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Govt helpless in bank mergers
ADAG to invest Rs 60,000 crore in Orissa
ITC to invest Rs 15,000 crore
SEBI norms on ‘quiet period’ soon
Ambanis start another row
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ONGC to liquefy Sakhalin gas
Japanese cos line up $1.8 b funding
BSNL launches new schemes in Haryana
Reliance SOS to
Centre
Sidhu named Fidelity Fund
corporate head|
MRTPC assails Jet, Air Sahara
Exide eyes buyouts in Germany
CORPORATE RESULTS
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Govt helpless in bank mergers
New Delhi, July 21 Hinting at strong pressure of trade unions and political compulsions, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today virtually expressed his helplessness on the issue of consolidation of public sector banks. “I have been speaking on the issue (consolidation of banks) for the past two years. The Prime Minister has also supported it. The bank managements are ready for the consolidation, but there is opposition from other quarters,” Mr Chidambaram told reporters after reviewing the performance of public sector banks here today. “If there is no consolidation, the banks will be reduced as a small fry. Trade unions should understand this,” he said . Agriculture credit
Complementing the banks, the Finance Minister said, “As against a target of doubling the agricultural credit through national banks in three years, they have achieved the target within two years as on March 2006.” Despite a challenging year due to hardening of interest rates, he said, the banks had brought down gross non-performing assets (NPA) to 1.4 per cent by March 2006 as against 3.1 per cent in March 2004. Average growth in deposits has been 12.93 per cent during the period, he said adding there was ample liquidity in the market to meet the credit needs. Inflation
Mr Chidambaram said the government and the RBI would take all measures to moderate inflation. An inflation of 4.68 per cent is tolerable. There is no reason for inflation expectation," he said. "If inflation remains moderate, interest rates will be moderate," he said. "There is some uncertainty over inflation, but I hope the uncertainty will get resolved in the next few days and weeks," he told reporters. However, oil prices continue to rise in the international markets with US light crude above $74 a barrel on Friday, up about 20 per cent this year, and triggering concerns that the gains could eventually be passed on to the domestic consumer, adding to price pressures. "Rising oil prices will have an impact on inflation. There is some uncertainty about inflation. It will get cleared in few weeks," he added. Inflation has come down from 4.96 per cent to 4.68 per cent during the week ended July 8. After a three-hour long meeting with chairmen of public sector banks, the Finance Minister said there was no need to assume that prices would rise relentlessly. "Prices will be moderate. As I have often said the country which is witnessing 8 per cent growth rate for third year in succession is bound to have some inflation. But, that does not justify any heightened inflationary expectations," he said. Meanwhile, the Chairman and Managing Director of Vijaya Bank, Mr Prakash P. Mallya, who attended the meeting, said, “Banks are preparing for 25 basis point hike in interest rate in near future.” |
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ADAG to invest Rs 60,000 crore in Orissa
Bhubaneswar, July 21 The 12,000 MW coal-fired plant is expected to be set up at Hirma in Jharsuguda district in phases, ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani told reporters here after a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. "I have no doubt in my mind that Orissa with its coal reserves will be the power capital of the entire country. Over the next few decades, Orissa will have its rightful place (as a developed state) in India," he said. Mr Ambani said the outlay for the power plant would be in excess of Rs 50,000 crore, while another Rs 10,000 crore would be invested for transmission and evacuation of the power generated. "It will represent the largest investment in power sector anywhere in the world," he said, adding a 4,300 MW coal-fired plant in South Africa was the largest thermal unit at a single location at present. ADAG's spending plan is also the largest for any project by a group in the country and beats the Rs 52,000 crore investment proposal of South Korean steel giant Posco and the Rs 30,000-40,000 crore steel plant plan of Mittal Steel — both in Orissa. Besides Rs 60,000 crore for the power plant and allied works, the group would be investing in a health city, IT and IT-related infrastructure in the state. The health city would comprise a hospital and infrastructure for medical education and research near the capital city, he said. A joint communique has been signed between ADAG and the Orissa Government at the state secretariat today. Orissa has 61 billion tonnes of coal reserves, which can sustain power generation capacity of up to 1,00,000 MW for a century, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.
