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Now, Wells Fargo to buy Wachovia for $15 b
Inflation dips to 11.99 per cent
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R.S. Lodha
is dead
Anil Ambani’s Hollywood studio to start operations in January
From left: Steven Speilberg, Stacey Snider, Anil Ambani and David Geffen pose for a photograph after signing a deal for setting up a new motion picture studio in Hollywood, USA.
Nomura to buy Lehman’s India operations
RIL to start Jamnagar refinery soon
Sale of Ranbaxy to Daiichi okayed
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor
ONGC to focus on solar energy
Stake in Allahabad Bank JV
Navi Mumbai airport project on track, says Patel
UBS to cut 2,000 jobs
Mega order for Aban Offshore
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Now, Wells Fargo to buy Wachovia for $15 b
New York, October 3 In a statement issued today, Wachovia said its amalgamation with Wells Fargo, the only AAA-rated financial institution in the US, would create an entity with the largest deposit base in the country. Wachovia's board last night approved Wells Fargo's offer, the statement said. Under the proposal, each share of Wachovia common stock would be exchanged for 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo common share, representing a value of $7 per share, based on Wells Fargo's closing price as on October 2. Prior to the current offer, Wachovia was negotiating with India-born chief executive Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup to complete a transaction supervised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and assisted by the government. Under the transaction, Wells Fargo would acquire all of Wachovia and all its businesses and obligations, including its preferred equity and all its banking deposits. "Today's announcement creates one of the strongest financial firms in the world and is great for all Wachovia constituencies: our shareholders, customers, colleagues and communities. "This deal enables us to keep Wachovia intact and preserve the value of an integrated company, without government support," Wachovia's president and chief executive Robert K Steel said. Wachovia had assets to the tune of $812.4 billion and a market capitalisation of $33.5 billion as on June 30, 2008. In a separate statement, Wells Fargo said it would record Wachovia's credit impaired asset at fair value. "Wells Fargo expects to incur merger and integration charges of approximately $10 billion," the statement added. It also noted that the deal would add to the bank's earnings per share in the first year of operations, excluding integration costs, write-downs, transaction charges and credit reserve build. Commenting on the deal, Wells Fargo's chairman Dick Kovacevich said, "It provides superior value compared to the previous offer to acquire only the banking operations of the company." Further, to maintain its strong capital position, Wells Fargo plans to issue up to $20 billion of its securities. On September 29, FDIC in a statement said Citigroup would acquire the banking operations of Wachovia in a deal facilitated by the American regulators. — PTI |
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Inflation dips to 11.99 per cent
New Delhi, October 3 In early August, the inflation rate was 12.63 per cent, the highest since annual numbers in the current data series became available in April 1995. The government had earlier said inflation would hit 13 per cent and thereafter start moderating from December, before settling at 8-9 per cent by the end of the fiscal year in March. Forecasting the RBI’s decision, economists said volatile crude oil prices and the chance of a spike in some food costs would force the central bank to keep policy tight.
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R.S. Lodha is dead
New Delhi, October 3 Lodha (66) is survived by two sons — Harsh and Aditya — and a daughter Meenakshi. Priyamvada, the widow of M.P. Birla, bequeathed the entire assets of the group worth Rs 5,000-crore to Lodha sparking a protracted legal battle between the Birla family and the 'outsider.' The demise of Priyamvada Birla in July 2004 was followed by intense litigation after Lodha applied for the probate of a purported will which itself became a disputed issue. Senior members of the Birla family had also filed appeals in the Calcutta High Court. Lodha took charge as chairman of Birla Corporation, an issue that was challenged legally by B.K. Birla on behalf of the entire Birla clan, including Kumar Mangalam Birla. Family sources said Lodha died this morning. Lodha, the owner of chartered accountant firm R.S. Lodha and Company, was responsible for bringing the sixth largest accounting and consultancy firm BDO International to India, tax lawyer S. C. Vaish said, adding "he enjoyed a good reputation". He had also served as the president of apex industry chamber Ficci. — PTI
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Anil Ambani’s Hollywood studio to start operations in January
New Delhi, October 3 Three-time Oscar award winner Spielberg has produced some of Hollywood's most memorable films like Schindler's List, Jurassic Park and ET. Spielberg has been reportedly unhappy with Viacom, the US media house which bought his studio DreamWorks for $1.6 billion in 2006. The mega deal with Ambani now will help Spielberg break away from DreamWorks, which is now owned by Viacom's Paramount Pictures. Through the deal, Ambani has backed Spielberg's new studio plans with $550 million of equity investment from his company Reliance Big Entertainment. Another $750 million will be raised in debt. The new Bollywood-backed DreamWorks is set to produce six films a year for the global audience, said sources. The deal will also rope in Spielberg's long-standing associate Stacey Snider as CEO of the joint venture. Snider was the chairperson of Universal Studios till 2006. — PTI |
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Nomura to buy Lehman’s India operations
New York, October 3 "Nomura Holdings Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire for several billion yen Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s Indian operations that have handled the bankrupt US firm's global back-office duties and information technology development," Japan's business daily The Nikkei reported. The back office operations of Lehman based in Mumbai has more than 2,000 employees and handle the investment bank's information technology and R&D activities among others. In addition, the back office was also handling trading settlement duties. Meanwhile, AFP said that the Japanese firm "reportedly decided to make the extra investment as the Indian base has talented IT workers and has functioned as the heart of Lehman's cutting-edge systems". Battered by huge losses in the American mortgage market, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks back with the US regulator. Reportedly, the number of Lehman employees taken by Nomura would be about 8,000, once the Japanese firm acquires Indian operations.— PTI |
