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IOC offers stake in Panipat plant to Kuwaiti firm
Bill Gates to give up ‘day-to-day role’ in Microsoft
UB eyes French wine firm
US firms ‘wary of’ subsidised oil sector
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40,000 acres for Indonesian co
in West Bengal
Glenmark arm buys 7 products
Govt boycotts inauguration
Hutchison to buy out Hindujas in Hutch-Essar
SCI to buy 35 vessels
Spice Jet fares
Bajaj Allianz to open more offices in Punjab
Power Grid net profit crosses
Rs 1,000 cr, plans IPO by Dec
Hyundai, Maruti to hike prices
CEAT tyres costlier
HPCL fined Rs 6.29
lakh
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IOC offers stake in Panipat plant to Kuwaiti firm
New Delhi, June 16 “We discussed the Panipat (naphtha) cracker (project) and Paradip refinery (project)... the discussions focused on (possibility of) equity participation (in the projects),” IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said after a 40-minute meeting with visiting Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah here. He, however, did not disclose the quantum of stake offered to the KPC, Kuwait’s national oil firm. Kuwait, the fourth largest oil producer in West Asia, is considering investing in Indian refineries to win a greater share of crude sales to the South Asian country. IOC’s Paradip project envisages an investment of Rs 21,000 crore in a 15 million tonnes per annum capacity refinery and facilities for production of front-end petrochemicals, including paraxylene, polypropylene and styrene. It plans to invest another Rs 11,000 crore in a naphtha cracker, adjacent to its Panipat refinery, for manufacture of 800,000 tonnes of ethylene per year and 600,000 tonnes of propylene per year, that may be used to produce polymers like high-density polyethelene, linear low-density polyethelene, polypropylene and mono-ethylene glycol. Mr M.B. Lal, Chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, which is scouting for a partner for its Rs 12,000 crore nine million tonne Bathinda refinery in Punjab, and Mr Ashok Sinha, Chairman of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, that is setting up a 6 million tonnes refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh, also met the visiting Kuwaiti minister. Mr Lal, however, said equity participation in Bathinda was not discussed. Mr Sinha also echoed Mr Lal’s opinion and said the 30-minute meeting focused on crude imports and no specific project was discussed. Mr Behuria said the IOC would look at the new refinery planned in Kuwait. However, HPCL clearly was not interested. Mr Behuria said he also raised participation of the IOC and the ONGC in a major oil field development project in Kuwait. IOC-ONGC are partnering British Petroleum (BP) and the Occidental Petroleum Corp of the US to submit final bids for Project Kuwait under which four north Kuwaiti fields - Raudhatain, Sapriyah, Ratqa and Abdali - are to be developed to raise oil production from 500,000-550,000 barrels a day (bpd) to 900,000 bpd in 20 years. Two other consortia led by ExxonMobil and Chevron Texco are also in the fray. — PTI
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Bill Gates to give up ‘day-to-day role’ in Microsoft
Washington, June 16 The 50-year-old Gates has said that he wants to spend more time in his foundation and on activities of the non- profit foundation. While Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will be taking over Gates’ title of chief software architect, Craig Mundie, now Chief Technical Officer, will take the new title of Chief Research and strategy Officer. “It’s not a retirement, it’s a reordering of my priorities,” Mr Gates said. Gates, a high school dropout and one of the giants in the field of software, is one of the richest persons in the world. Economic analysts believe that Gates’ stepping down will have little to no impact on Microsoft. In the past few years, Bill Gates, along with his wife, Melind, have been spending an increasing amount of time with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation whose assets are now in the neighbourhood of $30 billion. The foundation is very well known for its activities in different parts of the world, particularly in Africa and in India, where it is involved in healthcare for the poor and the needy.— PTI
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Bangalore, June 16 Mr Mallya said today UB Group was looking to acquire a "small portion" of the Taittinger Group —a wine company in France. "We are looking to acquire this company over the next few weeks," he told reporters on the sidelines of CII-organised "The India innovation summit 2006". Asked if UB was still in the race for acquiring champagne assets of Taittinger, he replied in the negative. Mr Mallya said the proposed acquisition of Taittinger's wine assets in France would also give UB access to wine technology of the highest order, which it will use to develop in its own vineyards and wineries in India in a proper and sustainable form. — PTI
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US firms ‘wary of’ subsidised oil sector
New Delhi, June 16 The minister’s tour to Chicago might have helped him to beat the sweltering heat in the Capital but has not resulted in immediate investment announcement from the US industry captains. Mr Ashwani Kumar has led an official delegation to the USA to attract billions of dollars in the petrochemicals sector. The cross-subsidy of oil products has adversely affected the refinery margins of the oil companies, besides forcing the private companies like Reliance and Essar to reconsider their retail plans. A statement issued by the minister’s office mentions his meetings with representatives of American Corporations and Indian American companies at India Engineering Centre in Chicago but nothing is mentioned about the response of US companies. Citing various studies by Goldman Sach, AT Kearney, World Economic Forum and UNCTAD, Dr Kumar said that India was one of the most preferred investment destinations of the world. Although the meeting was attended by Plante Moran Co., Lee Salberg International Group, LGO Global and Barnes, Richardson and Colburn, but nothing seems to have materialised.
