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BP pulls out of pact on Bathinda refinery
Rel Energy may bid for gas blocks
SBI subsidiaries law to be changed
Banks seek tax breaks, grants
France passes Bill against hostile takeovers
HP to set up industrial area near Baddi
Inland Waterways to transport coal for NTPC
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BSNL floats $4.5-b GSM tender
Luxembourg backs changes
India looking for oil, gas assets
BSNL HQ to shift back to Srinagar
Corporate
News
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BP pulls out of pact on Bathinda refinery
New Delhi, March 23 “BP communicated to us today that it was pulling out of the venture,” a top official of HPCL said. The BP Board, after considering 20 projects globally, concluded that the current investment climate in India was not very suitable for investments in refining and marketing. India, which has for political reasons forced oil firms to sell fuel at below cost of production, already has surplus refining capacity. Besides, major capacity additions are planned both in private and public sector, leading to lower margins. Last October, HPCL and BP had come together for a new refining and marketing joint venture vehicle to build a nine million tonne refinery at Bathinda in Punjab. The two signed a letter of intent on October 13 to form a 50:50 venture to construct, operate and control the Bathinda refinery to start with, and later cover the entire refining and marketing sectors. The official said BP today communicated to HPCL that it was not investing in any refining and marketing project in India at this moment, but would review future opportunities. HPCL, he insisted, would go ahead with the Rs 12,000 crore Bathinda refinery project on its own and complete the refinery by 2010. Industry sources said there was disagreement between the two firms on terms of the joint venture with the British giant insisting on greater control in the retailing arm. HPCL, they said, resisted BP taking advantage of its existing retail network built over the years and wanted the joint venture to invest afresh in setting up retail business. But BP wanted to use the existing network for entering the fuel retailing business. As per the October MoU, BP was to assist HPCL in crude selection. The two were to form a joint venture to market
Bathinda refinery products. The Letter of Intent provided for a broader strategic partnership for participation in greenfield refinery and/or a terminal project on east coast India; providing opportunities to HPCL to acquire refining and marketing assets that BP may identify from its overseas portfolio.
IOC, Russian firm agreement
Indian Oil Corporation today said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russia’s Stroytransgaz to pursue pipeline projects in India and abroad. The MoU was inked yesterday by Indian Director (Pipelines) A.M. Uplenchwar and STG’s first Vice-President L.Bokhanovskiy. The two companies had earlier partnered a consortium with Essar Construction for implementation of the 133-km Baroda-Ahmedabad-Kalol gas pipeline project of Gujarat State Petronet. STG is a leading Russian oil and gas construction company involved in design and construction of pipeline systems, gas and oil storage facilities, a statement said here.
— PTI
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Rel Energy may bid for gas blocks
In an attempt to source fuel for its power plants, Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Energy is likely to bid for potential gas bearing blocks on offer under NELP-VI, where elder brother Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is expected to make a strong showing.
Reliance Energy is scouting for a foreign partner for its maiden foray into exploration and production business (E&P), industry sources said. Sources said Reliance Energy plans to bid for potential gas bearing blocks on offer in the sixth round of bidding under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks. Company officials were unavailable for comments.
