New York/Mumbai, June 16
Crude oil prices surged to a record high level of near $140 per barrel due to weakness in the US dollar and a strike at France's largest oil port.

At New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMX), July delivery of crude oil touched a high of $139.89 per barrel and retreated at $138.76 per barrel, up by over 3 per cent.

Even August and September deliveries were ruling at above $140 per barrel level.

"Crude oil surged to new highs as bulls returned after a surprise fall in the US' state manufacturing index, which pressurised the dollar value against major currencies," Karvy Comtrade Research Head Harish G told PTI.

North sea production cut due to drill-rig fire, weakening dollar and a strike at France's largest oil port which blocked 35 oil tankers —were other reasons for the rise in global crude price, he said.

"Dollar made a intra day low of 1.55 against the euro," Harish said, adding at 1945 hours dollar was trading at 1.54 level. The impact of Saudi Arabia stepping up its production by July 22 had impact on price movement in the morning session alone.

Meanwhile, crude oil futures in the domestic market rallied taking cues from international trends.

At 1945 hours on MCX counter, July contract rose by 2.75 per cent at Rs 5,931 per barrel, while August contract increased by 2.72 per cent at Rs 5,928 per barrel.

Domestic crude oil futures moved in line with global prices and rupee depreciation fuelled further increase. — PTI 

New York, June 16
Crude oil price may fall by nearly half to below $75 a barrel, but after 20 years, feels Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun N Murti who shot to fame as 'oil guru' for rightly predicting a sharp spike much in advance.

Incidentally, it was Murti, an Indian-origin energy analyst at the global investment banking giant, who predicted last month that crude prices were heading towards a level of $150-200 a barrel in the next six months to two years.

Crude prices, which settled at $134.80 on Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, has recently touched $140-mark and has been a key concern amid rising inflationary pressures across the world, including India.

While re-asserting his view that crude oil was likely to remain strong in the near future, Murti said in an interview with the American stock market weekly Barron's that Goldman Sachs' long-term forecast for 20 years was that the price could fall back to $75 a barrel.

"We have always assumed that, at some point, you get a sustained drop in demand. Our long-term oil forecast looking out 20 years is to fall back to $75 a barrel, or some lower number," Barron's quoted Murti as saying.

In a Goldman Sachs research note last month, Murti had written that the possibility of oil price rising to $150-200 per barrel level was increasingly likely over the next 6-24 months. — PTI

Chandigarh, June 16
Having learnt a lesson from the debacle of its much-publicised IPO in February this year, Emaar MGF is now raising capital through private equity (PE) investors so that they can go ahead with their expansion plans. The joint venture between Dubai's Emaar and MGF is making a deal with its investors at a special purpose vehicle (SPV) level .

This was disclosed by the chief executive officer (CEO), William R. Rattazzi, while talking to TNS here today. He said they were in talks with various international PE investors and the deal would come through in the next two months. Though he declined to comment on the amount to be raised through the PE route, it is learnt that the company plans to raise $800 million.

Rattazzi said each SPV will have one financial investor. The SPVs, where the PE money is likely to come, are expected to take up development projects across all verticals: housing, retail and office. Ruling out any possibility of re-launching the IPO in the near future, he said the IPO will be market driven and not time driven. "It could take 18 months to two years, but ultimately it will be a public company," he said.

Emaar MGF had earlier withdrawn its Rs 7,000-crore IPO after investors spurned the offer owing to highly-valued share price. Since banks in India are banned for lending for land purchases, the company will now tap the PE funds for increasing its presence in the realty sector across India.

Talking about the company's ongoing projects, he said the company now had presence in 26 cities through integrated townships, retail, stand-alone hotels and through redevelopment of existing infrastructure. "We have already committed $1 billion through FDI in our Indian operations. We are not just eyeing the metros, but also the smaller cities like Indore and Shillong, where we see an exponential growth in the realty sector," he said.

The CEO said though Emaar was known for offering luxury in its greenfield projects, the company sees a huge scope in redevelopment. "We have already undertaken a redevelopment project in the old city area of Chennai, and are now bidding for the redevelopment of Dharavi — the largest slum in Asia at Mumbai," he added.

He also said other than their integrated township at Mohali, they were also coming up with townships at Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. 

New Delhi, June 16
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has initiated the process for breaking the impasse between broadcasters and Internet Protocol service providers.

