New Delhi, November 22
In a bid to protect investors amid a rush for public offers by corporate India, the government has decided to scrutinise all IPOs that garnered more than Rs 50 crore in the past three years to ascertain that funds were utilised for declared purposes.

As part of this drive, the Ministry of Company Affairs has directed the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to "keep under watch" the IPOs that hit the market since 2004, garnering an estimated Rs 25,000 crore.

During this period, the market was inundated by a number of mega and medium-sized public offers including from Reliance Petroleum, TCS, Patni Computers, Biocon, NDTV, IndiaBulls, Jet Airways and Suzlon.

The move coincides with market regulator SEBI's stern action against two depositories, NSDL and CDSL, and eight depository participants such as Karvy Stock Broking among other market players in the IPO scam.

Earlier, the ministry, headed by Mr Prem Chand Gupta, had cracked a whip against vanishing companies as part of its drive to safeguard the interest of investors and had booked many fly-by-night operators.

"The IPOs that hit the markets in the past three years would be under watch to ensure that the funds raised have been utilised as per the initially announced plans," a source said.

As per the plan, the RoCs, where the companies file their annual returns, would monitor the fund utilisation by them.

Asked whether the government had identified a particular sector or a group of companies for the monitoring, the source said: "No such categorisation can be made as there are no specific complaints.

"It will be a part of the standard practice," the source said, adding that most of the annual returns were filed in the October-December period.

The Company Affairs Ministry had launched a massive operation against vanishing companies in 2004, apart from strengthening efforts against serious corporate offenders through the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. Many offenders have been put behind the bars while some vanished companies have filed their returns to comply with the guidelines. — PTI 

New Delhi, November 22
The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) said today it would set up a captive power plant within its Bathinda refinery complex. The company may come out with an initial public offering (IPO) for the 9 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) Bathinda refinery and is in talks with Oil India Ltd (OIL) for selling a stake, said Mr M.B. Lal, Chairman and Managing Director, HPCL, here today.

The company today appointed Engineers India Limited as project management consultant for the refinery and expressed optimism that it would be commissioned by September 2010.

The promoters hold a maximum of 50 per cent in the Guru Gobind Singh Refineries Ltd, the company implementing the project. OIL, if agrees to buy the stake, would have to pump in about Rs 6,000 crore equity in the Rs 14,144-crore project.

In March this year, British Petroleum walked out of the project as it found investing in refining and marketing in India unattractive. Prior to BP, Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia had walked out of the refinery project in 1998.

The refining complex is estimated to cost Rs 13,800 crore. The crude oil receipt, storage and transfer facilities are estimated to cost Rs 3,450 crore and will be completed to coincide with the refinery completion.

The Bathinda refinery has been configured for processing heavy and sour crude to take advantage of the price differentials between light and sweet crude. The refinery will produce LPG, naphtha, diesel, petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, polypropylene and coke.

The crude oil receipt, storage and transfer facilities — single point mooring — crude oil terminal at Mundra and the 1,011-km crude oil pipeline from Mundra to Bathinda will be implemented by HPCL.

He said the refinery would be capable of meeting the Bharat Stage IV quality norms for transport fuels.

The company was also augmenting the capacity of its Vizag refinery by 9 MMTPA at an expenditure of Rs 9,000-10,000 crore, Mr Lal added.

Mumbai, November 22
Eight Indian business houses have made to the Forbes list of the world's most reputed companies, with the country's largest corporate conglomerate Tata group sharing space with the top 20 global firms.

The Tatas, the largest Indian group in terms of revenues and market capitalisation, has been ranked at the 20th position among the most reputed companies’ list of Forbes. Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda Motors, HLL, ITC, SBI, Infosys and M&M have also managed to find place in the top 200 list.

Italian food and tobacco major Barilla Holdings has been ranked at the first position, followed by Denmark's consumer products firm Lego Holdings and German airline Lufthansa at the second and third positions, respectively.

Among other Indian companies, Maruti has been ranked at the 91st position, Hero Honda Motors at 108th, FMCG major HLL at 116th, ITC at 137th, Infosys at 155th and Mahindra & Mahindra at the 189th position.

The Tatas is the only Indian entity in the top 20 of the list of the world's 600 largest companies in terms of corporate reputation.