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SBI subsidiaries law to be changed
New Delhi, March 23 The amendment would also enable the subsidiary banks to attract a large number of small investors through measures like stock splits, Information and Broadcasting Minister P.R. Dasmunshi said after the meeting. This would enable the subsidiary banks to augment their ability to access the capital market for raising funds to provide for transferability/ trading in their shares. The seven associate banks of the SBI are State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Saurashtra, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore. There was no uniformity in the authorised capital of SBI subsidiary banks. Though there is a provision for increasing or reducing the authorised capital with the approval of the RBI, it lays down that they would only be in shares of Rs 100 each. The Cabinet also approved amendments to the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2005, to give greater operational flexibility and regulatory powers to the RBI. The amendments to the Banking Act, 1949, were found inadequate in the context of reforms taking place in the financial sector. It will enable the RBI to lay down a policy and issue directions to monitor them,” Mr Dasmunshi said. The Cabinet also
approved a change in the Reserve Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2005, on the basis of recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance. The committee had recommended changes in the definitions of ‘Repo’ and ‘Reverse Repo’ as this would bring about conformity with market usage and the common practice internationally. The Union Cabinet also approved the extension by four months of the deadline for telecom companies to comply with guidelines on FDI. The Cabinet gave its ex-post-facto approval to the July 2 deadline given to telecom companies for complying with different conditions in respect to enhancement of the FDI ceiling from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in the sector, he
said. Telecom companies had time till March 3 to comply with the FDI norms, but the government issued a notification that day extending the time by four months. In another decision, the Cabinet approved a proposal for sale of the entire equity holding of ITI Ltd in its joint venture FIBCOM India Ltd. ITI would get a net sale value of Rs 11.60 crore against its investment at the face value of Rs 4.60 crore. Further, the loss of joint venture would not have any affect on ITI, he said.
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New Delhi, March 23 The Finance Minister said he had taken the suggestions’’ on board’’ and in order to tide over the liquidity crisis, he announced a committee of five bank Chairmen who will meet the RBI next week, ahead of the annual Credit Policy review on April 18. In a meeting with the bank chiefs, the Finance Minister reviewed a number of issues related to the hardening of interest rates, shortfall between the demand for credit growth and deposit growth and the ways to help the banks finance the agricultural loans at a lower rate of 7 per cent. The Finance Minister told reporters after the meeting that for enhancing money availability for the economy growing at 8 per cent, the five-member bankers’ committee under the aegis of the Indian Banks’ Association would meet the RBI Governor on March 28 .’’I would also speak to the RBI Governor,’’ he stated. — UNI
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France passes Bill against hostile takeovers
Paris, March 23 Economy and Finance Minister Thierry Breton told the Senate: “We find ourselves before a Bill whose timeliness has been illustrated by current events in recent weeks.” This appeared to be a reference to a recent hostile bid by Netherlands-based Mittal Steel for European steel giant Arcelor, and a possible bid by Italian electricity group Enel for French utilities group, Suez. Senator Philippe Marini of the UMP party told French senators before final vote that is was necessary to defend French companies by keeping their “economic decision-making in our country”. For Mr Breton, the new takeover law would permit “French companies to operate on a level playing field, and not be penalised” in their development abroad. The Senate vote signals the final approval of the Bill, which adapts into French law an April 2004 directive of the European Union on company takeovers. Senators from the Communist and Socialist parties voted against the Bill. France has made clear that it prefers to see so-called “national champions” with extensive foreign interests to emerge out of big French groups in areas of economy. — AFP
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HP to set up industrial area near Baddi
Shimla, March 23 Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Industries Minister, presiding over a meeting of the Board of Directors of the corporation here today, said the process of acquisition of approximately 400 bighas of land was in an advanced stage. Mr Anil Khachi, MD, said that the corporation had exceeded its term loan targets during 2005-06 by sanctioning Rs 7.65 crore for industrial ventures, besides recovering of more than Rs 8.00 crore during the financial year. The Board also approved a DA slab to the employees with effect from July, 2005.
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Inland Waterways to transport coal for NTPC
New Delhi, March 23 Stating this at ASSOCHAM- organised conference on `Multi-Model Transport : Emerging Business Opportunities & Benefits’ here today, IWAI Chairman Rahul Sarin also announced that the fly-ash generated out of coal would be exported to Bangladesh from Farakka where the NTPC had a thermal plant. Mr Sarin announced that his authority and the NTPC had in principal agreed that the NTPC would assign the IWAI the task of transporting its imported coal from Haldia to Farakka through water routes for seven years. Mr Sarin announced that the authority had already set up seven water terminals to handle cargo movements for which an expression of interest had been floated to rope in the private sector for the operation of these terminals. The authority had also decided to set up 13 water terminals purely with private sector participation without any cap on equity.
