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Mukesh renounces acquisition of Reliance Info shares
Anil wants discussion on Reliance Info equity
Govt favours cut in subsidies
India-China to jointly explore hydrocarbons
IA, Alliance Air target small cities
Small savings fetch Rs 3,926 cr
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Maruti informs dealers about price hike
Act on single window clearance soon
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Mukesh renounces acquisition of
New Delhi, December 23 An RIL statement said a sustained campaign had been carried out for the past few weeks about the acquisition. Mr Ambani, as head of the venture, had got the 50 crore shares as 12 per cent sweat equity for Rs 50 crore. “Mr Mukesh Ambani has sought annulment of this transaction and his request has been accepted by the Board of Reliance Communication Infrastructure Limited (RCIL),” an RIL statement said tonight. “RCIL has also informed RIL of this decision. RCIL has been told that the detailed communication sent by the company on this will be placed at the RIL Board meeting of December 27,” the statement added. RCIL is the holding company of Reliance Infocomm and a subsidiary of RIL. Reliance Infocomm, headed by Mr Mukesh Ambani, is the telecom arm of the Reliance Group. According to Reliance sources, the market value of the 50 crore shares would be in the region of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 crore. Counter-offensive
Mr Mukesh Ambani’s decision came on a day when details of a letter written by his younger brother and RIL Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani to all directors of the company were made public. Mr Anil Ambani said in the letter that successive changes in the structure of holding of Reliance Infocomm were never brought to the attention of the parent company. Company sources said that, in the letter sent last week, Mr Anil Ambani had also pointed out that the Board’s approval was never sought for these changes in Reliance Infocomm and its associate companies. Earlier, on December 6, Mr Ambani had written to the directors seeking an early meeting of the Board to discuss, among other things, the investments by RIL in Reliance Infocomm. The two brothers have been involved in a running and public feud for the past few weeks over “ownership issues” in the Rs 90,000 crore Reliance Group. In his first letter, Mr Anil Ambani wanted the Board to consider matters concerning the Reliance Infocomm group of companies, in which, according to him, RIL had invested over Rs 12,000 crore as per the company’s balance sheet as on March 31, 2004. Asked whether his letter would figure at the December 27 board meeting, convened for taking up a proposal on buyback of RIL shares from the market, company sources said, “It is expected to come up for discussion.” Meanwhile, Flag Telecom, a Reliance Group company, today denied that it has resorted to high pricing impacting the growth of Indian BPOs. “While Flag capacity remains artificially restricted as access supply remains in the control of the VSNL for allocation, we do not have the ability to respond to market in line with demand for the good of the industry,” the company staid in a statement.
—
TNS, Agencies
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Notice to ‘Plan a Baby’
The Delhi government today filed a complaint before a city court against mobile service provider Reliance Infocomm for putting up an advertisement featuring a Chinese calendar that helps predict and plan the gender of a baby.
In a complaint before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Reena Singh Nag, the Family Welfare Department submitted that the act was in violation of the Pre Conception Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Determination) Act 1994 and asked her to take cognisance of the offence. The government also sought a direction from the court for investigation of the matter by DCP (Special Cell). Ms Nag posted the matter for February 4. Reliance Infocomm has allegedly posted an advertisement on its Web application,
Rworld, under the heading ‘Plan a Baby’ giving useful tips, information and calculation for planning a baby.
— UNI
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Anil wants discussion on Reliance Info equity
New Delhi, December 23 In a letter written to all directors last week as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of RIL, Anil said: “RIL board neither discussed nor approved” the changes in the equity pattern of Reliance Infocomm despite being the largest shareholder. This is the second letter written by Anil since December 6 raising the issue of Infocomm amid reports that Mukesh Ambani as head of the venture got 12 per cent sweat equity for Rs 50 crore that was valued many times more. When asked if Anil Ambani’s letter would be discussed at the December 27 board meeting, convened for taking up a proposal on buyback of shares from the market, an RIL spokesperson said, “the agenda of the board will be circulated among Directors only.” Citing reports on the changes in the equity pattern, Anil said in his latest letter that none of this was ever brought to the consideration of the board. On its part, a senior Reliance Group official was reported as saying that Reliance Infocomm Board had decided to offer Mukesh Ambani the right to acquire shares amounting to 12 per cent stake for his contribution to the company. The price of the 12 per cent stake at that point of time was decided at Rs 50 crore. In his December 6 letter, Anil Ambani had sought a meeting of the RIL board to discuss the “recent developments”, including its investment of over Rs 12,000 crore in Reliance Infocomm group of companies.
Meeting agenda
RIL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on December 20 about holding of the Board meeting on December 27 with a single point agenda of buyback of shares. RIL sources said the agenda for the December 27 board meeting would be finalised by either Friday or Saturday, but did not say which issues could come up apart from the already declared proposal for the buyback of shares. Besides, Anil has also sought a discussion on the future of Reliance Energy, a company headed by him, seeking a confirmation of resource support. The proposed changes in the Articles of Association sought by Reliance Energy to empower Reliance Industries to appoint Chairman, Vice Chairman and Directors have, in the meanwhile, evoked strong reaction from the flagship company, chaired by
Mukesh.
