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Gas Pipeline Network
‘SAIL never been part of cartelisation’
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SBI rates on external deposits up
Adlabs forays into Malaysia
Yahoo shares fall after MS withdraws bid
Basel II good for debt mkt development: Crisil
CII task force to look into rising food prices
REC gets Navratna status
Removal of ADC
June 2 is record date for RPower
Futures Contracts Corporate Results
‘ISA dissolved’
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India lags behind Pak
New Delhi, May 5 Pakistan’s pipeline density, at present is 1044 km/mmscmd (million metric standard cubic meter per day) per day compared to 116 km/mmscmd of India, Assocham said in its paper on gas sector ‘A Comparison between India and Pakistan’. The neighbouring country has created a 31,000 km distribution network to serve its domestic and commercial consumers in large locations, against the 11,000 km network that have so far been build in India to serve the needs of its consumers in limited pockets, the report said. While Pakistan has nearly 1,600 CNG stations, India has 380. The gas throughput in Pakistan is 38 mmscmd per day as against 8.5 mmscmd gas in India. The number of gas customers and vehicles running on CNG in Pakistan is about 19 lakh and 15.6 lakh respectively, while in India the number is 5.50 lakh and 4.60 lakh. “The gas availability in Pakistan is undoubtedly quite large, compared to India but given the imports of gas and even its domestic availability in India, its pipeline network is extremely poor and the main reason attributed for the low and limited pipeline network in India is because this sector has been thoroughly regulated which has now been opened for competition,” Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot said. The paper added that since the pipeline network in India does not reach out to most of the potential demand centres, a number of industrial projects, which would ideally run on gas, have to depend on much more costlier and more polluting alternative fuels. “Thus the unmet gas demand in India is probably much higher than what is reported,” he said, adding India, “at present has only one major cross country pipeline in the form of Hizira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline and there is estimated to be considerable unmet demand even in the states serviced by this pipeline”. With the increased availability of gas, the country needs to gear up quickly to meet the increased requirement of cross country as well as regional and local downstream gas distribution networks, he said. — PTI
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‘SAIL never been part of cartelisation’
New Delhi, May 5 “We have never been part of cartelisation and we shall not be a part of it. Our company does not increase the prices in cartelisation,” chairman of SAIL Sushil Kumar Roongta told reporters on the sidelines of a CII national seminar on corporate social responsibility here. Government-run steel giants SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) have decided to pull out of the Alliance amid fears that steel makers have formed a cartel to raise prices, which is augmenting the inflationary pressure on the economy. Roongta said the Alliance was not serving the purpose of steel manufacturers and hinted that the company may join another organisation dealing with issues of steel producers. In a reply to a query on possible correction in steel prices, the SAIL chairman said it could not be in near future due to surging input costs. “We wish steel prices reduce further, but going by international prices, there may not be any major correction,” he said. Roongta said the biggest increase in input cost has been due to soaring prices of coking coal, a vital raw material used for steel manufacturing. “The prices have gone up from 98 dollars to 305 dollars,” he said. Asked if SAIL could reduce steel prices in future, all Roongta said was the company did not increase its prices in April. “We will consider it when the need be,” he said. The SAIL Chairman said the steel prices had shot up to about Rs 50,000 a tonne in early March this year, but due to government’s initiatives, there has been a reduction of 15-18 per cent or Rs 8,000 per tonne. “If it stays at this level, then it is a good relief,” he added. About the proposed tie-up between SAIL and Australian firm BHP Billiton for supply of coking coal to the former, Roongta said the agreement is likely to be signed this month. He said SAIL will have to import about 12-13 million tons of coking coal this year to meet the requirement of its steel plants. — PTI
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SBI rates on external deposits up
Mumbai, May 5 The bank raised the interest rates on Non Resident External (NRE) rupee deposits of one year to less than 2 years to 3.08 per cent from 2.49 per cent, two years to less than three years to 3.18 per cent from 2.5 per cent and three to five years to 3.45 per cent from 2.81 per cent. Similar hikes have been made in Foreign Currency Non Resident (FCNR) deposits held in US Dollars, Pound Sterling, Euro, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Yen. The US Dollar deposits of one to two years will earn interest of 2.33 per cent as against 1.74 per cent. Interest rate on deposits of two to three years has been raised to 2.43 per cent from 1.75 per cent, three to four years to 2.7 per cent from 2.08 per cent, four to five years to 2.93 per cent from 2.35 per cent. For five years deposits, interest rates have been raised to 3.11 per cent from 2.65 per cent. — PTI |
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Aircel to infuse up to $5 b by 2010
