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| Thursday, July 20, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Government slips on disinvestment in oil PSUs Hind Organics, MSTC cleared
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NEW DELHI, July 19 — It was billed as a “big meeting” and it turned out to be a damp squib. The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, which was expected to take a policy decision on the sale of government equity in oil companies, avoided any discussion on the subject and instead cleared the disinvestment in two non-descript PSUs—Hindustan Organics Chemicals Ltd and Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation. The meeting held today was initially scheduled for July 12. Though officially there was no reason for the postponement of the meeting, it was understood that the government wanted a consensus on the issue within the ruling side before going in for any big ticket sale of PSUs. A high-level delegation consisting of the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, and the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, did talk it over with the top leadership of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh on the need for disinvestment in major PSUs. Within the government efforts were made to convince the Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik, to soften his stand that oil companies should be treated as a strategic sector. At present only Atomic Energy, Railways and Defence are treated as strategic sectors where the private sector is not allowed. Mr Naik, who has the backing of the RSS, insists that there should be no sale of government equity in oil PSUs like Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd. Mr Naik, today refused to comment on the discussions in the CCD. When asked if today’s meeting was successful, he quipped “all such (CCD) meetings are successful”. An indication that the government had met with little success in convincing the hawks within the Sangh Parivar on disinvestment was available last evening when the RSS Joint Secretary, Mr Madan Das Devi, failed to turn up at a seminar on “Impact of disinvestment on the Indian economy” which was addressed, among others, by Mr Arun Jaitley. Though the views of the RSS could not be known at the meeting organised by the Bharatiya Vit Salahakar Samithi, Mr Jaitley made it known that the government was determined to go ahead with its disinvestment plans. Mr Jaitley said the government was actively considering resurrecting the concept of “National Share Trust” as an improvement on “Special Purpose Vehicle”, a mechanism for disinvestment suggested by the former Chairman of the Disinvestment Commission. While the debate within the government goes on, the stock markets have reacted adversely and the prices of oil PSU scrips are ruling below their potential. The differences have eroded the market value of the country’s premier oil companies. |
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Hind Organics, MSTC cleared NEW DELHI, July 19 — The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) today approved the sale of government equity in Hindustan Organics Chemicals Ltd (HOCL) and Metal Scrap Trading Corporation as recommended by the Disinvestment Commission. Disinvestment Minister, Arun Jaitley, said after a two-hour meeting of the CCD that there was complete unanimity among the members on the disinvestment proposal. The meeting, presided over by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, did not take up any other company for disinvestment. These two companies were the only ones listed in today’s agenda. The meeting was attended among others by the Ministers of Petroleum, Civil Aviation, Minister of State for Steel and the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission.
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Bank opens boutiques CHANDIGARH, July 19 — Allahabad Bank today opened four retail banking boutiques at Rohtak, Karnal, Hoshiarpur and Phagwara. The Rohtak boutique was inaugurated by Krishan Goel and the one at Karnal was inaugurated by J.S. Kakar, Assistant General Manager, Chandigarh region. The boutique at Hoshiarpur was inaugurated by Deepak Narang, Regional Manager, Jalandhar. Loans worth Rs 1 crore were sanctioned on the opening day. Mr Raj Mohan Singh, Senior Vice-President of JCT, Phagwara, inaugurated the boutique at Phagwara. HDFC Bank: |
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Haryana Agro earns 11 crore
profit ROHTAK, July 19 — The Haryana Agro Industries Corporation (HAIC) has earned a profit of Rs 11 crore in the year 1999-2000 against a loss of about Rs 6.78 crore in the previous year. Stating this here today, the Chairman of the HAIC, Mr Inder Singh Dhull, said the corporation had done a business of about Rs 261 crore in the last financial year whereas the total business done in the year 1998-99 was only Rs 135 crore. He said the corporation would soon start its own petrol stations and LPG gas outlets in the rural areas. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the Union Ministry of Petroleum. The petrol stations are likely to be set up at Ambala city, Panipat, Shahbad Markanda, Nilokheri, Murthal, Jind, Kaithal and Hisar while LPG outlets are likely to be established at Ambala, Panipat and Gurgaon. He said that the state government had decided to restart the food and fruit processing centre at Murthal . |
