The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Bank of Rajasthan to merge with ICICI New Delhi, May 18 Trouble-torn Bank of Rajasthan today announced that it would merge with India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank. An agreement for amalgamation was reached today between ICICI Bank and BoR, which as per today's share price is valued at Rs 1,500 crore. BoR shares surged 20 per cent to Rs 99.50. Bank of Rajasthan said in a notification to the stock exchanges that its controlling shareholders, the Tayal family, "have entered into an agreement on May 18, 2010, with the ICICI Bank for proposing an amalgamation of both." Promoters Tayal family had recently run into regulatory trouble with SEBI and RBI over its stake holding, which had risen contrary to the impression it conveyed. Tayal family has about 55 per cent stake and it needs to bring it down to 10 per cent to meet RBI guidelines. The Boards of both the banks met today on the merger. BoR, one of the oldest private sector banks in the country, plunged into a crisis early this year after Reserve Bank slapped Rs 25 lakh fine on the bank for alleged violation of various norms. These include irregularities in transactions and misrepresentation of documents, norms pertaining to anti-money laundering, Know Your Customer and irregularities in the conduct of accounts of a corporate group. The Reserve Bank also appointed Deloitte Haskins and Sells to conduct a special audit of the bank, which recently submitted its interim report to the Reserve Bank. In March, SEBI banned 100 entities, including Tayal Group firms, from all stock market-related activities for fraudulently hiking the promoter holding in the bank, while conveying the impression that they were reducing their shareholding. Incepted in 1943, BoR has a network of over 463 branches and a customer base of over 20 lakh. In the December quarter, the bank's net profit declined to Rs 44.7 crore as against Rs 49.21 crore in the year-ago period while its total income dropped to Rs 373.7 crore from Rs 419.8 crore. ICICI Bank has over 2,000 branches. — PTI
	Pranab for enhanced trade with Pakistan Ashok Tuteja Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 18 Ahead of the visits of Home Minister P Chidambaram and Foreign Minister SM Krishna to Islamabad in June and July, respectively, India today called for the promotion of trade and economic relations between the two South Asian neighbours in the larger interest of peace and stability in the region. Expansion of trade could help significantly in reducing regional tensions and mutual distrust, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today while inaugurating a two-day Indo-Pak business meet. A 75-member Pakistani business delegation, including leaders from various sectors such as textiles, agriculture and IT, is participating in the meet, organised jointly by the CII, the Pakistan-India CEOs business forum and two media groups of South Asia. The objective of the meet is to build bridges and to establish long-term economic ties between the two countries. The trade relationship between the two countries also became a casualty following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Bilateral trade, which grew from $251 million in 2000-01 to $2.3 billion in 2007-08, fell sharply by 19 per cent in 2008-09 in the wake of the Mumbai attack. The Finance Minister was at pains to emphasise the advantages of normalising trade between the two countries. Due to their geographical proximity, there was tremendous scope for using the advantages of cheaper transportation costs and trade complementarity in goods which either country has a comparative advantage. The shorter distances would render it unnecessary for industry to carry high-level of inventories of raw material, intermediate goods and parts, thereby reducing cost of operations while also improving allocation of scare resources. Mukherjee regretted that Pakistan was yet to accord the most-favoured nation (MFN) status to India while India had already done so quite sometime back. Pakistan has also not implemented the provision of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) of maintaining a negative list of imports beyond which it would permit imports from India. He also pitched for improvement in communication links between the two countries, liberalisation of trade regimes, creation of transit facilities, transit trade to Afghanistan and Central Asia and improvement in infrastructure for trade and transport, among other things.
	RIL, RNRL begin talks on gas supply New Delhi, May 18 Reliance Industries and RNRL today began informal talks for a possible gas supply agreement, in line with the Supreme Court verdict earlier this month on the row between Mukesh and Anil Ambani groups. "Two top officials of RIL and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group today held preliminary discussions on a possible settlement of the gas dispute," a source said. However, no formal confirmation of the meeting and the issues discussed could be obtained from either groups. On May 7, the Supreme Court had rejected RNRL's plea for cheap gas from RIL on the basis of a private family agreement of 2005. While ruling that the government was the owner of all gas until delivery to the consumers and had the right to fix its price and users, the Supreme Court also asked the two sides to reach an agreement within six weeks. RNRL was seeking supply of 28 million cubic meters per day of gas for 17 years at a price of $2.34 per unit for the group's power plant at Dadri, as opposed to the government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu. — PTI
	Enhancement Charges Ludhiana industrialists up in arms against PSIEC Ruchika M. Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 18 Hundreds of industrial units in Focal Point, Phase VIII, Ludhiana, are up in arms against the Punjab State Industries Export Corporation (PSIEC) for demanding huge enhancement costs from them, even after they have already paid 100 per cent anticipated enhancement charges earlier. Hundreds of these industrial units, mainly electroplating and dyeing units, have now been asked to pay additional enhancement charges at the rate of Rs 1.49 lakh per acre. They have also been asked to pay additional interest charges, administrative charges and interest on administrative charges. They rued that they were being forced to pay up now, even though the PSIEC had failed to provide them the requisite infrastructure, as was promised to them at the time of land allotment. “We were promised two common effluent treatment plants (CETP) here. Though the government built a CETP for the electroplating industry, it remained defunct till three years back. Even the CETP for dyeing industry has not been constructed,” said Rajeev Sharma, an industrialist. Interestingly, they were allotted industrial plots at the rate of Rs 350 per square yard in 1993. But a few years later, a few of the allottees (those who had got land here through a draw of lots) were asked to pay additional Rs 250 per square yard as external development charges. These allottees then went to the court, demanding equitable charges for all, as some allottees here had been allotted plots here at the rate of Rs 126 per square yard and others at Rs 350 per square yard. Finally, as per the ruling of the court, all allotees were asked to pay Rs 596 per square yard as price of the plot. “When this rate of Rs 596 per sq yd was decided, the PSIEC said it included five per cent unforeseen charges, Rs 20 per sq yd as ‘nominal’ saving for the Corporation, and a 100 per cent anticipated enhancement charge. Since we have already paid up this enhancement charge, we cannot be forced to pay these charges again,” rued OP Bassi, chief adviser of Focal Point Phase VIII Industries Association.
