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Maruti to buy out Suzuki stake in subsidiary
Centre allows Postal Dept to dabble in stocks
Gold price zooms
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India’s export, import rankings alter
TRAI okays use of hash and star
SpiceJet announces second flight
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Maruti to buy out Suzuki stake in subsidiary
New Delhi, April 13 Company officials confirming the reports here today said that MUL would use its cash reserves to buy Suzuki’s stake in the joint venture. The company will buy out the entire 30 per cent stake held by Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) in MSAIL for an undisclosed amount. Officials said that a five-member sub-committee had been formed to look into the financial and legal details of the merger. “The committee will submit its report by September later this year,” they added. Of the total cost of Rs 1,524 crore for the Manesar project, only around Rs 250-300 crore has been invested till date. Officials further said that the merger would add value for the shareholders and eliminate all potential issues relating to inter-company transactions. According to an agreement in September 2004, MSAIL was set up as a subsidiary to operate a new car plant in Manesar, which will initially have a capacity of 1 lakh cars a year. A new car plant at Manesar is coming up at an investment of Rs 1524.2 crore. The capacity is being scaled up to 2,50,000 cars per annum by 2008-09. The new car plant will begin commercial production on schedule, by the end of 2006. The company has also undertaken a change in its directorate. MUL Director (Marketing & Sales) Kinji Saito has been replaced by Shuji Oishi. Agencies add: Managing Director Jagdish Khattar said the merger would be completed by September, ahead of the scheduled commercial production from the new facility, which would have an initial capacity of 1-lakh units. Asked whether Maruti had plans to have a similar merger of its other joint venture with Suzuki, Suzuki Powertrain, he said, there was no such proposal. “That is a different joint venture and will see Suzuki manufacturing diesel engines under licence from Fiat, including for foreign markets,” he said. The merger would be effective April 1, 2006. Faced by declining exports, MUL today said it is scouting for new markets to beef up its overseas business. “Demand is going down in Europe. We are seeking newer markets,” MUL Chairman S. Nakanishi told reporters. He said that the company was exploring various locations like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for exporting the popular ‘Swift’ hatchback. When asked about whether the company was planning to phase out Zen, Mr Khattar said: “There was no plans to phase out Zen.”
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Centre allows Postal Dept to dabble in stocks
New Delhi, April 13 “Finance Ministry has allowed the department to keep these funds of about Rs 10,000 crore with special deposits, saying that the department must find outside investment opportunities, including investments in stock markets,” DoP Secretary U. Srinivasa Raghavan told reporters here. He said the Ministry had made it clear that Special Depository Rates on investments in the two schemes of DoP PLI (Postal Life Insurance) and RPLI (Rural Postal Life Insurance), will not be available after September 30, 2006. Asked if the government would form Asset Management Companies (AMC), Mr Raghavan said DoP had appointed global consultant A.F. Fergusson to look into investment option for the schemes and it was examining the matter. “We will take any decision only after careful examination and that too adopt a strategy, which will have enough safeguards to ensure safety of investors’ funds,” he said. With phasing out of SDR on investments in the scheme, DoP has sought level-playing field from government to operate its insurance schemes. Currently, only government and PSU employees can subscribe to PLI, while RPLI is open to all. “I am seeking level-playing field from the government for PLI so that ordinary people in urban areas can also be allowed to opt for the schemes. Our premium is lower and bonus is higher...,” Mr Raghavan said. A.F. Fergusson has suggested formation of AMC, which is to be selected through a process of bidding, official sources said, adding that a special cell would also be set up in DoP to manage the operations.