Thiruvananthapuram, November 22
The Kerala Government today asked the Idukki District Collector to conduct a survey on the extent of land owned by Tata Tea in Munnar in the wake of allegations that the company was holding more land than what had been leased to it.

Briefing newspersons here after a meeting of the state cabinet, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said two IAS officials would help the district collector to complete the survey within six months as directed by the Kerala High Court. — UNI 

New Delhi, November 22
With reforms in the coal sector stuck due to lack of political consensus, the government has decided to allocate coal blocks to private mining companies that have tied up with approved end users - a development that could trigger protests from trade unions and Left parties.

The government has amended the guidelines for allocation of coal mines to private mining companies on the pattern of captive mines, a senior Coal Ministry official told PTI.

In the largest-ever single offering, the Coal Ministry has earmarked 39 coal blocks to mining companies that have linkages with power, steel and cement firms.

"These 39 blocks have total coal reserves of 6,000 million tonnes (MT). Of these, 15 blocks having 3,500 MT have been reserved for the power sector," the official said.

So far, coal blocks were allotted to only power, steel and cement companies for captive purposes and independent mining companies were not allowed. The Coal Mines Nationalisation (Amendment) Bill that aims at opening up the sector for private companies has been pending in the Rajya Sabha since 2000 due to opposition from Left parties.

The ministry's latest step would virtually bypass the requirement of amending the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act that bars private companies and allows only state-run firms such as Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries in the sector.

The official said this initiative would also help several small-scale companies, particularly in the steel and cement sectors, to access captive coal by forging contracts with mining companies who would be allocated blocks.

The official said four blocks having reserves of 320 MT had been earmarked for pig iron manufacturers while 19 blocks having 2,430 MT were to be offered for sponge iron and cement producers. In addition to the 148 captive coal blocks identified for allocation in the early nineties, the government has identified another 81 such blocks.

As against only 46 blocks allocated to private and public companies between 1993-2004, the UPA government has given 27 blocks in the past two-and-a-half years. — PTI

Mumbai, November 22
Logistics company Gateway Distriparks Ltd will acquire a 50.10 per cent stake in Kerala-based Snowman Frozen Foods Ltd for Rs 48.12 crore.

The Board of Directors today approved the acquisition of 50.10 per cent of the total paid-up equity capital of Snowman Frozen Foods through the subscription of 4.12 crore equity shares, the company said.

The company subscribed to 3.43 crore new equity shares of Snowman at Rs 10.50 per share and purchased 68.61 lakh existing equity scrips at Rs 17.50 each from Amalgam Foods Ltd, a shareholder of Snowman. Amalgam Foods Ltd would continue to remain a shareholder of Snowman, with a holding of 1.21 per cent of the post-issue total paid-up equity capital.

Gateway Distriparks may cause a third party to subscribe to up to 5 per cent of the post- issue total paid-up equity capital of Snowman.

The company would enter into a share subscription agreement with Snowman and its Japan-based shareholders -- Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Logistics Corporation and Nichirel Logistics Group Inc. The three Japan-based companies would continue to be shareholders of Snowman with a 48.69 per cent stake.

Snowman is engaged in the business of cold chain logistic services on a nationwide basis. — PTI

Mumbai, November 22
Paints and specialty chemicals manufacturer ICI India Ltd will divest its entire stake in its wholly-owned subsidiary, Quest International India Ltd (Quest India), to Givaudan Group — a global player in flavours and fragrance business — for up to Rs 390 crore.

The Board of Directors today approved the sale of its entire stake. The total investment made by ICI India in shares of Quest India was about Rs 209 crore.

ICI India has controlling interest in Quest India, which was established in 2001 as a joint venture between the ICI Group and Hindustan Lever. — PTI

Mumbai, November 22
SBI Mutual Fund, one of the leading mutual funds in the country, is launching a close-ended growth fund ''SBI One India Fund'' to primarily invest in diversified equity stocks of companies across all four geographical regions of India and in debt and money market instruments.

