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Rajasthan refinery hits roadblock
Natural gas prices up by 20 per cent
Mittal, Nippon Steel to continue pact
Leyland in Rs 1,800-cr deal with ANG Auto
TCS profit up at Rs 796 cr
Kingfisher inks two $360 m pacts
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Microsoft files 26 piracy lawsuits
Ranbaxy bags Glaxo’s generic biz in Spain
Ford to make hydrogen-run vehicles
Gold, silver plummet
Hafed to set up IOC petrol stations
Blue Star pact with Italian co
CORPORATE RESULTS
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Rajasthan refinery hits roadblock
New Delhi, July 18 Without a $4-5 a barrel discount, it is uneconomical to transport the waxy crude to MRPL in the initial period and later process at the proposed 7.5 million tonnes refinery, an ONGC official said. Cairn’s Rajasthan crude had a high wax content and needed specialised pipelines to transport it 400 km from Barmer district to Mundra port in Gujarat for further shipment to the Mangalore refinery for processing. “The Petroleum Ministry is with us on the issue and feels there is no case for a refinery unless discounts are given,” he said. The official said Cairn had sought an international price for the 150,000 barrels per day Rajasthan crude expected from end-2008 but the ONGC says Rs 2,000 crore it plans to sink in the pipeline needs to be compensated through discounts. Cairn cannot sell the crude to any other refiner as the government had appointed ONGC/ MRPL as offtakers in India. Besides turning semi-solid at normal conditions, the crude has no LPG potential and naphtha yield is also very low (less than 2 per cent) and this needs to be compensated through a discount, he said. Earlier, the IOC, the country’s largest refinery had done economic analysis of Cairn’s Rajasthan crude and concluded that it possessed transport dilemma. If the deadlock continues, the ministry may ask Cairn to make its own arrangements for exporting the crude. The pipeline, along with intermediate pumping and reheating stations and the export terminal tankage at Mundra, was expected to cost Rs 2,000 crore. The pumping and reheating energy cost was expected to be around $.30 per barrel. Interestingly, the ONGC holds a 30 per cent stake in the Mangala, Aishwariya, Saraswati and Raageshwari fields in Block RJ-ON-90/1, which the British firm wants to put on production by end-2008. As per Cairn’s projections, the production of crude will commence from the last quarter of 2008 with the initial output of little over 100,000 barrels per day peaking to around 150,000 bpd from 2009 to 2012. The ONGC had said that considering the characteristics of the crude, best value addition to the crude can be obtained by a well head refinery to be located in the vicinity of the block which would be specifically designed to handle this crude along with a balancing crude which would be imported.— PTI
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Natural gas prices up by 20 per cent
New Delhi, July 18 The Cabinet had on June 5 raised price of APM gas being supplied to CGD projects and small consumers, other than power and fertiliser plants, by 20 per cent to Rs 3,840 per thousand cubic metres from Rs 3,200 per thousand cubic
metres, official sources said. The increase came into effect from the midnight of June 5. "It has now been decided to increase the price of APM gas supplied to city gas distribution projects and small consumers with allocation up to 0.05 million standard cubic metre
(MSCM) per day by 20 per cent over the current price of Rs 3,200 per MSCM for general consumers and Rs 1,920 per MSCM for North-East consumers," the order said. Gas prices for power and fertiliser sectors would also be raised once the government takes a decision on the Tariff Commission's recommendations on producer price to be paid to ONGC and Oil India Ltd, and the transportation tariff to be charged by GAIL.
— PTI |
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Mittal, Nippon Steel to continue pact
Tokyo, July 18 Visiting Mittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal and his counterpart at Nippon Steel, Mr Akio Mimura, met on Sunday in Kyoto, the Japanese company said today, but refused to provide further details. Japan's largest business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the two agreed to retain the business partnership Nippon Steel has with both Mittal and Arcelor, which will be acquired by the Dutch firm. The Japanese company has several ties with the two firms, including a joint automotive steel business in North America with Mittal and an alliance for sharing technologies with Arcelor. A combined Mittal-Arcelor, with annual sales of about $72 billion, will eclipse Nippon Steel, Japan's biggest steel maker with about $34 billion in sales.
