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Aiyar blows hot and cold on LPG, kerosene price hike
Qantas inks multibillion-dollar deal
Westbridge plans to invest $200 million
OVL-CNPC make joint bid for
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Tatas launch Novus
Govt seeks Rs 542-crore licensing fee from Punwire
Haryana, Tayal Energy sign pact
LIC jvs in Mauritius, Nigeria soon
India not to withdraw MFN status to Pak
IHCL acquires Sydney Hotel
Nod to 65 SEZs
Great Eastern GDR issue
MSN tie-up
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Aiyar blows hot and cold on LPG, kerosene price hike
New Delhi, December 14 In Parliament, however, he had blamed the present pricing policy for the mess in the oil sector and claimed that he was in favour of subsidised fuel only to the BPL families. ‘There is no such proposal pending in the ministry,” he said, in response to a question on the sidelines of a function, National Gas Conservation Awards, here today. However, he said, the ministry has prepared a paper for the Prime Minister, which will be presented before the Energy Coordination Committee on Friday. Summarising its views on the paper, the ministry has also called for narrowing the gap between costs and selling prices in the long run, with the difference at present being as high as Rs 190 per cylinder. The oil marketing companies have called upon the ministry to allow them to raise price of LPG and kerosene as they are unable to meet the subsidy burden. Notably, in reply to questions in the Parliament, the minister has said the ministry has written to the states favouring supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to the below poverty line families, and to others at the marketing rate. But the states have not given any positive response. The Parliamentary members severely criticised the ministry for its failure to check adulteration of petroleum products amounting over Rs 20,000 crore annually. In response, the minister blamed the pricing policy and the state government for their failure to check adulteration and sale of subsidised LPG cylinders to the commercial enterprises and auto owners. While expressing his dissatisfaction over the performance of Petroleum Conservation and Research Association, Mr Aiyar said: “The PCRA has failed to fulfil its role and would be soon revamped. Country can save up to 25 per cent of energy by adopting energy conservation programmes. A lot need to be done in this area.” He called upon the oil and power companies to involve village panchayats in the energy conservation programmes to save energy in agriculture and households. Regarding proposed meeting of the Energy Coordination Committee, the minister said: “A discussion paper for the Energy Coordination Committee has been prepared detailing the different options. It also details implication of the various options. A decision in this regard will be first taken by the ECC and ultimately by the Cabinet.
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Qantas inks multibillion-dollar deal with Boeing
Sydney, December 14 Qantas Airways Ltd Chief Executive Geoff Dixon said the company also had secured rights to buy another 50 of the so-called Dreamliners to cope with future growth. “This is a very, very big commitment by Qantas to growth,” Mr Dixon told reporters. He said the list price of the 65 planes was about $ 9.8 billion but added Qantas had negotiated “an extremely competitive contract” with Boeing. Qantas would start taking delivery of the 787s from 2008, the company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. The announcement was a blow to Europe’s Airbus, which also had been lobbying with Qantas to buy its planes. The new plane orders announced today come on top of a multibillion dollar deal to buy 12 new Airbus A-380 superjumbo planes — the world’s largest passenger jet. Qantas will begin taking the delivery of A380s early in 2007. Qantas Chairwoman Margaret Jackson said the airline would fund the Boeing 787 purchases from the company’s operating cash flow. “This fleet plan will give us a modern fleet offering maximum flexibility, lower seat mile costs and greater fuel efficiency,” Ms Jackson said in a statement. The announcement signals that Qantas will not begin flying non-stop between Sydney and destinations like London.
— AP
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Westbridge plans to invest $200 million
New Delhi, December 14 “We had raised $ 200 million via our second fund, Westbridge Ventures II, LLC, and this will be invested in the Indian market over the next 2 to 3 months,” WestBridge Capital Managing Director Sandeep Singhal told reporters today on the sidelines of the TIEcon India summit here. The company was on the verge of closing “significant deals” over the next month or so, he said. Mr Singhal said the company would continue to focus on the high-growth companies in diverse sectors like outsourcing services, information technology, healthcare, internet and hotel industry. “At Westbridge we are excited about the Indian consumer market, which includes both online and offline segments. Online implies the internet while offline includes the brick and mortar business,” Mr Singhal said.