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BSNL floats $4.5-b GSM tender
New Delhi, March 23 The tender is the first step towards BSNL’s massive expansion plan of 63.5 million GSM lines, out of which 18 million lines goes towards the PSU quota to ITI (and Alcatel combine) for west zone. Out of 45.5 million lines, 25 per cent will be third generation mobile (3G services) compatible, and there is a possibility that it could be increased to even 50 per cent of the total size of 63.5 million, Mr A.K. Sinha, CMD, BSNL said here. The 3G service hinges upon many factors, including the announcement of a spectrum policy. Availability of spectrum will offer BSNL’s CellOne users high-speed data, voice and video on their phones. The two-stage bidding system will see 45.5 million lines being rolled out in three phases.
— PTI
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Luxembourg backs changes
Brussels: The finance committee in Luxembourg’s national Parliament unanimously backed changes to takeover rules, but the country’s Finance Minister said the proposals would not affect Mittal Steel Co.’s $23 billion for Luxembourg-based Arcelor SA.
Mr Luc Frieden, Luxembourg’s Finance Minister, said the proposals- which are expected to be approved in April- were “neutral on current takeover bids.” The head of the parliamentary committee, Mr Laurent Mosar, said his panel did not want to interfere in the Mittal-Arcelor squabble.
— AP
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India looking for oil, gas assets
New Delhi, March 23 With domestic oil production barely meeting 27 per cent of the demand, India has been on a buying spree. “India’s crude oil self-sufficiency declined from 63 per cent in 1989-90 to 30 per cent in 2000-01. The situation is only likely to get worse in the future,” he said.
— PTI
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BSNL HQ to shift back to Srinagar
Srinagar, March 23
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Torrent merges 3 companies
Mumbai, March 23 As such, Torrent Power AEC Ltd and Torrent Power SEC Ltd have been merged into the new entity as well as the unlisted company — Torrent Power Generation Ltd. The decision, taken at the Boards of Torrent Power AEC Ltd and Torrent Power SEC Ltd, will be subject to regulatory approvals as well as a decision by the Gujarat High Court. As per the share-swap ratio and reorganisation of share capital of Torrent Power Ltd, the shareholders would get 5.5 shares of face value of Rs 10 for each share they hold in Torrent Power AEC and 11.75 shares of Rs 10 for each share in Torrent Power SEC. Patni inks mega deal
Patni Computer Systems has signed a multi-million GBP telecom contract with UK’s largest mobile communications retailer Carphone Warehouse. This comes close on the heels of the company bagging a major outsourcing contract from global banking major ABN
Amro. The multi-services deal will strengthen its presence in the European market, the company said
today. This will be a fixed price engagement with programme management and end-to-end systems implementation responsibility across multiple vendors. The company would be leveraging its key technology assets and re-usable components to deliver services to Carphone Warehouse.
ICS bags Datagrid
Infinite Computer Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd, an IT solutions and services provider, today announced the
acquisition of Datagrid Services Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based $ 2 million BPO company, in a cash-and-stock deal. The company with $ 110 million acquired Datagarid with 250 persons, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The strategic investment will enable the company augment its BPO services, especially in the healthcare, BFSI and legal services verticals, and broaden its reach across the globe, according to CEO Upinder
Zutshi.
SpiceJet tickets
SpiceJet today entered into a tie-up with Hindustan Petroleum to sell air tickets through petrol outlets. The facility is first being launched at 25 HP petrol stations here and will be replicated across the country steadily. Currently, SpiceJet tickets can be purchased through the Internet, call centre, travel agents and airport ticketing counters. The airline operates services to the 11 destinations of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Goa, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu, Srinagar, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Licence cancelled
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the certificate of registration granted to Punjab Leasing Pvt Ltd with effect from March 6 as the company has opted to exit from the business. Following the cancellation, the Amritsar-based non-banking financial institution will not be able to transact any business, the RBI said here today.
— TNS and Agencies
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