Mumbai, October 18
The initial public offering of Coal India Ltd, the biggest such offering in the country’s corporate history, opened today to encouraging response from investors. According to data available from the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange, the IPO received bids for 213.49 million or 34 per cent of the total number of stock on offer. The government is disinvesting 631.64 million shares in the company. At the highest end of the Rs 225-245 price band the IPO will worth more than Rs 15,000 crore.

The offer closes on Thursday for institutional investors and on Friday for retail investors. Much of the bids have come from institutional investors with more than 58 per cent of the quota reserved for them being subscribed so far. The portion reserved for non-institutional investors including High Net Worth Individuals and retail investors have received negligible response so far.

The Coal India IPO is bigger than the Reliance Power IPO of January 2008. Meanwhile, there are reports that Coal India has decided to allot the unsubscribed portion of its mega IPO, which aims to garner up to Rs 15,475 crore, reserved for employees to other categories of investors.

“The unsubscribed portion of the IPO reserved for employees, if any, will be distributed in prescribed proportion among other categories of investors,” CIL CMD Partha Bhattacharyya said. CIL has reserved 1 per cent, or 6.3 crore shares, for its four lakh employees. Despite free demat account offer by the company, only 10 per cent of the employees had opted for the same, company officials said.

Usually, IPOs in India attract majority of the subscriptions on closing day. Coal India is the world's largest coal miner, producing over 80 per cent of India's coal through 471 mines across eight states. It produced 431.26 million tonnes of raw coal in 2009-10.

It also holds the largest extractable coal reserves in the world with over 22 billion tonnes, ahead of rivals state-run China Shenhua Energy and the world's largest private miner Peabody Energy in the US.

The mega public float, experts believe, is expected to attract foreign investors and lead to a surge in dollar inflows, pushing the Indian rupee further up. It could cause a liquidity crunch for a short while and lead to correction in the secondary market.

Chandigarh, October 18
The textile industry in Punjab is facing yet another difficult year. The bumper cotton arrivals notwithstanding, textile industry across North India is facing a severe shortage of cotton yarn. With most of the new cotton crop being used for export commitments, the domestic industry is facing the heat.

With the cotton ginners across the state buying cotton for exports, by paying abnormally high prices, the textile industry is being hit. With the government allowing export of 55 lakh bales of cotton this year, the high international prices of the crop is enticing the ginners to get a rich dividend from exports.

It may be noted that the price of cotton, too, have risen sharply this year. The price increased from Rs. 23,000 per candy (356 Kg) in April 2010 to Rs 41,000 per candy now. Even the new cotton crop that is arriving in the mandis now is selling at a 50- 60 per cent higher than the minimum support price of Rs 2,800 per quintal. The cotton is selling across various mandis of the state between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,400 per quintal.

Ashish Bagrodia, president, Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA), and MD, Winsome Group, said the government had decided that only exportable surplus of cotton would be shipped out of the country during cotton year 2010-11. “The registration of export contracts with the Textile Commissioner was opened on October 1, 2010, for shipment to be effected from November 1 onwards. However, the entire quantity of 55 lakh bales was applied for registration within 10 days and therefore registration had to be discontinued on October 10. These shipments have to be completed by December 15 as per the stipulation of registration and that would mean that 55 lakh bales will have to be procured by cotton exporters by end November 2010. This means that there will be little cotton left for the domestic market,” he added.

New Delhi, October 18
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has allowed passengers to use cell phones after an aircraft has landed and cleared the active runway- that is the runway in use, except in cases when low visibility conditions still exist at the airport.

Amending Rule 29B of Aircraft Rules, the DGCA said the Pilot in Command (PIC), having cleared the active runway after landing with no other runway or intersections to cross, in visual flight conditions and when comfortable, will tell the cabin crew in-charge to make the announcement, allowing passengers to use their cell phones.

The civil aviation regulator said the new procedure can be adopted by airlines at the earliest and not later than October 22.

Curbs on use of cell phones have been imposed to prevent perceived interference of signals with guiding mechanism of an aircraft. Whether cell phones really interfere with navigation systems of modern airliners is an issue that has been debated for long.

Rules say that passengers are not allowed to use cell phone while in-flight. Some airlines allow passengers to use cell phones before an aircraft takes off while some carriers also have the facility of on-board cell phones, which passengers can use after paying.

Aviation experts say the reason why cell phones are not allowed on an active runway is because it is believed that cell phone transmission can interfere with the instrument landing system (ILS)-a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing.

