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Assocham Survey
DefExpo
Bhave takes over as SEBI chief
Exploration Guidelines |
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M&M, too, eyes defence sector
11th Plan
Indiabulls forays into aviation business
India pips China in economic transformation
Ashwani woos Japanese investors
Steel Price Hike Govt issues Rs 3,610 cr fertiliser bonds
AP to have exclusive marine product SEZ
REC public offer opens today
Canara Bank starts online trading
Lankan glove firm to strengthen Indian market
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Assocham Survey
New Delhi, February 18 "While Indian stock markets have become structurally strong and well-regulated, bad pricing of issues and weak market sentiment have played spoilsport," says Assocham survey. Assocham's Business Barometer Unit found that as many as 105 out of 150 chief executives contacted for responses said they also did not believe the developments mean a collapse of primary markets. India has emerged as one of the world's largest primary market in recent years, with valuations crossing $8.5 billion in 2007, thanks to more than 100 companies coming out with their IPOs. In recent weeks, while the issue of Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) plunged below the offer price despite being oversubscribed more than 75 times, other big-ticket offers by companies like Emmar MGF and Wockhardt had to be called off after poor response. "While prevailing liquidity conditions in bourses play an important role in the successful listing of a company's stock, valuations should not stretch into long future as it dampens investors' appetite," said Assocham president V.N. Dhoot. The respondents felt public offers can be revived if good issues hit the market with attractive pricing. Companies that have lined up their offers should ensure appropriate price bands to avoid the adverse investor response. As many as 84 percent of the respondents also felt that the withdrawal of primary issues was commonplace even in mature and developed markets. Regarding the role of investment bankers in evoking good market response, a fair section of the corporate heads wanted them to give sound advice to their clients based on market depth and appropriate valuations of a company's scrip. Over 72 percent of the CEOs surveyed felt market intermediaries led to investors getting swayed in India, the chamber said. "They also blamed the so-called grey market and wanted the regulator (Securities and Exchange Board of India) to come down heavily on manipulators who raise investor expectations in unofficial markets." The industry heads were not confident about the conditions in the primary market in the near future. Forty-five per cent felt that the primary market outlook was likely to remain bleak for some time. Another 56 per cent said it was too early to pass judgment about the prospects of the primary markets as the year had just begun. "Given the volatility in the markets the world over, the whole sentiment could change within a month." — IANS |
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DefExpo
New Delhi, February 18 After having signed deals on the first two days, Tata Power’s strategic electronics division (SED) today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French major Thales in the area of optronics. Through this MoU, Tata Power SED and Thales agreed to cooperate in order to offer optronics solutions for Indian defence market such as the medium multi role combat aircraft (MMRCA) programme and further programs on existing or future airborne platforms. The agreement will allow both companies to develop transfer of technologies in order to implement local contents and meet the offset requirements as stipulated by the ministry of defence in the defence procurement policy. F. Hubert-Habart, regional sales director, Thales Land and Joint, said: “The signature of this MoU will allow Thales and Tata Power SED to combine their respective know-how and competencies to offer a unique portfolio of solutions in the airborne optronics domain for defense”. Rahul Chaudhry, chief executive officer, Tata Power SED, noted that "Large defence program like MMRCA with offsets have created opportunities for Indian companies with defense systems experience. Tata Power SED will leverage this partnership with Thales to serve our customers better." Tata Power SED has been a leading private-sector player in the indigenous design, development, production, supply and maintenance of defense systems. |
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Bhave takes over as SEBI chief
Mumbai, February 18 Bhave has been appointed chairman for a period of three years. Bhave refused to speak to reporters about his future plans. "No comments", he told reporters when asked about his agenda for SEBI in the coming days. Bhave has rejoined SEBI after 12 years. In 1996, Bhave quit SEBI to create India's first share depository, the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).—
PTI |
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Exploration Guidelines
New Delhi, February 18 The petroleum ministry has proposed guidelines for "enhancing effectiveness" of Management Committee (MC), which oversees oil and gas exploration in areas or blocks awarded to companies under the landmark New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). "With the aim to tackle smaller issues, the flexibilities that were purposefully built in the NELP policy framework and in the Production Sharing Contracts (signed for blocks awarded under NELP since 1999) are being modified/curtailed by way of guidelines," the company wrote to the ministry. "As a result, the overall drawn-up field is slowly being reduced with lesser and lesser operational flexibility to the investors." Reliance opposed the proposal of establishing a benchmark internal rate of return for declaration of commerciality of a discovery saying NELP gave the right for declaration of commerciality to companies as an incentive to cover for their exploration risk. The PSCs signed under NELP explicitly makes procurement of goods and services for petroleum operations a responsibility of the companies, but the proposed guideline for MC setting a pre-qualifying criteria went against the PSC provisions, it said. Stating that such a norm would restrict operations and may hamper sourcing of best technologies and resources, Reliance said the tendering criteria have been clearly specified in the PSCs and should be followed. — PTI |
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M&M, too, eyes defence sector
