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Hu moots five-point plan to boost business ties
Corus bid: Tatas, CSN ready to fight it out
DGH overruled on NELP blocks
Andhra petitions Deora
Oil price cut if global prices keep low: Deora
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Govt mulls private investment in cargo
CCEA nod to IPOs of 3 power PSUs
Mobera Systems buys US firm
Hindustan Zinc to invest Rs 1,177 cr
Siemens to sell subsidiary
Cairn raises Rs 3,700 cr
A-I set to join Star Alliance
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Hu moots five-point plan to boost business ties
Mumbai , November 23 The plan, dubbed Hu's Panchsheel for business, foresaw the doubling of India-China bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010. President Hu, who addressed the India-China Economic, Trade and Investment Cooperation Summit and a Chief Executives Forum here, used the opportunity to strongly plug a free trade pact between the two countries. The Chinese President said he would actively pursue the liberalisation of trade between the two countries and the free trade pact would be a major component towards this end. He revealed that both countries were in the process of studying the feasibility of a regional trade arrangement. The study would be completed by October next year, Mr Hu said. The Chinese President stated that India and China should co-operate to combine their strengths in order to enhance trade in third countries. Both countries should pool their advantages in information technology, software, energy resources, infrastructure, science and technology and agriculture. Strongly pitching for an easier investment environment for Chinese companies in India, President Hu said the Chinese had already simplified processes for Indian companies to invest in China. "The two sides must work towards removing existing bottlenecks to trade and investment," Mr Hu added. President Hu's meeting with Indian business heads was jointly organised by the FICCI, CII and Assocham. Offers assistance to modernise Mumbai
At the luncheon hosted in his honour at South Mumbai Hotel by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr Hu promised to share China's expertise in urban development in order to modernise Mumbai. President Hu said the Chinese Government would help Maharashtra translate the dream of turning Mumbai into another Shanghai after Mr Deshmukh expressed his desire to this end. In his half-hour meeting with Mr Deshmukh, Mr Hu noted that Mumbai had the potential to emerge as an important financial hub in Asia. Mr Deshmukh went on to tell Hu that the Maharashtra Government was following in China's footsteps by setting up 71 SEZs. He also utilised the occasion to woo Chinese investments. Mr Deshmukh said Chinese companies could use Indian expertise in IT and biotechnology by setting up facilities in Maharashtra. |
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Corus bid: Tatas, CSN ready to fight it out
London/Mumbai, November 23 The Tata Steel Board of Directors today met at Bombay House, the headquarters of the Tatas, and are understood to have discussed their prospects to acquire Corus Group Plc in the face of a counter-offer by CSN last week. The Indian company had in October made a $8.1 billion takeover offer, but Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacionl SA trumped Tata with a slightly higher offer of $8.3 billion for Europe's second largest steel-maker. Investment banking sources said in London that the Tatas were believed to have informed Corus that they were willing to match the CSN bid, provided the Anglo-Dutch company supported them. The sources, however, clarified that CSN had not yet made a formal bid. The Tatas had made an offer of 455 pence a share, which the Corus Board had approved early this month. The issue is slated to come at the extraordinary general body meeting of Corus shareholders on December 4. Asked about the Board's decision and whether the Tatas have communicated their wish to match the CSN bid to Corus, a Tata Steel spokesperson told PTI: "We have no comments to offer at this juncture." Meanwhile, an adviser to the Brazilian company said that financial resources was not an issue for CSN, with the backing of bankers, could counter an increased bid from Tata Steel. However, the Tatas could make public their position only after CSN, which is conducting due diligence of Corus, makes a formal offer, possibly by month-end.
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Tata Steel has approached European regulators on its proposed $8.1 billion bid to acquire Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus. The European Commission (EC), the 25-nation European Union's regulator, will rule by January 3, a Bloomberg report said. The Commission can approve the deal, open a four-month probe or refer it to national regulators, the report said, quoting an EC statement. The development follows the offer by Brazilian firm CSN, which last week approached Corus with an offer of 475 pence per share. The commission can extend the January 3 deadline if rivals such as CSN complain.
