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Lehman Bros to sell majority stake
Delay in approvals to push projects’ cost up: Mittal
Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal addresses mediapersons in New Delhi on Wednesday.
A Tribune photograph
HMT to launch 50 hp tractor
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Re breaches 45-level
Infra growth dips to 4.3 pc in July
BSNL to procure 93-m GSM lines
Oil rebounds as OPEC cuts crude output
New telcos get GSM spectrum in Punjab
Not scared by Singur row
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Lehman Bros to sell majority stake
New York, September 10 Shares of Wall Street's fourth-largest investment bank gave up some of their overnight gains as investors expressed disappointment that Lehman, whose business model and outlook face wide scrutiny, did not announce more concrete actions. ''What you are dealing with is a confidence issue,'' said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, ''There is still an underlying level of uncertainty as to what Lehman's future is. Essentially, what people are saying is that there has been no resolution of the problem.'' World stocks fell toward two-year lows on Wednesday as the problems faced by Lehman stoked concern that banks are struggling to rebuild capital and financial markets remain brittle. The Japanese yen trimmed losses, while Treasury prices fell. In pre-market trading, Lehman shares were up $1.14, or 14.6 percent, at $8.93 after earlier trading above $10. On Tuesday the shares fell $6.36, or 45 percent, cutting Lehman's market value to $5.4 billion, down more than $40 billion since February 2007. Lehman said it intends to sell about 55 per cent of a portion of its investment management unit, including asset management unit Neuberger Berman, and the private equity and wealth management businesses. It said it was in ''advanced discussions with a number of potential partners'' for such a sale. The company also said it intends to spin off $25 billion to $30 billion of its commercial real estate assets into a new publicly traded company, Real Estate Investments Global. Lehman said it was in talks with BlackRock Inc to sell $4 billion of its UK residential mortgage portfolio, and expects to complete a sale in the next few weeks. It said this would reduce its residential mortgage exposure 47 percent to $13.2 billion. Lehman also slashed its annual dividend to 5 cents per share from 68 cents, to save $450 million a year. — Reuters |
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Delay in approvals to push projects’ cost up: Mittal
New Delhi, September 10 The company has proposed to set up two steel plants in the country — one in Orissa and another in Jharkhand — with a total capacity of 24 million tonnes and an investment of $ 20 billion. Agreement for the Jharkhand and Orissa projects were signed in mid-2005. “We cannot call it cost over-run, but cost is definitely going to be more than what has been announced, as prices of all inputs — be it steel, oil, machinery and other raw materials — have shot up,” Arcelor Mittal's chief Lakshmi Mittal said. “Globally, we are seeing the prices of every input items and other required things having gone up in the range of 30-50 per cent,” Mittal said, but did not specify the expected increase in the cost of the projects. Mittal is optimistic to start construction at both sites by the first half of 2009, and, if that happens, the company was confident of commissioning the first phase of steel production by end of 2012. “Land acquisition and mining licences are two key issues while the rest is under our control,” company officials said, adding that the company has identified how many families would need to be rehabilitated. As far as offering jobs to the members of affected families is concerned, the company said it was just one part of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy of the company, which has outlined all details. The company has started talking to the villagers and is in the process of educating the people about the importance and benefits of such projects.
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HMT to launch 50 hp tractor
Pinjore, September 10 With an aim to utilise the plant here to its optimum capacity of 14,000 units per annum by 2010, HMT is now working on designs for tractors having capacity of 50-80 hp, in both two-wheel and four-wheel drive. The company has already invested Rs 28 crore for upgradation of the plant facilities like setting up a state-of-the- art emission-testing laboratory, a new plant for pre-treatment of sheet metal and modernisation of its R&D facility. Talking to TNS here today, executive director, HMT, Prakash Sharan, said the focus would now be on upgradation of its tractor engine design and improving transmission
technology. “We are looking at international players from Austria, UK and Germany for a tie-up for transmission technology and design transfer of the engines. Global tenders for the same have been invited,” he said. This year, the company has developed a new 75 hp engine, which has been passed by the Automative Research Association of India (ARAI). “We have already commissioned a new assembly line unit for manufacture of 65 hp and 75 hp tractors, with a capacity of 2,400 units per annum. With a phenomenal growth in the infrastructure sector and the growing demand for multi-functional tractors amongst farmers, we foresee a high demand for these tractors, and are also in the process of developing a 80 hp tractor with a four-wheel drive,” he said. Sharan said they were also working on improving the aesthetics of the tractors, besides strengthening its marketing network in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, by adding 50 new dealers. “Last year, our focus was on reversing the downtrend in HMT. We have brought down the total due credit from Rs 80 crore last year to Rs 50 crore now. This year, we are hoping to grow at 10-15 per cent, and sell 8,800 units,” he added. |
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Re breaches 45-level
Mumbai, September 10 In quiet trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market this morning, the local currency resumed cheaper by nine paise at 44.92/94 a dollar from its last close of 44.83/84 a dollar and later drifted to 45.02/03 a dollar in late morning deals. Forex dealers said the rupee crossed the psychological level for the first time since
November 2006 largely due to stronger dollar overseas amid some dollar demand from
oil refiners. Consistent capital outflows in the current calendar year also had adverse impact on the rupee sentiment, they
added. — PTI |
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Infra growth dips to 4.3 pc in July
New Delhi, September 10 However, petroleum refinery products saw expansion by 11.8 per cent for the month under review in 2008-09, against 4.7 per cent in July last year. For the April-July period this year, the growth declined to 3.7 per cent from 6.6 per cent a year ago. “It is a poor performance which will become a constraint on the overall economic growth. Infrastructure has to be supportive,” D.K. Joshi, principal economist, Crisil, said, adding that poor performance of the power sector remained a grave concern. Amidst year-on-year drop in the infrastructure growth, the pace of expansion in these industries that have 26.68 per cent weightage in the overall index for industrial production was the highest in July compared with the past three months of this fiscal. The growth number for June was 3.4 per cent. “The growth rate of five sectors other than the refinery products should be raised much higher, if these are not to emerge as critical constraints on the Indian Economic Growth,” ICRIER director Rajiv Kumar said. Poor performance of infrastructure industries could have a bearing on overall industrial production and in turn on economic growth, which the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council feels would slow down to 7.7 per cent this fiscal. GDP growth in 2007-08 was 9 per cent.
