Bangalore May 26
Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today acquired a majority stake in the Reva Electric Car Company Ltd of Bangalore.

As a result, Reva Electric Car Co Ltd. will be renamed as Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Co Ltd. Under the agreement, which was signed today by the two companies, M&M will own 55.2% equity in the new company by a combination of equity purchase from the promoters and a fresh equity infusion of over Rs 45 crore into the company. The buyout makes the Mahindra group a strong global player in the electric vehicle space.

The board of Mahindra Reva will be headed by Pawan Goenka, president automotive and farm equipment sector, M&M, as its chairman. The board has five nominees from M&M, two from the Maini family, and one from AEV LLC, California (the Mainis and the US company are the two co-founders of Reva). An independent director will be added to the board later.

Chetan Maini of the Maini Group will continue to play a leading role in Mahindra Reva as chief of technology & strategy and will continue to be on the board.

Under its “sustainable mobility” initiative, M&M has been working for the past 10 years on developing green technologies and has demonstrated diesel hybrid technology on the Scorpio and hydrogen Alfa three wheelers. Mahindra has a pilot fleet operating with 100% bio-diesel and was the first to launch micro-hybrid technology in India with around 50,000 such micro-hybrids on the road today.

Besides, the electric three-wheeler Bijlee developed in 1999, Mahindra is also currently working on an electric version of its mini-truck, Maxximo. Mahindra Reva’s EV technology will be adapted for these and other M&M vehicles. Access to strong EV technology is expected to strengthen Mahindra’s other current sustainability initiatives.

Reva is currently marketing its products in 24 countries across the world with an overall vehicle population of over 3500, arguably the largest EV fleet globally.

Speaking on the acquisition, Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director, M&M, said, “With issues such as climate change and carbon footprint taking centrestage globally, eco-friendly transportation has become the need of the hour. Mahindra already has an established sustainable mobility solutions programme and our association with Reva will only help us further expand our green footprint both in India and overseas”.

New Delhi, May 26
State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) plans to invest Rs 30,000 crore to set up a 15-16 million tonnes-a-year refinery on the west coast.

The new refinery, which may be in Raigad district of Maharashtra, is being mulled to make up for space constraint that its Mumbai refinery faces at present.

"We have been shown three pieces of land by Maharashtra government... We should be able to finalise the location in next few weeks," HPCL chairman and managing director Arun Balakrishnan told reporters here.

HPCL has got cost estimates done for the 15-16 million tonnes refinery, which would cost Rs 30,000 crore, and is currently extrapolating that for a 20 million tonnes-a-year unit.

"We should be able to finalise location and size of the refinery in 3-4 months," he said. "A consultant for doing detailed feasibility report (DFR) will be appointed in one month." The land offered for the refinery is located between Ratnagiri and Raigad. The unit, called Maharashtra Refinery, would be completed in 48 months from the date of receiving all approvals, he said.

"We face tremendous space constraint at our 6.5 million tonnes-a-year Mumbai refinery. A refinery of this size is spread over 2,000 acres of land but our refinery is spaced in just 350 acres. We feel in 5-10 years, the space constraint will make the unit inefficient," the official said.

Balakrishnan said the Mumbai refinery may eventually be shut down once the new refinery is built. "That decision we need to take in 6-7 years." HPCL, which has a 7.5 million tonnes-a-year unit at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh and is also building a 9 million tonnes plant at Bathinda in Punjab in joint venture with steel czar Lakshmi Mittal, is contemplating a refinery of the size of 15 or 20 million tonnes-a-year.

The project may be funded in a debt-equity ratio of 2:1 or 2.5:1.

The new refinery project comes on the heels of HPCL being forced to put on back-burner a $10 billion refinery-cum-petrochemical project at Vizag after Mittal and French oil major Total SA pulled out.

The only-for-exports 14 million tonnes-a-year refinery was being planned to target South-East Asia and the Middle-East. — PTI

Chandigarh, May 26
City-based pharma company Surya Pharmaceuticals is in an expansion mode. The company is planning an investment in excess of Rs 500 crore, to set up a greenfield integrated project for manufacturing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and formulations, besides going in for third party marketing tie-ups for bringing international medical products to India.

The company is also set to commission a new plant at Sambha, near Jammu, next month. This plant, being set up with an investment of Rs 320 crore, will manufacture API, formulations and sterile injectibles, will start working to its full capacity by December.

For this expansion, the company is now going in for diluting its equity through Global Depository Receipts (GDR) and preferential allotment of shares. Talking to TNS here today, Hariom Bhatia, president, corporate finance, and head, retail, Surya Pharmaceuticals, said a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company is scheduled tomorrow to decide on the equity dilution. Though he refused to divulge details about the amount proposed to be raised through GDR, sources say the company proposes to raise Rs 250-300 crore.

Bhatia said the company was in final stages of closing a deal for buying land in Mohali district for setting up a new manufacturing facility. This will be an integrated facility manufacturing API and formulations of non-beta lactum products. The company, which started its retail business last year by opening pharma retail stores called Aviva, is also looking at expansion by going in for third party marketing tie- ups. Making a beginning in this regard today, the company has now become the exclusive retailer for Crocs medical footwear in India. The company is proposing to sell at least 1.50 lakh pairs this year and over 6 lakh pairs next fiscal.