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Renault picks up stake in ITL NEW DELHI, July 19 — French Renault tractors will be manufactured at the Hoshiarpur plant of the Sonalika group, which is part of the Punjab-based International Tractors Limited (ITL). “The tractors will be manufactured at Sonalika’s Hoshiarpur plant, where a new factory with an area of 1,10,000 sq metre and a capacity of more than 40,000 tractors per annum is being commissioned,” the Chairman of ITL, Mr L.D. Mittal, said here today. The Renault Group, which has picked up 20 per cent stake in ITL, will transfer the manufacturing licence for its 55-89 HP Renault Ceres tractor, there by allowing Sonalika to manufacture 100 per cent indigenised Renault tractors in India. The first unit of these will be manufactured in 2002 with a planned volume of 3,000 units a year. Renault will invest Rs 44 crore in India, through its subsidiary Renault Agriculture, for picking up the 20 per cent stake in ITL, Mr Bruno Morange, CMD of Renault Agriculture said. He also announced the setting up of a separate marketing joint venture in Mauritius with ITL, marking the French giant’s foray into India. The marketing venture — Renault Sonalike International — will be registered in Mauritius with Renault controlling 60 per cent stake in the venture and ITL holding 40 per cent state. Renault is also planning to source and export components like casting, gear shafts, housing and total transmissions from India. The first batch of exports is likely to commence in two years. |
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MUMBAI: Tisco has recorded a massive jump of 309 per cent in net profit at Rs 101.40 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2000, compared to Rs 24.79 crore posted in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Net sales rose 21.08 per cent at Rs 1728.27 crore for the quarter over the same period in 1999-2000, Tisco said in a release here today. Production of steel stood at 8,34,906 tonnes in quarter ended June 30, 2000, against 7,48,253 tonnes achieved in the corresponding period of 1999-2000. Interest costs went up from Rs 85.84 crore to Rs 103.11 crore, while depreciation rose to Rs 112.15 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 104 crore in the same quarter the previous year. Tisco reported export turnover of Rs 177.42 crore for the quarter, against Rs 126.37 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. TV 18 to float Net venture Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV 18) has announced a Rs 120 crore Internet project called “Project Broadband” to provide Net access through an integrated, interactive TV property. TV 18 will hold 60 per cent stake in the venture, which would leverage on its high content production capabilities, understanding of business and proven experience in TV and Internet segments, the company said in a release today after its board meeting yesterday. The remaining 40 per cent stake will be vested with a committed financial investor with strategic interest, which should also be a globally sized institution. The company posted a net profit of Rs 3.69 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2000, taking the figure for the first three quarters to Rs 19.83 crore. The net profit for the quarter was arrived at after a one-time write-off of Rs 16.87 lakh towards extraordinary items incurred due to prepayment of loans. Reliance hikes stake in BSES Reliance Industries Limited has increased its stake in BSES Limited by 11.86 per cent to 26.68 per cent on completion of its open offer on July 16. RIL, whose shareholding in BSES was 14.82 per cent together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Power Ventures Limited (RPVL), had on May 19 last announced an open offer for acquisition of 20 per cent of the equity share capital of BSES at Rs 234.60 per share. It was subsequently raised to Rs 255 per share. Financial Institutions, led by UTI, declined to subscribe to the open offer stating ‘‘the offer price does not represent the real worth of the power utility’’, leading to sole dependence of RIL on shares from retail shareholders. Goldstone Tech net rises 93 pc Goldstone Technologies and its global subsidiaries today recorded a 93 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 10.26 crore for the year ended June 30, 2000, compared to Rs 5.29 crore in the previous year. The company recorded a net profit of Rs 2.33 crore for the fourth quarter ending June, 2000, against Rs 1.37 crore in the corresponding period last. Hind Const Hindustan Construction Company has been awarded a Rs 162 crore project to construct a 12-km water supply tunnel from Bhandup complex to Malad Hill reservoir and further up to Chakrop in Mumbai. The Municipal Corporation of Birhan, Mumbai, has awarded this project to HCC.