New Delhi, February 18 The group plans to make the military bid through joint venture (JV) with world-class defence vehicle manufacturers in the next 3-5 years. “The Indian market for land systems stands at $5 billion, in which we intend to have a share of around 60 per cent or $3 billion,” Mahindra Group vice-chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra said. The company hopes to fight for this share of the military market with its new stable of five specialised armoured vehicles - Mahindra Axe, Marksmen, Striker, Up Armoured Scorpio and Mine Protected Vehicle - which will roll out from the company’s new factory to be located at Faridabad. The company is investing Rs 40 crore on this venture. M&M’s defence arm, Mahindra Defence System (MDS), is aggressively looking at diversifying into other peripheries, Mahindra added. M&M today signed an agreement with Italy’s Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS), subsidiary of $20-billion Finmeccanica Group for developing underwater weapon systems. Though MDS at present contributes just about 100 crore to the $6 billion Mahindra Group, Mahindra added that in the long run, the revenues generated by MDS would constitute a greater share. Mahindra stated that his company and JV partner WASS would pump in Rs 50 crore of its under water weapon system programme. MDS chief executive Brigadier Khutub Hai said: “MDS has submitted its proposal for 300 sea mines. The JV would see us developing a number of underwater defence systems, including lightweight torpedos, harbour defence systems among others. —
PTI |
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11th Plan
New Delhi, February 18 “We expect this scheme to continue in the 11th Plan with suitable modifications based on the outcome of the ongoing critical evaluation,” commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said while addressing the parliamentary consultative committee meeting attached to his ministry, an official press note said here today. The IIUS, launched recently, focused on infrastructure upgradation of existing industrial clusters. Twenty-five projects are currently under implementation and five of these projects are nearing completion. As regards the industrial park scheme, Nath said income tax exemption is available to infrastructure developers for any 10 consecutive years out of 15 beginning from the year in which the eligible projects commence operation. It is estimated that about to Rs 14,000 crore have been invested towards the creation of infrastructure for industry. Explaining the recent initiatives, Nath said: “We have also initiated a novel approach for infrastructure development along the proposed Delhi-Mumbai rail freight corridor through creation of high impact/ market driven nodes such as integrated investment regions (IR) and industrial areas (IAs). These regions are proposed to be self-sustained industrial townships with world-class infrastructure, road and rail connectivity for freight movement to and from ports and logistics hubs, served by domestic/international air connectivity, reliable power, quality social infrastructure so as to provide a globally competitive environment for setting up businesses, he said. |
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Indiabulls forays into aviation business
New Delhi, February 18 Airmid Aviation Services, an Indiabulls subsidiary, has been granted a non-scheduled air transport operating status and it has already started its operations, a senior group official told PTI. The group is looking at this new business as a good source for additional revenue and profit, Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd (IBFSL) Corporate Affairs President Ajit Mittal said. However, it is too early to specify the exact size of revenue this business would create, he added. When asked whether the group would look into foraying into the full-fledged scheduled aviation business, Mittal said, "nothing is on cards on that front as yet." "We are looking at up to 700 hours of airtime every year for our non-scheduled air transport operations," he said, adding that the group would use the helicopter services primarily for in-house purposes such as at its SEZs (special economic zones) and the surplus time would be utilised for chartered business. —
PTI |
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India pips China in economic transformation
New Delhi, February 18 India ranks just behind Singapore (23), Brazil (20) and South Africa (18) in the transformation index prepared by German Bertelsmann Foundation and published in Berlin today. The transformation index is a study of market economics and democracy in 125 transformation states. In terms of management performance, India has attained the 19th position for its political decision making, equivalent to an improvement of 13 rankings on the previous comparative investigation conducted two years ago and 24 rankings higher than five years ago, the report said. "The plans of the Indian government to shape the country to become a developed economy and a key player in international politics are now bearing fruit," Josef Janning of the Bertelsmann Foundation said. India should also exploit this favourable situation to increase efforts to tackle its greatest problem: the continuously pronounced inequalities in the society, particularly in terms of education, health, social security and earnings, Janning added. The creation of a greater equilibrium between the regions and enabling as many people as possible to share in economic success should be central objectives of future policy, he said. The report recommended that India should continue to pursue economic reforms rigorously to sustain the growth rate of 8 per cent. The Transformation Index 2008 in terms of economic transformation has been topped by Czech Republic, followed by Slovenia. In terms of the management index, Chile leads the pack, followed by Estonia. However, Myanmar (124) and Somalia (125) are the tail-enders in the index. India appears for the first time in the group of stable democracies. The country is well placed in terms of the management index ranking ahead of Singapore (32rd) and China (67th).— PTI |
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Ashwani woos Japanese investors