— PTI
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OVL-CNPC make joint bid for
Syrian oilfield
New Delhi, December 14 In all eight firms, including the consortium of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), are in the race for Petro-Canada’s stake in Al Furat venture in Syria. The value of 20-year-old oilfield with 36 wells is put around $ 1 billion. Mr Raha said the OVL-CNCP joint bid had the two firms sharing equity in the 50:50 ratio. The Indian flagship firm for overseas acquisitions had competed with the Chinese firms for oil properties in Central Asia, West Africa and Latin America. They were pitched head-on for buying Canadian firm PetroKazakhstan, which has most of its operations in Kazakhstan, and EnCana’s Ecuador assets. Mr Raha described prospects of further
joint bids by OVL and the Chinese firm as “bright”. — PTI
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Tatas launch Novus
New Delhi, December 14 “We are looking at shrinking our supplier base by filtering out low quality suppliers,” Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant told reporters here after launching ‘Tata Novus’, the heavy commercial vehicle range. Mr Kant said that as part of this exercise, Tata Motors, the country’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, was looking at going along with “key vendors”. The company has introduced the latest range in partnership with its South Korean subsidiary Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co, formed after it acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co. in 2004. Mr Kant said contribution of exports to the revenues of Tata Motors was on the rise as the company was entering newer markets as part of its approach of going global. “Exports for us have been growing and should increase further. They are expected to be 17 per cent in value terms for us now against less than 5 per cent 3 to 4 year ago,” he said. The Novus range, which was launched in Korea earlier this year, is already being exported to 15 countries. “As much as 40 per cent of the production from Korea is being exported,” he said. In India, the company is manufacturing the range at its plant at Jamshedpur where it has a 6,000-unit annual capacity. It launched the 300-hp tippers in the market today, which are priced between Rs 36 and 39 lakh, significantly lower than the similar models from foreign rivals like Tatra and Volvo, which are priced above Rs 45 lakh.
— PTI
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Govt seeks Rs 542-crore licensing fee from Punwire
New Delhi, December 14 The outstanding licensing fee includes Rs 460.97 crore towards Punwire Mobile Communications and Rs 81.89 crore towards Punwire Paging Services. The company had applied for radio paging licence in the early 90s but was later closed down due to a major scam by the management. It is learnt that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has already appointed a liquidator for the winding up of the company, that had once an annual turnover of over Rs 300 crore. During the last State Assembly elections, the ruling party in the state had promised to revive the company by giving a financial package but without any result. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha today, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Shakeel Ahmad said: “The steps taken by the government for realisation of the outstanding licence fee include reminders, invocation of bank guarantees and arbitration fees.” As many as 56 telecom operators which had applied for e-mail, VSAT, radio paging and ILD service licences still owed Rs 1374.29 crore to the government, including interest on the fixed licence fees. These included Koshika Telecom (Rs 453 crore), VSNL ( Rs 49 crore), Microwave Communications ( Rs 23.24 crore), Business India (Rs 49 crore), Reliance Infocom (Rs 74 crore), Modi Korea Telecom ( Rs 24.57 crore), RPG Paging Services (Rs 16 crore) and ABC Communication Ltd ( Rs 19.38 crore). Radio paging service
providers, including DSS Mobile Communications, Modi Korea Telecom Limited, Microwave Communications Limited, Page Point Services, RPG Paging Services Limited, Easy Call Communications Ltd., Matric Paging, ABC Communications, Usha Martin, Hutchison Max Telecom and Punwire, under the banner of the India Paging Service Association, had filed a review petition in the TDSAT against the Telecom Department urging to review the licensing fee, but failed to get any relief. The government had also offered a relief package last year to them for shifting to the revenue sharing regime from the fixed licence fee, but without much result. The radio paging service providers have been arguing that the cellular mobile services were responsible for their decline as no licence fee was charged from them for the short messaging service (SMS), so the government should take lenient view on the issue.. The TDSAT said since the licences for paging services and cellular mobile services were issued at the same time by the government and, therefore, the paging industry had no reason to contend that their fall was attributable to the introduction of cellular mobile services. The minister said the government was determined to pursue the cases and recover the outstanding amount from them “ after following the procedure prescribed in the licence agreement.”