— PTI
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Gold price zooms
New Delhi, April 13 Experts are saying that days are not far when the gold prices will touch Rs 10,000 per 10 gram as the demand is likely to shoot up in the coming days. Gold surged to a new peak of Rs 8,890 per 10 gram today on aggressive buying by wholesale dealers to meet the ongoing marriage season demand. A large number of investors are investing in gold, said an expert, as “natural haven against inflation”. Fund managers are also recommending investment in gold ,citing good returns. According to the World Gold Council, the global demand for gold in 2005 was 3,750 tonnes, a shade below the 3,860 tonnes of supply that came on the market that year. The reasons for a rise in the oil price include production lags demand, surge in consumption demand in the cash-rich emerging markets of India and China and West Asia ,besides large- scale investment in gold by investors in the US and other countries by retail investors. Forecasting a historic bull-run in price, Mr Philip Klapwijk, Chairman of the independent precious metals research consultancy, said: ‘The possibility of a further strong increase in the gold price was a key finding of the Gold Survey, 2006.’ For 2006, the chief drivers of investment were expected to remain the high probability of a sharp slowdown in US economic growth and a slide in the dollar. Other supportive factors are thought to include greater inflationary pressures and political tensions in West Asia. Despite prices having risen substantially in 2005, the gold survey highlights that jewellery demand also rose by almost 4 per cent or 100 tonnes last year to a four-year high of almost 3,300 tonnes. On the regional basis, the consultancy noted that the gains were nearly all concentrated in the Indian subcontinent and West Asia, which together added a little over 100 tonnes in 2005.
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NHPC plans IPO
New Delhi, April 13 NHPC is also looking for joint ventures, he said, with the state governments, private players and foreign companies to tap the hydro potential in the North Eastern region. “Some private players have approached us to enter into joint ventures for setting up hydel power projects in North India. We are quite open to such ventures including with state governments and foreign players also,” he said. However, after preparing a detailed project report for the 168 MW Shahpur Kandi project in Punjab, the corporation has turned down the state government’s proposal to set up the power plant. “We were ready to set up the project, but had to withdraw after state government’s insisted on taking its surplus staff in an earlier project,” Mr S.P. Sen, Director, Technical, NHPC, disclosed adding the company would not bid for the project in future also. For 2005-06, NHPC posted a net profit of Rs 701 crore against Rs 685 crore during the previous financial year, Mr Garg told newspersons. He said the company achieved a turnover of Rs 1,834 crore in 2005-06 compared to 1,668 crore the previous fiscal.
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India’s export, import rankings alter
New Delhi, April 13 In services, however, India’s rank is far up in the list. The country is now the world’s 10th largest importer and exporter of commercial services, compared to 15th and 16th largest respectively in 2004, as per the WTO’s World Trade Report, 2005, released in Geneva. The country’s merchandise exports last year grew 19 per cent to $89.8 billion while market share rose by 0.1 per cent to 0.9 per cent of global exports. But imports soared by 35 per cent — largely on the back of rising oil import bill — to $131.6 billion and the country’s share in global imports stood at 1.2 per cent. In services, while exports stood at $67.6 billion, imports were marginally lower at $67.4 billion. The country’s share in global services exports and imports was almost equal at 2.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. In merchandise goods, Germany has retained its place as the largest exporter with $970.7 billion, followed by the US at $904.3 billion, China at $762 billion, Japan at $595.8 billion and France at $459.2 billion. In imports, US is on top of the list with $1,732.7 billion, followed by Germany at $774.1 billion, China at $660.1 billion, Japan at $516.1 billion and UK at $501.2 billion. World’s merchandise exports and imports rose by 13 per cent each to $10,393.1 billion and $10,753.1 billion respectively. In services, the United States, UK, Germany, France and Japan have retained their places in top five importers and exporters. The US exported services worth $353.3 billion and imported $288.7 billion; UK exported $183.4 billion and imported $150.1 billion; Germany exported $198.6 billion and imported $142.9 billion. World’s total services exports and imports shot up by 11 per cent to $2,415 billion and $2,360 billion. — PTI
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TRAI okays use of hash and star
New Delhi, April 13 The access providers are using these special characters * and # in provision of value added intra-network services like USSD, wherein the subscriber of a network uses these special characters not at the time of dialling, but subsequently once he has entered their network for uses of supplementary services, TRAI said. The National Numbering Plan, 2003, is silent about the usage of above special characters in provisioning of intra-network value-added services.
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SpiceJet announces second flight
New Delhi, April 13 With the fleet expansion to six Boeing 737-800 aircraft, SpiceJet has also announced additional flights to Srinagar. The flights on the Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi route will operate daily from May 10. SpiceJet operates its services in the 11 destinations of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Goa, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu, Srinagar, Chennai and Hyderabad. — UNI
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