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Vedanta buys majority stake in Cairn India
Rlys to accept credit cards as ID proof
SBI raises interest rates
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July inflation falls to 9.97%
Grasim, JP among 14 bidders for PACL stake
RCom initiative for visually impaired
Hafed partners ACE for national bourse
Remarks on Infosys
A truck carries cars at a port area in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Monday. Japan's economic growth slowed to a crawl in the second quarter and analysts see more weakness ahead, adding to policymakers' headaches as they grapple with deflation and a rise in the yen that threatens an export-reliant recovery. — Reuters
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Vedanta buys majority stake in Cairn India
Mumbai, August 16 Vedanta, headed by Indian entrepreneur Anil Agarwal, said it would fund the acquisition via debt and cash. The company will also make an open offer to the general public to acquire another 20 per cent stake in Cairn India. Both companies said, Cairn Energy’s stake in the Indian company will be purchased at Rs 355 a share. In addition, the promoters would be paid a non-compete fee of Rs 50 per share. While Vedanta will pick up between 31 and 40 per cent of Cairn India, group company Sesa Goa will hold another 20 per cent stake. Vedanta, in its statement said, the deal would be EPS accretive immediately. Cairn India has begun production from its prolific Rajasthan oil fields. Current output is pegged at 1,25,000 barrels per day. However, Vedanta has indicated that output could go up to 2,40,000 barrels per day or more. According to Sir Bill Gammell, CEO, Cairn Energy, the Scotland- based company will continue to hold between 10.6 and 21.6 per cent in the Indian company. The deal can go through only after getting the green signal from the Indian petroleum ministry. ONGC holds 30 per cent in Cairn India and will have a say in the matter, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan told reporters in the capital today. The markets, however, gave a thumbs down to the deal by hammering down the stock of Cairn India. The scrip fell more than 6 per cent to close at Rs 332.85 as investors expressed their disappointment over the non-compete fee being paid to the promoters of the company. Analysts, however, opined that the Securities and Exchange Board of India may strike down the non-compete fee clause in the agreement and force Vedanta to peg the open offer at Rs 405 per share. PTI adds: The price of Rs 405 per share is a 32 per cent premium to Cairn India's average closing price over 90 days. This includes a Rs 50 per share non-compete premium for Cairn Energy Plc not entering into oil and gas business in India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The process will take about three months to complete, Cairn Energy Finance Director Jann Brown said. Vedanta will be the second largest firm after BHP Billiton to diversify from mining into oil and gas. |
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Rlys to accept credit cards as ID proof
New Delhi, August 16 The new provision has already come into effect from August 6. The bank credit card is in addition to the existing seven proofs of identity which are acceptable for undertaking journey on e-tickets. These include voter ID, passport, PAN card, driving licence, photo ID card issued by central or state government, student ID card with photograph issued by recognised school or college for their students and nationalised bank passbook with photograph. |
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SBI raises interest rates
New Delhi, August 16 The state-run lender also increased its fixed deposit rates by up to 150 basis points across various maturities. The decision comes days after the RBI increased its key rates to control rising prices. As far as revision in fixed deposit rates is concerned, SBI increased interest rate by 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent per annum for the term deposit with maturity between 15 to 45 days. This is the highest increase done by the bank among various maturity term deposits. For fixed deposits between 181 days to less than 1 year, the new interest rate will be 6 per cent against existing 5.25 per cent, while 555 days fixed deposit rate will attract interest rate of 7.25 per cent, an increase of 1.25 per cent. The term deposit rate between 3-5 years will go up by 75 bps to 7.25 per cent from tomorrow, while 5 years to 8 years maturity slab is increased by 25 bps to 7.50 per cent. Meanwhile, the bank also announced the launch of floating fixed deposit product linked with base rate with effect from September 6, 2010.
— PTI ICICI loans
dearer by 50 bps
New Delhi: ICICI Bank on Monday also raised its benchmark lending
rate by 50 basis points to 16.25 per cent, making home, auto and
corporate loans costlier. The revised rate will rate will be effective
from August 18, 2010, ICICI Bank said in a statement. It has also
increased by 50 basis points its Floating Reference Rate (FRR) for
consumer loans (including home loans). The revised FRR will be 13.25 per
cent as against 12.75 per cent at present.— PTI |
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July inflation falls to 9.97%
New Delhi, August 16 The inflation based on wholesale prices had entered double digits in February and declined 0.58 per cent last month, from 10.55 per cent in June, as the prices of potatoes, onions and cement moderated. Buoyed by the decline, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed the hope that the drop in prices would continue, while Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said inflation would reach 6 per cent by December. He pointed out that besides seasonal factors and the base effect, the monetary policy steps taken by the Reserve Bank were having impact on inflation. "Policy rates had some impact but there are also base factors", the Minister said. Besides, he added, seasonal factors in food items like fruits, vegetables and milk were also helping moderate the rate of price rise.
