 |
|
Dad obviated the need for will, says Mukesh
RIL bids for Pak refinery
Sensex, Nifty touch new highs
Yukos seeks US help to halt unit sale
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Nortel bags $ 500-m BSNL contract
Grain merchants lose business to e-chaupals
Punjabi pop has Music World singing
Himachal CM for liberal financing
Fiat, GM to try ending spat
|
|
Dad obviated the need for will, says Mukesh
New Delhi, December 15 In a significant elaboration on the ownership of the Rs 90,000-crore group, Mukesh said through a spokesman, “the architecture of this ownership has been configured by (his late father) Dhirubhai Ambani in a framework of companies. Given this configuration, it obviates the necessity of a will.” The warring brothers have both left to their mother to resolve the ownership issues. Pointing out that the ownership of RIL is publicly held and that the company shares are owned by millions of shareholders, the spokesman went on to say that this was father Ambani’s “historic contribution to transformation of the capital market and democratisation of wealth creation in India.” The Ambani family also owned shares in Reliance, he said. The architecture of ownership configured by the founder Chairman “reflected his farsightedness” and his belief “that Reliance went far beyond the character of a family-owned company to that of a national asset,” the spokesman said. It was also aimed at professionalisation or management by separating it from the ownership structure, he added. Meanwhile, escalating tensions with his elder brother Mukesh Ambani in the battle over the Reliance empire, Anil has sought a meeting of the Board of Directors of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to discuss the “recent developments”, including its investment of Rs.12,000 crore Reliance Infocomm group of companies. Anil, in his letter, has also sought discussion on the resignation of “our most esteemed” M. L .Bhakta, one of the closest friends and associates of their late father Dhirubhai Ambani, and the recent letter from the Board of Directors of Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) headed by him to RIL Board. Acting on the letter written by Anil on December 6, Vinod Ambani, RIL Company Secretary, has written to all members of the Board of Directors seeking a suitable date for convening the meeting. Anil said in his letter that it was with “great sadness and anguish” that he had witnessed the events of the last three weeks which had affected the image of “our company” and the interests of over 30 lakh shareholders and all other stakeholders. “Dhirubhai, to most of us, was not just the Chairman of the Board, but more importantly a close personal friend, a confidante, a teacher, a guru and a guide. The father of the Indian capital markets, Dhirubhai wished, above all else, to maximise value for his first, last and only constituency- Dhirubhai’s real family of over 30 lakh shareholders,” he said. “In the absence of his guiding hand and in pursuance of what I am sure he would have wished us to do, I though I could do no better than
bring to your attention the following matters that need our collective wisdom,” he said in the letter to the RIL Board of Directors listing the three issues. He also recalled that he had visited the Shreenathji temple in Rajasthan and Balaji temple in Tirupati to pray for peace and tranquility for the entire Reliance family and for God to provide “courage and strength to protect, preserve and enhance Papa’s legacy.”
— PTI
|
|
RIL bids for Pak refinery
Islamabad, December 15 NRL is offering a 51 per cent stake (33,985,788 shares) as part of the privatisation programme. The company has
received about 29 EOIs from domestic and international firms, including RIL, according to a statement issued by Pakistan Privatisation Commission. RIL sources in Mumbai confirmed to UNI that the company had sent in an EOI.
— UNI
|
|
|
|
|
Sensex, Nifty touch new highs
Mumbai, December 15 With crude oil prices easing in the international markets, the bull run on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) continued unabated with the markets gaining 77 points at today’s close. While the BSE Sensex closed at 6,402.29 points, Nifty ended the day at 2,028.70, gaining 22 points, the highest-ever closing level. Analysts say, foreign institutional investors continue to be bullish on India moving in Rs 1,200 crore during the last five trading sessions. The foreign portfolio investment has touched $ 1 billion mark during the first 15 days of this month. During the current fiscal beginning April, FII inflows amounted to $ 7.4 billion almost. Major gainers in today’s trades included FMCG and IT sectors with even mid caps and small caps stocks showing strong buying interest. IT major Infosys and NIIT clocked gains of over 2 per cent each while TCS and Wipro closed with gains of one per cent each. The mid-cap tech stocks saw the biggest action with Hexaware Tech gaining 15 per cent while Geometric Software ended the day up over 8 per cent. Other gainers were i-flex closing higher by 4 per cent and Polaris, which was up 6 per cent. Telecom scrips were also major gainers with Bharti Televentures leading the pack by closing 6 per cent higher at Rs 211.75. VSNL gained 4 per cent while Himachal Futuristic was up one per cent. In the auto sector Maruti closed 4 per cent higher while Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra made impressive gains. Other gainers included TVS Motor closing 3.75 per cent higher while Bajaj Auto gains of 3.5 per
cent. Losers included cement companies. ACC was down by a per cent, while Grasim Industries, Birla Corp and Gujarat Ambuja made marginal gains. With Finance Minister P Chidambaram plugging merger of state-run banks, much action was witnessed in the banking sector. PSU banks like Vijaya Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Punjab Limited gained over one per cent while private sector outfits like IndusInd Bank, Karnataka Bank, Union Bank of India and UTI Bank were down over a per cent each. However the turmoil in the Reliance empire cooled bullish sentiments to a large extent. Reliance Industries was down over 2 per cent to close at Rs 495, while Reliance Energy was down almost 0.25 per cent. Reliance Capital also ended the day in the red. But the losses were offset by marginal gains in the IPCL, which ended the day in the positive territory. The scrip closed at Rs 177.40, up 0.37 per cent.
|
|
Yukos seeks US help to halt unit sale
Moscow, December 15 Yukos, accusing Russian authorities of illegal action against it, said it had asked US legal authorities to block the sale of Yuganskeneftegaz due on December 19 arguing that this would “cause it immediate and irreparable harm”. The company said it had asked the court for an emergency hearing and a temporary restraining order. It wanted a preliminary injunction to halt the sale and to compel the Russian authorities to arbitrate the company’s claims of billions of dollars in damages. Yukos, which has been suffering severe problems for more than a year over a tax dispute, said that the subsidiary accounted for 60 per cent of its oil production. It said that in addition the Yukos Oil Company’s bank accounts and other assets had been frozen by the Russian authorities “as part of an unprecedented campaign of illegal, discriminatory and disproportionate tax claims”. These had escalated into “raids and confiscations, culminating in intimidation and arrests”. The existing management continued to run the business and manage its assets as “debtor-in-possession”.
