New York, August 19
Intel Corp will acquire security software company McAfee Inc in an all-cash deal worth $7.68 billion that will bolster the world's largest chip-maker's computing portfolio, especially in wireless mobility offerings.

The chip-maker will purchase all the common shares of McAfee at a price of $48 per piece, valuing the deal at $7.68 billion, Intel said in a statement today.

Both the companies have a good presence in India.

In the backdrop of improving economic conditions, there have been a slew of deals worldwide in recent months. Earlier this week, computer-maker Dell on Monday had announced that it would acquire data storage company 3PAR Inc for $1.15 billion.

"This acquisition is consistent with our software and services strategy to deliver an outstanding computing experience in fast-growing business areas, especially around the move to wireless mobility," Intel senior vice-president Renee James said.

James noted that the company would be looking forward to introduce a product from the strategic partnership next year.

In recent times, Intel has made a string of buyouts of software entities, including Wind River and Havok.

Both companies have entered into a definitive agreement for the proposed McAfee transaction, which has been approved by their respective boards of directors.

McAfee, which employs about 6,100 employees, had an annual revenue of $2 billion in 2009. The firm offers a suite of software-related security solutions, including McAfee Antivirus and McAfee Firewall, with many products targeted at mobile devices such as smart phones.

"The acquisition augments Intel's mobile wireless strategy, helping to better assure customer and consumer security concerns as these billions of devices connect," the statement said.

Once the deal is complete, McAfee would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. The security software company would report to Intel's Software and Services Group, which is managed by James. — PTI 

Mumbai, August 19
A smart rally in financial, FMCG and metal stocks, supported by strong global cues, pushed the Sensex higher by nearly 200 points today to close at its highest level in two-and-a-half years.

Extending its upward journey for the second day, the 30-share barometer of the BSE ended with a gain of 197.82 points, or 1.08 per cent, at 18,454.94, its best closing since February 5, 2008. In two days of rally, the Sensex has recorded a gain of 406 points.

The NSE’s Nifty index added 1.11 per cent to settle at 5,540.20 points.

Tracking firm Asian markets and positive cues from the Wall Street, the Sensex started the session on a strong note and never looked back. During the day, the index moved between a high of 18,475.27 and a low of 18,276.50 mark.

Marketmen said that buoyant investor sentiment spurred by better growth data for the US economy and an ease in the food inflation rate supported the rally.

Snapping its downward trend, Reliance Industries, which carries the maximum weight in the Sensex, increased 1.25 per cent to finish at Rs 976.80. With a smart rally of about 5 per cent, cement major ACC topped the gainers pack.

Banking stocks continued the rising streak for another day on hopes of strong lending growth.

ICICI Bank led the gain among banking stocks and settled 4.58 per cent higher at Rs 1,014.45. HDFC jumped 3.65 per cent and HDFC Bank 2.19 per cent. SBI, however, ended in red with a loss of 0.25 per cent.— PTI

Chandigarh, August 19
Caught unawares, traders and business houses in Punjab are sulking at the sudden imposition of entry tax on seven new items. Trade in the state has been hit badly, as most goods on which entry tax has been imposed, piles up at the Information Collection Centres (ICC) on the state’s borders.

The Punjab Government has imposed entry tax on items like steel fabricated material (12.5%) , coal and coke (4%) , electric meters (12.5%), bitumen (5%), sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda (5%), girder, angles, channels and TMT (4%) and milk meant for manufacturing of milk products (5%). The state had taken a decision to levy entry tax on these items last week and it has come into effect from yesterday.

The state is expected to earn an additional Rs 5 crore per month by this move. Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner, A. Venu Prasad, informed TNS that the state gets Rs 50 crore per month through entry tax. “The rationale behind including more items for levy of entry tax is to protect the business interests of local traders, who were not being able to supply goods within the state because of higher VAT rate in Punjab. By imposing entry tax, we will also be able to plug loopholes in the flow of VAT,” he said.

As the trucks carrying these goods reached the state’s borders yesterday, the Excise and Taxation department officials began asking them for an entry tax. As a result, many traders bringing their goods, especially milk traders, have decided not to sell their goods in the state. This could hit the dairy business badly as an estimated 20 lakh litres of milk reaches Punjab from Haryana and Rajasthan daily.

Even in case of fabricated steel, only broad-based term of pre- fabricated steel has been used . “As a result, trucks ferrying all kinds of pre-fabricated steel are now lined up near the ICCs, awaiting clearance amid confusion whether they are supposed to pay entry tax of 12.5 per cent. Since the ancillary units of tractor and railways fear that the staff at Punjab barriers may also intercept the tractor parts and railway coach parts as fabricated items, we are holding back our consignments to Punjab,” said Naveen Manglani, president, Chamber of Chandigarh Industries. 

New Delhi, August 19
The private sector hospitals and PSU insurers are likely to arrive at an interim settlement on restoration of cashless treatment facility at major hospitals in the country from tomorrow.

The major corporate hospitals - Apollo Healthcare, Max, Medicity and Fortis - have given their package rates for treatment under mediclaim policies to the Third Party Administrators (TPAs), which are the facilitators between the insured and the insurer.

"By tomorrow, TPAs will revert to the hospitals on the package rates. Cashless facility in these hospitals would be restored on an interim basis by Friday," Max Healthcare Institute MD Pervez Ahmed said.