— PTI |
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Grasim, JP among 14 bidders for PACL stake
Chandigarh, August 16 This, even as the company showed a loss of over Rs 4.70 crore in the first quarter this fiscal. The company, which manufactures caustic soda lye and flakes, liquid chlorine, hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite, has been running in losses for some time now. But considering the strategic location of the PACL manufacturing facility at Naya Nangal and its fixed assets, many top companies have evinced interest in taking over 44.26 per cent stake in the company. Officials in the Directorate of Disinvestment, Punjab, said the 14 bids received by them were from Nirma, Surya Pharma, KUDOs Resources, KLJ Resources, Amtek Auto, Nectar Lifesciences, Goyal MG Gases, DCM Shriram Credit & Investments, Panoli Intermediates (India), Lords Chloro Alkali, Jay Polychem (India), besides the above mentioned companies. It may be mentioned that the Punjab government had earlier fixed August 2 as the last date for the submission of bids. However, this was later extended to August 16. The expression of interest (EoI) for sale of 44.26 per cent stake of PSIDC in PACL, through competitive bids was invited last month. Talking to TNS here today, VK Singh, Director, Department of Disinvestment, said the department is hoping to complete the stake sale by October this year. “We will evaluate the request for qualification (RFQ) for all the bidders in the next 15 days, which will determine the eligible bidders for PACL disinvestment. After this, the qualified bidders will be asked to submit financial bids. The whole process will be complete by October," he said, adding that the ultimate authority for approving the stake sale of PACL lays with the Punjab Cabinet.
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RCom initiative for visually impaired
New Delhi, August 16 The Braille Bill service is part of convenience options that Reliance Mobile is introducing in the Indian market for its over 110 million mobile subscribers, RCom said. The service will be available free of cost. It will be available for post-paid customers across all product lines of RCom's wireless business. The service is in line with the Reliance ADA Group's corporate social responsibility objectives, it added. |
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Hafed partners ACE for national bourse
Chandigarh, August 16 Hafed reportedly has a 15 per cent stake in ACE, which will be the fifth national-level commodity exchange in the country. The exchange has already received permanent recognition from the Forward Markets Commission as a national-level bourse, thus becoming the first regional exchange to be upgraded to a national-level exchange. Sources said all formalities for setting up the exchange have been completed and it is ready for a soft launch. Initially, the exchange will offer trading in four commodities, which includes agriculture and bullion. The approval of the market regulator (FMC) is being sought for this, after which the exchange will be formally launched in another eight to 10 weeks. “This is a commercial venture and we hope to make a neat profit out of this partnership. With the turnover at all 23 commodity exchanges rising by over 50 per cent (so far during this fiscal), we hope to make a good profit in the very first year of our operations,” said Anil Malik, managing director, Hafed. It may be mentioned that Kotak group has a 51 per cent stake in ACE. This exchange already has over 200 members and is expected to increase its membership once it starts its operations. This is not Hafed’s first attempt on the bourses. “We have been associated with commodity exchanges since 2004. Though initially we were trading in wheat by hedging it on the NCDEX platform. Since futures trading in wheat was banned by the government for some time, this was stopped. However, now that the ban has been lifted, we will start hedging in wheat again. We have bought 2,000 metric tonnes of wheat for this purpose,” Malik said. He also said in April this year, they started a spot exchange of NCDEX for rapeseed (mustard) at Rewari. Spot exchanges for other commodities like guar, mustard, barley, gram, potato and cotton are also being planned in Narnaul, Jhajjar, Hisar, Sirsa, Karnal, Taraori and Shahabad mandis. |
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Remarks on Infosys
Washington, August 16 He meant to call them "body shops", which exploit cheap labour, not "chop shops" that break stolen cars to sell parts. Also the idea was not to target only Indian firms but all such companies be they from "Bangalore, Beijing, or Boston." "I do want to clarify a previous remark which mischaracterised these firms where I labelled them as 'chop shops'," said the Democrat Senator from New York who flew in Thursday to get the bill to raise $600 million to secure US-Mexico border, passed by the senate with just fellow Democrat Benjamin Cardin from nearby Marland. "That statement was incorrect, and I wish to acknowledge that. In the tech industry, these firms are known as 'body shops'. That is what I should have said, and that is what they are," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "While I wholly oppose the manner in which these firms are using H-1B to accomplish objectives that Congress never intended, it would be unfortunate if anyone concluded from my remarks that these firms are engaging in illegal behaviour," he said. "I also want to make clear that the purpose of this fee is not to target businesses from any particular country," Schumer said. "Many news articles have reported that the only companies affected by this fee are companies based in India and that ipso facto the purpose of this legislation is to target Indian IT companies," he said, dismissing the suggestion as simply untrue. "We are simply raising fees for businesses that use the H-1B visa to do things that are contrary to the programme's original intent, and that will be on any company from any country that does it," Schumer said. "If they are using the H-1B visa to innovate new products and technologies that is a good thing, regardless of whether the company was originally founded in India, Ireland, or Indiana," Schumer said. — IANS
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SKS Microfinance up over 10% on debut ICICI online term plan Lanco Infra to invest `24K cr A.D. Nagpal
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Metals and mining major Vedanta Resources Plc is all set to acquire a majority stake in Cairn India by buying out most of Scotland-based Cairn Energy’s stake in the company.
In a statement issued by both the companies, Vedanta will acquire between 51 and 61 per cent stake in Cairn India for between $8.5 and $ 9.6 billion.
China has surpassed Japan to become the world's second largest economy after the US for the three months ended June, 2010. In comparison to Japan's Q2 growth of 0.4 per cent, China expanded at a whopping 10.3 per cent during the same period.
