The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Relief for Raja on 2G bid Gets Trai backing on auction issue Girja Shankar Kaura Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 11 Telecom Minister A. Raja today got the endorsement of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on his decision not to auction 2G spectrum two years ago, giving him a much-needed breather from the alround criticism. Releasing its report on spectrum allocation, which dealt a big blow to several existing operators as they would have pay for the additional 2G spectrum they held, TRAI said bidding out mobile spectrum would not have yielded major economic gains for the exchequer, which was a virtual backing for Raja’s decision to dole out spectrum on a first-come first-serve basis. "It is not feasible to subject the spectrum in 800-900-1800 Mhz band to auction process, considering that the amount of spectrum after meeting the obligation of contracted spectrum is very limited and the number of claimant for additional spectrum will be extremely few," TRAI chairman JS Sarma said. Raja has been facing allegations of giving out 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices which allegedly cost the government Rs 60,000 crore. Raja has maintained that DoT followed the ongoing practice of first-come-first-serve licence allocation rules and even the TRAI recommendations issued more than two years ago were rather open-ended, as it did not clearly state whether the government should go for auction or not. Sarma added: "The authority is conscious of the fact that there are several views about deriving the true price of 2G spectrum and keeping this in view the authority is separately initiating an exercise to further study the subject and would apprise the government later, but for the present the authority recommends that 3G prices could be adopted as the current price of 2G spectrum." The telecom regulator released its recommendation report on spectrum allocation and pricing. TRAI also suggested that from now 2G spectrum could be priced on a par with what is discovered through the 3G spectrum auction and also de-linking the sale of spectrum from issue of licence, as is the current practice. The decision to allocate mobile licences with 4.4 Mhz of 2G spectrum at a price of Rs 1,651 crore to a host of companies that included Unitech Wireless, Videocon and Swan had opposition gunning for the minister. The regulator in its report said, "All spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz will have to be paid for at the current market price by GSM operators and for the CDMA operators the spectrum assigned beyond the contracted amount of 5 Mhz will have to be paid for." In a blow to several existing operators like Bharti Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone Essar, the regulator said the service providers will have to pay an additional one-time charge for the spectrum they hold beyond 6.2 Mhz, which will be paid at the current price of spectrum upto 8 Mhz and after that it will be charged at 1.3 times the current price.
	Cabinet note soon on PowerGrid FPO New Delhi, May 11 The process for preparing a Cabinet note for the PowerGrid Corporation of India's follow-on-public offer will start soon. "The preparation for the cabinet note for the (PGCIL) FPO will start now and then we will carry forward the process," a Power Ministry official said. Last week, the government had said that in an effort to raise Rs 40,000 crore from disinvestment, it would sell stake in 10 more PSUs, including IndianOil, MMTC, Coal India Ltd, SAIL, RINL and Shipping Corporation, in the current financial year. Engineers India is likely to be divested in June, Coal India in August, Hindustan Copper in August-September, SAIL in September and PowerGrid in November this year. The Budget has upped the revenue target from the sale of government equity in CPSUs to Rs 40,000 crore in 2010-11 from the Rs 25,000 crore in the last fiscal. The first stake sale of this fiscal--SJVNL--has got a good response from investors, prompting the government to fix the issue price at the upper-end of the band at Rs 26 a share. The stake sale will fetch the Centre over Rs 1,000 crore. — PTI
	Alstom, Infosys expand ties New Delhi, May 11 Alstom and Infosys Technologies today announced the expansion of their strategic partnership in areas of global research and development, engineering and engineering IT services. This partnership envisages substantial strategic investments over the next five years to develop the next generation solutions for the power sector, an Alstom release said. Infosys will provide support to Alstom Power's global business units in core areas like product development, product lifecycle management and engineering IT, it said. "We see this long-term technological partnership with Infosys as one of the key drivers to developing the next generation of Alstom's power solutions," said Alstom Power President Philippe Joubert. — PTI