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Kolkata, July 21 Announcing this here, ITC Chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said the investments would be made in the expansion of trend-setting e-choupal initiative for creating rural digital infrastructure coupled with physical infrastructure, hotel business, paper and paper-board business and the FMCG business, including traditional business, cigarettes. Mr Deveshwar said Rs 5,000 crore would be spent on expanding the e-choupal infrastructure to more than 6,000 installations to cover over 1 lakh villages and 3.5 million farmers. He said this business was rapidly developing into a reliable partner for two-way flow of goods and services in and out of the rural market. Mr Deveshwar said the digital infrastructure of e-choupal was now being supplemented with a phased roll out of physical infrastructure called choupal-saagars, designed as rural supermarkets, to serve as a hub for a cluster of villages. Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, who had guided ITC Limited from a crisis-ridden entity in the mid-1990s to a multi-diversified company, was today re-appointed Chairman for another five years from the end of his present term in February 2007. The resolution to re-appoint Mr Deveshwar was passed unanimously at the company's annual general meeting here today. Meanwhile, the company has posted an increase of 16.83 per cent in profit after tax at Rs 652.28 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 558.30 crore for the same quarter in 2005-06. The total income increased 24.80 per cent to Rs 2934.69 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 2351.40 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, the company said. — PTI
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SEBI norms on ‘quiet period’ soon
Chennai, July 21 The regulation will ensure that the companies maintained a 'quiet period' before and during the launch of their IPOs, he said, on the sidelines of a Ficci session on Market- oriented reforms and corporate governance imperatives towards a global economy here. Delivering the inaugural address at the session, Mr Damodaran said, "Good corporate governance is at least a necessary condition if not a sufficient condition for creating long-time value for the shareholders". He said shareholders need to know what was being done with their money. "Most often what happens at the AGMs is that no timeframe is fixed for passing resolutions. The shareholders do not question why a particular resolution should not be passed," he said. On the issue of independent Directors on the Board, he said they should be able to represent the issues of the minority shareholders. He also said, "Till a sufficiently large number of companies get into
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Ambanis start another row
New Delhi, July 21 RIL sources said that its employees were “harassed and were being denied access to cafeteria, temple and other facilities” and wondered as to why its employees should be subjected to such a treatment on “payment issues that are discussed at the management level”. When contacted, sources in Reliance Communication (RCL) termed the allegations as “fictitious, distorted and malicious” and said that access to temple in DAKC had never been barred to anyone. In its counter- attack, RCL contended that RIL had defaulted in payments of nearly Rs 200 crore for use of facilities at DAKC for over a year in spite of several reminders. Complaining of harassment for the past three day, including denial of access to computers and software, RIL sources said that the treatment was against the “cooperation nature and the spirit that exist between the two”.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, July 21 The ONGC is also in talks with Shell to use its liquefication facility in Sakhalin-2 and a meeting to this effect between the two companies will be held soon, sources say. The ONGC has a 20 per cent share through its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Limited, in Sakhalin-1 which has more than 2.3 billion barrels of oil as reserves and 485 billion cubic feet of gas. The project is currently operated by US major Exxon Mobil. India is also in talks with Iran, Turkmenistan and Myanmar to bring in gas. Meanwhile the 7-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project has hit a roadblock over pricing formula. The Oil secretaries of Iran and India will meet next week and try to redress India’s price formula, which Iran had earlier rejected. — UNI
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Japanese cos line up $1.8 b funding
New Delhi, July 21 ‘’Within this fiscal the investment from Japanese companies is expected to increase by three- fold,’’ he told reporters at a press conference, also attended by Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) Chairman and CEO O. Watanabe. ‘’We are expecting $600 million investment in India by the end of this year from $200 million at present,’’ Dr Dua said. At least 21 companies from Japan had shown interest in investing in India, the automobile companies being most interested in expanding their business in India. ‘’Mitsubishi Motors has announced $117 million investment while Honda Motor Co has committed $200 million to expand their businesses in the country,’’ he said. Two other Japanese companies, Suzuki and Nissan were also coming up jointly. Meanwhile, Mr Watanabe said that inter-state taxes and lack of infrastructure are the major issues discouraging Japanese companies from investment in India. Earlier, Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath inaugurated the JETRO Business Support Centre in India (BSCI) here. Mr Nath said the BSCI would help Japanese SMEs to launch their business in India and provide necessary information and other support to them. — UNI
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BSNL launches new schemes in Haryana
Chandigarh, July 21 Moreover, enhanced talk value will be available on recharge coupons of Rs 200, Rs 500, Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000 and for top-up cards worth Rs 500. Under the new scheme for post-paid customers, any three or more BSNL post-paid customers of plan 225/299/325/525 can form a group within Haryana and talk free for unlimited period amongst themselves by paying nominal fixed plan charges. Under One India roaming plan 490 under post-paid cellular services, against a monthly rental of Rs 490, any BSNL post-paid customer in roaming will be charged reduced rate of Re 1 per minute for outgoing and incoming calls in place of Rs 1.50, Rs 2.40 and Rs 2 in other post-paid plans. |
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Reliance SOS to
Centre
New Delhi, July 21 The company, which is selling petrol and diesel at about Rs 2.50 per litre more than the highly subsidised rates of public sector oil firms, saw its market share in diesel dip to just 1.7 per cent this month, industry sources said. Sources said Reliance lost Rs 3.39 per litre on petrol and Rs 5.77 a litre after incorporating a Rs 4 a litre hike in petrol and Rs 2 per litre hike in diesel prices in line with the June 5 hike by state retailers. Reliance has sought subsidy support similar to the fertiliser sector where private and public sector firms are provided government support on common principles.