Although the cashless treatment facility will be restored from tomorrow on interim basis, it would take some time for the hospitals and four PSU insurance companies to arrive at final settlement on the vexed issue.

"Final rate structure would be decided in another 30-40 days. Under the structure that is being worked out, hospitals would be categorised on the basis of super specialty medical centres and premiums would vary accordingly," he said.

Currently there are 449 hospitals across the country under the cashless network, but corporate hospitals were removed by the PSU insurers from their preferred provider network (PPN) from July 1.

Four insurance companies - New India Assurance, United India Insurance, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance - had stopped the cashless service to these hospitals on charges of over-billing.

Ahmed said the package rates have been segmented on the basis of categorised hospitals. "There will be three categories -- A, B, C-- for classification of hospitals and each segment could also have a sub-category," he said. — PTI

New Delhi, August 19
The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) may have to pay over $ 13 billion if it were to exercise its pre-emption or right of first refusal to buy Cairn India in the giant Rajasthan block.

Cairn India holds 70 per cent operator interest in the 6.5 billion barrels Rajasthan block that is at the centre of its parent, Cairn Energy Plc's $8.48 billion deal to sell its majority stake in the company to Vedanta Resources.

At Rs 355 a share (the price at which Vedanta is acquiring Cairn Energy shares), Cairn India is valued at over Rs 67,355 crore or $14.6 billion. Almost 90 per cent of this value is because of the Rajasthan block that can produce 240,000 barrels of oil per day. ONGC believes that by virtue of holding 30 per cent in the Rajasthan block, it has the pre-emption or ROFR to buy Cairn India in case the company's ownership changed.

But ONGC will have to make up its mind fast as it has time only till September 7 to decide. Vedanta's open offer to minority shareholders of Cairn India for acquisition of 20 per cent shares, puts September 7 as the cut off date for any rival offer, the source said. — PTI

Shanghai, August 19
Seeking more market access to reduce the trade deficit, India Inc today demanded that non-tariff barriers which impeded Indian companies to establish themselves in China should be removed.

India's export basket is not representative (to China) of our competence in a number of areas, for example engineering products, pharmaceuticals, machineries, CII vice-president B Muthuraman, who is also the MD of Tata Steel, said while addressing the India Business Forum here today.

"There is, therefore, need to make India's basket fairly representative of its potential and competitiveness. Indian industry would like to seek across to China's domestic market products. The non-tariff barriers need to reviewed and eliminated. It would also help in reducing India's deficit in trade with China," he said.

A total of 360 Chinese businesspersons, industrialists and officials from all over China attended the meeting, which was the culmination of about 16 such meetings held all over China for the past few months to push brand India into China.

Muthuraman said that Indian companies would like to invest in China in sectors like pharmaceuticals, machineries and engineering products to tap huge Chinese domestic market and for export to other countries.

"Indian companies have not yet been able to achieve significant growth in China as we feel they have not been provided access to the market. We therefore seek improved access to Chinese domestic market in services sector such as IT, ITES, health care, media and entertainment and education," he said.

Indian Ambassador to China, S Jaishankar, who has been conducting various business get-together in several parts of China to bring about India product, said our economic relationship has actually been the game changer in bilateral ties, particularly in the last decade.

He said both China and India have agreed during this year's Inter-governmental Joint Economic Group that that it was in the interest of China that large trade imbalances should be avoided. — PTI 

Chandigarh, August 19
To give an impetus to the IT industry in the region, the Punjab government has engaged a Consortium of ‘Erns and Young-Halcrow’ to prepare a master plan for the upcoming Rs 1,200 crore ‘Global Industrial and Knowledge City’ at Rajpura.

A decision to this effect was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a meeting held here. Emphasising the need to promote the IT sector, Badal said setting up of the IT city would help the state to compete global challenges on one hand and source of employment generation on the other.

Meanwhile, Punjab Information & Communication Technology Corporation Ltd managing director Rakesh Verma stated that 1,359.5 acres had been identified for the upcoming IT city and an estimated Rs 50 crore had been earmarked to undertake acquisition process. Badal also approved that the Punjab Infotech could arrange for a short term loan of Rs 133 crore from banks. 

BRIEFLY

Motoring enthusiasts and car-buyers look at a Toyota Hybrid X on display during the 3rd Philippine International Motor Show at World Trade Center in Pasay City, Metro Manila, on Thursday. — Reuters

Food inflation dips
NEW DELHI: Food inflation declined to 10.35 per cent during the week ended August 7 from 11.40 per cent in the previous week on cheaper vegetables, especially potato and onion, but the fall may not prompt the RBI to reverse its tight monetary policy stance at the next review on September 16. —PTI

Inflation index
NEW DELHI: The government has postponed the introduction of a new system of inflation measurement from August to October as it is tying up some “loose ends” to include about 250 extra items, like LCD TVs, in sync with modern times. The new index would give a more realistic picture of the price rise and its impact on the people. — PTI

New IIP series
NEW DELHI: The government is likely to come out with more representative data on industrial production by this year-end by adding nearly 150 new items and deleting the obsolete ones from the index. Currently, around 350 items are in the IIP basket to calculate the monthly industrial production figure. — PTI

BPCL chief
NEW DELHI: S Radhakrishnan on Thursday assumed additional charge of CMD of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). — PTI