As part of the efforts, it has managed to bring the broadcasters to agree to offer channels on an "a la carte" basis and also to offer the same bouquets, at the same rates to the service providers offering Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service as those being offered to DTH operators according to the regulator's recommendations.

The pay channels would thus, also cost IPTV service providers 50 per cent of the rates applicable for non-CAS cable TV networks.

According to TRAI officials, this follows discussions that the Authority had with broadcasters on the issue, on two occasions in mid-May in an attempt to facilitate the growth of IPTV.

TRAI, which gave its recommendations on the issue of Provision of IPTV Services to the ministry of information and broadcasting in January, said its "clear and unambiguous advice was that DTH and IPTV platform should receive similar and uniform treatment as a uniquely addressable system".

However, it said, some service providers had found it difficult to get television channels at prices on par to those offered to DTH service providers. The general consensus, after the interactive discussions, said TRAI, was to adopt non-discriminatory price regime.

The Authority had in January also recommended that the uplinking and downlinking be amended to allow broadcasters to provide signals to all distributors of TV channels, including IPTV service providers.

The ministry of information and broadcasting has conveyed its agreement with the recommendations, said the Authority.

New Delhi, June 16
The government has constituted a committee for amendment in civil aviation rules (CAR) regarding the flight duty time limit (FDTL). The flight crew standards dated July 27, 2007, are in abeyance and the committee will reexamine the FDTL, which is the maximum number of hours that a pilot will remain on duty, and the FTL, which is the maximum number of hours that the pilot can fly during the FDTL. There has been a meteoric increase in the Indian aviation sector during the past four years.

However, there is an acute shortage of pilots in the country. If the FDTL/FTL is increased, it will ease off problems of civil operators, including airlines, to some extent as each pilot will be able to fly more than the current mandatory limit.

But, aviation experts, as well as pilots, have raised questions on the decision of the DGCA to put to rest rules for pilots in abeyance and reexamine the FDTL regulations. Another point of contention is that the DGCA has not revealed the identity of members of the committee.

At present, there are about 2,500 pilots in the Indian civil aviation sector, out of which 900 are foreigners and of these close to five per cent are above 60 years of age. In India, a pilot can fly till 65 years of age while in the US, the age limit is 60 years. The age relaxation in India has been allowed due to the shortage of pilots. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the terms of reference of the committee will be to reexamine the FDTL of pilots in consultation with various stakeholders while keeping in view the present civil aviation environment of India, including general aviation, flying training operations and helicopter operations.

The committee will also examine international practices regarding FDTL/FTL being followed by major aviation regulators worldwide. Besides this, the committee will also recommend such amendments, as may be suitably incorporated in the new CAR, keeping in view the availability of pilots and their optimum utilisation with adequate duty time limitations in context of growing Indian civil aviation sector, but without compromising on safety. 

London, June 16
World's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Bayou Steel, a producer of structural steel products in the US, for $475 million. The transaction, however, is subject to regulatory approval, a statement from ArcelorMittal said.

Commenting on the agreement, Jos Jacque, CEO of ArcelorMittal Long Carbon North America, said, "We are excited by the opportunity that this acquisition represents as it further strengthens our long product portfolio, customer base and distribution network in North America."

Bayou Steel, which has facilities in LaPlace, Louisiana, Harrinman and Tennessee, is an independent producer of medium and light structural steel and bar size products. Its Louisiana facility produces billets, equal leg angles, flats, channels, standard beams and wide flange beams.

The Tennessee rolling mill of Bayou Steel produces merchant bar shapes, including angles, channels, flats, rounds, square and rebar.

Through its Mississippi river recycling division, Bayou Steel operates an automobile shredder at the LaPlace facility.— PTI

Amritsar, June 16
Punjab’s local body and industries minister Manoranjan Kalia today said a new industrial policy was being formulated by reputed international organisation, UNIDO, which would be presented to the industrialists for the final approval.

He made these revelations while presiding over the industrial subsidy distribution function here. He said the state government would take up the matter with the central government for providing special economic package for the border region of the state on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttrakhand.

He said the government was committed to provide international standard infrastructure to the industry in the state. He further said that the government was trying to upgrade the focal points in the state for giving better working conditions to the industry. Earlier, the minister disbursed subsidy to the tune of Rs 16.05 crore to 187 entrepreneurs of the border districts. 

