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Three more Satyam directors quit
PNB, BoB cut interest rates
Tata Motors closes Pune plant for 3 days
Oil rises above $40
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Hyundai to lay off 1,200 trainees, unveils i20
Rolta acquires US-based Piocon Tech
Auction of 3G spectrum put off
Sensex gains 205 points
Despite slowdown, FDI inflow on the rise
6 lakh UK jobs to go in 2009: Report
Bajaj Brothers Feud
Jet cuts basic fare by up to 40 pc
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Three more Satyam directors quit
Hyderabad, December 29 The company’s independent directors, M Rammohan Rao, who is Dean of Indian School of Business here, Vinod Dham, a US-based technocrat widely regarded as “Father of Pentium” and Krishna G Palepu, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, resigned from the nine-member Board. Another independent director Mangalam Srinivasan, an US-based academician, had quit last week as India’s fourth largest IT company faced a crisis of confidence following its aborted deal to acquire Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra, owned by Ramalinga Raju’s sons, for $1.6 billion. The developments come ahead of the rescheduled Board meeting to discuss a share buyback proposal to restore investor confidence. The Board meeting, which was to be originally held here today, has been postponed to January 10. Meanwhile, the NYSE-listed company today revealed that its promoters had pledged their entire equity that lenders may be selling now. The Board meeting is expected to discuss the changes in management, possible shake-out in promoters group and measures to improve corporate governance policies, which took a beating over the Maytas controversy. Disclosing that the promoters have pledged all their shares in the company with institutional lenders, Satyam said in a statement here “some lenders may exercise or may have exercised their option to liquidate shares at their discretion to cover margin calls." Ramalinga Raju holds 8.61 per cent stake in the company. Ever since the aborted Maytas deal, the Hyderabad-headquartered company has been in the news for all wrong reasons. The World Bank declared Satyam Computers as ineligible for contracts for a period of eight years for providing “improper benefits” to the bank staff and for failing to “maintain documentation to support fees charges for its sub-contractors.” The World Bank’s ban came as a double whammy for the company which was battling an ugly fallout of Maytas imbroglio. Following an angry reaction from shareholders, the company withdrew the decision but not before suffering a dent in its global image.
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PNB, BoB cut interest rates
Mumbai, December 29 The country's second largest public sector lender, PNB, in a statement said that with the reduction, "the benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) would come down to 12 per cent from the existing 12.50 per cent". Besides, PNB also announced a reduction in its peak deposit rate by 100 basis points to 8.5 per cent for deposits of one year to less than three years. Accordingly, interest rates in the time buckets having maturities of 46 days and above have also been reduced by 25 bps to 125 basis points, the bank said. Bank of Baroda in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange said, "The bank has decided to reduce its BPLR by 75 basis points from existing 13.25 per cent to 12.50 per cent with effect from January 1, 2009." In a separate filing, Dena Bank said it would cut its BPLR from 13.5 per cent to 12.75 per cent beginning next year. PNB said the revised rates shall be applicable in respect of existing and new accounts for loans and advances scheme rates linked with BPLR. The benefits have been passed on to all existing and new accounts linked with BPLR under agriculture, MSME and retail sector, it said. The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, had also announced to cut BPLR by 75 basis points to 12.25 per cent with effect from January 1. — PTI |
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Tata Motors closes Pune plant for 3 days
Pune, December 29 It is the third time in the past two months that the company has effected a partial and periodic closure of its plant following a slump in demand. The first six-day shutdown was in the last week of November. Aimed at matching production with demand the measure has been discussed with the affected workforce of around 6,000 permanent employees, company officials said. Passenger vehicle segment which has remained unaffected by the company's decision, is engaged into the production of Tata Indica. A union spokesman told PTI that as per the agreement with the management, interests of workers were adequately protected during periods of partial closure of the plant. — PTI |
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Oil rises above $40
London, December 29 US light, sweet crude was up $3.18 at $40.89 a barrel by 1000 GMT, below a session high
of $42.20. Oil is on track for a nearly 60 percent loss this year, the biggest annual fall since futures began trading 25 years ago. London Brent crude rose $3.24 to $41.61 a barrel, after touching a session high of $43.18. Oil is down more than $100 a barrel from a record peak of more than $147 in July, depressed by the downturn in the world economy which has hit demand for fuel.— Reuters |