New Delhi, February 18 Addressing a JIBCC, Ficci sponsored business summit in Tokyo attended by over 200 Japanese companies, Kumar stated that the present share of Japan in India’s global trade was a mere 2.3 per cent in 2006-07. He invited Japanese investment in the development of Indian power sector, civil aviation, logistics, biotechnology, nano-technology and also in the agro processing and clean technology sector, a Ficci release issued here said. Speaking on the DMIC and Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor, Kumar said the two projects were the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by India and that Japan, being a partner in the project, is a step forward in forging a meaningful special economic partnership between the countries. The project involves a capital outlay of $90 billion and is expected to generate three million additional jobs. Japanese companies, he said, are likely to invest $5 billion in the DMIC over the next three years. Kumar also called on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He assured Abe that India seeks a comprehensive economic and strategic partnership with Japan and that India and Japan are on same side in meeting global challenges. Abe sought India’s cooperation in environment protection and said he understood India’s need to explore alternate sources of clean energy to fuel its economic growth. Kumar also met minister for economy trade and industry Akira Amari and discussed the progress in implementation of dedicated freight corridor and the DMIC. |
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Steel Price Hike
New Delhi, February 18 Members of the All Industries and Trade Forum, who met the Prime Minister today, said “arbitrary” hike in steel prices had affected nearly six lakh persons in Ludhiana, which has a sizeable presence of light engineering industry. They said some of the units were facing closure. AICC secretary Manish Tiwari, who accompanied the delegation, said the prices had gone up by about Rs 5,000 per metric tonne in the last three months due to cartilisation by major steel producers and intervention by the government so far had only a marginal impact in reducing prices. In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the forum said steel producers were fixing prices of iron and steel on import parity basis and not on the basis of input costs. The forum members said there had been a 32 per cent increase in net profit of major steel producers in nine months. The Prime Minister told the forum members that he would ask the steel minister and industry minister to look into the issue and suggest a solution.
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Govt issues Rs 3,610 cr fertiliser bonds
New Delhi, February 18 The Government of India special bonds are the second and final tranche of the total Rs 7,500-crore bonds for these companies. Earlier, the government had issued Rs 3,890-crore bonds to these companies. The highest Rs 646.16-crore bonds would be issued to IFFCO, followed by Rs 574 crore to National Fertilisers, Rs 359.52 crore to Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd and Rs 314.81 crore to Birla Copper unit of HINDALCO Industries. The fertiliser subsidy burden of the government is estimated to be around Rs 50,000 crore in the current fiscal. —
PTI
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AP to have exclusive marine product SEZ
Hyderabad, February 18 Spread over 260 acres, the SEZ is being developed as a joint venture between the state government and Kochi-based Marine Products Exports Development Agency, a central government undertaking. A marine product SEZ for the west coast is already functioning in Gujarat. Though West Bengal and Tamil Nadu lobbied for the east coast SEZ, Machilipatnam in Krishna district has been chosen because of its proximity to the upcoming port, road/rail connectivity and drinking water availability from the Bandar Canal branching off from Krishna river. Over 40 units will be established in the SEZ under private sector focusing on value addition and processing of various marine products, the state fisheries minister M. Buddha Prasad said. “This will give a major boost to employment in the region,” he said. |
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REC public offer opens today
New Delhi, February 18 The compay, which has been accorded as Mini Ratna Grade-I status, will issue 15,61,20,000 shares, to be decided through a 100 per cent book-building process. The price band of shares of face value Rs 10 each has been fixed at Rs 90-105 per share. The issue closes February 22. There were reports that the company may defer the IPO as many companies had suffered due to the turbulent market. REC would offload 18.81 per cent equity through the issue. The company is third power PSU to bring out an IPO after PFC and PGCIL got listed last year. — UNI |
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Canara Bank starts online trading
Mumbai, February 18 Bank chairman M B N Rao launched the trading facility, www.canmoney.in, at a function here and said that in due course the facility could be accessed by over Investors could open demat account, savings or current accounts and a trading account in one go. The bank ultimately aims to cover about 100 million accounts with this facility, he added. The trading account would be offered free with concessional brokerage for a limited period. He said GSTCL offered three market savvy products — cash n carry (delivery-based product), intra-day trading (jobbing) and buy in today sell out tomororw, while the trading in futures and options segment would be introduced shortly. Value-added services such as portfolio tracker, online back office with more than 40 detailed reports, online digital contract notes, information on IPOs, and data bank on various listed companies, sector watch and news analysis would also be made available to investors, he added. — UNI |
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Lankan glove firm to strengthen Indian market
Chandigarh, February 18 “We have tied up with Optimum Marketing Metrics of India to market our gloves. As of now, these are available in departmental stores in all major metros and tier II cities of Punjab,” he said, adding, “Though India is still an unexplored market for gloves, we hope to sell a minimum of 40,000 pairs of household gloves and 60,000 pairs of industrial gloves a month.” Kulathunga also stated that $95 million DPL, which already has 21 production lines and its own plantations, would add three more production lines this year. “As of now, we have 15 production lines in Sri Lanka and six in Thailand. We will add the new production lines in Sri Lanka, of which two will be for manufacturing household gloves,” he added. |
Ansal tie-up for schools Tata Sons’ subsidiary ONGC stake in HOEC CDSL pact Disney stake in UTV ONGC contract for L&T Birla Sun Life |
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Mumbai, February 18
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