— PTI, TNS |
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Women on boards? NEW DELHI: The issue of women’s reservation has finally hit the corporate world with the government proposing to earmark certain number of seats for them on company boards. India would become the first country to ensure such reservation on company boards if the Companies Bill containing the proposed clause gets parliamentary approval. “We are bringing in a clause in the Companies Bill to ensure women’s representation on the companies’ board”, says Mr P.L. Sanjeev Reddy, Secretary, Department of Company Affairs. “The other initiatives include the appointment of women directors, shareholder directors in every public company having a paid-up capital of Rs 5 crore or more and also where there are more than 1,000 shareholders”.
— PTI Dubai to hold
e-biz contest DUBAI: Dubai Internet City (DIC) has launched the biggest e-business contest to be held in a region stretching from Egypt to the Indian sub-continent and from South Africa to the Gulf countries. The contest — titled “E-business challenge” — began on July 19 wherein three winning ideas will receive $ 150,000 each worth of incubation support at DIC. Six leading companies — IBM, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Emirates Bank Group, Microsoft and Mastercard — will sponsor the competition. DIC Chairman Mohammed Al Gergawi said: “There are a lot of good e-business ideas in our part of the world. Entrepreneurs unfortunately find it difficult to execute these ideas because all the enabling elements for a business start-up are not in place. Through this challenge we hope to rectify this shortcoming”. Business plan summaries will be evaluated by DIC and 100-125 innovative ideas will be chosen. The entrepreneurs will then be asked to submit detailed business plans and the three winners will be shortlisted from a total of 10. The three winners will be announced in October when DIC is formally inaugurated.
— PTI Mitsubishi to recall vehicles TOKYO: Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp is recalling about 700,000 vehicles for free repairs, one day after the Transport Ministry said the automaker concealed information on defective vehicles. Mitsubishi said on Wednesday it will recall 14 models of passenger cars and trucks, including its popular Galant, Lancer, Delica Star Wagon and Pajero vehicles, manufactured from May 1992 to this month. Among the problems feared to be affecting the cars, a Galant model may be leaking fuel while an engine fault in a Lancer model may cause the engine to suddenly seize. The recall is expected to cost the company five billion yen.
— PTI |
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Sell Global Tele, buy Infosys Tech LAST week we had predicted “The good Q1 result posted by Infosys Technologies has provided a temporary respite to the market, which looks weary and appears to be visibly struggling to surge ahead. Now that this major event is done and over with, it might not be surprising to witness a sharp downswing
here from, as it seems unlikely that too much more good news is round the corner”. So, what does the road ahead look like — well, it is not unlikely that one last short and sharp upside correction might break this fall, before the inevitable southward journey commences. In the meanwhile though, traders can continue to take advantage of the panic and those with a bearish temperament can consider short positions at the counters of Global Telesystems at Rs 1149 (cover up at Rs 1083) and ITC at Rs 838 (cover up at Rs 797). Bull operators could consider taking up long positions at the counters of Infosys at Rs 7447 (square up at Rs 8065) and Satyam Computer at 2781 (square up at Rs 2886). Discerning investors looking to pack a punch into their portfolios can consider exposure at the counter of Mastek. The optimal strategy this week would be — make a quick entry at lower levels and exit at successive upswings. |
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HCL Comnet Ambuja Cements Prem Lata Lintas renamed Entry tax Godrej cream |
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