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Hyundai to lay off 1,200 trainees, unveils i20
New Delhi, December 29 Answering questions to whether there were plans to cut the workforce, Hyundai officials at the launch of its premium hatchback ‘i-20’ here said after laying off about 1,000 to 1,200 trainees presently working in various departments, the company would not be taking in a fresh lot of trainees. “We have a large number of trainees in every department…so we will scale down our training programme,” a Hyundai official said, adding that the cut down of the trainees would be to the level of about 1,000 to 1,200. In the absence of robust sales, the company has also scaled down its production. Instead of three-shift operation, adopted earlier, HMIL is now following a two-shift operation. The company also admitted that its sales figures for the year had already suffered a seven per cent loss and it had come down from the projected 5.30 lakh units to 4.85 lakh units. HMIL managing director H.S. Lheem refused to predict the figures for next year and said the targets for next year would depend of the sales figures this year. HMIL has also revised its export target for ‘i-20’ itself, which it is looking to ship to Europe from India, making it the global hub for the production of small cars. Launching the ‘i-20’, Lheem said the premium hatchback was a significant addition to the new generation of Hyundai vehicles. The top-end model of the ‘i20’ comes with features like fully automatic A/C, leather-wrapped steering wheel and TGS knob, steering mounted audio control (a first for this segment), foldable key with keyless entry function, alloy wheels, height-adjustable driver seat, electrically foldable and adjustable outside mirrors and the category first six airbags. HMIL has put an introductory showroom price (ex-Delhi) of Rs 4,79,900 for the lowest Magna model followed by Rs 5,59,900 for the Asta model and Rs 5,89,900 for the top of the line Asta (optional). The Hyundai ‘i20’ comes with a 1.2-litre Kappa petrol engine and would be Euro-V ready. It will be manufactured exclusively in India at the company’s Chennai plant. |
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Rolta acquires US-based Piocon Tech
Mumbai, December 29 "The acquisition will help Rolta to fulfill a critical and strategic need of the process and power industries at a time when every plant is challenged to improve operating efficiencies," Rolta chairman and CEO K.K. Singh said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. According to the company, the solution would address process improvements in a refinery to achieve downtime reduction, inventory rationalisation, optimisation of crude selection and improved refinery planning. With Piocon's takeover, the company has acquired its impressive track record of over 15 years a significant customer base, including Fortune 100 companies, highly experienced consultants ... and a profitable revenue stream in a fast-growing market, Rolta added.— PTI |
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Auction of 3G spectrum put off
New Delhi, December 29 The government announced that it was extending the last date of receiving applications for it from January 5 to January 20. While there was speculation that the auction could be delayed due to the Union Cabinet not approving some of the key proposals regarding the auctions, officials here said the deferment has been due to absence of foreign telecom operators in the pre-bid conference. Besides, there were a number of concerns raised by prospective applicant companies during the pre-bid conference on December 23 and the government has decided to give some more time to them, the officials said. The 3G spectrum auction was scheduled to kickstart on January 16 and in its bid to attract new players, especially the foreign companies, the government had during the pre-bid conference announced that all those successful in the 3G auction would also be automatically in line for allotment of 2G spectrum. At present, all telecom services in the country are offered on 2G radio frequencies. There had been a poor response to the 3G pre-bid conference on December 23 by new firms, including foreign players. While the DoT has allowed foreign operators to participate in the 3G auctions, most international players have indicated that they were not wanting to participate in it. The government is hopeful that auctions could fetch it anywhere between Rs 20,000 crore and Rs 30,000 crore, although Communications Minister A Raja is confident that the amount could be as much as Rs 40,000 crore. Reports suggest that global operators had also pointed out that the auction guidelines had been structured to favour only existing Indian operators and have sought several changes to the 3G policy. Besides, reports also suggested that some of the interested foreign players and some Indian companies such as Reliance Communications and Swan had also sought additional time to study the information memorandum, which contains all details regarding the auction. Incidentally, industry experts point out that the auction may actually end up being deferred for a longer time than what has presently been announced. This, they say, may happen if the process is delayed by more than a month. The auction then may not happen during the present UPA rule as with the general elections due in March-April, the ‘code of conduct’ which would come into force may delay the 3G auction process. |