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40,000 acres for Indonesian co
in West Bengal
Kolkata, June 16 A formal agreement will be signed between the state government and the Salim Group of Industries here on July 30. The Salim Group of Industries will build a modern economic zone at Haldia, a new township-cum-business hub at Raichak and an industrial complex at Uluberia. Several bridges and roads will also be set up along with the construction of a long road to connect Barast, North 24 Parganas and Raichak, South 24 Parganas. Santosa will initially invest Rs 6,000 crore from his own resources but bring further investment from some other entrepreneurs of South-East Asian countries and Europe. Mr Nirupom
Sen, West Bengal Industry Minister, hoped the problems which Tata Motors officials faced during their site selection visit in Hooghly would not be repeated and their proposed Rs 2000-crore small car plant there would be soon started. |
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Mumbai, June 16 Bouwer-Bartlett, Glenmark’s South African subsidiary, has obtained global intellectual property rights for the products and would initially market them within South Africa and gradually sell them in other geographics, Glenmark’s Managing Director and CEO Glenn Saldanha said. Glenmark had acquired Bouwer-Bartlett in December, 2005, and also has a subsidiary in Nigeria and representative offices in Ghana and Kenya, it said. — PTI
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Govt boycotts inauguration
Bangalore, June 16 No government official was present at the inaugural ceremony, which was held amidst tight security. The promoters Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) got the Mysore road to Kanakapur road stretch formally opened by a 93-year-old woman whose land was among the first to be acquired for the project. Striking a strident note, NICE Managing Director Ashok Kheny indicated that the state PWD Department did not know what it was doing. He said on the one hand, the company had received a note asking the 9.2-km stretch not be opened for use before being subjected to quality checks, while on the other hand, the department said it would release the pending land due to the company for the project. Mr Kheny also claimed that the company had been stopped from working on the project by “certain people” since the past four days. He said the company would be in a position to complete the project, which besides the expressway also involves construction of five townships, by December 2007, provided it was given the land needed for the same. Meanwhile, in another new twist liquor baron and Rajya Sabha Member Vijay Mallya today came out in favour of NICE and criticised Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy for “unnecessarily creating controversy” over the project. Interacting with newsmen at the India Innovation Summit, 2006, Mr Mallya came down heavily on Mr Kumaraswamy and his father and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda for "raising objections against every major infrastructure project". The UB Group Chairman said the Chief Minister and his father should spend their time on productive purposes instead of targeting developers of infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, the Karnataka Government today blamed the bank concerned for the "mess up" for dishonouring of a cheque of Rs 5 lakh issued by it to NICE. Speaking on the issue, PWD Secretary P.B. Mahishi said the State Bank of Mysore had informed it that the cheque had been dishonoured due to misunderstanding at the time of reconciliation and NICE had been told to represent it again.
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Hutchison to buy out Hindujas in Hutch-Essar
New Delhi, June 16 The Hong-Kong based firm has pipped Indian partner Essar in the mobile company for the strategic acquisition of Hinduja TMT stake, for which the two sides have now deployed their lawyers and investment advisers to work out finer details. The acquisition would take Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd's direct holding to almost 48 per cent in Hutchison Essar. HTIL is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa. The Ruias of Essar group hold 33.6 per cent in the company. Hutchison Essar is India's third-ranked mobile operator by virtue of its 18.06 million GSM customers.
