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Birlas to buy out Tatas in Idea for
Karzai for TAP gas pipeline
Plasma TV prices to drop by 50 per cent
BHEL gets Rs 1,200-cr order
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Rel Energy to mull REVL
merger on April 26
Arcelor, Jindal jv goes on stream
Indian investors scout for Aussie coalmines
Bihar lures investors
BSNL shelves IPO plan
Ind-Swift unit at Baddi
Panel to boost jewellery sector formed
Sahara One to sell 14.98 pc
stake to Aircel
Goodricke eyes tea gardens in North
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Birlas to buy out Tatas in Idea for Rs 4,406 cr
New Delhi, April 10 “The Aditya Birla Group has accepted the offer made by the Tata Group, and will acquire its entire holding of 48.14 per cent in Idea Cellular Ltd for a total consideration of approximately Rs 4,406 crore,” Birla group said in a press note. With the deal, which is likely to be closed in a month’s time after taking all necessary approvals, Aditya Birla group would hold 98.3 per cent equity in the cellular company. Of the 48.14 per cent Tatas’ holdings, 15 per cent will be acquired by Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and its subsidiaries, and the balance by Birla TMT Holdings Pvt Ltd. Tata group officials declined to comment on the deal. Idea Cellular is the fifth largest mobile service provider after Bharti, Reliance, Hutch and BSNL. Earlier this year, Birlas had sought government intervention to issue a direction to Tatas’ to exit completely or reduce their stake in Idea to below 10 per cent citing the breach of license terms and conditions as Tatas owned stake both in Tata Indicom and Idea. Even as Tatas had indicated that they would exit from the joint venture by June this year, the Birla group went ahead shooting letters to Department of Telecom (DoT) seeking their intervention to resolve the issue.
— PTI Idea IPO this year
With dispute between its two main shareholders coming to an end, the now Birla group-owned Idea Cellular looks all set to hit the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO) later this year. Idea Cellular had earlier planned to come out with an IPO more than two years ago but the plans were shelved due to differences between the two joint venture partners —Aditya Birla group and Tatas over the equity holding in the company. When contacted, Idea Cellular officials declined to comment. Sources, however, said that the subsidiaries of Aditya Birla group, which hold equity in Idea Cellular, might hold their respective board meetings within a week to take a final decision in this regard. The priority, however, seems to be an entry into Mumbai circle, which was stalled earlier due to dispute between two partners.
— PTI
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Karzai for TAP gas pipeline
New Delhi, April 10 “We will be happy to participate in the international consortium to build this gas pipeline. It is very important for India, for Pakistan which will be major beneficiaries of the project,” said Afghanistan President, while addressing a business meeting jointly organised by CII, Ficci and Assocham today. He said a reputed company from Argentina has recently visited Kabul to study the project, and hoped that the project would soon materialise. Appreciating India’s support in building Afghanistan economy, Mr Karzai urged Indian industry to cash in on the one-window approval of business projects to set up manufacturing bases in the country in diverse areas like cement, oil & gas, electricity and services industries such as hotels, banking and communications. Mr Karzai, who has studied in Himachal University, said: “The bilateral trade between the countries should increase to benefit the people of both countries. Please, come and see yourself that Afghanistan is one of the lowest tax country which gives priority to Indian investors.” Bilateral trade between the two countries has grown from $ 52.40 million to $ 201.68 million. Meanwhile, the exports from Pakistan to Afghanistan increased from $ 25million to $ 1.2 billion within three years. At present, 47 Indian companies were operating in Afghanistan with an investment of $ 25 million in cement, gas oil, electricity and other sectors. Mr. Karzai said: “Afghanistan has adopted a free market philosophy and has enacted laws that facilitate business activity while at the same time fully protecting them”. The country, he said, was the gateway to Central Asia and Indian industry should take advantage of the low tax regime to make Afghanistan a manufacturing hub. The Afghan President said the World Bank has rated Afghanistan as one of the best countries to do business with, a country where investment was fully protected. “We are aware that we will prosper only if we go by the rules of free trade and good business practice,” he said. Mr Saroj Kumar Poddar, President, Ficci, pointed out that Afghanistan could become the transit route for oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to India. Such a pipeline would have a significant potential for enhancing stability and improving living standards in south and Central Asia as well as Afghanistan. This would be a pioneering effort in linking the energy deficit economies of South Asia to the hydrocarbon rich Central Asian countries, he said.
