New Delhi, May 9
The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL challenging the $8.48-billion deal reached between Cairn Energy India Ltd (CEIL), a subsidiary of UK-based Cairn Energy, and the UK-based Vedanta Group on June 16, 2010.

Rejecting the views of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) against the deal, a Bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra noted that the CAG had wrongly assumed that any oil and gas exploration carried out beyond seven years was not covered under the production-sharing contract (PSC).

The PSC was signed in May 1995 by the Centre, Shell India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for exploration and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas. Shell failed to make any commercial discovery even after investing $9 million and gradually sold its entire stake (70 per cent participating interest) to CEIL between 1999 and 2003. Subsequently, CEIL also sold its stake to Vedanta.

The PIL had questioned the logic behind ONGC’s failure to exercise its legal rights under the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) for purchasing CEIL’s stake and the Centre’s approval to the Cairn-Vedanta deal.

“We notice that the ONGC’s decision not to exercise its RoFR was taken after an elaborate and due deliberations. The report of SBI Caps, after making a detailed financial analysis also supported the decision taken by the ONGC,” the Bench said.

“We notice that ONGC and the Government of India have considered various commercial and technical aspects flowing from the PSC and also its advantages that ONGC would derive if the Cairn and Vedanta deal was approved,” it said.

The SC “cannot sit in judgment over the commercial or business decision taken by parties to the agreement, after evaluating and assessing its monetary and financial implications unless the decision is in clear violation of any statutory provisions or perverse or for extraneous considerations or improper motives,” the judges maintained.

The apex court pointed out that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had given its approval on June 30, 2011, to CEIL for selling its Indian unit to Vedanta subject to the new owner agreeing to share royalty and pay oil cess on mainstay Rajasthan oilfields.

Further, the Union Cabinet gave its final approval on January 24, 2012, to the mining group Vedanta Resources Plc’s acquisition of a majority stake in CEIL for $8.48 billion. “It was noticed that Cairn and Vedanta had complied with all the pre-conditions stipulated by the GOI and ONGC and the transaction between them stood concluded.” 

DEAL DYNAMICS

The CAG had wrongly assumed that any oil and gas exploration carried out beyond seven years was not covered under the production-sharing contract (PSC)

The PSC was signed in May 1995 by the Centre, Shell India and ONGC for exploration of crude oil and natural gas

Shell failed to make any commercial discovery even after investing $9 million and gradually sold its entire stake (70%) to Cairn between 1999 and 2003

Subsequently, Cairn Energy also sold its stake to Vedanta

The PIL had questioned the logic behind ONGC’s failure to exercise its legal rights under the RoFR for buying Cairn’s stake and the Centre’s approval for the deal

New Delhi, May 9
State-run Punjab National Bank today reported a decline of 20.5 per cent in its net profit for the last quarter ended March 31, 2013 at Rs 1,131 crore on account of higher provisioning towards bad loans.

The bank's net profit during the same quarter in the previous fiscal stood at Rs 1,424 crore.

"Reduction in the net profit is on account of increase in the provision what we made from Rs 5,730 crore to Rs 6,161 crore (in 2012-13).

"...break up for the full year, last year (2011-12) we had provision of Rs 2,403 for NPAs, this year (2012-13) we made provision of Rs 3,330 crore. Now this is the reason why the net profit is less compared with the last year," chairman and managing director KR Kamath told reporters here.

During January-March, the total income of the bank grew by 5.5 per cent from a year ago to Rs 11,554 crore on account of 7.2 per cent growth in interest income, the chairman-cum-managing director said. — PTI

New Delhi, May 9
General Motors India today launched its multi-purpose vehicle Enjoy at an introductory price between Rs 5.49 lakh and Rs 7.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The vehicle will compete with Maruti Suzuki India's Ertiga, which is priced between Rs 5.98 lakh and Rs 8.7 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The Enjoy is available in both petrol and diesel options.

The petrol version is powered by a 1.4 litre engine and the price ranges from Rs 5.49 lakh and Rs 6.99 lakh.

The diesel variant has a 1.3 litre engine tagged at Rs 6.69 lakh and Rs 7.99 lakh. The vehicle will have 7-seater and 8-seater options.

"The Enjoy will compete in one of the fastest growing segments in India. We expect that this model will be a success considering its attributes and pricing," GM India president and managing director Lowell Paddock said.

The vehicle has been re-engineered and re-designed to meet Indian conditions, he added. — PTI

New Delhi, May 9
Snapping a two-day losing trend, gold prices recovered sharply by Rs 285 to Rs 27,850 per 10 gm in the national capital today on emergence of stockists buying for the wedding season amid a firm global trend.

Silver also advanced by Rs 300 to Rs 46,000 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said emergence of buying by stockists and retailers to meet the ongoing wedding season demand amid a firm trend in overseas markets mainly led a recovery in gold prices.