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DGH overruled on NELP blocks
New Delhi, November 23 The Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons(DGH) in its recommendation for award of blocks offered in the sixth round of auction under the New Exploration Licensing Policy had opined against awarding 12 deep- sea blocks to the ONGC due to its "poor" track record. However, the ECS, comprising officials from the Ministries of Petroleum, Finance and Law, did not agree with its suggestions, official sources said. The consortium of ONGC-GSPC-HPCL-GAIL was a clear winner in 11 deep-sea blocks while ONGC-Cairn India Ltd-Tata were ranked number one in a Kerala-Konkan basin block. But the DGH was against the award of these blocks to the consortium and recommended "award by negotiations to an international company." The DGH had also suggested that Reliance Industries Ltd, the second highest bidder in most of these blocks, should be given these contracts. Sources said the Oil Ministry opposed the DGH recommendations on the ONGC, saying that a company with the highest bid, should be awarded the block. Of the 21 deep-sea blocks offered in NELP-VI, Reliance had emerged a clear winner in seven - two in the Krishna-Godavari basin and five in the Mahanadi basin. Santos was recommended for two North-East-Coast (NEC) blocks. PTI
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Andhra petitions Deora
New Delhi, November 23 After the exit of its high-profile Chief Executive Subir Raha, the new ONGC management has privately said it was not keen on setting up the 7.5 million tonnes refinery in the Kakinada SEZ. "I request your kind intervention in the matter and shall be grateful if you could kindly direct the ONGC not to withdraw their investment commitments," Mr Reddy wrote to Mr Deora. In his letter Mr Reddy said the ONGC along with its subsidiary, MRPL, had signed MoUs with IL&FS, Kakinada Seaports Ltd and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corp for promotion of the Kakinada SEZ, with ONGC-MRPL agreeing to propose a Rs 7,500-crore refinery as an anchor company. "The ONGC had signed the MoUs only after obtaining the written consent of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, on June 21, 2005," he said. In pursuance of the MoUs, the Andhra Pradesh Government had acquired more than 4,000 acres of land and was in the process of acquiring the balance 6,000 acres. Besides, the state had earmarked the area between Kakinada and Visakhapatnam for development as a coastal corridor. "In view of the substantial progress of the project and commitment made by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, we are shocked to hear that the ONGC has reportedly withdrawn its committed investments from both SEZ and refinery projects at Kakinada," he said. Mr Reddy said the ONGC's decision would have "very serious repercussions both on the political and social fronts." "This has come naturally as a bolt from the blue to the government and to the people of the state." Reasoning the need for the project, he said the country's refining capacity was much more in the western than in the eastern part. "The argument that the refinery at Kakinada may have to depend on imported crude will be equally true for any refinery in India coming up anywhere in the country," he wrote, pointing to the fact that the indigenous oil production at 32 million tonnes barely met 30 per cent of the demand. PTI
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Oil price cut if global prices keep low: Deora
New Delhi, November 23 "The international oil prices continue to fluctuate. The government is keeping a close watch on the volatile prices," he said in the Lok Sabha here. The Indian basket of crude oils was at about $67 per barrel when the petrol and diesel prices were last raised in June . It came down to $57.26 a barrel in October. At the current prices of $57-58 per barrel, oil marketing companies were still incurring under-recovery on diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG, he said. Oil firms were making a profit of Rs 4.50 a litre on petrol but were losing about Rs 0.45 to Rs 0.50 a litre on diesel. The loss on kerosene was over Rs 14 a litre and it lost Rs 102 per LPG cylinder. He said there was no overall shortage of domestic cooking gas (LPG) in the country although a few southern states had a supply backlog of 2-8 days.
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Govt mulls private investment in cargo
New Delhi, November 23 Mr Praful Patel, Civil Aviation Minister, while talking on the sidelines of the India-EU Aviation summit here, said, "There is a need to open up areas like the non-scheduled operation, cargo, helicopters and seaplanes operations in the country. Pointing out that although no formal decision had yet been taken as government was still looking into it, he added there were only about half a dozen cargo aircraft in India at present. He said there was a need to "meaningfully review" these areas of operations as more importance has so far been given to scheduled operations run by the regular airlines. Addressing the first-ever EU-India Aviation Summit along with European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, he said the long-term plan of the government was to create an "aviation grid" across the country by developing 400 airports and airstrips so as to ensure that a person was located within a 50-km range from any airport. Mr Patel was of the view that apart from international connectivity, domestic connectivity was a major challenge. Expeditious steps in creating or revamping airport infrastructure were needed to be taken to overcome this problem, he said. Pointing out that India had very good bilateral relations with all EU member states, the European Commission Vice- President said since both India and EU faced common challenges in aviation, the two sides should face them in partnership. Mr Barrot also proposed the signing of a "horizontal agreement" between the two sides, to which Mr Patel said the government would study all legal and other implications and its impact.
