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| Thursday, March 8, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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No stock
payment crisis: Sinha
Offer for
Knoll Pharma stake
CAG to conduct
audit of Balco transaction |
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Internet services
hit in Haryana Bandh by garment
units
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No stock payment crisis: Sinha New Delhi, March 7 Replying to concerns of MPs over the crash in the market two days after the Budget, Mr Sinha said SEBI was inquiring into incident and was trying to find out whether the market had been manipulated or fixed by one cartel or the other. “I will share the findings of SEBI inquiry once it is completed. At present, I do not want to make any statement on the issue as the inquiry was going on”, Mr Sinha said urging members that no wrong signal should go from the House. The Finance Minister said the “payment system is safe and there is no possibility of any payment crisis. Congress member, S. Jaipal Reddy said the stock market had risen to dizzy heights immediately after the presentation of the Budget but was now falling towards “fathomless depths” because of operations of stock broker Ketan Parekh. “It is causing turmoil. Our banks, deposits and small investors are in jeopardy”, Mr Reddy said and pointed out that stock brokers had entered into $ 250 million investment with media giant Kerry Packer of Australia and were also involved in a deal with Himachal Futuristic Limited. The Congress member alleged that Mr Parekh, still an accused in a case with big bull Harshad Mehta, was “running a sensex” of his own known as KP index. It had touched a 52 weeks low, he said. Mr Reddy received strong support from his party colleagues Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar and Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, CPM members, Roopchand Pal and Mr Ajoy Chakraborty and Rashtriya Janata Dal member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. Even as the opposition members were raising the issue, BJP member Kirit Parekh stood up saying that the Finance Minister should come out with a statement as the interest of small investors was at stake.
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New Delhi, March 7 Abbot UK already owns 51 per cent stake in Knoll Pharmaceuticals indirectly but does not hold any shares of the target company directly, as per a notice on the BSE today. The announcement offer is subject to the acquirers’ (Abbot UK and Abbot USA) obtaining the necessary statutory approvals in this regard, it said adding that the offer opened on May 2 this year and closes on May 31. The acquirers have appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital Company as their manager for the offer. “The acquirers propose to acquire 20 per cent of the total issued and outstanding shares of the company. The offer is, therefore, to acquire 32,400,000 shares. The price of the offer has been fixed at Rs 328 for each fully paid-up share of the target company and is to be paid in cash in accordance with the regulations,” the notice said. On March 2, 2001, Abbot UK had acquired from Lupharma GmbH the entire equity capital of Lupharma UK Holding One Ltd, which holds 82,62,000 shares of face value Rs 10 each in Knoll Pharmaceuticals, representing 51 per cent equity capital of the latter. Subex Systems Subex Systems has been awarded a contract from Econet Wireless to deploy its fraud management system in Econet’s network in Nigeria. Ranger, a fraud management system from Subex, is one of the market leaders in this area, according to a Subex Systems release. “We are a growth-oriented organisation and we see tremendous potential in this market. Our requirement is for a partner and a system that can meet the demands of this market and we believe that we have found the right choice in Subex and its product, Ranger”, says Douglas Mboweni, Chief Information Officer, Econet Wireless. White cement The Commerce Ministry has recommended the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on import of white cement from the UAE and Iran following an injury complaint by Grasim Industries and J K Synthetics. “It is necessary to impose an anti-dumping duty on all imports of white cement from the UAE and Iran to remove the injury to the domestic industry”, a notification by the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties said. IPCL sale The Delhi High Court today declined to intervene in the sale of Indian Petro-Chemicals (ipcl), Vadodara plant to
Indian Oil Corporation but sought a valuation report on the plant from the centre. A Bench comprising Justice Anil Dev Singh and Justice OP Dwivedi, while refusing to issue notice to the Centre and the ipcl, disposed of a petition challenging the deal between the two public sector undertakings under the disinvestment policy. An ipcl shareholder, Arvind Gupta had challenged the deal.
UNI, PTI
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CAG to conduct audit of Balco transaction New Delhi, March 7 In a letter to Mr V.K. Shunglu, CAG of India, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie asked him to assign officials to see the records of the transaction and conduct the audit. “Officers of the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) and the Ministry of Mines will be available to assist the designated team to complete the audit and prepare the report at an early date”, he said. The government sold 51 per cent equity of Balco to Sterlite Industries for Rs 551.5 crore and agreements for the sale were signed on March 2. Meanwhile, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has said the Centre should retain a majority stake in the PSU and demanded cancellation of the deal with Sterlite Industries. Ajit Jogi said the indefinite strike by the Balco workers against its disinvestment by the Centre would give a “new direction to the country’s economy and the disinvestment policy”. “The leadership of the agitation is not limited to any single person but is in the hands of the 7,000 Balco workers”, Jogi told reporters at Korba, yesterday. “The agitation will serve as a deterrent to prospective investors in view of the manner in which the Balco deal was thrashed out,” he said. Meanwhile, leader of Opposition in the state assembly Nand Kumar Sai has squarely blamed Jogi for losses incurred due to the strike. “The employees willing to go to work are being terrorised with the help of the police and the administration”, he alleged while talking to newspersons in Bilaspur last evening. Official sources at Korba said former Balco Director K. Chattopadhyay was “forced” by agitators to “leave” the town for his native Kolkata under the police protection yesterday as news spread that he had taken up new assignment of CEO with the new Balco management under the Sterlite group. The Centre has sent an SOS to the Chhattisgarh Government asking it to ensure the safety of the Balco smelter plant at Korba which has come under threat of breakdown because of the ongoing strike. “We have asked the government to ensure the safety of the plant and the workers are willing to resume work,’’ top level official sources told UNI today. Meanwhile, the Law Ministry is examining the notices sent to officials in the Disinvestment Department and the Balco management for alleged alienation of the tribal land. “We have not alienated the tribal
land. We have only sold the shares of the company,’’ the sources said. Reports from Korba said if the strike continued for
long, the crucial Balco smelter might freeze which would result in disruption of operations for the next few months.
PTI, UNI
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Internet services
hit in Haryana Hisar, March 8 The trouble arose about a month ago when the services were disrupted for three days continuously when no user in the area could connect to the Net. When the services were restored, the connection speed dropped by about 75 per cent severely affecting downloads. The problem here is that not many in the local telephone exchange have any understanding of the functioning of the Net. There is no provision for lodging a complaint if the services are affected. The phone complaints cell does not register complaints about Net services.
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Mumbai, March 7 The industry, which came under one banner called the Action Group for the Removal of Excise on the Garment Industry, to protest against the act, has also organised a series of rallies in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Guhawati, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore and Kanpur to pledge their support in favour of withdrawing the duty with immediate effect. The readymade garment industry constitutes about 6 per cent to the gross domestic products (GDP) and accounts for 18 per cent of India’s exports. It provides employment in excess of 50 lakhs. JALANDHAR: The association of garments manufactures, retailers, exporters and ancillary units held a total bandh here today in protest against imposition of 16 per cent central excise duty. Association President Paramjit Singh said that the 16 per cent CST would ultimately hike the cost of garments and profit margin by manufactures and retailers. “The industry had already been shaken by the recession under the impact of cheap imports from Korea and China. Instead of increasing import duty, the Finance Minister has reduced it to 20 per cent on garments to create more problems for domestic garment industry,” he said. The association also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner regarding their demand.
UNI, PTI
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