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Haryana, Tayal Energy sign pact Chandigarh, December 14 While the Managing Director of HPGCL, Ms Jyoti Arora, signed on behalf of the HPGCL, the Director of Tayal Energy Ltd., Mr Dharinder Tayal signed on behalf of Tayal Energy Ltd. and the Zonal General Manager of GAIL, Mr J. Wason, signed on behalf of GAIL. The agreement has been signed in the presence of Haryana Power Secretary R.N. Prasher. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Prasher urged the GAIL authorities to give enough gas for the smooth functioning of gas-based power units in the state. Ms Jyoti Arora said that although two coal-based units of 300 MW each were already under construction at Yamunanagar and would be commissioned in November 2007 and February 2008, respectively, another 1000-1200 MW coal based thermal power plant was proposed to be set up at Hisar. She said that sites have already been identified for setting up gas-based power plants at Faridabad, Hisar, Jhajjar, Panipat and Yamunanagar as well.
— UNI
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LIC jvs in Mauritius, Nigeria soon
New Delhi, December 14 The LIC will tie up with New India Assurance in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, while it will partner GIC in Mauritius. “I will be going to New Zealand next month to evaluate the entry strategy. NZ is a highly deregulated market and the LIC will venture alone in the country,” LIC Chairman A.K. Shukla told PTI on the phone from Mumbai. The LIC, which already has operations in the UK, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji and Mauritius, is also examining options to enter Egypt. There are plans to expand in other markets as well, Mr Shukla said, adding that “it will happen in the next phase.” In Saudi Arabia, the LIC has tied up with New India and the Al Hoikar Group for a joint venture. For its Nigerian venture, the LIC will join NIA and Prestige Assurance Plc of Nigeria. In Mauritius, the LIC will forge a jv with the GIC. The LIC will start operations after financial evaluation and finalisation of products. — PTI
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India not to withdraw MFN status to Pak
New Delhi, December 14 “There is no proposal as of now to withdraw the MFN status given to
Pakistan,” Minister of State for Commerce and Industry E V.K.S. Elangovan said in the Rajya Sabha today. “Pakistan has so far not granted the MFN status to India despite its obligations, including under the WTO, and has cited extraneous political and economic reasons for this”, he said in a written reply to a query and added that India had taken up the issue with Pakistan repeatedly. India’s total trade (exports and imports) with G-8 countries touched $ 48 billion in 2004-05 from $ 41 billion in 2002-03 and the percentage share of G-8 countries in the total trade ranged between 25-31 per cent during these periods, he said. India’s exports have been valued at $ 51.5 billion and imports at $ 75 billion. — PTI
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IHCL acquires Sydney Hotel
Mumbai, December 14 “We have acquired the hotel in an all-cash deal for equity. From next month we would act as owner as well as operator of the hotel,” IHCL Senior Vice-President (Finance) Anil Goel said. The hotel situated in a heritage structure at Woolloomooloo is located near the famous Sydney Opera House. The hotel, one amongst the top five hotels in the city, is currently owned by the Harilela Group of Hong Kong and managed by Starwood Pacific Hotels Pvt Ltd under its “W” brand. IHCL and its subsidiaries are collectively known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. The Taj had recently acquired Pierry Hotel in New York in July this year.
— PTI
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Nod to 65 SEZs
New Delhi, December 14 Karnataka and Gujarat follow UP with nine SEZs each and Tamil Nadu comes next with six, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha today during question hour. At present, there are 15 SEZ in the country, he said, adding that these provided employment to 1,10,000 persons. Replying to a supplementary as to why there was no SEZ in hill states like Sikkim and Uttaranchal, the minister said the government did not itself propose the creation of SEZs there. While Haryana would have four SEZs, Punjab and Chandigarh would have three and one, respectively. — UNI
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Great Eastern GDR issue
New Delhi, December 14
"We are delighted to welcome Great Eastern Energy Corporation to AIM, the world's most successful market for growing companies. Great Eastern's admission on AIM, underlines that growing companies from India can gain exposure to London's institutional investment and to world-leading regulatory and corporate governance standards" LSE's Director of market services said in a statement. — PTI
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MSN tie-up
New York, December 14
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Adlabs to raise $100m ACC buys stake Airtel Seychelles 12-hour banking Airtel contest |
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