Mumbai, June 16
Card-holders have something to cheer — their lost cards will now be insured against any misuse. Standard Chartered Bank and Tata AIG have joined hands to provide insurance cover for lost cards which would protect card-holders from any fraudulent transactions.

The insurance cover would be valid for any fraudulent transaction on a lost card of the bank's customer up to 12 hours prior to the customer reporting the loss.

Known as Plus Extended Protection Plan, the novel scheme was launched today by Standard Chartered Bank in collaboration with Tata group company, Tata AIG.

"We receive several lost card reports in a month. The product will ensure protection to our valued customers against any fraudulent use," StanChart's general manager, credit cards & personal loans, R.L. Prasad said in a statement.

In the event of fraudulence, customers would receive reimbursement up to Rs 50,000 per occurrence, who can register any payment card for the cover, the bank said.

The plan also covers ATM assault and robbery insurance, lost wallet protection, purchase protection and home protection while away, the bank said.

StanChart has 90 branches in 33 cities in the country and has a combined customer-base of around 21 lakh. — PTI

New Delhi, June 16
Mobile phone giant Nokia's market share in the India has increased to 62.5 per cent in 2007-08 from 53.6 per cent in the previous year, according to a survey by Voice & Data.

Nokia's revenues from the mobile phone segment stood at Rs 15,000 crore, up by 30.6 per cent, compared to Rs 11,486 crore in 2006-07. The Finnish company's increased market share seems to have come from the LG, Motorola and other players who have lost significant share.

The market leader is followed by Sony Ericsson and Samsung at second and third place with 12.8 per cent and 6.2 per cent market share, respectively. Although LG also has the same market share as Samsung, it has lost revenue by 37 per cent, the study stated.

Motorola, which is planning to sell the handset business also saw its share erode to just 5 per cent, losing revenue by almost 50 per cent, it added.

India's telecom equipment revenue touched Rs 95,407 crore in 2007-08 driven by the rising demand for mobile handsets and wireless infrastructure expansion by service providers.

In telecom equipment, Ericsson had revenue of Rs 8,000 crore. Nokia Siemens Network, the merged entity between Nokia and Siemens had revenue of Rs 7,779 crore and Alcatel Lucent posted revenues of Rs 7,000 crore.

"While Nokia and Ericsson retained their positions as the top players, Nokia Siemens Networks, struck major deals in the wireless segment. Expansion of mobile networks and broadband infrastructure and the introduction of 3G technology, will sustain the growth in the current year," the report said.— PTI

BRIEFLY

ICICI Pru launches webchat
Mumbai: ICICI Prudential Life has introduced webchat service for its policy-holders that would help them resolve their policy-related queries instantly. The company is the first life insurance firm in the country to introduce such a service for its consumers, a release from the leading private insurer said on Monday.— PTI

Gemini buyout
Mumbai: Gemini Communications, a leading player in the wireless networking and Wimax solutions space, on Monday said it has acquired a majority stake in Chennai-based Veeras Infotek for Rs 7 crore. Veeras Infotek is a security and availability solutions provider.— PTI

Metso bags 230-cr order
New Delhi: Metso Minerals, a global supplier of equipment, services and process solutions for rock and minerals processing, on Monday said it has bagged work orders worth Rs 230 crore from leading steel players JSW Steel, Essar Steel and BMM Ispat for supply of machines and equipment.— PTI

Yes Bank ups deposit rates
New Delhi: New generation private sector lender Yes Bank on Monday increased prime lending rate by 0.5 per cent to 16 per cent and the deposit rates by same percentage point with immediate effect, following the hike in repo rate effected by the Reserve Bank. An increase in fixed deposits interest rates will earn a higher return of 9.5 per cent against 9 per cent previously while senior citizens will earn an attractive return of 10 per cent as compared to 9.5 per cent earlier, Yes Bank said in a release.— PTI

JSW Steel plan
Mumbai: JSW Steel on Monday said it would invest Rs 14,000 crore in various projects by 2010. In the past 18 months, JSW Steel has invested Rs 10,500 crore on acquisitions, expansion of capacity and various projects. — PTI

RCom’s new pre-paid plan
Chandigarh: Reliance Communications (RCom) has launched pre-paid ‘Yuva Pack’ for its youth segment in Punjab Circle at Rs 197. Under the plan, a subscriber can make call to any phone within Punjab at 50 paise per minute and STD calls at Re 1 per minute, for full 1 year after subscription. — TNS