Apparently, an aircraft suffered a crash while landing and it was suspected that the mishap occurred because of a cell phone. Investigations later showed that a call was made from a cell phone on board. 

Ludhiana, October 18
The hosiery knitwear season has started in Ludhiana. Customers from Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, UP and Bihar are purchasing goods for the winter. The purchases will continue till December, according to hosiery manufacturers. The marriage season will also help in boosting the sale of Ludhiana’s hosiery goods.

President Knitwear Club Vinod Thapar said the domestic market for hosiery goods was in good shape this year. The weather had changed favourably, and he added that the business was becoming a year-round affair with various activities taking place in different months.

Thapar added that though prices of cotton yarn and acrylic yarn had risen, yet there was no perceptible effect on business as the demand pattern had changed. Cotton as well as acrylic is now costlier by Rs 100 per kg. Woollen yarn was also quite costly.

Pure woollen garments had lost market because of its high cost. Blended yarns were available for Rs 400 to Rs 450 a kg.

An Acrylic pullover costs Rs 400, while a blended garments costs between Rs 450 and Rs 1000. Major markets for knitwear are in northern India - Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, UP and Bihar.

Some of the major hosiery units manufacture high-quality woolen branded garments, which are priced exorbitantly too.

Reebok, Adidas, Nike and Colorplus purchase blended garments in bulk from Ludhiana. These garments have 80 per cent acrylic and 20 per cent wool, said Ashwani Dhawan - a leading manufacturer and exporter of hosiery goods. He added the industry is facing labour shortage. To meet this problem, these units have resorted to automation.

Dhawan predicts that there will be complete automation of the knitwear industry within the next five-six years.

Forty leading hosiery manufacturers have formed a consortium known as LDFO (Ludhiana Director Factory outlet) and have opened an outlet at a mall in this town, where all of them will be available under one roof.

Washington, October 18
US President Barack Obama will give a special address to corporate leaders from India and America at a business summit in Mumbai on November 6, to be organised by industry body USIBC.

Obama is slated to make the first stop in the country's financial capital during his India visit next month.

Sources said the US India Business Council (USIBC) has been asked to organise the summit at the instance of the White House.

The US-India Business & Entrepreneurship Summit will commence on Saturday, November 6, in Mumbai and the four hour programme will explore long term opportunities for both the societies. — PTI

Toronto, October 18
Bombardier, a world leader in metro and corporate aviation, has unveiled two new jets, the Global 7000 and Global 8000, to reaffirm its undisputed position in the large business jet category.

While the Global 7000 will have a range of 13,520 km, the Global 8000 will be able to fly a globe-girdling range of 14,631 kilometres, Bombardier said.

With these two planes, the company now has a flagship aircraft family of the large, ultra-long range with the Global 5000, Global Express XRS, Global 7000 and Global 8000 jets.

"The Global 7000 and Global 8000 jets will give our customers the ability to reach more destinations non-stop than ever before," said Steve Ridolfi, president, Bombardier Business Aircraft, unveiling the new jets at the weekend.

The Global 7000 can fly non-stop from London to Singapore, New York to Dubai or Beijing to Washington with 10 passengers. The Global 8000 can connect Sydney-Los Angeles, Hong Kong-New York and Mumbai-New York non-stop with eight passengers.

"Bombardier's commitment to innovation, ongoing investment in product development strategy and strength as the industry leader are key contributors to our overall success,'' Ridolfi said.

The new large jets will feature an all-new high-speed transonic wing, designed to optimize aerodynamic efficiency. They also will feature GE's new emission cutting TechX engine, according to Montreal-based Canadian company.

For orders for 26 aircraft, 12 got cancelled, Bombardier's aerospace division head Guy Hachey said last month. — IANS

Mumbai, October 18
Leading mortgage firm Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) today reported 21.63 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 807.54 crore for for the second quarter ended September 30, from Rs 663.94 crore during the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. The rise was cheifly led by higher loan disbursal

It also reported an increase of 4.21 per cent in its total income during the second quarter to Rs 2,970.22 crore, from Rs 2,850.23 crore in the year-ago period. HDFC reported 18.73 per cent increase in its loan book at Rs 1,06,287 crore at the end of September, compared to Rs 89,519 crore in the corresponding period of 2009-10.

During the quarter ended September 30, HDFC has allotted 53.73 lakh equity shares of Rs 2 each pursuant to conversion of foreign currency convertible bonds and exercise of stock options by its employees and directors.

During the quarter under review, the mortgage firm sub-divided shares of face value of Rs 10 to Rs 2 each with effect from August 21, 2010. The share split was in the ratio of 1:5.