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BoB, Dena Bank to hit market
with issues
Plan panel pegs GDP growth at 6-6.5 pc
Hyundai’s premium hatchback Getz out
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Laughing to the bank with Santabanta
Vardhman goes in for demerger
Industry records 7.8 pc growth
Inflation ticks new high at 8.33 pc
Graphics:
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Bank Account
New Delhi/Mumbai, Sept 10 “We will go for a public offer this fiscal. The government holding in the bank is slated to come down to nearly 51 per cent from the present 67 per cent,” BoB chairman P S Shenoy said here today. The bank’s share price is hovering at about Rs 185 in major bourses. Referring to the international Basle-II norms, he said the bank’s capital adequacy ratio may come down from 14 to 9.5 per cent after providing for operational and market risks as per the new norms. So, BoB has to tap the market to raise additional capital worth about Rs 1,000 crore to increase its CAR and sustain its growth momentum. Dena Bank
Public sector Dena Bank will raise Rs 80-crore capital through second time public offering of equity in the third quarter of the current financial year. According to bank CMD Anil Khandelwal, the offer would be made in the third quarter of the year which would result in the dilution of government holding from the current 71 per cent to 51. The infusion of capital through public offering would also boost the capital adequacy ratio of the bank from 9.8 per cent to over 11 per cent. While the Punjab National Bank and Dena Bank would hit the market with their issues during the current year, other banks such as Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Syndicate Bank and Indian Bank are likely to come out with their public offerings in the next 12-18 months.
Allahabad
Bank
Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank will ink an agreement with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to set up a joint venture and subsidiaries. The board of Allahabad Bank has decided to enter into tie-up with Delhi-based PNB for establishing joint venture and to open subsidiaries in Kazakhstan and other places wherever they find business synergies, Allahabad Bank informed the Stock Exchange here today. The
bank also stated that Mr B. Subbaraju has retired from the board on
completion of his term.
— Agencies
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Plan panel pegs GDP growth at 6-6.5 pc
New Delhi, September 10 The Plan panel also indicated that the growth projections could be scaled down from 8 per cent during the period as was originally targeted. “The consolidated revenue deficits will have to go down to around 2.4 per cent of GDP by the terminal year 2006-07 in order to provide the requisite amount of public savings,” the Planning Commission said in an approach paper for Mid-Term Appraisal (MTA) for the Tenth Plan. The paper underlined the importance of enhanced public savings to spur public investment for increasing public savings. A sustained impetus in public expenditure, particularly public investment, would be required even if it may require some relaxation of fiscal discipline. On the growth target, the paper said that the MTA would consider whether the original Tenth Plan growth target is feasible. “The current year’s GDP growth is likely to range between 6 per cent and 6.5 per cent, so achieving the Plan target is only possible if GDP growth in the last two years averages 11 per cent per year, which is clearly unfeasible,” the commission said. The approach paper to the MTA identified the slowing down in agricultural growth, inadequate infrastructure and low private investment as the main deterrents to hastening the pace of economic growth. The commission said the appraisal would focus on policy correctives in critical areas of growth, particularly in the backdrop of the priorities as listed out by the National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government. The average growth rate of agriculture in the first two years of the Tenth Plan period was 1.8 per cent and it was unlikely that in the current fiscal year, it would cross 1.5 pc.
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Hyundai’s premium hatchback Getz out
New Delhi, September 10 Getz, which would be available in two variants — GL and GLS — has been priced at Rs 4.5 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and Rs 4.75 lakh, respectively, HMIL Managing Director Byong Ho Sung said at a press conference here. The company, which is investing $ 220 million to ramp up production capacity to 2.5 lakh units at its plant on the outskirts of Chennai, aims to sell 8,000 Getz units this fiscal. By October-November, the capacity of the A2 line, on which Getz would be produced along with other models like mid-size sedan Accent Viva , premium sedan Elantra and luxury car Sonata, would be increased to 2,000 units from 1,000 now, HMIL President B V R Subbu said. The Indian arm of the Korean firm aims to sell 2.2 lakh units this year while its export earnings is likely to be Rs 1,700 crore. “We should sell 2.2 lakh units this year in spite of the three month production blip,” Mr Subbu said. The HMIL also aims to achieve 20 to 22 per cent rise in sales turnover this year from Rs 6,000 crore last year. Keeping in view the growing demand, Mr Sung said the company might look at second phase of expansion by the beginning of next year. Asked if the HMIL would launch a diesel version of Getz and about the investment on the car, Mr Subbu said, “I do not see that (launch of diesel version) in foreseeable future. We have invested Rs 50 crore for the upgradation of the A2 line”.