	11 banks in race to manage Engineers India FPO New Delhi, May 11 HSBC Holdings Plc, UBS AG, ICICI Securities and SBI Capital Markets are among the 11 banks in fray to manage public offering of Engineers India Ltd. Kotak Mahindra Capital, Enam Securities and IDBI Capital Market Services are also in race to manage sale of the government's 10 per cent shareholding through a further or follow-on public offering (FPO), likely in June or July, an official said here. "The interested companies have been called for beauty parade(presentations) tomorrow and the day after," he said. "Four issue managers will be selected after presentations." Others in fray are IDFC Capital, Avendus Capital, Edelweiss Capital and Centrum Broking. At the current market price, the government is expected to raise about Rs 1,000 crore through sale of its 10 per cent stake in EIL, which provides design and engineering services for petroleum, power and fertiliser companies. As a prelude to the divestment, EIL paid a 1,000 per cent (Rs 100 per share) special dividend totalling Rs 561.65 crore. Of this, the government, which holds 90.4 per cent equity, got Rs 507.65 crore plus a dividend tax of over Rs 96 crore. He said the company would now issue two bonus shares for every one held and subsequently split the Rs 10 share into two of Rs 5 each. The process would be completed by the May-end. Thereafter, the company would finalise audited accounts for 2009-10 fiscal before filing draft red herring prospectus for the follow-on public offering. EIL, which had a cash reserve of Rs 1,320 crore as on March 31, 2009, has till date given Rs 600 crore in dividends to the government on a Rs 25 lakh share capital that formed the company in 1965. EIL had reported a 67 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 310.65 crore in April-December period of the 2009-10 fiscal. — PTI
	Sebi clears StanChart IDR; issue opens this month New Delhi, May 11 Sebi has cleared Standard Chartered Bank's proposed Indian Depository Receipt (IDR) issue, which will help the UK-based lender raise $1 billion (about Rs 4,500 crore) from the domestic capital market. StanChart's IDR, the first issue of its kind, is likely to open for public subscription by the end of the month. Like American or Global Depository Receipts, where Indian companies raise resources overseas, IDRs enable foreign companies to do the same in India. UK-based StanChart Plc's IDR has got clearance from Sebi and now needs approval from the Registrar of Companies, market sources said. The IDR issue is likely to hit the market towards the end of this month and listing is expected in June, the sources said. A StanChart spokesperson declined to comment on the proposed IDR issue. However, the sources said the roadshow for the issue was expected to begin from this week. Earlier this month at an Annual General Meeting, company shareholders approved plans to allot shares in connection with a planned India listing. In November last year, StanChart Global CEO Peter Sands said the proposed IDR issue would enhance the lender's commitment to the local market. StanChart, which has been operating in India for 150 years, has over 94 branches in 37 cities of the country and a combined customer base of around 20 lakh retail customers, among others. The bank has operations in an array of verticals, including consumer and wholesale banking, private banking and SME banking. Standard Chartered is currently listed in London and Hong Kong. As per Sebi's guidelines, IDRs can be issued by companies that have been listed in the home market for a minimum of three years and have registered a profit in at least three of the five years before the issue. As per the norms, no individual or an entity or group of entities, other than QIBs, can hold IDRs exceeding 5 per cent of the issue. QIBs, or a group of QIBs, can hold up to 15 per cent of the IDR issue. — PTI What’s depository receipt A depository receipt is a type of negotiable financial security that is traded on a local stock exchange but represents a security, usually in the form of equity, that is issued by a foreign publicly listed company.
	Glenmark, Merck settles patent issue New Delhi, May 11 Glenmark Pharmaceuticals today said it had settled a patent litigation with Merck & Co over its cholesterol lowering generic drug Ezetimibe, following which the firm could sell the medicine in the US market. Ezetimibe is a generic version of Merck-Schering Plough's patented drug Zetia. Glenmark and Merck were fighting a patent litigation in the US court after the Indian firm had filed Abbreviated New Drug Application with first-to-file status that entitled it a potential of 180 days of marketing exclusivity in the US. "Under the agreement, Glenmark will be able to launch its product on December 12, 2016, or earlier under certain circumstances, ahead of the April 25, 2017, expiration of Merck's patent exclusivity for Zetia," the company said in a statement. This settlement effectively ended the lawsuit involving a challenge by Glenmark which sought to launch a generic version of Zetia before the April, 2017, expiration of the patent exclusivity covering Zetia, it added. According to industry experts, the development could give Glenmark an opportunity to earn around $ 200 million (about Rs 700 crore) through the launch the drug in the American market with exclusivity. Zetia has annual sales of around 1.4 billion in the US alone, a Glenmark spokesperson said. Glenmark had filed an abbreviated new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration seeking regulatory approval on October 25, 2006, and the company had got the tentative approval for the drug last year through its US-based subsidiary Glenmark Generics for Ezetimibe tablets in 10 mg strength. Last week Glenmark had announced that it has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the US-based Par Pharmaceutical to sell Ezetimibe in the US market. "Under the agreement, Glenmark has received a payment from Par for acquiring exclusive rights to market, sell and distribute the product in the US," Glenmark has said. The company, however, did not disclose the sum citing confidentiality clause. — PTI