He said because of the company’s foray into phytochemicals since 2008, they had managed to record a high year-on-year growth rate of 40 per cent. “In 2009-10, we have managed to clock a turnover of Rs 1,130 crore, up from Rs 729 crore in 2008-09. This year, too, we are hoping to achieve a 40 per cent growth,” he said.

Solan, May 26
Indonesia-based Indorama SPL group has expressed its keenness to set up a spandex manufacturing unit at Baddi with a proposed investment of Rs 400 crore. The group is finalising the modalities for setting up this stretch fabric manufacturing unit.

Commissioner Industries Manoj Sharma said, “A sum of Rs 1.5 lakh has been deposited for land allotment which was being finalised. A site at Lodhi Majra in Baddi had been selected and its formalities were being worked out.”

Being the second largest polyester producer in the world, the project is expected to be set up over 25 acres of land and would require 8 MW of power besides 1,000 cubic metres of water for operations. Once functional, it would bring Baddi on the international textile map apart from earning it the status of being the largest textile hub of Asia.

It will be the first manufacturing unit of its kind in India as spandex is used for making a host of textiles like dress material, swim wear, sportswear, lingerie, shoe soles and upholstery. The plant with an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes will help meet half of the country’s requirement and would have an annual turnover of $70 million. It will provide direct employment to 180 to 200 persons.

It may be recalled that the textile major had earlier too come up with a similar proposal and land had been allotted to it at Lodhi Majra in 2008. The plan was, however, suspended at a later stage.

The company is the second largest polyester producer in the world with a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum.

Chandigarh, May 26
Financial services company Abhipra Capital is planning a major expansion of its operations across North India. The company proposes to open 500 new branches during this fiscal across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

In order to reach out to more people here, the company will be involved in a big way to provide services of New Pension System (NPS) launched by the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority, and thus target the elderly. Since Abhipra Capital has recently been appointed by the government as a fund manager for this scheme, it is targeting to open one lakh pension accounts each in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh this year.

Talking to TNS, VD Aggarwal, chairman, Abhipra Capital, said though the company had a pan-India presence, they were looking at a major expansion in North India, because of a huge potential here. “As of now, we have 40 branches in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, but we plan to roll out 460 new branches this year,” he said, adding that the new branches would be both company-owned and franchisee-based.

He said the company’s Punjab foray was part of a larger nationwide expansion plan over the next two years. “We have set aside a sum of Rs 150 crore for adding new branches in other states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. As the nationwide networking gets in place, we are aiming to increase our customer base from present 1.50 lakh to 10 lakh by 2011. New services like portfolio management, rural insurance, investor fund advisory programme, too, are being introduced,” he said, adding that they were investing in infrastructure like VSat/radio linking of branches.

He said Abhipra was also setting up a 20-member research and analysis wing. “This will help the small retail investors as well as corporates to buy cost-effective and qualitative research results on stocks and commodity from our branches,” he added.

Mumbai, May 26
State-run power equipment maker BHEL today reported a rise of about 42 per cent in audited net profit to Rs 1,909.58 for the fourth quarter ended March, 2010, against Rs 1,347.47 crore in the corresponding period a year earlier. Total income of the Navratna firm rose to Rs 14,152.63 crore during the January-March quarter of FY'10 from Rs 11,047.24 crore in the same period a year ago, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

New Delhi, May 26
Gold continued with its record setting spree, climbing to a new peak of Rs 18,810 per 10 grams in the national capital today on frantic buying for the ongoing marriage season amid a firming global trend.

Buying activity gathered momentum as speculators indulged in squaring up their pending positions in futures trading ahead of settlement at this month's end.

A firming trend in overseas markets continued to support the precious metal in domestic markets here. The price of gold in global markets, which sets the trend in domestic markets, climbed for a third day as investors sought a haven from Europe’s debt crisis.

Standard gold and ornaments shot up by Rs 150 to Rs 18,810 and Rs 18,660 per 10 grams respectively. Sovereign prices also firmed up by Rs 75 to Rs 14,600 per piece of 8 grams.

Prices of the precious metal surpassed the previous peak of Rs 18,550 - which was attained on December 3 last year - during yesterday's trading session to set a new record on brisk buying by jewellers and stockists for the current marriage season, joined by investors and speculators. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Rupee gains 41 paise
Mumbai: The rupee on Wednesday bounced back by 41 paise to close at 47.29/30 against the US currency, ending the five-session losing string. Dealers said smart recovery in stock markets helped rupee notch gains against the dollar despite heavy capital outflows. — PTI

Tata Steel posts loss
Mumbai: Tata Steel on Wednesday reported a consolidated loss of Rs 20,009 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. The steelmaker had a net profit of Rs 4,950.90 crore in the year ended March 31, 2009. Total income decreased to Rs 1,03,578.9 crore for the fiscal ended March 2010, from Rs 1,47,594.9 crore in the previous fiscal. — PTI

Rei Agro plans rights issue
New Delhi: Rei Agro on Wednesday announced that it will raise Rs 1,245 crore through a rights issue to retire costly debt. The company Board approved the rights issue, wherein the shareholders would get two equity shares of Re 1 each for every one share held at Rs 19.50 per share. — PTI

Oil rebounds in Asia
Singapore: Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade on Wednesday, taking their lead from strong performances in regional equities markets, analysts said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, gained 62 cents to $69.37 a barrel. — AFP