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Plasma TV prices to drop by 50 per cent
Seoul, April 10 “The plasma TV is now globally priced around $1400, which, according to our projections, is expected to fall to $400 2008,” said Mr Park Se Jin, head of sales and marketing in SouthWest Asia. Talking to a group of visiting newspersons, he said the plasma TVs had been witnessing about 60 per cent growth each year worldwide and India would not be far behind. “LG would set up an assembly line in India in the second half of this year and the prices of plasma TVs in the country would reduce by about 50 per cent and would be in line with the global trends,” said Mr Kiju Song, Director of Digital Display, Overseas Sales and Marketing. He said the company would begin with the production of 5,000 sets and would increase it in the coming years. Mr Kiju Song said the company had allocated $2.6 billion for research and development in the fiscal 2006-07 and planned to become the market leader in plasma display panel (PDP) in 2008. The company, which had $35 billion revenue in 2005, has a 12 per cent market share in the Asian region. “By setting up the assembly line production in India, the company would take advantage of the tax structure, and would be in a position to increase its market share in the region and in the country,” he said. Mr Jaeryong Kim, Chief Research Engineer, the technology man behind the high-end television, which the company planned to make available to every household, said PDP was technologically superior to other TVs available in the market. The Korean company produces PDP 40 inches and
above. In the first phase, the company plans to market 50, 60 and 71 inches PDP in the high-end market. It would also market plasma TV with memory card and hard disk drive built in the second half of the year.
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BHEL gets Rs 1,200-cr order
New Delhi, April 10 The power plant will be equipped with an eco-friendly, state-of-the-art circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) boiler, specifically designed to utilise low-grade fuels like lignite, high-ash coal and washery, said a company statement. This order comes close on the heels of prestigious orders already received during the year for lignite-based thermal power stations with CFBC boilers for 2x 250 MW sets at Nevyeli and 2x125 at Barsingsar, both from NLC and 1x125 MW set at Giral from Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RVUNL). In the past three years, BHEL has been able to consistently secure orders at record levels and this has resulted in a comfortable order outstanding position of Rs 37,500 crore as at the end of March, 2006. The company is equipping itself to cater to the country’s ambitious future power capacity addition programme, including ultra-mega projects, and has tied up technology for 800 MW thermal sets operating with super critical parameters, besides enhancing its annual manufacturing capacity from the present 6,000 MW to 10,000 MW.
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Rel Energy to mull REVL merger on April 26
Mumbai, April 10 The shareholders would consider, and if found fit, approve the scheme of amalgamation and arrangement with or without any modification, of REVL with the company, it informed the stock exchanges. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) had earlier announced a tentative and indicative time schedule for the implementation of the proposed merger of Reliance Energy Ventures Ltd (REVL) with Reliance Energy Ltd. The announcement from ADAG had come after the Bombay High Court directed the two companies to hold shareholders’ meeting for approving the schemes of amalgamation. The merger is likely to be completed by July this year. The company would file petition with the High Court seeking sanction of the scheme shortly after the proposed shareholders meeting on April 26. Meanwhile, Reliance Capital Ventures Board will also meet the same day to consider merger with Reliance Capital.
— PTI
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Arcelor, Jindal jv goes on stream
New Delhi, April 10 Arcelor holds a minority stake of 27 per cent in the IUP Jindal Metals and Alloys Ltd, whereas Jindal Saw Ltd holds the rest of the majority stake in the joint venture, which has set up a capacity of 1,500 tonnes per month of stainless steel and alloy strips. “The Jindal group would contribute its market intelligence and expertise and its partner group would provide technical know-how to the venture,” a company press note said. The newly-formed joint venture will also leverage Arcelor Stainless International’s global sales network. The operators of the joint venture have undergone a three-week training on precision products at IUP and Imphy Alloy’s plants in Europe. European Union regulators will rule on Mittal Steel Co.’s $25 billion bid for rival Arcelor by May 19. The European Commission, the 25-nation European Union’s antitrust regulator in Brussels, announced the deadline today. — UNI, Bloomberg
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Indian investors scout for Aussie coalmines
Sydney, April 10 Efforts by the Indians to secure Australian coalmines are being seen as a part of the ongoing tussle with their Chinese counterparts for dwindling global energy sources. The competition for Australian coal between the two emerging economic superpowers is strong with steel-makers from Brazil also close on their heels. The demand for coking coal and other resources from these three so-called tiger economies is also driving up the Australian economy to new heights. “(We) recognise the growing areas of the world are going to be China, India and Brazil. We will give a weighting to having partners in those countries,” Macarthur Chief Executive and Controlling Shareholder Ken Talbot told reporters at the Melbourne Mining Club recently. Various investors from the above-named countries are trying to secure stakes in the leading independent coking coal producer Macarthur’s three new coal projects — Olive Downs, Vermont East and Moorvale West. The three new mines would help Macarthur to expand its annual production of 4.5 million tonnes to 20-30 million tonnes. Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed and tightly-held Macarthur Coal already has Chinese state-owned investment company CITIC as a partner in Macarthur’s existing Queensland operations for some time now. The Macarthur Chief has given a clear indication that the Australian coal producer would look beyond Japan and China to sell as much as 20 per cent of three coking coal projects in the northern state of Queensland. Mr Talbot asserted that steel-making countries, such as India and Brazil, were desperate for coking coal and it is inevitable that they are looking for opportunities to invest in Australian mines.
