of Chief Justice V.N. Khare and Mr Justice S.V. Sinha on Friday had listed three appeals for hearing before a Bench headed by Mr Justice S. Rajendra Babu tomorrow.
— UNI |
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Industry bullish on sharp economic recovery
New Delhi, November 9 The performance of the heavy industry has improved significantly, added the survey, released Sunday. The return of the "feel good factor" in the economy had also boosted industry mood, it said. The survey was conducted among 564 Indian companies covering a wide spectrum of industrial sectors and with a turnover ranging between Rs.10 million and Rs.100 billion. The sectors covered include pharmaceuticals, textiles, telecom, food and beverages, heavy equipment and machinery, financial services, IT, travel and tourism, auto and auto ancillary, steel, cement and petrochemicals. The sentiment of the industry, as measured by Ficci, is up by 6.9 per cent over the July-September quarter of fiscal 2002-03. A whopping 90 per cent of the respondents rated the overall economic conditions to be "moderately to substantially" better than in the last six months. The RBI on Monday said the Indian economy would grow between 6.5 and 7 per cent in the current fiscal, helped by a sharp increase in farm output. The economy grew a moderate 4.3 per cent in the year ended March 31, 2003, mainly due to a 3.1 per cent fall in agricultural output, as the worst drought in three decades ravaged large parts of the country. According to the survey, there has also been a remarkable improvement in domestic consumer demand and weak consumption is much less a concern now than it was a year ago. Eighty per cent of the survey respondents favoured more bilateral free trade agreements similar to the one India recently signed with Thailand. On the rise in the value of rupee against the dollar, 46 per cent respondents felt the appreciating rupee is impacting Indian exports. "Interestingly, of the 46 per cent who seemed concerned about the rupee exchange rate movement, about 48 per cent want the RBI to intervene and slow down the rupee's upward movement," said the survey. The majority of business leaders also feel the performance of most of the industrial sectors would be moderately to substantially better in the next six months. "The heavy industry is most upbeat about its current performance and is followed by services and the light industry," said the survey. A decline was, however, observed in the services sector for the next six months from 91 per cent to 79 per cent due to the appreciating rupee that has impacted on companies from sectors like IT, travel and tourism, and hospitality. Riding on the back of buoyant consumer demand, 75 per cent of the survey respondents expect higher sales in the coming six months. A quarter of the respondents, however, pointed out that high cost of credit was acting as a deterrent in the growth of businesses. "This has two implications. Firstly, there is scope for further reduction in the interest rates and secondly, benefits of the soft interest rate regime should be passed on to even the small and medium enterprises," said the
survey. — IANS |
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Hind Lever enters Japan with tea bags Mumbai, November 9 HLL, has added
Japan as its new market for tea exports and some orders have already been dispatched, company spokesperson told PTI here today. “We have exported Lipton Brisk, Brooke Bond and Brooke Bond Red Label Tea Bags to Japan,” he said. In the past 18 months,
HLL has also added to its customer base the USA, Australia, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand markets, he said.
— PTI
Centurion Bank told to float rights issue New Delhi, November 9 The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has turned down Centurion Bank’s proposal for the Rs 154 crore FDI as it will temporarily take the foreign holding beyond the permissible 49 per cent. Instead, the FIPB has asked the bank to come up with a rights issue or public offer of
Rs 65 crore first. The bank had sought FIPB approval to allow its existing and new investors to bring in a total Rs 219 crore in FDI — Rs 154 crore in the first tranche and another Rs 65 crore through rights issue in the second tranche — to tide over its financial difficulties.
— PTI
Exports of vehicles rise by 67 pc New Delhi, November 9 A total of 2.21 lakh vehicles were shipped during April- September, 2003, against 1.32 lakh units in the same period last year, data compiled by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Car exports surged by 74.5 per cent year-on-year to 53,870 units over 30,866 units as Maruti Udyog clocked a 101.3 per cent rise at 22,048 units. Hyundai Motor India also posted a 384.4 per cent growth to 16,089 units, a majority of which comprised Santro. |
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by Lalit Batra
Book profit in cement shares Selling pressure in blue chips towards the end of the week shadowed a strong rally at the beginning of the week. The Sensex, after skyrocketing on Monday and crossing the 5000-mark hit an over three-year high, ended the week at 4,972, up 62 points over the previous week’s close. The broader S&P CNX Nifty index gained 36.15 points at 1,592.05. With the stock exchanges raising margins, the traders began to liquidate their positions, which along with institution selling compounded the matters and the Sensex tumbled in the later part of the week. A huge outstanding position of Rs 8,900 crore in the futures and options (F&O) segment has begun to weigh on the market. Even FII inflows, which have been the driving force of the market rally in recent months, are showing signs of slowing down. The current week is important for the market as five scrips, Wipro, the ONGC, Bharti Tele Ventures, HDFC Bank and Tata Power, will replace Castrol, Colgate, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Nestle and HCL Technologies on the BSE Sensex from Monday. Also the NSE stepped up risk management on the bourses last week. The measures include a reduction in the exposure limit of 48 securities by 20 per cent in the cash market, a reduction in the intra-day trading limit of brokers and an upward revision of exposure margins in 38 scrips in the F&O segment. These measures will also take effect from Monday. The Sensex has a gap between 4,913 and 4,946, which should act as support. The market is likely to move up from this support. However, a break below this level, especially if the index opens with a negative gap, will be bad news and will see a sharp sell-off in the market. Moreover, the market has started panting on every upward move and the first two days of the coming week will be crucial to its future direction.
Cement Cement shares like Grasim and Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL) strengthened on the market on the likelihood of the cement majors resorting to a hike in prices. Three cement makers GACL, ACC and Grasim reported a 10-12 per cent surge in month-on-month cement dispatches in October, 2003, due to an improvement in the post-monsoon demand. Meanwhile, Grasim and L&T have signed a final agreement that paves the way for Grasim’s acquisition of L&T’s 16.5 million tonne cement business. Partial booking of profits in the cement scrips at this stage will be prudent for long-term investors.
Shipping Stocks of shipping companies like GE Shipping and the Shipping Corporation of India surged last week on the expectation of a hike in freight rates in line with international trends. It is expected that the overall crude tanker to firm up due to the winter demand. However, the extent of pick-up will depend on the severity of the winter in the northern hemisphere. GE Shipping gained close to 23 per cent for the week to close at 117.50. Investors holding shipping shares must, however, keep an eye on the freight index to judge the movement of the shipping stocks.
Banking The RBI belied market expectations when it announced to keep bank rate and repo rate unchanged in its Credit Policy for the busy session. Immediately, afterwards the banking stocks lost some ground. Banking stocks had firmed up in the previous week on the expectation of a rate cut. The fall in the prices of the public sector banks was more severe than in the prices of the private banking stocks. Investors should book profits in some of the weak banking stocks such as Uco Bank and also in some banking stocks which have appreciated substantially during the last few months such as Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank. |
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