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Reliance to double Jamnagar refinery capacity
Adidas to acquire Reebok for $ 3.8 b
Iran proposes MoU for pipeline project
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No decision on FDI in retail sector: govt
Corporate News
Aid to revive sick NTC mills
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Reliance to double Jamnagar refinery capacity
Mumbai, August 3 Addressing the 31st Annual General Meeting of the company here, Mr Ambani said the expansion programme would raise the refinery’s output to 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by March 2009. RIL is expected to spend Rs 25,000 crore for the purpose, he said. The capacity increase would be among the biggest refining expansions worldwide this decade, Mr Ambani added. “Reliance Industries is implementing a two-fold strategy — strengthening the petroleum retailing business and enlarging the refining capacity....a world-class petroleum refinery and retailing business, combined with sizeable oil and gas assets, enables Reliance to chart a course, a path to becoming a global hydrocarbon major while addressing India’s energy security needs,” he said. According to Mr Mukesh Ambani, the shareholders’ wealth in Reliance has increased to over Rs 1,00,000 crore in three years. “I am completing three years as RIL chairman. The market capitalisation of RIL was Rs 34,000 crore when I took over. It is now at over Rs 1,00,000 crore,” he said However the market was disappointed as Mr Ambani was expected to announce a global acquisition. Shares of Reliance fell 4 per cent dragging down the bullish Sensex. Oil plans
According to Mr Ambani, RIL would begin full-year gas production from the Krishna Godavari basin, off India’s east coast, from the fiscal year to March 2010, after spending $ 4.1 billion in upstream oil and gas in the next few years. “Reliance has one of the most aggressive exploration programmes in deep waters in the world. Exploration and production of oil and gas has the potential to be the most valuable business of Reliance Industries,” he said. Mr Ambani added that RIL has bagged five blocks under NELP-V and struck gas in 21 of the 28 wells drilled in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. He said Reliance would also pursue global opportunities in oil exploration. Announcing major investments to the tune of Rs 17,600 crore for upstream and downstream projects in the petroleum sector, Mr Ambani said he was banking on strong polyester demand. He said RIL’s polyester capacity will be expanded by 0.55 MT to 2 MT and the company is looking at acquisitions in the petrochemical space. “RIL will continue to evaluate opportunities for acquisition in petrochem sector,” he stated.
Anil bids adieu
Today’s surprise appearance was Anil Ambani who appeared at the AGM to say farewell to the company’s shareholders. It was the first time both brothers came together following the split in the Ambani family in June. Mukesh Ambani said the RIL board had approved the demerger of power, financial and telecommunication businesses. Shareholders in Reliance Industries will get shares proportionate to their holding in Reliance Industries in the Anil Ambani companies. RIL has appointed CRISIL, Deloitte, Amarchand Mangaldas and JM Morgan Stanley to work out details of the reorganisation In his emotional speech Anil Ambani thanked his mother for bringing about an amicable settlement and creating value for shareholders of Reliance. In turn, Mukesh thanked his brother for his contribution to Reliance Industries. He also announced the formation of Global Fuel management Services and Reliance Communication Ventures Limited, the two new companies, under the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprise umbrella. After the AGM, however, Mr Anil Ambani was involved in a scuffle with mediapersons. Apart from refusing to respond to reporters from electronic media, he threw away the microphones thrust at him. Earlier, Reliance Industries board approved the demerger of power, financial and telecommunication businesses.