— UNI
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Bihar lures investors
New Delhi, April 10 Mr Nitish Kumar was addressing an interactive meeting with industry and trade on Investment Opportunities in Bihar organised by Ficci here today. The new initiatives taken by state government, he said, “include introduction of Bihar Single Window Clearance Act, 2006; Bihar Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2006; New Industrial Policy, 2006; Price Preference Policy, 2006; New Policy for Entertainment sector; Policy for establishing higher Technical Institutions in Private Sector and Simplification of VAT Regime.” Responding to the observations by the Ficci President, Mr Saroj Kumar Poddar, the Chief Minister invited industry to take advantage of the skills of the work force in the state, which are being upgraded with the setting up of a law university, a medical college, a management and other such institutes. “Our priority is on human development in the area of education and health care and we believe in good governance, development and maintenance of law and order,” he said, adding that he has asked Ficci to make an assessment of Bihar’s performance in the economic and social spheres during the last five months. Mr Nitish Kumar assured investors of adequate power for which the state has sought an additional 200 MW from NTPC to take the state’s total installed capacity to 1,300 MW. “We are also focusing on connecting rural areas with state highways, district and rural roads for which the state has set apart Rs 2,000 crore. The meeting was addressed by Mr N.K. Singh, Former Member Planning Commission; Dr Satish C. Jha, Chairman, Task Force on Bihar, Planning Commission and senior state government officials.
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BSNL shelves IPO plan
New Delhi, April 10 “Government has been writing to us... we have taken advise from bankers and they have suggested that this is not an appropriate time to go for an IPO,” Mr S.D. Saxena, Director (Finance), BSNL told reporters. Asked by when the company would be ready to hit the capital market, he said: “We need 12 to 18 months to clean up our accounts.” Earlier, BSNL had initiated the process of appointing an advisor for its proposed IPO and had invited bids from the merchant bankers. BSNL is likely to register a lower profit of up to Rs 8,000 crore in 2005-06 compared to over Rs 10,000 crore the previous year. BSNL attributed the dip to lower levy (access deficit charge) received from private operators and lower reimbursement of their licence fee paid to government. The ADC was lower by about Rs 2,000 crore and the reduction in the reimbursement of license fee was about Rs 1,600 crore in 05-06 compared to the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, as many as 18 leading telecom and IT companies including Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Cisco and HP have evinced interest in bidding for 45.5 million GSM line to be added by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. “Eighteen companies have bought the tender document. Virtually all big players are there like Siemens, Nortel, Nokia, Motorola, Huawei, Sun Micro Systems, HP and some other smaller companies,” BSNL CMD A K Sinha told reporters.
— PTI
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Ind-Swift unit at Baddi
Mumbai, April 10 The new unit would have the capacity to manufacture 180 crore tablets per annum, 12 crore ampoules per year, 6 crore vials per annum and 12 crore syrups, Ind-Swift informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company had recently purchased seven acres in the tax free zone of Baddi for setting up a new formulation facility for manufacturing oncology, cephalosporin’s, beta lactum, herbal and neutraceutical products.
— PTI
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Panel to boost jewellery sector formed
New Delhi, April 10 The committee will analyse legislative provisions, rules and regulations governing taxation in the gem and jewellery industry in countries with substantial turnovers and recommend a taxation system based on best international practices to provide impetus to this sector. The committee is expected to submit its report by September 30. The Commerce and Industry Ministry also announced a major boost for the gems and jewellery sector in the Foreign Trade Policy on April 7.
— UNI
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Sahara One to sell 14.98 pc
stake to Aircel
Mumbai, April 10 The decision to divest 14.98 per cent equity was taken at the company’s Board meeting held today, a Sahara Group spokesperson said tonight. Following today’s decision, promoters’ equity in Sahara One would be reduced to 73 per cent. The Board has approved the issue of 32.25 lakh equity shares at Rs 372 per share to Aircel Televentures on a preferential basis, subject to shareholders’
approval. — PTI |
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Goodricke eyes tea gardens in North
Kolkata, April 10 Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting here, Chairman of Goodricke Group P.A. Leggatt said the firm would use its expertise it has in the areas of pineapple, citrus and edible nuts cultivation. Asked whether the company was looking at acquisitions of tea gardens in north India, he said "We are open to that". "We are willing to buy out estates provided the right garden was offered at the right price," he said. Talking about the company's performance in the tea business, he said packet tea operation was not satisfactory due to aggressive competition despite registering 19 per cent volume growth. The company has also started instant tea unit in north Bengal at Aibheel garden for export to Japan. He said the company was also looking at countries like Philippines and Taiwan for instant tea
exports. — PTI
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