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BSNL to procure 93-m GSM lines
New Delhi, September 10 Through these 93 million lines, BSNL also plans to extend coverage of its GSM mobile services to all villages having population of more than 1,000 persons. Besides, 25 per cent of these lines are for operating the 3G equipment. The tender is worth $9 billion and was floated two months back. Six telecom vendors, including Nokia-Siemens Network, have bid for the 93-million GSM lines contract. These include Nokia-Siemens Network, Ericsson, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel and ZTE. Surprisingly, Motorola has not bid for the contract. As the BSNL opened the bids, communications and IT minister A Raja said BSNL would provide services to all villages having population more than 1,000 persons. BSNL will also introduce value-added services like mobile TV, mobile broadband, MMS, location-based services etc,
he said. The minister informed that value-added services, like mobile banking, mobile advertisement, tele-education and lost mobile tracking system, were also planned to be launched by BSNL during the current year. |
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Oil rebounds as OPEC cuts crude output
New Delhi, September 10 OPEC president Chakib Khelil is reported to have said that the output cut would start immediately. “If you do your own calculations, it is a cut of 520,000 barrels per day,” said Khelil, announcing a new OPEC output quota of 28.8 million barrels per day. This clearly went against what was believed yesterday, before the meeting, from the posture and promise that Saudi Arabian oil minister made yesterday, claiming that production would be maintained at the present level The move was viewed as a compromise meant to avoid new turmoil in crude markets while seeking to prevent prices from falling too far. The International Energy Agency (IEA), meanwhile, cut its estimate for global oil demand this year and next, saying consumers, mainly in the US, are changing their lifestyles in response to high prices. The IEA's monthly report was printed before OPEC's overnight announcement. US energy secretary Samuel Bodman had asked for producers to keep oil markets well supplied before the OPEC meeting started. But the group's secretary- general Abdullah Al-Badri insisted that the US could order its companies (around), but not OPEC. Oil sank below $100 a barrel for the first time since April on Tuesday as the oil ministers gathered for the meeting. Analysts had predicted OPEC would keep official policy unchanged but would discreetly agree to rein in production by cracking down on output quotas by some members, mainly Saudi Arabia. The final announcement was stronger than expected. It excluded Indonesia, which officially left OPEC on Wednesday, and Iraq.
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New telcos get GSM spectrum in Punjab
New Delhi, September 10 Tata Teleservices, which has got GSM licence under dual technology policy, has also been
allotted spectrum in the lucrative Mumbai circle while it is yet to get the radio frequency in other three circles. With this, new players can now roll out services in 10 circles as the government has already released spectrum in six circles of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. In Punjab, only three players have been accommodated. HFCL, a CDMA player has got GSM spectrum in Punjab under the dual technology policy. Idea and Unitech are the other beneficiaries.
— PTI |
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Not scared by Singur row
Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal today said there was no question of his company backing out from investing in the country in the backdrop of Tatas' predicament in Singur, which he described as a one-off incident.
"It does not give us nightmares. One instance of Singur cannot be an example for the entire country," Mittal told journalists when asked if ArcelorMittal was scared by episodes like those in Singur. "If we can get the 123-deal (between India and the US) passed without the help of communist parties, why cannot we resolve the issue of Singur," he wondered. Mittal, however, hoped that a solution could be found to the row over land allotment in Singur, where Tata Motors is facing opposition to its low-cost car 'Nano' project.
— PTI |
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Inordinate delays in approvals for setting up two of its steel plants in India could push the cost up, said world’s largest steelmaker Lakshmi Niwas Mittal today.