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Sensex gains 205 points
Mumbai, December 29 Market participants said buying support emerged after a handful of PSU banks in the morning announced interest rate cuts of up to 125 basis points. They said investors expect more lenders to follow suit in order to boost the economy. The market opened weak with the bellwether index shedding nearly 140 points due to year-end considerations amid a mixed trend in other Asian markets. However, buoyed by interest rate cut by PNB, BoB and Dena Bank, the Sensex recouped by mid-session and went on to post an impressive gain of 204.60 points to end the day at 9,533.52. National Stock Exchange index Nifty also gained 64.95 points at 2,922.20. — PTI |
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Despite slowdown, FDI inflow on the rise
New Delhi, December 29 The trend of constant flows can be seen through the first half of the year, as the FDI equity inflows during April-September 2008 have been $17.21 billion. This represents a growth of 137 per cent over the previous year’s corresponding FDI inflows, which were $7.25 billion, the figures revealed. The sectors attracting the highest FDI equity inflows during April to August, 2008, have been the services sector receiving $2.34 billion, construction sector, including roads and highways, $1.64 billion, housing and real estate $1.62 billion and computer hardware and software $1.36 billion. The increase in FDI is mainly due to an improved investment environment and further opening up of the telecommunications and other industries. The top investing countries, in terms of FDI equity inflows during the current year, have been Mauritius investing $ 5.27 billion, Singapore investing $1.72 billion, USA $1.15 billion and the Netherlands $580 million. The government has recently reviewed the FDI policy, and has further liberalised the sectors like petroleum, civil aviation, commodity exchanges, credit information companies, mining of titanium bearing minerals and ores and its value addition and industrial parks. The UNCTAD report revealed that China, India, the US, the Russian Federation and Brazil are considered the most attractive destinations by large trans-national companies (TNCs) for foreign investments in future. FDI flows in 2008 will be about $1,600 billion, representing a 10 per cent decline from 2007, the report stated. The report noted that the global FDI outlook in the medium term did not seem impressive as fund flows could be affected by the continued slowdown in growth and difficult market conditions in developed countries. |
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6 lakh UK jobs to go in 2009: Report
London, December 29 The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said a widely-expected recession would bite hard in Britain next year and could push unemployment close to the three million mark before the economy begins to recover. ''By the end of 2009 the number of people unemployed and actively seeking work will have increased to 2.8 million, one million above the autumn 2008 figure,'' John Philpott, the CIPD's chief economist, said in its annual Barometer Report. The first few months of the year, he said, were likely to be the worst for almost two decades.— Reuters |
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Bajaj Brothers Feud
Mumbai, December 29 Under the deal, Rahul will acquire over 4.1 crore shares or 80 per cent stake in Bajaj group investment firm, Bachhraj and Co, and transfer it to Shishir. The shares would be purchased from Neeraj Bajaj at market value tomorrow and would amount to a 29.2 per cent stake in Bajaj Hindusthan. Justice Roshan Dalvi, who admitted a petition by 13 minority shareholders challenging the sale of shares, however, directed Neeraj and Rahul to deposit within three weeks the amount obtained to the extent of sale of 12.5 per cent shares owned by the minority shareholders. The amount to be deposited should be equivalent to the market value of the shares on March 1, 2008 in the event of sale of shares owned by the minority shareholders. The judge gave Rahul time to deposit the money after he filed an undertaking that as a security, they would not sell or transfer shares of Bajaj Auto Ltd. According to the petition, in 2006 a settlement was arrived upon between the Bajaj factions wherein Rahul had agreed to purchase shares in Bajaj Hindusthan held by other Bajaj family members and group companies - Bachhraj & Co and Jamnalal Sons - and transfer them in favour of Shishir. — PTI |
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Jet cuts basic fare by up to 40 pc
New Delhi, December 29 A Mumbai-Delhi economy class basic fare will now be Rs 2,000, for Mumbai-Kolkata it will be Rs 4,065 and for Bengaluru-Mumbai it will come around Rs 1,220, a company statement said. The fares would be applicable on the airline's domestic network of 45 destination. The usual taxes and surcharge would be applicable. — PTI
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Unitech gets spectrum in four more circles Tata Metaliks to raise Rs 100 crore KEC International bags
Rs 678-cr orders Great Eastern Energy files prospectus for IPO PNB gets nod for JV in Bhutan FIEO office-bearers Gold surges by Rs 260
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New Delhi, December 29
