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Tuesday,
June 18, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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200 companies set to float IPOs
US decision to hit textile industry
Trade deficit may touch $ 15.4 b
Rural banks under ombudsman net |
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US firm offers call centre for Haryana
J&K sops for power sector
M&M net profit drops 19.61 pc
Govt deal with Tatas challenged
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200 companies set to float IPOs New Delhi, June 17 While SEBI expects at least 200 companies to hit the market this fiscal, private analysts place the aggregate size of the IPOs at around Rs 30,000 crore as against a meagre Rs 1,082 crore raised from primary capital market in 2001-02. According to Prime Database, nine major PSUs alone targets to raise about Rs 8,500 crore while 15 banks have targeted to mop up about Rs 3,650 crore and 15 “ICE” companies aiming IPOs over Rs 7,600 crore. Prime expects IOC to lead the PSU bandwagon with Rs 1,600 crore IPO followed by NTPC (Rs 1,500 crore), HPCL, BPCL and PFC (Rs 1,000 crore each), Maruti (Rs 800 crore), Nalco (Rs 600 crore), GAIL and Powergrid (Rs 500 crore each). Banks including Central Bank of India with Rs 500 crore IPO, Canara Bank, Union Bank and IDBI Bank (Rs 400 crore each), Bank of India, Vijaya Bank State Bank of Mysore (Rs 200 crore each) are also queueing up for hitting the market. Technology companies including Tata Consultancy (Rs 5,000 crore), Tata Tele and Idea Cellular (Rs 1,000 crore each) and Star TV (Rs 500 crore) are also likely to set the market ablaze. “Never in the past have so many mega IPOs been announced in such a short period. If the IPOs aggregating nearly Rs 30,000 crore make it to the market this year, it would not only pave the way for hundreds of companies waiting for several years, but also give the long-awaited breadth to our secondary market,” Prime said. According to Prime, major multinationals, including Coca-Cola, Hyundai Motor and LG Electronics are expected to come up with IPOs at about Rs 1,000 crore each this fiscal. “The biggest surprise can be in the form of the largest ever issue and that from Reliance Infocom, which some marketmen expects to be in the region of Rs 10,000 crore,” Prime said. At least 72 companies, which had obtained SEBI approval earlier and could not come up with their public issues in time, are now reworking their plans. The companies include Godrej Sara Lee, Mahindra British Telecom, Nimbus Communication and Eskay Knit, Prime said. Despite the bullishness in the market, Prime cautioned about the future IPOs. “Fingers need to be crossed with the hope that the geo-political developments do not escalate and the secondary market does not go southward as these factors will act as a big dampener for the revival of the primary market,” it said. Last fiscal, Prime said, was a disaster for the primary market with six companies coming up with IPOs totalling Rs 1,082 crore. In fact, the total amount raised in the last five years was Rs 7,412 crore which was less than Rs 9,919 crore mopped up in 1994-95.
PTI |
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US decision to hit textile industry New Delhi, June 17 The USA last week informed the Council for Trade in Goods in the WTO secretariat that it would not be willing to make concessions as stipulated in para 4.4 and 4.5 of the implementation issues concerning textiles. It further informed the council that it would be unable to stick to the deadline of July 31 for making recommendations in this regard, Commerce Ministry officials said here. They said the US decision was likely to have an impact on its ongoing market access negotiations with India, besides weakening the resolve of other developed countries to address the implementation issues. The decision on implementation concerns decided in Doha includes a section pertaining to the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC). While the ATC envisages progressive integration of trade in textiles in phases, the manner in which restraining countries have gone about the process of integration in three stages will leave the bulk of restrictions to be removed on January 1, 2005, which is why the same was made a part of issues required to be addressed by the developed countries. Officials here said 92 per cent of the quotas in the case of the USA and 76 per cent of the quotas in the case of the EU were still in place although the third stage of integration was over. In the absence of progressive integration of products under restraint under the ATC, there is concern in India that there can be shrill demands from the domestic industries in the USA and the EU for continued protection through different forms even after December 2004. India in its response to the US decision has pointed out that the text on decisions to be made with regard to the implementation issues was part of the overall package approved in Doha. Sources said India had conveyed that if the countries were not interested to take decision on this, it would not have been incorporated in the overall decision and this could have resulted in a different package being approved in Doha. India further expressed concern that the decision of the US Government could have an impact on other decisions in Doha, they added.