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CCEA nod to IPOs of 3 power PSUs
New Delhi, November 23 The CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved Power Ministry's proposal for the three IPOs, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told newspersons at the conclusion of the meeting. The three companies would tap the stock market to issue 10 per cent fresh equity and there would be no disvestment of the existing government holding in them. While the PFC was allowed early this year to tap the market with an IPO along wtih the sale of the government equity, its plans could not materialise after the UPA government decided to put all disvestment cases on hold, PGCIL and REC have been given permission for the first time. The Power Ministry wants to list all three companies on the bourses by March next year.
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Mobera Systems buys US firm
Chandigarh, November 23 Announcing this here today, Mr Puneet Vatsayan and Ms Anupama Arya, Directors of Mobera Systems, said they have entered into a one- year performance-driven clause with Tempowest Inc. "In case, the company is able to perform according to the contract, the cost of acquisition would go up to $3.5 million," they said and added that the acquisition would augment their technical expertise, and facilitate them to launch and deliver innovative solutions. Tempowest Inc, a Delaware incorporated company based in New York, had been a major player in providing innovative engineering design and product development solutions. Post acquisition, Tempowest Inc. will become Mobera Systems Inc., and will be the US subsidiary, with its team and product portfolio integrated into Mobera Systems. Ms Arya further said the company was now planning to set up offices in Japan , Korea, Germany, Italy and the UK.
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Hindustan Zinc to invest Rs 1,177 cr
Mumbai, November 23 |
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Mumbai, November 23 The company would divest 12,425,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each amounting to 100 per cent stake, Siemens informed the BSE. The decision was taken consequent to the announcement by Germany-based Siemens AG for the merger of the Networks Business Group of Nokia and Siemens Carrier related operations for fixed and mobile networks worldwide. The Board of Directors also approved, in principle, the proposal for the sale or transfer of the company's undertaking comprising of 'Communication - Enterprise Networks Division' with effect from April 1, 2007, in favour of a new 100 per cent subsidiary company to be incorporated by Siemens AG, Germany, in India for this purpose. This was pursuant to the global restructuring of the said business by Siemens AG, Germany. The decision is subject to the approval of the shareholders by postal ballot. The Board has constituted a committee of Directors to finalise the valuation, price consideration and take all decisions and steps, which are necessary and expedient for the implementation of the said decisions. PTI
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Cairn raises Rs 3,700 cr
New Delhi, November 23 Cairn, which has about 90 per cent of its value tied up in Indian assets and is floating them on the BSE, placed 209.67 million shares at Rs 176.48 a piece. Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) subscribed to 176.53 million shares or 10 per cent of the expected share capital of Cairn India Ltd, the company said. "The pre-flotation private placing closed on Wednesday and 209.67 million Cairn India shares have been placed at a price of Rs 176.48 per share, raising a total of Rs 3,700 crore," it said. The largest investor was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas, which subscribed 176.53 million shares (representing approximately 10 per cent of the post-issue share capital). The balance 33.14 million shares were subscribed by Indian and international institutional investors, including Videocon. As a result of the placement, the net offer to the public of shares in Cairn India would be reduced from 538.47 million shares to 328.80 million shares. Cairn plans to invest $1.5 billion in its Rajasthan oilfield, from where it is expecting a peak output of 150,000 barrels per day from 2009. Cairn Energy Plc plans to split its business into two Cairn India Ltd (which would hold the company's India interests, including the Rajasthan oilfield, Cambay oil and gas fields and Ravva oil and gas field) and an exploration company with interests in exploration assets in Bangladesh, Nepal and adjoining parts of India. An IPO of Indian business through the book building route is planned in December. Post-IPO, Cairn Energy's stake in CIL would be 69.5 per cent. PTI
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New Delhi, November 23 Although he declined to name the alliance, sources said AI was on course to join the Star Alliance and a non-disclosure agreement had been signed. The decision to join an alliance was taken before the proposal to merge AI and Indian was mooted. Star Alliance has Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada and United Airlines, among others, as its members. PTI
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Microsoft buys 10 pc stake in TCS China |
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