— PTI
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Laughing to the bank with Santabanta
Chandigarh, September 10 The brainchild of a management graduate, Mr J. D. Ghai, Chairman and CEO of the Chandigarh-based portal, is frank enough to admit that he himself was not clear about the concept of the website when it was launched. “I did not know a thing about IT. But, along with my two partners, I decided to take the plunge. It was a struggle but I am glad that I decided to stick around even when my two partners lost patience and quit. I bought their shares too in the company and carried on. The results are there for all to see.” “The website been expanded to offer a bouquet of services, including e-mail, e-cards, jokes, fashion, love cafe, Bollywood, gallery, rasoi and wallpapers. It is attracting a lot of advertisements, mostly from foreign clients, because we are among the most popular Indian websites on the Net. “As far as page views are concerned, an estimated 52 million pages of santabanta.com are viewed every month. The site gets about 4 million ‘unique visitors’ and 6 million visitors every month which puts it among the top nine websites of India. Above all, we are making a tidy profit, primarily from the advertisement revenue,” he informs. Mr Ghai claims that his website is better placed than baazi.com which was purchased by an American company, ebay.com for Rs 230 crore a couple of months ago. “Our traffic is more than double the traffic baazi.com was getting at the time of its sale. And baazi.com was also in a loss.” He says santabanta.com is one of the only sites which is providing content to a number of websites in India, including 123india.com and indiainfo.com. It has also been supplying e-cards and jokes to indiatimes.com, one of the biggest websites in India, for almost one and a half years. It also ventured into e-shopping two months back which is already proving to be popular with the visitors. It is also counted among the most specialised sites of beauty pageants, including Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss India and its traffic soars almost three times during the period of these contests. A function was held last night to celebrate the success of the website and the launch of its lifestyle magazine, Life Colours, which was attended by the elite of the city.
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Vardhman goes in for demerger
Ludhiana, September 10 Under the scheme, the entire textile business of the VSGML would be demerged and vested in the MSML from April 1, 2004. The VSGML will continue to operate by and large as an investment company, while retaining its stake in the MSML and some nominal assets not related to the textile business, the VSGML informed here today. The current business operations of the MSML would remain unchanged, the company stated. The VSGML, which is primarily into the business of grey and dyed yarns and processed fabrics, is the single largest shareholder of the MSML with a shareholding of almost 40 per cent. The company informed that ICICI Securities Ltd, the advisors to the issue, suggested a swap ratio of 0.80 as a fair and equitable for paying consideration to the shareholders of VSGML on the demerger to the MSML. The suggestion was approved by the board of both companies. This ratio indicates that for every 10 equity shares held in the VSGML, as on a pre-determined record date, each equity shareholder of the VSGML will be issued eight fully paid-up equity shares to the face value of Rs 10 in the MSML, and shall retain two fully paid equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each in the VSGML. The remaining eight shares held by an equity shareholder in the VSGML shall stand extinguished. Accordingly, the share capital of the MSML will increase from Rs 25.75 crore to Rs 38.51 crore and there would be a corresponding reduction in the share capital of the VSGML from Rs 15.96 crore to Rs 3.19 crore. Crisil has reaffirmed outstanding ratings on debt programmes of both companies vide a rating release today following the demerger.
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Industry records 7.8 pc growth
New Delhi, September 10 The growth during July stood at 7.9 per cent, according to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) estimates. The IIP for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for July 2004 stand at 146.8, 205.7, and 186.9 respectively, with the corresponding growths of 3.7 per cent, 7.6 per cent and 14.1 per cent for July 2003. The cumulative growth during April-July, 2004-05 over the corresponding period of 2003-04 in the three sectors has been 5.2 per cent, 8 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively, with the overall growth in the General Index being 7.8 per cent. Along with the Quick Estimates of IIP for July 2004, the indices for June 2004 have undergone the first revision and those for April 2004, the second (final) revision in the light of the updated data received from the source agencies. There are no significant revisions in the indices for April 2004 and June 2004. As many as 11 of the 17 two-digit industry groups have shown positive growths in July 2004 as compared to the corresponding month the previous year. The Machinery and Equipment other than Transport Equipment sector has shown the highest growth of 30.2 per cent, followed by 17.9 per cent in Other Manufacturing Industries and 14.3 per cent in Basic Chemicals & Chemical Products (except products of Petroleum & Coal). On the other hand, Jute and Other Vegetable Fibre Textiles (except cotton) have shown a negative growth of 17.3 per cent followed by a decline of 11.8 per cent in Wood and Wood Products; Furniture and Fixtures and 3.5 per cent in Basic Metal and Alloy Industries. As per the use-based classification, the growth in July 2004 over July 2003 is 5.7 per cent in Basic goods, 16.2 per cent in Capital goods and 5.4 per cent in Intermediate goods.
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Inflation ticks new high at 8.33 pc
New Delhi, September 10 The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation rose marginally by 0.16 per cent from the previous week’s 8.17 per cent notwithstanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to “gain mastery” over it. Inflation has been on the rise for the past few weeks despite duty cuts in petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG. The latest figure is more than double of 3.88 per cent witnessed in the corresponding period last year. Market sources said the recent spurt was more due to soaring prices of certain manufactured items, including food products, basic metals and machinery. The WPI rose by 0.3 per cent to 188.5 points and it was 174 points a year ago.
— PTI
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Colgate plans plant in Baddi
New Delhi, September 10 Mr Graeme Dalziel, Managing Director, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited told mediapersons on the opening day of the FDI (Federation Dentaire Internationale) annual world dental congress at Pragati Maidan here today that the company was investing Rs 50 crore for setting up the plant exclusively for manufacturing toothpaste. Refusing to comment on the capacity of the plant, Mr Dalziel said, “It is incremental capacity for future growth.” Colgate’s manufacturing plant at Sewri in Mumbai was set up 30 years ago.
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