Addressing mediapersons on the launch of ''SBI One India Fund'', Managing Director and CEO SBI Mutual Fund Syed Shahabuddin said ''SBI One India Fund would be primarily focused on investing at least 15 per cent and not more than 55 per cent of its equity exposure in each of the four regions''. The fund will open for subscription on November 24 and close on December 22. The scheme will reopen for continuous repurchase from January 17, 2007. — UNI

New Delhi, November 22
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy Transmission Limited (RETL) has bagged an order for setting up of 3,000 circuit kilometers of the 400-kv inter-state transmission lines in Maharshtra and Gujarat.

The project, expected to improve reliability of electricity in the western region of these two states, will be completed in three years at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. The whole process will bring about a drastic reduction in transmission tariffs.

Also, RETL emerged as the lowest bidder among eight in packages B and C for which separate price bids were invited.—UNI

Mumbai, November 22
Power equipments major Siemens announced today that it along with Siemens AG, Germany, has bagged their largest -ver contract of Rs 4,000 crore from the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation in the power transmission and distribution segment.

Under the mega contract, the consortium will supply 25 new substations of different capacities and renovate 10 substations in Qatar.

The company said this was a repeat order from the Qatari company, adding that it had bagged two contracts worth Rs 2,600 crore from the same company in the past financial year.

Siemens said all substations would be installed with cutting-edge electrical power equipment and automation systems, adding that these stations would be unmanned and controlled by the central load dispatch centre. This fast-track project is slated to be completed in 22 months. — UNI

Chandigarh, November 22
HSBC Asset Management (India) will start a portfolio management service (PMS) and Venture Capital Fund from next year. An overseas equity fund for the domestic clients is also in the offing.

Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Asset Management, Mr Sanjay Prakash, said here today that “We have already got clearance from SEBI for starting a PMS,” he said.

Mr Prakash informed that PMS would be initially launched for high net worth individuals in the major metros of the country. Later, the PMS facility would be made available to clients in the tier II cities of the country.

He said HSBC Asset Management would also start the venture capital fund. “We are evaluating our high net worth individuals for the same. We have already filed documents with SEBI for allowing us to launch venture capital funds,” he said. He also said they were keen to start an overseas equity funds for their Indian clients by next year.

He said that HSBC Asset Management was the investment manager to HSBC Mutual Fund, and the latter has assets in excess of Rs 9,691.28 crore, spread across 19 schemes as on October 31 this year.

New Delhi, November 22
Cellular operators today agreed to continue paying additional revenue share on roaming calls to BSNL pending a final decision by telecom tribunal TDSAT on the issue.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI ) submitted before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal that it would continue to pay additional revenue share to BSNL on roaming calls for the time being.

The COAI's statement relates to the case in which BSNL had challenged telecom regulator TRAI's directive of not allowing additional revenue share between operators on roaming calls.

However, the association said the payment made to BSNL would be subject to the final order of the tribunal. "All amount paid by private operators should be refunded if the petition filed by BSNL is rejected," COAI counsel Ramji Srinivasan said, adding that BSNL would also have to pay interest on that sum.

The COAI's stand was also supported by the Association of Unified Telecom Service Provider of India (AUSPI), another association of operators.

Accepting their offer, TDSAT, headed by Justice Arun Kumar, issued notice to BSNL and directed it to file its reply within two weeks.

The public sector firm had last month challenged the TRAI directive that there would be no additional revenue share between operators on roaming calls.

On September 11, TRAI prohibited additional revenue share for roaming calls on applications received by some private cellular operators, adding that the prevailing rate of 0.30 paise per minute would be applicable for all roaming calls as per the IUC regulation. — PTI 

Mumbai, November 22
Tata Group company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) plans to merge nearly half of its subsidiaries with itself as part of a major restructuring exercise.

Currently with over 50 international subsidiaries, VSNL has already begun the process of restructuring to reduce the number of its subsidiaries to 30.

The company has begun talks with tax and legal advisers to complete the restructuring plan in the next four to nine months.

"The rationalisation exercise is expected to result in a simpler structure that can be managed more easily without compromising on operational efficiencies," VSNL Corporate Strategy Head Srinivasa Addepalli said here.

The restructuring exercise would be completed in about four to nine months, he added.

The majority of these subsidiaries have come into the VSNL fold after the acquisition of Bermuda-based Teleglobe International Holdings in February. — PTI