— AP |
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Leyland in Rs 1,800-cr deal with ANG Auto
New Delhi, July 18 The order would be executed by ANG subsidiary ANG Auto Tech and the company will invest Rs 61 crore for setting up a 6,000 unit annual capacity for Ashok Leyland at its Sitarganj unit in Uttaranchal, which will be operational by October this year. “ANG Auto will manufacture and supply 6,000 tractor- trailer units annually to Ashok Leyland for the next five years and the order size is between Rs 1,500-1,800 crore,” Ashok Leyland Chief Operating Officer Vinod Dasari said here. Dasari said Ashok Leyland may look at picking up a stake in the ANG subsidiary “at a later stage”. The company will hold around 75 per cent equity in the new subsidiary and manufacture the trailers in collaboration with FUWA Engineering of China, a major manufacturer of axles. Ashok Leyland expected sales to grow by 15-20 per cent this fiscal and was “evaluating options” to manufacture light commercial vehicles. The company produced about 65,000 units last fiscal which it hopes to increase to 75,000 units in 2006-07. “We will be expanding capacity to 1,00,000 units in the next two years,” Mr Dasari said. He said the company would spend Rs 1,000 crore this fiscal on capital expenditure, including partial funding for a new truck plant. “The new plant will have a capacity of 40,000-50,000 units and involve an investment of Rs 500-700 crore over the next 2-3 years,” Mr Dasari said, adding that the company was finalising a location for the new facility. — PTI
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Mumbai, July 18 Announcing the results, the company said its total income rose to Rs 3,465.90 crore for Q1 FY 06-07 as compared to Rs 2,276.32 crore in Q1 FY 05-06. Further, the company has informed that the Board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per equity share. Commenting on the quarter's performance, the company's CEO and Managing Director, Mr S. Ramadorai, said, ''At TCS, the management continues to focus on driving sustainable, robust growth and Q1 has been marked by strong growth in volumes coupled with increasing traction for our new growth engines like BPO and consulting.'' Reliance Cap Q1 net up three-fold
Anil Ambani Dhirubhai Group company Reliance Capital Ltd today posted over a three-fold rise in net profit after tax at Rs 94.53 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 29.62 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2005-06. Total income increased two-fold to Rs 132.42 crore for the first quarter in 2006-07 from Rs 65.59 crore in Q1 FY 05-06, the private sector non-banking financial services company informed the BSE. The Group reported a consolidated net profit (after minority interest and share of profit of associates) of Rs 113.03 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as against Rs 37.36 crore for the same quarter in FY 05-06. Income from operations stood at Rs 356.19 crore during Q1 FY 06-07 as compared to Rs 137.17 crore for the first quarter in 2005-06. MRPL profit flat
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of the ONGC, has posted a net profit of Rs 215.91 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, as compared to Rs 215.76 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, a marginal increase of 0.06 per cent. Announcing the results, the company said its total income (net of excise) has increased from Rs 5,613.87 crore in Q1 FY 05-06 to Rs 6,478.08 crore for Q1 FY 06-07.