PTI |
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Trade deficit may touch $ 15.4 b Kolkata, June 17 In its latest review of the Indian economy, the CMIE said on payments basis, the trade deficit would be higher because defence spending was likely to increase during the year. Owing to the inclusion of defence expenditure, the difference between the customs-based trade deficit and payments-based deficit was likely to widen to around $ 8 billion. According to the CMIE, growth of invisibles would likely be affected during the current financial year for a number of reasons, the prime one being the threat of an armed conflict between India and Pakistan. Because of the war rhetoric between the two countries, citizens of the USA and the UK had been advised to leave which would have a direct bearing on the hotel and travel bookings. Besides this, software exports, international travel and tourism industry would also be affected by these developments, the review said. Net tourism earnings during the year was expected to go down to zero, the review said, adding that the net miscellaneous earnings (including software earnings) had already declined from $ 3 billion in 2000-01 to $ 2 billion in 2002-03. As a result, the total net invisible earnings in 2002-03 was likely to be around $ 11 billion, which was same during the previous year also. The CMIE review said that current account deficit would increase to $ 4.4 billion during the year, which would be substantially higher than the previous year’s figure of $ 1.5 billion. At $ 4.4 billion, the current account deficit would be about one per cent of the GDP as against an estimated 0.3 per cent in 2001-02. In fiscal 2002-03, imports were projected to expand by 7 per cent as against 0.4 per cent increase in 2001-02. According to the CMIE, the growth would be largely due to higher imports of crude petroleum and petroleum products. Non-POL imports during the year are projected to grow by a lower rate of 4 per cent.
PTI |
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Rural banks under ombudsman net Chandigarh, June 17 The scheme will now cover all regional rural banks apart from all commercial banks— domestic private, foreign and public sector banks, and urban cooperative banks. This was stated by Mr Khizer Ahmed, Bank Ombudsman, Chandigarh Region, here today. In an interview to TNS, he claimed that there were 15 bank ombudsman offices in the country. The Chandigarh office had jurisdiction over all banks except cooperative societies, in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. The Bank Ombudsman Scheme — 2002 would cover complaints regarding loans and advances of the banks as well. The stages of redressing complaints had been reduced from three to two. The bank ombudsman, after listening and verifying the facts of the complaint, without any fee or involvement of advocates, would ask the bank concerned to respond to the complaints. In case the latter denied the allegations, it could immediately award a compensation up to Rs 10 lakh, excluding the principle amount and interest lost by the victim. A former Executive Director of the RBI and an authority on foreign exchange matters, Mr Ahmed, admitted that despite widespread complaints and frauds in banks, most of the complainants do not approach their office, perhaps due to lack of awareness and fear of bank officials’ revenge. However, during the past one year, the regional office of bank ombudsman here redressed about 500 complaints, which included delay or non-payment of cheques, drafts and bills; claims regarding unauthorised or fraudulent withdrawals from deposit accounts; complaints from exporters and NRIs. Most of the banks, he said, cooperate in executing awards but there were few exceptions as well. However, he declined to name these banks as , he said, under the RBI guidelines, bank ombudsman was not allowed to disclose the names. |
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Japanese-style
Bullet Trains soon
Patna, June 17 Assisting in the effort will be Spanish Railways, with which a memorandum of understanding has been signed. "The Spanish Railways have shown keen interest to work with Indian Railways for running "Bullet Trains" in India," said Kumar, who was here to flag off a new train between Chapra and Mumbai. Indian Railways have for long been toyed with the idea of introducing "Bullet Trains", said Kumar.
IANS |
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US firm offers call centre for Haryana Chandigarh, June 17 Mr Sandhu expressed his desire to work in close cooperation with the Haryana Government for providing internet connectivity to all villages of the state. He informed the Chief Minister that his company intended to set up this centre in Haryana to utilise the growing professional labour. |
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J&K sops for power sector
Srinagar, June 17 The three main rivers — Indus, Chenab and Jhelum — offer a potential of 20,000 MW and only 10 per cent of the hydro power potential had been exploited, a spokesman for the World Expo and Conventions Management Ltd, organisers of four-day international exhibition and business summit that begins here on June 20, said.
UNI |
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Import bazar PNB ATM Crisil rating IDBI — Principal Nabard grant Jini club Power stations |
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