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RIL in talks with Chevron, Shell
Kingfisher set to fly overseas
Jet starts flights to Hong Kong
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Global investors wary of India growth story
Nilgiris tea industry in doldrums
NHPC IPO by Aug: Jairam
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RIL in talks with Chevron, Shell
New Delhi, April 14 The company, which discovered the world's largest gas field of 2002 in KG-D6 block off the east coast, is looking at hiving off the block that holds over 50 trillion cubic feet of reserves into a separate subsidiary for induction of a technologically-strong strategic partner. Industry sources said Reliance has mandated Goldman Sachs for the search of technology partner and already five companies namely BG of the UK, Eni of Italy, Shell, Exxon and Chevron, have visited the company's dataroom set up in New York. Reliance, they said, is not looking at a strategic partner for financial reasons, but is scouting for an alliance with a company with deepsea exploration and production technology. Also, the company is looking at an asset swap, getting an interest in a similar project elsewhere in the world for the possible stake sale. The company has not set a timeline for the stake sale nor has it decided on the quantum of interest to be offloaded. Reliance holds 90 per cent stake in KG-DWN-98/3 while Niko Resources of Canada has the remaining 10 per cent. When contacted, a Reliance spokesperson said: "We have been working with many investment banks across all of our businesses, including refining, exploration and production, looking at various alternatives to create additional shareholder value.
— PTI |
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Kingfisher set to fly overseas
Chandigarh, April 14 Kingfisher intends to operate three flights to Europe, seven each to Gulf and neighbouring SAARC nations and four to far East besides launching non-stop flights from Bangalore to San Francisco and New York. “We have filed applications for starting these international flights in the immediate future. And once we get more aircraft, we plan to consider cities like Chandigarh and Amritsar for international connectivity as well. Chandigarh, studies reveal, has tremendous potential for both domestic and international air passenger traffic,” adds Ramachandaran. Talking to The Tribune on board Kingfisher’s inaugural flight from Chandigarh to Mumbai this morning, he said major airports like Delhi and Mumbai were facing congestion problems. Terminal buildings are far from adequate to handle the fast growing air traffic. “If the civil aviation sector is not growing over 20 per cent a year, it is because of inadequacy of the infrastructure, especially the airports, to cope up with the increased air traffic,” he said. “Though the increase in air passenger traffic emanating from cosmopolitan and metropolitan hubs has stabilised between 10 and 12 per cent annually, growth potential of other cities, like Thiruvanthapuram, Cochin, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh is tremendous. Even the international air traffic, especially the incoming traffic, has also been witnessing over 10 per cent annual growth,” he added. Kingfisher is now ready to launch operations to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, London and a few other destinations. It may also start flights to Myanmar. Fare war was not in the interest of anybody. “We in Kingfisher do not dabble in it. But now most of the domestic and international airlines have growing number of loyal clients. It is not only domestic but even international carriers were also doing it. “We are not averse to alliances. We have to have strong commercial reasons before getting into agreements. The basic level pro rata alliances are a routine. Unlike any other domestic airline, Kingfisher has no intention of floating a new company overseas to augment its international operations. Our second phase of expansion will be only after we get new aircraft,” he added. Talking about future scenario, he said as of now Internet sales have crossed the double-digit mark. Bigger operators have no choice but to augment and upgrade online operations, including sale of tickets, selection of seat, food and other areas thus minimising the need for the ground staff. Because of severe competition, all airlines have been doing cost cutting. In Europe, they have reduced the agents’ commission to zero. Low-cost airlines, he said, were fighting hard as they were operating only to major destinations. They could save on fuel, taxes and other things if they operate to smaller towns and airports where they get special discounts, including the airport use and reduced duty on aviation fuel. |
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Jet starts flights to Hong Kong
Mumbai, April 14 "We see it as a strategic market and having strong prospects too. Hong Kong is also the Gateway to China, so we are very optimistic about picking up international traffic on this route," the airline's CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said at the
launch. Prock-Schauer said he was expecting 1.10 lakh passengers on the
Mumbai-Hong Hong route and the same number from the proposed Delhi-Hong Kong flight over a period of time. Hong Kong becomes the airline's 16th international destinations, with 10 destinations launched in the past nine months alone. It has plans to expand its international operations to cities across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
— PTI |
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Jindal group to pump in Rs 160 crore in three units