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RIL to start Jamnagar refinery soon
New Delhi, October 3 "The refinery is a few days, if not months, away from commissioning," RIL president (refinery business) P Raghavendran said here. He, however, refused to put a date to the commissioning. "We have promised before December (and) we are on schedule. I cannot give you a specific date." Separately, a company official said test runs for the 580,000 barrels per day (29 million tons) refinery being set up by Reliance Petroleum, a unit of RIL, at a cost of $6 billion, will begin in new few days. The new unit is coming up in a special economic zone adjacent to RIL's existing 660,000 barrels per day refinery at Jamnagar. — PTI
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Sale of Ranbaxy to Daiichi okayed
New Delhi, October 3 Finance minister P. Chidambaram briefing newspersons after the meeting said, "The total flow of foreign direct investment as a result of the acquisition of shares is estimated at Rs 21,560 crore.” Daiichi Sankyo, which had given an offer of buying out Ranbaxy Laboratories some months ago, has been waiting for the approval from Indian regulators to complete its purchase of a controlling stake in the country’s largest pharmaceutical company. Any foreign takeover, worth more than Rs 600 crore, requires a cabinet review. Japan's leading drugmaker has offered to acquire 34.8 per cent stake of Ranbaxy from CEO Malvinder Singh and his family, and up to 12.2 per cent in new shares for $1 billion. This would give the Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo as much as a 67 per cent stake, including its completion of a public tender offer for 20 per cent of shares. Ranbaxy shareholders accepted an offer from Daiichi to buy more than the 92.5 million shares from the open market for about Rs 6,800 crore. Daiichi, now also needs approval from the Reserve Bank of India. Meanwhile, in another decision the cabinet gave the approval for the state-owned banks to receive Rs 3,872 crore as interest on farm loans of Rs 71,680 crore that were waived off earlier this year. The cabinet sanctioned the amount after the banks argued that the finance ministry's delay in reimbursing the waived-off farm loan was depriving them of interest that would otherwise have accrued on the loans. The government is also likely to release Rs 25,000 crore to the banks to help them meet the loss incurred on account of the farm loan waiver. |
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Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor
Chandigarh, October 3 The decision has been taken in response to the letter sent by the Union ministry of commerce and industry, wherein the state government was requested to participate in the equity of the newly formed special purpose vehicle (SPV), Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) for dedicated implementation of this project. The state government has approved the participation of the HSIIDC in the equity of the SPV to the tune of Rs 40 lakh. The managing director of the HSIIDC, Rajeev Arora, has been nominated as a special representative of the state government on the board of directors of DMICDC. Arora said here today that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be signed between HSIIDC and DMICDC shortly. The draft of the MoU had already been approved by the state government. Arora said the central government was establishing a Dedicated Freight Corridor between Delhi and Mumbai, with terminals at Dadri in the National Capital Region of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai. The 1,500-km-long corridor would pass through Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The corridor was expected to offer high-speed connectivity for high axle load wagons. The DMIC project would be developed in phases, with phase I to be implemented by 2012 and phase II by 2016.
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ONGC to focus on solar energy
Dehra Dun, October 3 The CMD was interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of the "Torch Rally" held here yesterday. The rally was aimed to commemorate 50 years of oil find by the corporation at Cambay. Terming solar and nuclear energies as the two fuels of future, he said with nation's hydrocarbon reserves merely 0.5 per cent of the total hydrocarbon reserves of the world, the country had a challenging task ahead to meet the future energy requirements of its vast population. He said ONGC had already started working on photovoltaic cells to tap the solar energy potential. He also suggested usage of better technology to ensure optimum exploitation of its energy resources. |
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Stake in Allahabad Bank JV
Kolkata, October 3 "We are interested in rising the stake to 49 per cent if allowed," USGICL managing director and representative of the Japanese insurance major Koichi Hattori said. According to the joint venture agreement, the first right of refusal is with Sompo Insurance, Allahabad Bank CMD K.R. Kamath said. — PTI |
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Navi Mumbai airport project on track, says Patel
New Delhi, October 3 Like Jewar airport, which was to serve as the second airport for the National Capital Region, the Rs 10,000-crore Navi Mumbai international airport is expected to absorb future growth in population, business and commercial activity of the financial hub of the country. While the ambitious Jewar airport project is definitely off the UPA government’s radar, followed by changes in political equations that ensured that Rs 3,500-crore global Jewar airport hub gets effectively relegated to cold storage, the civil aviation ministry continues to be actively pursuing the Navi Mumbai project and hopes that tendering process would be completed by March. When questioned about the Navi Mumbai project recently, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said, “Navi Mumbai is very much on the radar. It is being actively pursued. I hope all process of tendering would be completed by March.” When fully operational, the airport will have capacity to handle nearly 55 million passengers. Passenger traffic is growing at an average 25 per cent annually and the growth in aviation traffic is expected to double to 20 million by 2020. |
UBS to cut 2,000 jobs SJVN bags projects in Bhutan Emami sweetens Zandu offer Hindustan Zinc cuts prices
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New Delhi, October 3
New Delhi, October 3