Kolkata, May 5 “We have already pumped in $2 billion so far,” Maxis Communications Berhad CEO and Aircel director Sandip Das said here today at the launch of Kolkata service circle. Aircel holds licence and spectrum for service rollout in all the 23 telecom circles of the country. “Kolkata is 10th circle and we have 13 more circles to cover to have a pan India presence. We hope to cover these in the next two and half years,” Das said. Maxis Communications holds a 74 per cent stake in Aircel Group, while Apollo Hospitals Enterprises of India owns the rest. Speaking about infrastructure, Aircel chief operating officer Gurdeep Singh said the company would add 14,000 additional cell sites in one year for service rollout, which would need $1.6 billion. The company has 7,000 sites at present and of this one per cent is shared. — PTI
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Mumbai, May 5 The company has entered into an agreement for acquisition of majority and controlling interest in Lotus Five Star Cinemas and would be operating a 51-screen cinema exhibition chain in Malaysia, the company said. The chain would have a footprint across Malaysia and would play mainstream Hollywood films in addition to movies in the Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Chinese and Malay, Adlabs added. Adlabs currently has 160 screens operating in India. Its international presence, in addition to Malaysia, comprises 220 screens covering the US as also Mauritius and Nepal. — PTI
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Yahoo shares fall after MS withdraws bid
New York, May 5 Yahoo Inc’s shares tumbled 22 per cent in pre-market trading today after Microsoft Corp withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer for the Internet search and media company. The collapse of talks on what would have been one of the largest deals in the technology sector prompted Wall Street brokerages to cut their ratings and price targets on Yahoo, which rejected Microsoft’s $33-per-share bid as too low and demanded $37 per share instead. “Yahoo’s execution remains the problem, as the company has not been able to execute better targeting and measurement on its own site effectively enough over the past 15 years,” UBS analyst Heather Bellini wrote in a note to clients. Yahoo is under pressure to come up with alternatives following Microsoft’s pull-out, which was announced on Saturday following the breakdown of talks between Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. Yahoo is likely to push for an advertising partnership with Web search leader Google Inc, sources familiar with the matter say. A tie-up with Google, seen as a big winner from the end of Microsoft-Yahoo talks, should help boost Yahoo’s operating performance in the near term.
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Basel II good for debt mkt development: Crisil
Mumbai, May 5 The new ratings assigned by Crisil in 2007-08 increased dramatically more than the total ratings assigned by it in last four years, it said. “This increase was driven by the rapid growth in Bank Loan Ratings (BLRs). As of March 31, 2008, BLRs constituted 21 per cent of outstanding Crisil ratings up from a base of zero a year ago,” it said, adding the shift presages significant deepening of India’s debt market. Crisil has rated bank facilities of Rs 1.92 trillion, representing more than one-eighth of the Indian banking system’s corporate exposure. The lack of bond market demand for ratings below the AA category, so far led to a few of these ratings being used. “The rising number of BLRs has now resulted in a fuller distribution, with rating categories below “AA” being much better populated than before,” Crisil Ratings Senior Director Raman Uberoi said. The market participants are gaining comfort with the debt servicing capabilities of many prominent credits that are rate below the AA category. — PTI
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CII task force to look into rising food prices
Hyderabad, May 5 “We need to build a global platform for dialogue and action to manage the crisis,” said CII director general, Chandrajit Banerjee in a statement. He said the entire issue of spiraling food prices needs to be seen in a global perspective rather than an issue limited to specific countries. CII is of the view that diversion of food to bio-fuels, changing weather conditions across the globe and huge agricultural subsidies are some of the factors leading to rising food prices. CII opines that a global discussion on the crisis might help building stronger information networks on consumption and production so that corrective measures can be taken across the globe to avert such a crisis. It also advised to develop global food management system under Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Banerjee said the CII has been proactively campaigning for reforms in agriculture. The CII Task Force on Food would look into improving productivity, bridging yield gap and encouraging private sector participation in distribution of food, he said. CII is working on an agenda for developing second generation of bio-fuels, which do not eat into the food stock or impinge on agricultural land, he added. — PTI
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New Delhi, May 5 The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has issued the order for giving the coveted status to REC, which will now be able to expand its electricity business in the rural areas. “REC is working throughout the country with a big network. It is a pioneer in the area of rural electrification,” DPE secretary R. Bandopadhyay said. REC is the 16th PSU to have been named as the ‘Navratna’ firm. The company can now take decisions of investing up to 1,000 crore or 15 per cent of its networth, whichever is less, independently. ‘Mini ratna’ status for IRCTCIn a major boost to its efforts for an image makeover, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), the catering and hospitality wing of Indian Railways, has been granted ‘mini ratna’ status that will allow the company greater financial autonomy and thus become more efficient and competitive. “The grant of ‘mini ratna category I’ status to IRCTC by the railway ministry allows greater financial autonomy and delegation of powers to the company and it is in recognition of its sound performance over the years,” an IRCTC official said today. IRCTC is responsible for providing a range of passenger amenities, including catering on trains and at stations, manufacture of Rail Neer, the packaged drinking water, Internet ticketing, 139 Rail Enquiry Call Centre, tourism packages and Bharat Darshan trains. The official said IRCTC is also mandated to set up 100 budget hotels at railway stations across the country and is set to launch a Pan-India luxury train shortly.— PTI, UNI