— PTI |
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SCI to buy 35 vessels
Mumbai, June 16 The company owns 82 ships, mostly bulk carriers and tankers. Meanwhile, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 350.13 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, as compared to Rs 611.13 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, a fall of 42.70 per cent. The company said its total income has increased from Rs 958 crore in Q4 FY 04-05 to Rs 1,089.25 crore for Q4 FY 05-06. It has posted a net profit of Rs 1,042.20 crore for the year ended March 31 (FY 05-06) as compared to Rs 1,419.91 crore for the year ended March 31 (FY 04-05). Total income has decreased from Rs 3,645.78 crore in FY 04-05 to Rs 3,584.49 crore for FY 05-06. The Board of Directors had declared an interim dividend of Rs 8.5 per share at the Board meeting held on January 27. |
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Spice Jet fares
New Delhi, June 16 |
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Bajaj Allianz to open more offices in Punjab
Ludhiana, June
16 "Last year, the business was Rs 75 crore in the state and this year we are expecting it to touch Rs 220
crore," he said, adding, "With growing awareness levels and increasing number of products, a higher number of people are going in for life insurance." He said in new business premium, the company had registered a 215 per cent growth at Rs 2,715 crore across the country over previous year, that has made it the top private life insurance player in the country as per the latest Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
(IRDA) results. "Even the market share increased from 3.39 per cent to 7.56 per cent." |
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Power Grid net profit crosses
New Delhi, June 16 The state-run transmission utility, which has posted a 25 per cent increase in revenues to Rs 3,554 crore in 2005-06, has fixed a capital expenditure of about Rs 6,000 crore for 2006-07 and plans to foray into 12 countries, including China, for consultancy, executing projects and operating transmission lines and grid network. “We are keen to bring an IPO... we think it will be in December this year,” Power Grid Chairman and Managing Director R.P. Singh said. He, however, declined to say how much money the company was expecting to raise. The company executed projects with a total capital expenditure of Rs 5,000 in 2005-06, including schemes of about Rs 800 crore of state electricity boards or utilities. In 2006-07, PGCIL would implement projects entailing an investment of about Rs 8,000 crore in 2006-07. Of this, Power Grid would invest Rs 6,000 crore while the remaining projects belong to state utilities. PGCIL had established an inter-regional capacity to transfer 9,500 MW of electricity and was working on projects to enhance this capacity to 18,000 MW by 2007 and 37,200 MW by 2011-12. On the company’s overseas projects, he said the company was already executing projects in Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan. The company was also planning a foray in Indonesia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Kenya, China, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, he said. Meanwhile, the Cabinet has approved a transmission project worth about Rs 800 crore ($174 million) to be executed by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. The electricity project would be completed within 36 months. The company is also planning, said Mr Singh, to enhance its presence in the telecom sector. “ We have earned by Rs 38 crore last year by selling band bridth to the bulk consumers last year and hope to earn Rs 75 crore to Rs 100 crore this fiscal. Favouring differential power tariff, the CMD said “ the company is in favour of 3-4 types of differential power tariffs during peak and off-peak hours. It would help the country to meet power deficit.” |
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Hyundai, Maruti to hike prices
New Delhi, June 16 "We will increase the prices of cars from this month-end as there is a lot of pressure due to higher costs of prices of inputs like plastics and rubber as well as of logistics," Hyundai India Vice-President (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said here. HMIL Managing Director Heung Soo Lheem said the company had been absorbing the hike in production costs for some time. "But all that put together is too much to absorb and thus we will raise prices," he said. Meanwhile, the company said today it would launch two models every year which would include diesel cars, including a 1.2-litre engine hatchback. Mr Lheem said the company would launch a diesel version of its premium sedan Sonata Embera by the fourth quarter of this calendar year. Asked on the launch of the mid-size Verna, he said it was on the cards. Attracted by the demand in the mini-truck segment, the company said it was considering launching a 1-tonne payload commercial vehicle in the Indian market. Meanwhile, Maruti Udyog Ltd said today a decision on raising prices would be taken after June 24. "Costs of inputs, including certain commodities and fuels, have gone up significantly in the recent past. However, we are watching the situation before we decide to hike prices of our cars," the company said in a statement. The company said its manufacturing operations would close for a week for bi-annual maintenance shutdown from June 19 and it would take a decision on hiking prices only after that.
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CEAT tyres costlier
New Delhi, June 16 CEAT Vice-President Marketing and Sales Arnab Banerjee said subsequent to the hike in truck tyres by 6-9 per cent, light truck by 6-10 per cent, the truck tyres prices had risen by Rs 1000-1500 per pair. A marginal hike in car tyres by 3-6 per cent would result in an increase of Rs 100-200 per pair of car tyres. The car and jeep radial had been increased by 2-4 per cent, it said. — PTI
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Vadodara, June 16 The single-Bench judge V.D. Kapadia while upholding district collector Rajiv Topno’s recent decision to seal the three filling stations and impose the penalty on the company for violation of the rules, ordered that HPCL should pay the penalty or furnish a bank guarantee of the same amount within five days. The court issued the order yesterday on a petition filed by the HPCL challenging April 27 order of the district collector, who sealed the three HPCL-managed petrol pumps and imposed a fine of Rs 6.29 lakh for allegedly running the petrol pumps for the past three years without obtaining any licence from the district supply office.
— UNI |
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Washington, June 16