— PTI
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Sidhu named Fidelity Fund
corporate head|
Chandigarh, July 21 He brings to bear his strong relationships across a wide range of strategic and financial investors. For the last three and a half years with HSBC Group, Mr Sidhu has held an additional responsibility as Special Adviser to build up its public sector business in India. He is also a senior resource person for select private sector and multinational companies. A national merit scholarship awardee in school, Mr Sidhu studied Economics (Honours) at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He spent a year completing a Foundation Course in English Law, Management and Financial Accounting at the Polytechnic of Wales, UK. Mr Sidhu qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. |
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MRTPC assails Jet, Air Sahara
New Delhi, July 21 The MRTPC flayed both airlines for failure to inform it of the failed deal. "It would be appropriate if Director-General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) updates its investigation report," MRTPC acting Chairman M.L.K. Sardana said. MRTPC listed for September another petition, filed by Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society, that had questioned the proposed merger.
— PTI |
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Exide eyes buyouts in Germany
Kolkata, July 21 “We have already received proposals from a few firms in Germany. “Exide Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
S.B. Ganguly said . Meanwhile, the company has posted an increase of 57.34 per cent in net profit after tax at Rs 38.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 24.22 crore for the same period in the last fiscal. The total income (net of excise) increased 34.34 per cent to Rs 441.99 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 328.99 crore in the year-ago period, the battery maker said. The shareholders at the annual general meeting today approved the proposal to split one equity share of Rs 10 each into 10 shares of Re 1. The split is expected to raise the company’s floating shares in the secondary market.
— UNI |
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Satyam Q1 PAT up at Rs 360 cr
Mumbai, July 21 The total income rose to Rs 1,461.24 crore for the first quarter in 2006-07, up 38.13 per cent from Rs 1,057.82 crore during Q1 FY 05-06, the company said. The group reported a consolidated profit (after taxation and share of loss in associate company & minority interest) of Rs 354.12 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as against Rs 190.20 crore for Q1 FY 05-06. Tata Steel Q1 net up
Tata Steel Ltd has posted an increase of 3.17 per cent in net profit at Rs 953.41 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 924.11 crore for the same quarter last year. The total income (net of excise) increased 11.32 per cent to Rs 3,993.78 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 3,587.39 crore a year ago, the company said. The group posted profit after minority interest and share of profits of associates at Rs 1,019.18 crore for the quarter ended June 30. Cipla net up 53 pc
Pharma major Cipla has posted a net profit of Rs 170.43 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, as compared to Rs 111.40 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, an increase of 52.98 per cent. The company said its total income (net of excise) has increased from Rs 671.17 crore in Q1 FY 05-06 to Rs 885.53 crore for Q1 FY 06-07. The Board has recommended payment of dividend of Rs 2 per equity share (face value Rs 2). L&T today posted an increase of nearly 10 per cent in net profit after tax at Rs 157.13 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 142.97 crore for the same quarter in 2005-06. The total income (net of excise) increased 11.69 per cent to Rs 3,524.33 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 3,155.34 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. HMT in the red
HMT Ltd today reported a net loss of Rs 12.95 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, as compared to a net loss of Rs 1.56 crore in the corresponding quarter in 2005-06. Total income decreased 62.06 per cent to Rs 22.54 crore in 2006-07 from Rs 59.42 crore in Q1 FY 05-06, the company informed the BSE.
— Agencies |
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LIC Chandigarh division tops Mobile PCOs Infosys first
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Mr Sidhu has a wide commercial and investment banking experience in India and internationally. At HSBC, Mr Sidhu, as the Senior Director has been associated with several significant disinvestments and privatisation deals in the government sector, including MTNL, VSNL, CMC, NTPC, NALCO, HPCL, Maruti, IBP and ITDC. 