— AFP
|
|
Nortel bags $ 500-m BSNL contract
New Delhi, December 15 Under the contract, which BSNL said is the largest tender in the world for the expansion of cellular services, Nortel will deploy an end-to-end GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) solution, including radio base stations, mobile switching centres and other equipment, to provide wireless voice and data services. “Nortel’s wireless technology is expected to play an important role in our vision of bringing advanced communications services to millions across India,” BSNL CMD A.K. Sinha said. Commitments to date against the contract represent the majority of the investment and are expected to result in an approximately $ 0.03 per share cost impact to Nortel’s third quarter in 2004, Nortel said in a statement here. “Nortel is a world leader in providing solutions that enhance the human experience and power global commerce. We are... proud of the profound impact our solutions will have on the BSNL customer experience and of our contribution to the increasing growth and sophistication of the telecommunications industry in India,” Nortel President and CEO Bill Owens said.
— UNI
|
|
Grain merchants lose business to e-chaupals
Bhopal, December 15 The farmers had hitherto been taking their produce to the Krishi Upaj Mandis, set up under the Mandi Act, and selling their produce to the licensed grain merchants. However, the government, a few years back permitted private companies to set up procurement centres, if they so desired. The traditional grain merchants are virtually getting out of business as the farmers claim they not only get a better price at these procurement centres but also better treatment. The difference was succinctly explained today by Tusliram Patidar and Nand Kishore Patidar, farmers of Misrod village. They said when the farmers took their produce to the Krishi Upaj Mandis, they would be at the mercy of the middlemen and unscrupulous merchants. Under weighing was a common phenomenon. The farmer was never paid on the spot. The trader would ask the farmer to collect the amount later by merely issuing him a slip. They said the price of the produce was fixed arbitrarily. Often the farmers had to wait for the whole day and make a distress sale. At the new procurement centre, called e-chaupal, an electronic weighbridge is used to weigh the grain and payment is made on the spot. The two Patidars claimed the farmers across the state had welcomed the new procurement centres. The ITC has entered the field in a big way. It has set up 47 hubs in the state. Each hub has 30 to 80 e-chaupals. Each e-chaupal has an Internet connection where the farmers can know the current rates for a particular commodity in Indore, Jabalpur, or any other city in Madhya Pradesh or outside. In the evening, the ITC hubs announce the procurement rates for various commodities for the coming day. The rules governing the quality and grade of the grains have also been simplified to the advantage of the farmers.
|
|
Punjabi pop has Music World singing
Ludhiana, December 15 Mr Chowdhury was here in connection with the opening of the 258th Music World store today. Talking to The Tribune, he said that Music World, which registered a turnover of nearly Rs 62 crore last year, is expecting this figure to rise to Rs 100 crore of which a significant share is expected to come from Punjab. Music World is part of the Rs 7,000-crore RPG Group. The company marked its entry into the state market today with the opening of this store and will be opening more such stores at Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Mohali before the end of this financial year. “We are expecting a revenue of around Rs 5 crore by the end of next financial year from Punjab,” Mr Chowdhury said. Emphasising on the need to putting an end to piracy of music cassettes and videos he said, “People should know buying a pirated cassette not only means poor quality product. It also affects revenues as they do not pay sales tax on it. Even the artiste does not get any royalty, which means the end result is losses to all,” he said. Music World, which has more than 25 stores operational in the northern region, offers over 80,000 titles from the international as well as Hindi arenas, he said. Not only are trends in music changing people are exercising options in various other spheres. “Like CDs are becoming more popular. While across the country the ratio of music cassettes to CDs is 9:1 we are selling more CDs, 0.9:1,” he revealed, adding, “quality and reducing cost differential are why the popularity of CDs is increasing.”
|
|
Himachal CM for liberal financing
Shimla, December 15 The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting of the Board of Directors of the HP State Cooperative Bank Ltd here. He said with the focus now shifting to rural tourism, employment opportunities will be created in the villages after the required infrastructure is ready. He added that this would herald an economic revolution in the state while strengthening the rural economy. The Chairman of the bank, Mr Natha Singh Thakur, gave a detailed report about the performance of the bank.
|
|
Fiat, GM to try ending spat
Milan, December 15 Top executives from both companies met on Tuesday but failed to resolve their differences over whether or not the put option is still valid after Fiat recapitalised Fiat Auto and sold part of its financing arm to help it through an ongoing crisis. A one-year truce on taking legal action over the option ended on Wednesday and GM, which owns 10 per cent of Fiat Auto, said immediately it would request a mediation process to try to settle the spat. “This procedure, which will involve direct dialogue between the two CEOs, is designed to allow the parties to resolve the dispute before resorting to other means, including litigation,” Fiat said in a statement. Under a partnership deal GM and Fiat signed in 2000, any dispute must be attacked by the CEOs in person within 20 working days of the mediation request.
— Reuters
|
bb
Oil rates same Iffco Indian hotels Bersoft Info |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