Gold in New York, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front here, shot up by $21.80 to $1474.40 an ounce last night.

On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity rebounded by Rs 285 each to Rs 27,850 and Rs 27,650 per 10 gm, respectively. — PTI 

New Delhi, May 9
A perusal of the latest annual report of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited for 2012-13 provides a peek into the huge opportunity and numbers that India’s consumption story may offer for organised retail.

The retail business of RIL, Reliance Retail, which has several formats, crossed Rs 10,000 crore in revenue for 2012-13 by growing at 42 per cent over last year and achieved cash break-even.

Projecting the growth of the Indian retail sector, the RIL annual report says it is expected to continue its growth trajectory. Organised retailing is expected to grow at a faster rate thereby garnering a larger share of the market from the current 8 per cent to around 20 per cent by 2020 due to the changing consumer preferences and other growth drivers of organised retail in the country.

Some of the facts about the size of Indian consumption and the market provide an opportunity for organised retail in future. The apparel market accounts for 8 per cent of India’s consumption expenditure at around Rs 2 lakh crore and is expected to grow four-fold over the next decade while the footwear industry is estimated to be about Rs 25,000 crore and growing at 13 per cent annually.

Consumer durables, IT and Telecom (CDIT) market is one of the largest categories of consumption in India. The market has been historically operated through the traditional channel that occupies nearly 85 per cent of the trade.

The CDIT market in India is estimated at Rs 1.19 lakh crore in 2012. The current market is growing at over 10 per cent and is expected to touch Rs 2.15 lakh crore by 2016 (excluding services). The format sectors collectively witnessed a two-year CAGR of 33% in revenue. By each format sector, the two-year CAGR was as follows - value formats and others at 19%, digital at 76%, fashion and lifestyle at 45%, jewellery at 57% and brands at 82%.

During the last financial year, the company added 184 stores across format sectors and now operates a total of 1,466 stores spanning 129 cities across India.

New Delhi, May 9
Reliance Industries' telecom arm has finalised key agreements with technology partners and device manufacturers as it gets ready to launch the ambitious 4G services.

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL), a subsidiary of RIL, will provide "reliable fast Internet connectivity on pan-India basis".

Without giving time frame for the launch, Ambani in the company's Annual Report for 2012-13 said RJIL, formerly Infotel Broadband Services Ltd, has finished the planning for the infrastructure requirement for the pan-Indian project.— PTI

Chandigarh, May 9
By offering home loans at the lowest rate of 9.95 per cent interest, the SBI has virtually captured the home loan market in the country, especially after the RBI cut charges for shifting of loan from other banks, said Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman, SBI, while addressing a press conference here today.

With 9.95 per cent interest for loans up to Rs 30 lakh and 10.10 per cent for loans above Rs 30 lakh, the bank is witnessing a growth of 25 to 30 per cent annually. Replying to a question on possibility of interest rates going down for home loans, Chaudhuri said, “Our loan is like the Big Bazaar in financial sector. Don’t expect more cut, at least for the moment”.

He said at least 25 per cent of the home loan transactions comprised taking over of loans from other banks.

Talking about the financial results of the bank, likely to be declared by May 22, he said, “The bank’s deposits had witnessed a growth of about 15 per cent last year. As many as 780 new branches were opened across the country. The bank employed 20,000 employees at the junior level, at least 1,000 at the senior level and as many as 500 specialists, including legal experts, during the past one year”.

The bank is also the biggest handler of car loans in the country. “We do have the problem of non-performing assets (NPA) worth approximately Rs 53,000 crore. However, the margin has slightly reduced from Rs 51,000 crore”, he said.

Meanwhile, he presented a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the chairman of Panjab University Business School for the construction of a state- of-the-art auditorium. Chaudhuri did his MBA from the UBS. He also handed over keys of a school bus to Promila Chandra Mohan, honorary secretary of the Society for Rehabilitation of Mentally Challenged, and ambulances to Father LD Phonce, Don Bosco Navjeewan Society, and Dr Jai Dev, chairman of Rotary Cancer Detection and Welfare Society, Ambala. 

New Delhi, May 9
Expanding its low-cost smartphone series, Nokia today globally launched Asha 501 touchscreen model which will be available in the market by June at around $99 excluding taxes. "We will deliver Asha 501 in June to millions of people," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told reporters here.

Asha 501 is the first device to run on the new Asha platform and the company chose India to launch the device globally.

The device comes with Nokia Xpress Browser pre-loaded, which compresses Internet data by up to 90 per cent. The device, which is available in single and dual SIM models, comes with WiFi and bluetooth. It can give 17 hours of talk time and 48 days of standby time. — PTI