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Adidas to acquire Reebok for $ 3.8 b
Frankfurt, August 3 Adidas is offering $ 59 for each share of Canton, Massachusetts-based Reebok, or 34 per cent than yesterday’s closing price. The German company also will assume Euro 69 million of cash, according to a statement released today. The purchase, the company’s biggest since it bought Salomon in 1998, will give Adidas 28 per cent of the global $ 11.5 billion athletic-shoe market, rivalling Nike’s 31 per cent. The company would also get Reebok’s clothing business, which includes licenses to outfit the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. Adidas’s North American sales have fallen an average 13 per cent in the past two years. Adidas had an 8.9 per cent share of the $ 8.9 billion wholesale US athletic-shoe market last year, according to Sporting Goods Intelligence. Reebok controlled 12 per cent and Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike had 36 per cent. Reebok, whose shares have risen 30 per cent the past year, said that second-quarter profit rose 71 per cent, helped by gains in countries such as India and China and new Pump basketball shoes even as the US sales of its Classic footwear, the company’s biggest business, declined. — Bloomberg
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Iran proposes MoU for pipeline project
New Delhi, August 3 India, on the other hand, appeared unwilling to enter into such an agreement until its security concerns were addressed. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister M.H. Nejad Hosseinian told reporters that political changes in his country were not likely to affect the gas export policy. “The security issue has been discussed right from the beginning. Different groups are working in different ways to address this and we are sure some solution for that would be created in the project structure,” Mr Hosseinian said. Leading a high-level team, Hosseinian is here for the first joint working group meeting between India and Iran on the proposed cross-border gas pipeline that would transit Pakistan to reach Indian borders. Ahead of the first joint working group meeting with the Indian team led by Petroleum Secretary S.C. Tripathi, the Iranian minister held talks with Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. Agreeing that gas pricing could be an issue, the Iranian minister said: “It is true that someone will buy something only if the price is viable. Similarly when someone is selling he will do so only if it is viable. Both sides should agree on that.” On possible policy change in Iran once the new government takes charge, Hosseinian said: “Personally, I believe it does not affect the gas policy.” Iran wants the project structure to be in place by December end and implementation mechanism and project financing model by April next year so as to begin work on the pipeline, that is to feed energy hungry markets in India and Pakistan, by second half of 2006. “We want to see project implementation in 2006,” he said. However, New Delhi was not willing to sign an MoU. “We already have Heads of Agreement between NIGEC on the Iranian side and GAIL/IOC on the Indian side. Most of the points they are proposing in the MoU are already covered in HoA,” a top official in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said. India wants the project structure to be developed in such a manner so as to address all its concerns of safety of pipeline and safe delivery of gas. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Nejad Hosseinian said security issues would be discussed at JWG. “Security has been an issue...we have discussed (it before) and different groups are working on it.” Hosseinian said all project related issues would be discussed today and tomorrow with the objective of arriving at a project framework. India and Pakistan, at another JWG last month, decided to appoint separate financial advisors to suggest project structure, legal arrangement, commercial deals and technical parameters.
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No decision on FDI in retail sector: govt
New Delhi, August 3 In a written reply, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in the Rajya Sabha that as per the study commissioned to the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the size of the retail market had been estimated at Rs 7,40,000 crore in 2002. On an average, this sector has grown at seven per cent per annum during 1999-2002."Retail sector in India is pre-dominantly unorganised, having one of the highest density of retail outlets per capita in the world and lowest per capita retail space", he said in his reply.
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Corporate News
New Delhi, August 3 The company’s Chinese subsidiary, has signed a letter of intent with Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park to set up a software development campus in Shanghai at an investment of $ 10 million within the next two years, Infosys informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The centre will be set up on 25,000 sq m of land, with a seating capacity for 1,000 engineers. Diebold to buy Tata Info plant
Diebold, a maker of automated-teller and voting machines, agreed to buy an ATM plant in India from Tata Infotech. The 30,000 square-foot Goa plant will build machines for customers in India and surrounding regions, North Canton, Ohio- based Diebold said in a statement. Diebold and Tata Infotech a unit of Tata Group, began a manufacturing agreement in 2002, and will continue to cooperate in areas that include software development and supplier support, Eric Evans, Diebold president and chief operating officer, said in the statement.
L&T eyes firm in China
L&T, which has sold specialty industrial valves worth $ 25 million in China in just two years, is considering possible acquisition of a local valve manufacturing company to increase presence in the booming Chinese market. “L&T has supplied specialty industrial valves worth $ 25 million to various petrochemical and power projects in China over the last two years,” Chief Representative of L&T’s Shanghai office, Rodney Pereira said. L&T’s valve division has appointed agents and distributors in China to handle the large demand of industrial valves from the oil and gas and petrochemical sectors, he said.
Hero’s BPO unit to spin-off
HeroITES, the BPO unit of the Rs 10,000-crore Hero Group, today announced its spin-off into an independent company and said it wills go for an initial public offer (IPO) by the end of next year. Mr Sunil Kant Munjal will be the Managing Director and CEO of the firm, which aims to be among the top five BPOs in the country by 2007. “We have been growing at close to 100 per cent in the last two years and hope to sustain this growth rate over the next few years. The company will sign up new customers and double headcount in one year,” Mr Munjal said.
— Agencies
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New Delhi, August 3 He told the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour that employees of the sick NTC mills had been getting salaries and the government was willing to give them VRS. Also, if employees wanted to return to work in revived mills, the government would take them back, he said. — UNI
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Tata launches new Safari range
New Delhi, August 3 "We expect to match the growth rate of the industry, which is expected to clock growth of around eight per cent this fiscal," Tata Motors senior vice-president Rajeev Dube said here after launching a new range of its SUV 'Safari'. The company's passenger vehicle sales, which comprise models like hatchback Indica, midsize Indigo and estate version Marina apart from Sumo and Safari, grew 27.9 per cent last year at 179,076 units. Tata Motors Executive-Director (Passenger Car Business Unit) V Sumantran said the company had begun this fiscal with a "slightly slower" start. "We expect to catch up in the rest of the year," he added. — PTI
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In video: Mukesh Ambani
unveils plans for protochemical major. (