	Investors park Rs 1.86 lakh cr in MFs in April New Delhi, May 11 Investments in mutual funds gained traction in April, with the industry seeing an inflow of nearly Rs 1.86 lakh crore as investors parked their cash in fixed income schemes, seen as safe havens. By the end of April, investors had pumped in funds worth Rs 185,956 crore into several mutual fund schemes, as against an outflow of Rs 1,62,165 crore in the previous month, a monthly report by the Association of Mutual Funds of India said. This was mainly driven by investments in fixed income or debt funds, which saw net inflows of Rs 177,773 crore during April. Furthermore, liquid or money market funds, which invest in safer and short-term instruments like treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper, saw inflows worth Rs 9,275 crore. Experts said institutional and retail investors are putting their money into fixed income schemes. Volatility in the equity market also saw investors pulling out from such funds. — PTI
	LG to pump in Rs 400 cr in India Seoul, May 11 To cater to the rising demand for its consumer products, LG Electronics will invest Rs 350-400 crore in its Indian manufacturing plants this year. Currently, LG Electronics has manufacturing plants in Pune and Noida. "We will be investing Rs 350 to 400 crore in our manufacturing plants at Pune and Noida this year. The investment would help ramp up the infrastructure and capacity of the two units, which would help in meeting the rising demand," LG Electronics India's Business Head (Home Appliances) Rajeev Jain told reporters here. The Pune plant manufactures refrigerators, colour televisions, air conditioners and mobile phones, while the Noida plant produces all these goods with the exception of mobile phones. Diversifying its product portfolio in the Indian market, LG is all set to launch a new refrigerator in India before the end of July. The eco-friendly model is expected to save as much as 18 per cent energy. The refrigerator, which works on a linear compressor, promises to consume less energy and has a low-noise system. "We will be launching the refrigerator before the end of July. Buying this model would help consumers save energy. The price of this model will start at Rs 65,000 and can go up to Rs 1,65,000," Jain said. Moreover, the refrigerator, which is already available in other markets, will come with a 10-year warranty. According to LG officials here, the company has over 100 patents for its linear compressor technology. Meanwhile, LG is aiming to increase its turnover in the Indian home appliances segment to more than Rs 5,000 crore this year. "We anticipate clocking an about 40 per cent rise in annual turnover this year. The increase would be mainly on account of higher penetration levels of our products," Jain noted. LG's home appliance business includes refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, among others. Meanwhile, officials with LG Electronics India said that they are expecting a turnover of Rs 19,000 crore this year, about 30 per cent higher from 2009. — PTI
	Corporate Results Ranbaxy in the black New Delhi, May 11 Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 960.58 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. The firm had incurred a loss of Rs 767.33 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, Ranbaxy Laboratories told reporters here. The total income of the company during the first quarter soared by 95.70 per cent to Rs 3,086.54 crore from Rs 1,577.15 crore in the same period last fiscal, it added. Hindalco Hindalco Industries Ltd today said it had posted a net profit of Rs 663.92 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010. The company had earned a net profit of Rs 268.76 crore in the same period of last year. The total income of the company stood at Rs 5,482.06 crore at the end of the March quarter, whereas it was at Rs 3,866.49 crore during the same period a year ago. The figures of the current period, however, were not comparable with those of the corresponding periods of the previous year as the company's accounting norms were changed, Hindalco said. For the full year ended March, 2010, the aluminium and copper major reported a net profit of Rs 1,915.63 crore, while the same was Rs 2,230.27 crore a year earlier. Havells Havells India today said net profit rose 31 per cent to Rs 64.40 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010, over the same period last year. The net sales of the company rose to Rs 700.15 crore in the January-March quarter ended 2010 from Rs 573.62 crore in the same period a year ago, Havells India said. Kotak Mahindra Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank today reported a growth of 98.71 per cent in consolidated net profit to Rs 418.5 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010, compared to the same period last year. The total income increased to Rs 2,945 crore for the January-March quarter of FY2010 from Rs 2,232 crore in the same period last year, Kotak Mahindra Bank said. The board has also decided to double the number of shares in circulation through a stock split. Kotak Mahindra shares have a face value of Rs 10 each, which will be split into two shares of Rs 5 each, subject to approval of shareholders. The board has proposed a dividend of Rs 0.85 per share of Rs 10 face value for shareholders of the company. Bajaj Hindustan Bajaj Hindustan today reported a 61 per cent decline in the net profit at Rs 31.79 crore for the second quarter ended March, 2010. In the same period of the last fiscal, the firm had posted a net profit of Rs 81.39 crore. The company's total income, however, grew by 22 per cent to Rs 631.95 crore during January-March, 2010, compared to Rs 515.93 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal, Bajaj Hindustan said. For the six month period ended March, 2010, the company's net profit jumped by more than four times to Rs 116.99 crore from Rs 25.45 crore in the year-ago period. — PTI