— Agencies |
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Kingfisher inks two $360 m pacts
Farnborough (UK), July 18 The agreement was signed by Kingfisher chief and liquor baron Vijay Mallya and PW’s President (Commercial Engineering) Steve Heath on the sidelines of the ongoing airshow here. Under the agreement, PW and United Technologies of the USA would provide 10 PW 4000-100 installed engines, one spare and an option for 10 additional ones. The US firm was also awarded long-term exclusive flight management programme rights to overhaul and repair the airline’s PW 4000-100 engines. This contract is valued at $300 million dollars and an additional 200 million, if the options for 10 more engines are exercised. “After a very detailed analysis of all engine offers for A-330s, we decided that PW gave us the best total solution and met our technical requirements,” Mr Mallya said. Kingfisher now operates 86 daily flights covering 17 destinations. The deliveries of its new aircraft, which also include A-320s and A319s, are slated to start from the fall of 2007. The second agreement signed by the Kingfisher chief caters to the new fleet of 35 ATR 72-500 aircraft at an approximate value of $60 million. The airline had placed orders for 20 of these turboprop aircraft at the Dubai airshow last year, valued at $350 million. Later, Kingfisher also placed a fresh order of 15 more ATR 72-500 aircraft for $27 million.— PTI
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Microsoft files 26 piracy lawsuits
Seattle, July 18 The world’s largest software maker filed the lawsuits on Friday in federal courts in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, South Carolina, New York and New Jersey. The lawsuits accuse the companies of selling illegal copies of its Windows operating system and Office business software. The lawsuits are the latest in Microsoft’s increasingly aggressive steps to curb piracy of its two flagship products and cash cows — Windows and Office. The company has begun widespread distribution of a programme, called Windows Genuine Advantage, that checks whether users are running legitimate copies of Windows. And it scored a coup earlier this year when China agreed to crack down on piracy. Microsoft still rakes in billions of dollars in profits from Windows, but the market is growing more saturated. That has left the company more eager to curb illegal copies, in the hope those users will buy legitimate versions. “We’re worried about it because it does seriously affect our business, in the sense of people not paying for the research and development but reaping the benefits,” said Mary Jo Schrade, a Microsoft senior attorney. Schrade said the intent of the lawsuits was not necessarily to recoup costs but instead to raise awareness and prevent further piracy. — AP
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Ranbaxy bags Glaxo’s generic biz in Spain
Mumbai, July 18 Commenting on the acquisition, Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, said, ''The Mundogen generic business acquisition from GSK is in line with our strategy to focus on the EU markets where we continue to see growth opportunities. The acquisition will further consolidate our presence in the rapidly growing Spanish generic market and strengthen our product portfolio.'' Ranbaxy’s Spanish operation, Laboratorios Ranbaxy S.L., was incorporated in February 2004. The company is currently marketing over 40 products in the market. The company has plans to rapidly expand its product portfolio through the launch of the products in its pipeline and through the Mundogen acquisition. Ranbaxy has a presence in 21 of the 25 EU countries and is rapidly consolidating its presence in Europe. — UNI
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Ford to make hydrogen-run vehicles
Dearborn (Michigan), July 18 The hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines are destined for shuttle buses and will be ready for delivery later this year, Ford spokesman Nick Twork said yesterday. "This engine represents a significant milestone in Ford's research efforts in hydrogen technology," said Mr Gerhard Schmidt, Ford Vice-President for Research and Advanced Engineering, who has long pushed for using hydrogen as fuel in conventional engines. The supercharged 6.8-litre V-10 engine will power Ford's E-450 hydrogen-fuelled shuttle buses, Mr Twork said. The buses are scheduled to be delivered to fleet customers later this year, first in Florida and then in other locations across North America, he added. Mr Twork said the company expected to build about 20 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles in the first wave. Hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines have many advantages, including high efficiency, all-weather capability, and near-zero emissions of regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases.
—AFP |
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Mumbai, July 18 Standard gold (99.5 purity) dropped by Rs 175 per 10 gm to open at Rs 9,895 from the overnight closing level of Rs 10,070. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also fell by Rs 180 per 10 gm to Rs 9,940 from Rs 10,120. Silver ready (.999 fineness) declined sharply by Rs 475 per kilo to Rs 17,820 from Rs 18,295 yesterday. In New York, gold futures moved down sharply on profit- taking, traders and analysts said. August gold settled down by $16.10 to $651.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. — PTI
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Hafed to set up IOC petrol stations
Chandigarh, July 18 Hafed also plans to introduce various IT components for e-governance and it would also provide web-enabled services to farmers and customers. This was disclosed at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today. Hafed has floated a special warehousing scheme to enable farmers sell their produce where the market rate would be more remunerative. Under this scheme the member farmers would be financed to the extent of 80 per cent of the cost of their produce at an interest rate of 8 per cent per annum on the basis of warehouse receipts. Hafed has also decided to upgrade the Rohtak Cattlefeed Plant to improve the quality of the feed and make it a brand throughout the country.