Nalagarh, April 14 With this, the group is hoping that their turnover will cross Rs 1,500 crore in the next three years. Pawan Jindal, director, Jindal Group, stated this at the inauguration of Jindal Mectec plant for manufacturing insulated sandwich panels here today. The plant has been set up on a six-lakh square meters of area and machinery has been imported from Italy. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal inaugurated the plant, which has been set up with an initial investment of Rs 45 crore and would have an annual capacity to manufacture two million square meter of world-class insulated sandwich material. The Jindal group already has a capacity to manufacture one million square meter of these panels at its plant in Gurgaon. The group’s third plant, which is to come up at Manesar, will also have a capacity of 1 million square meter per annum. “The plant at Manesar is coming up with an investment of Rs 15 crore and will be commissioned next month. With this, the total annual capacity for our insulated sandwich panels will be four million square meters. Besides, we are investing Rs 100 crore in our plant at Bawal in Haryana. It will have a capacity to manufacture 100 tonnes of pre-engineered material, and would be commissioned by the end of the year,” said Jindal. Jindal said the demand for the insulated sandwich panels was likely to grow manifold in the coming years. “We are finding a good market in the establishment of cold chain infrastructure like cold storages and cold rooms, telecom and defence shelters at high altitude and for construction of thermally-insulated, energy-efficient industrial and commercial buildings. With commissioning of all our plants, we hope to capture a 25 per cent market share by 2010,” he added. |
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Global investors wary of India growth story
New Delhi, April 14 There has been a fast unravelling of issues like rising inflation, increasing oil prices and way the government has handled these issues make the growth prospects look scary, said a foreign institutional investor. International credit rating agencies and foreign development banks say they have given thumbs down on two issues. One is the rising inflation that the government should have foreseen and, two, farm loan waiver of Rs 60,000 crore in the recently announced Budget. Accordingly, the rating agencies have put India on a watch list and are closely monitoring the way the farm debt relief scheme and rising inflation is going to shape up in the days to come. “Coming days will give us a clear idea of what will happen in these two areas and then we will have to make a new strategy and understand how India will grow,” said an economist in an international broking firm. Brokerage houses say: “We have advised a wait and watch policy to our clients. We want to see from where the government will find the money for public administration salaries and farm loan waiver and how much of inflationary impact it will have on India’s growth story.” What is really giving an uneasy signal to the investment world is the fact that India is not immune to various shocks and the way it deals with issues are mostly knee-jerk reactions. Development banks, working closely with the government to strengthen the cooperative and regional banks, reason how farm debt relief is different from sub-prime crisis in the US? “India, too, is bailing out its farmers. It’s just that in the US they were homeowners and markets in the West created a whole new financial trade tools. In India it’s the government that is picking up the tab and might expand it further if things go their way,” says an international development bank head based in Delhi. Global Investment banker Lehman Brothers has already lowered its projection for Indian economic growth rate to 7.6 per cent for this fiscal from its earlier estimate of 8.3 per cent and expressed doubts over efficacy of fiscal and trade policies in taming inflation. |
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Nilgiris tea industry in doldrums
T. Rangaiah, president, Nilgiri Small Tea Grower’s Association and former vice-chairman of the Tea Board of India, said: “The tea industry here needs oxygen to survive both from the state government and the Centre. The need of the hour is performance-oriented professional management in the tea cooperatives instead of the governmental control.” Out of about 150 private tea factories here, 65 have closed their operations and the tea gardens are also in dire straits because of the depressing trend over the last decade. Many corporates have sold their gardens. Unlike in other tea growing areas in Assam and West Bengal, there are only 35 corporate-owned tea estates here while there are 65,000 small tea growers out of which 21,000 are attached to tea cooperatives. Rangaiah said: “Though the largest tea cooperative in India, Indco Serve, is located here, the cooperatives are not functioning well. Out of 17 factories owned by the cooperatives, two are already closed. The cooperatives were doing quite well till the Tamil Nadu government disbanded the governing bodies and appointed government officers to run the show. Tea is an expertise-specific industry and these officers from the Industry Department have no clue about it.” There are innumerable government officials, who without knowledge about tea industry, have been posted as officers in tea cooperatives. “After the state government took over management of the cooperatives, we did not have any control over the officers running the factories and things went downhill,” he rued. Regarding the private tea companies, he said: “The board had earlier given loans to private factories for modernisation of the factories. The loan amount was pumped as capital investment and there was no working capital. This led to many corporates becoming sick.” As the tea industry in the Nilgiris went into doldrums, big corporates sold off their estates and the situation deteriorated further with migration of the trained labour. “As a result, even when there is peak season, there is no labour. Because of mismanagement, the industry is entangled in a vicious circle,” Rangaiah said. Even with all these problems, out of the total production of 220 million MT per year from South India, the Nilgiris accounts for 120 million. |
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NHPC IPO by Aug: Jairam
New Delhi, April 14 The company, which by 2012 plans to double generation capacity from the present 5,200 MW, has outlined expansion plans worth Rs 28,000 crore. "There will be no further delay in bringing the IPO as it is very critical for the success of the company... Four non-official directors have already been appointed and three more will be on the board soon," minister of state for power Jairam Ramesh said. The company had filed its draft prospectus for the IPO in April last year. It, however, got delayed over appointment of non-official directors on time, a condition mandatory for any company to float an IPO.
— PTI |
OVL to bid for oil, gas contracts in Iraq Zinc, lead prices up Yes Bank to raise Rs 1,200 cr Tata Comm in Egypt
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Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), April 14