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TDSAT notice to TRAI
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 5 Issuing notice, chairman, TDSAT, Justice Arun Kumar, also directed the sectoral regulator to file its reply within four weeks. The counsel appearing for BSNL submitted that the regulator had arbitrarily removed the ADC. The removal of ADC has led to a loss of revenue to the BSNL but would benefit the rural mobile phone users as TRAI has asked all the other private service providers to pass on the benefits to the consumers and some have also done so from May 1. The counsel said despite the low cost service provided by the telecom giant, TRAI rejected it by saying BSNL would not get a single penny after 2008. “However, when we put documents, then they only realised that BSNL was entitled for Rs 2,000 crore and it should be paid to us. That money should be paid to us to ensure a level playing field,” he said. He also opposed TRAI’s contention that the loss suffered by BSNL should be recovered by the government through USO. Opposing it, TRAI counsel submitted that ADC was a depleting regime and not fixed forever. However, he also submitted that non-profit rural operations need to be protected.
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June 2 is record date for RPower
Mumbai, May 5 Reliance Power in its filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange said shareholders, irrespective of whether they subscribed to shares in the initial public offering (IPO) or purchased them from the secondary market, would be eligible to get the bonus shares. “All shareholders of Reliance Power except promoters who as per the company’s records hold shares as at the end of business hours on June 2, 2008, irrespective of whether such shares were subscribed by the shareholders in the company’s IPO or such shares were purchased/acquired from the secondary market or otherwise after the
IPO, shall be eligible to receive the bonus shares,” the filing said. Reliance Power is allotting bonus shares of three new shares for every five shares held in the company. The bonus issue was declared after the company’s share price fell sharply just days after its listing. The company stated that its books would remain closed between June 3 and 5 for the purpose of compiling the record of its shareholders. |
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Futures Contracts Mumbai, May 5 Cross margining refers to a position where the margin requirements in the derivatives market are set-off against the stocks held in the spot market. The cross margin facility, it added, will also be available to positions in cash market having corresponding off-setting positions in the stock futures market. The initiative is aimed at improving the efficiency of the use of the margin capital by market participants, it said. As an initial step towards cross margining across cash and derivatives markets, it said: “Margins shall be levied on cash market positions which have off-setting stock futures positions in the derivatives market.” For positions in the cash market which have corresponding offsetting positions in the stock futures, it said, VaR (value added risk) margin will not be levied on the cash market position to the extent of the off-setting stock futures market position — PTI
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PTC declares dividend
New Delhi, May 5 However, the total income during the quarter stood at Rs 565.95 crore, lower by 6.52 per cent from Rs 605.40 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The board has recommended a dividend at 10 per cent on 22,74,19,000 fully paid-up Equity Shares of Rs 10 each, company said in a statement. JSW Steel net up
JSW Steel has announced standalone net profit of Rs 461 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31 against Rs 413.25 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total income of the company rose to Rs 4,225.97 crore for the quarter from Rs 2,579.27 crore in the year-ago period, JSW said. The board of directors has declared a dividend of Rs 14 on every share of Rs 10 for financial year 2007-08. For the year ended March 31, JSW Steel posted consolidated net profit of Rs 1,640.04 crore against Rs 1,303.89 crore in the same period last year. UCO Bank
UCO Bank posted a net profit of Rs 86 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, a 177.4 per cent jump compared with the figure recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal. The firm had posted a net profit of Rs 30.95 crore in the year-ago period. The board has recommended a dividend of Re 1 per equity share of Rs 10 each for the year 2007-08, it said. ICPL profit up
IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ICPL) today posted its profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 12.36 crore in the financial year ended on March 31, 2008, an increase of 64 per cent over year-ago period. The company reported PAT of Rs 7.55 crore in the financial year ended on March 31, 2007, the company said. ICPL recorded a total income of Rs 361.35 crore for the fiscal ended on March 31, 2008 against Rs 231.71 crore reported in the previous fiscal. — Agencies |
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