	Spectrum Woes Ready for clarifications, TRAI tells DoT New Delhi, May 18 Amid divergent views expressed by mobile operators, TRAI today asked the government to take its views or clarifications in case of difference of opinion. TRAI had last week submitted detailed recommendations on Spectrum Management and Licensing Framework, in which it suggested pricing the excess spectrum held by GSM operators at a cost in relation to 3G airwaves, auction for which is on. In a letter to Telecom Secretary PJ Thomas, TRAI chairman JS Sarma said: "...As such, if the Department of Telecom (DoT) has any difference of opinion on any of the those recommendations, the same may be referred back to us for the Authority's views, before the DoT takes a decision." TRAI's letter comes in the wake of strong opposition by GSM operators to the recommendations, especially to the pricing of spectrum held beyond 6.2 MHz and capping the amount of spectrum at 8 MHz in each circle other than in Delhi and Mumbai, where the limit is 10 MHz. Sarma said all recommendations are "integral". Sarma's remark could mean there should not be a situation where some of its recommendations are accepted while rejecting others. TRAI also clarified its recommendations with regard to pricing of excess spectrum in relation to 3G prices. "The Authority is separately initiating an exercise to further study this subject and that the government would be apprised of its findings," it said. Likewise, on the issues involved in the reframing of 900/900 MHz spectrum, it was indicated that the TRAI would carry out a separate consultation process and shall give its recommendations to the government. "I would accordingly suggest that government should await the recommendations of the Authority on both issues before taking any decision," Sarma said in its letter. On one hand, the GSM operators have slammed the TRAI report saying the recommendations are retrograde and perverse while CDMA operators lobby AUSPI has hailed the regulator for terming the report as well balanced, progressive and transparent. — PTI
	Indian equities 2nd best in returns: ADB New Delhi, May 18 India, the world's second fastest-growing large economy, also provided the second highest returns from equities, just behind Indonesia, an Asian Development Bank report said today. The report, however, warned of challenges arising from large capital inflows in terms of macroeconomic issues like exchange rates and asset bubbles in emerging market economies. According to the report titled Asia Capital Markets Monitor, India stood second to Indonesia in terms of yield from equities in 2009 and also during the first four months of this year. "The emerging Asian equities yielded a 73 per cent return in US dollar terms in 2009, with India (102.8 per cent) and Indonesia (127.6 per cent) leading the way," the report said, citing the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Returns Index, valued in US dollars and measured as the price index plus reinvested dividends. The corresponding figures for China, the US, the Eurozone and Japan are 62.6 per cent, 27.1 per cent, 32.4 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. For the January-April 2010 period, the equities yield for Indonesia was 14.4 per cent, while that of India was 12.8 per cent. China gave a return of 7.4 per cent, the US at 11 per cent, Japan at 6.1 per cent and Eurozone minus at 1.7 per cent during the period. The prospect of stronger growth in emerging Asia has attracted large portfolio investment inflows, boosting local stock markets, the report added. The report, however, noted that as economic recovery gains traction and monetary policies are tightened, capital inflows to the region are likely to surge, which may create problems for these economies. "Large short-term capital flows could complicate macroeconomic management in the emerging market economies...This may generate volatility in some currency markets and pose a challenge to macroeconomic management," the ADB report said. The report added that the appreciation pressures on the Asian currencies will intensify as capital inflows surge on improved economic prospects for the region. — PTI
	IOL Chemicals to raise $5 million Manav Mandher Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 18 Ludhiana-based IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IOLCP), one of the largest producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), has announced plans to set up a new plant to produce about 150 TPA of Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs). The company expects a turnover of Rs 60 crore per annum from this initiative. The company said it would raise $5 million for setting up a new plant through the issuance of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The net proceeds from the issue are intended to be used by IOLCP for investment in the proposed PPI plant to produce anti-ulcer drugs, further expanding its existing manufacturing facilities. RK Thukral, executive director, IOLCP said, “The recent Healthcare Bill passed by the US Senate has opened the doors of opportunities in the generic drugs market. We intend to capitalise upon our inherent strengths and plan to set up a new manufacturing unit for PPIs, which have extremely strong demand world over.” “The current domestic demand for PPIs is estimated at around 1,100 TPA. Considering that only 50 per cent of the domestic demand is being met by the Indian manufacturers and the rest is being met with imports, there is a huge opportunity, which we are aiming at,” added Thukral. IOLCP has also planned to set up another multi-purpose plant wherein, the company can manufacture alternative intermediate products depending upon the current demand and margins.