— UNI |
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Blue Star pact with Italian co
Mumbai, July 18 Blue Star Executive Director T.G.S. Babu said here today that initially ISA products will be imported and sold under the Blue Star-ISA co-brand. At a subsequent stage, Blue Star will explore manufacturing of a limited range of ISA products in the country in partnership with the Italian company, he said. — UNI
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GAIL net up by 22 pc at Rs 592 crore
New Delhi, July 18 The turnover rose by 24 per cent to Rs 4,078 crore in the April-June quarter as against Rs 3,288 crore in the first quarter of the previous financial year. “An enhanced provision of Rs 250 crore towards subsidy sharing on LPG and kerosene has been made in the first quarter of the current financial year as against a provision of Rs 153 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year,” it said. During the first quarter of the current financial year, revenues from all the business segments have shown an upside. Crompton Greaves
Leading Electrical equipment manufacturer Crompton Greaves Ltd has posted an increase of 16.38 per cent in net profit after tax at Rs 36.37 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 31.25 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2005-06. The total income (net of excise) increased by 41.33 per cent to Rs 745.55 crore for the first quarter in 2006-07 from Rs 527.51 crore in the same quarter in 2005-06, Crompton Greaves said. HDFC Q1 net up 20 pc
HDFC has posted an increase of 20.03 per cent in net profit at Rs 296.82 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 247.28 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2005-06. The total income increased by 33.56 per cent to Rs 1,248.53 crore for the first quarter of 2006-07 from Rs 934.76 crore in the same quarter in 2005-06, HDFC said. IPCL profit Rs 291 cr
Mukesh Ambani Group company Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) has posted a 29.33 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 291 crore for the quarter ended June 30 compared to Rs 225 crore in the year-ago period. The total income (net of excise) increased by 22.34 per cent to Rs 2,475 crore for the first quarter of 2006-07 from Rs 2,023 crore in the same quarter in 2005-06, the company said. TTK Prestige
TTK Prestige Limited, the largest provider of kitchen appliances in the country, today announced a record turnover of Rs 72.18 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal, up by 59 per cent from the corresponding quarter last year. Pre-tax profit of Rs 2.64 crore was 159 per cent more than Rs 1.02 crore earned during the quarter, ending June 30, 2005. Maharashtra Seamless
Maharashtra Seamless has posted a 142.54 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 60.03 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, as compared to Rs 24.75 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005. The company said its total income (net of excise) has increased by 69.49 per cent to Rs 344.87 crore for Q1 FY 06-07 from Rs 203.47 crore in Q1 FY 05-06. Maharashtra Seamless, a flagship company of DP Jindal group, claims to be the largest manufacturer of seamless steel pipes and tubes in India with a production capacity of over 2,50,000 MT per annum. Alembic net up
Pharmaceutical company Alembic Ltd today posted a 68.51 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 18.25 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, as compared to Rs 10.83 crore for the corresponding quarter in the year 2005-06. Total income rose to Rs 149.03 crore for the first quarter in 2006-07, up 8.33 per cent from Rs 137.57 crore in Q1 FY 05-06, the company informed the BSE. Hindustan Zinc
Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) today announced an increase in net profit by 491 per cent to Rs 874 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal as against Rs 148 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal. Earnings per share increased to Rs 20.68 while net sales was up by 206 per cent at Rs 1,610 crore during that period.
— Agencies, TNS |
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Suzlon to invest Rs 1,500 cr AAI contracts Godrej jv Blackstone
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