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Govt favours cut in subsidies
New Delhi, December 23 The roadmap, outlined in a 26-page report tabled in Parliament today, calls for several far-reaching decisions including the introduction of a food coupon system and a more “realistic” minimum support price (MSP) mechanism, a decentralised procurement system, complete overhaul of the existing fertiliser subsidy regime and a phased reduction in subsidy of LPG. “Fertiliser subsidies should be done away with in their present form,” the report said even as it pointed out that any subsidy restructuring has to address the issue of food subsidy. “Three reasons account for the increase in the Central government subsidies in recent years: (i) moving the petroleum sector to a transparent system of budgetary subsidies and delay in the announced phasing out of the subsidies on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG; (ii) increase in explicit budgetary subsidies on food and fertiliser; and (iii) increase in input costs unaccompanied by any improvement in recovery rates resulting in escalation of implicit subsidies on a variety of economic and social services”, the report, prepared in association with Delhi based economic think-tank National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), said. Specifically on the issue of fertiliser subsidies, which has escalated from Rs 500 crore in 1980-81 to Rs 12,622 crore in the current fiscal year ( 2004-05),it said that both farmers and fertiliser industry have been subsidised and there is a need policy measures to reduce subsidy to both groups. “It is of more paramount importance to set more realistic MSPs, particularly with respect to wheat,” it said adding that decentralised procurement should be pursued as a long-term objective to “usher in greater efficiency in the purchase and distribution of operations.” Moreover, the PDS in its present form has no self-targeting characteristics, except perhaps for the poor quality of grains distributed driving away the non-poor. “Two other measures, which may encourage self, targeting are locating of PDS shops in areas where the poor live and allowing /restricting PDS grain purchase on a weekly basis rather than monthly basis”, it said. The report also said that domestic LPG subsidy may be gradually reduced “or at least substantially restricted, while a more cautious approach should be pursued in the reduction of kerosene subsidies”. The total petroleum subsidy stood at Rs 6,709 crore in 2002-03. “About a half of the rural households use kerosene primarily to light their homes... A market oriented environment encouraging fair and healthy competition is the most effective way to expand the supply and availability of competitively priced kerosene and LPG,” it said.
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India-China to jointly explore hydrocarbons
New Delhi, December 23 The energy sector has so far remained neglected as far as the collaboration between the two countries is concerned. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha today, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said: “India and Chinese companies have decided to join hands to take equity share in oil fields in third countries. Though we are competing with each other in the oil sector, but there is enough scope for cooperation as well that will be beneficial for both the countries.” He disclosed that he will meet his Chinese counterpart at the international conference of Asian oil sellers and buyers, scheduled to be held at New Delhi on January 6, 2005, to further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries in this sector. Mr Aiyar said, currently Indian and Chinese public sector oil companies were partners in the exploration projects in Sudan and Ivory Coast. Hopefully, the companies of both countries will explore oil fields in the Bay of Bengal and may be in Myanmar. “ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) is a joint partner with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan,and OVL and OIl are associated with Sinopee, another CNPC in an exploration block in Ivory Coast,” he said. After the US, demand for oil products in growing at a very fast pace in China and India. The Minister admitted that during 2003, Asian consumers paid about half a dollar per barrel more than US buyers and nearly $ 2 per barrel more than European consumers. Now both countries are jointly pressing upon the oil producers to reduce that premium. Interestingly, over the past few years, the export of crude oil from all the West Asian Opec countries has significantly shifting towards Asia, including India and China. Consequently, the Asian countries like Korea, Japan and India and China are pressing oil producing countries to reduce the oil prices.
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ONGC to take 30 pc stake
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will take a 30 per cent stake in British energy firm Cairn Energy’s recent oil discoveries in Rajasthan.
Separately, the government has decided to compensate ONGC for the statutory levies like royalty on behalf of private sector partners in pre-NELP blocks like Cairn’s RJ-ON-90/1 block in Rajasthan. “We have decided to exercise our ‘walk-in’ right to take 30 per cent participating interest in Mangala and Aishwariya oil fields of Cairn,” ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha said. The two fields are targeted to produce between 80,000 and 1,00,000 barrels per day from 2007 end. A top government official said the Petroleum Ministry was moving a Cabinet note to compensate ONGC for the royalty it pays on behalf of private contractors of pre-NELP fields.
— PTI
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IA, Alliance Air target small cities
New Delhi, December 23 Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here today that there were a number of unconnected destinations from smaller towns in the country and the two airlines would be looking at exploiting these areas. He said: “We will be soon induct smaller aircraft into the public sector undertaking so that small cities around metros and important states could be well connected.” Launching the Delhi-Dehra Dun flight operated by low cost airline, Air Deccan, the minister that the aircraft would be acquired through both leasing and acquisition. To begin with, Alliance would introduce six small aircraft and the IA Board was already working on it. He, however, admitted that infrastructure at various airports was not adequate but pointed out that his ministry would take a holistic view of the situation and try and remove all bottlenecks.
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Small savings fetch Rs 3,926 cr
Chandigarh, December 23 Officers in the branches of the State Bank of India from Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali and those from Department of Posts, besides small saving agents, participated. Mr Nirmaljit Singh, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Chandigarh division, who was the chief guest, inaugurated the seminar. Mr M.K.Malhotra, Regional Director, National Savings Institute, Chandigarh Centre, imparted training to the participants. He disclosed that Rs 3,926 crore had been collected under the small savings schemes up to October 2004 within the jurisdiction of Chandigarh centre whereas during the last financial year it was 2,729
crore.
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Maruti informs dealers about price hike
New Delhi, December 23 MUL, which has about 10 models in the market, is expected to raise the prices of its cars by Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the model. The prices are being raised as costs of steel, plastic and crude oil had gone up “substantially”. The company informed its dealers that the weakening dollar was also showing impact on procurement prices of imported parts. The cumulative effect of this increase might result in substantial increase in vehicle prices and the quantum was estimated to be in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000, Maruti said.
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Act on single window clearance soon
Ludhiana, December 23
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