New Delhi, December 4
The new Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) norms approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) yesterday would tilt the balance in favour of big telecom operators of the country and the same was visible in their shares which saw a big jump on the stocks exchanges.

The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, yesterday approved crucial changes in M&A rules for the fragmented telecom industry, raising the cap on market share of a merged entity in a circle to 50% from the earlier 35%.

The Union Cabinet is expected to meet shortly to ratify the changed rules. Under the new guidelines, an operator will be entitled to only one block of spectrum which had been allotted at an administrative price, or without an auction process.

Experts said new rules could trigger a much-needed consolidation in the country's crowded telecom sector. The merged entity would need to pay the market price for any additional bandwidth beyond that one block.

The new norms also state that the acquiring company will pay the difference between the entry fee and the auction-determined price of spectrum for spectrum beyond 4.4MHz in GSM band and 2.5MHz in CDMA band, if the spectrum was originally acquired by paying the entry fee.

The differential should be paid to the government at the time of the merger. However, no separate charges will be required to be paid for spectrum acquired through auctions conducted from 2010. This move will also benefit incumbent players such as Airtel and Vodafone who got spectrum by paying entry fee.

Analysts and operators have been saying for long that the industry can at best accommodate five to six players, compared to over 10 in some circles currently.

At present, Bharti Airtel holds 28.4% market share in the mobile space followed by Vodafone (23%), Idea Cellular (19%) and Aircel (9.3%).

The EGoM also decided that a total of 403 Mhz of spectrum be auctioned in the 1,800 Mhz band in the auctions scheduled for January. That amount of spectrum would be worth around Rs 36,000 crore, as per the price cleared at the previous EGoM meeting.

The government also decided to allow a merged entity to hold up to two blocks of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum as against one block each currently. It has also decided to retain the spectrum cap of a merged entity at 25% of total airwaves assigned for access services and 50% of the bandwidth assigned in a given band, by way of auction or otherwise, in the service area concerned.

New Delhi, December 4
The $1.1 bn follow-on-public offer (FPO) of PowerGrid Corporation was fully subscribed on the second day today. Of the 78.70 crore shares offered for sale, the total number of bids received was 78.61 crore till 1600 hrs. The number of bids at cut off price was 2.5 crore. According to data on bourses, the issue is subscribed fully.

The shares are being offered at a price band of Rs 85-90 apiece. The issue is open till December 5 for institutional buyers and till December 6 for retail buyers.

PowerGrid shares closed at Rs 95.55, up 1.92% from its previous close on the BSE.

The sale of 78.70 crore shares, or 17% stake, could fetch around Rs 7,083 crore at the upper end of the price band. The Cabinet last month cleared the FPO which will comprise 13% fresh equity by the company and 4% stake sale by the Central Government.

The government is selling 18.51 crore shares, while the company is issuing fresh 60.18 crore shares through the offer. About 2.4 per cent of fresh shares is reserved for employees.

As much as 50% of the net issue is allocated to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 35% for retail category and 15% for high network investors (HNI). — PTI

Chandigarh, December 4
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), a UK Government department working with businesses based in the UK, is scouting for fresh graduates with entrepreneurship skills to help them set up business ventures in the United Kingdom. The selected entrepreneurs will be given financial aid, visa facilitation and infrastructure to start their operations.

A team of the UKTI is looking out for young graduates who have a business idea and are willing to set up their operations in any part of that country. The team is tying up with top business schools and universities in the region to find the best entrepreneurs and help them set up business there.

Talking to The Tribune, Harveen Chugh, talent scout for UKTI, said the hunt for entrepreneurs was launched by the British government in September and they had received 548 applications from across the globe. "We have received 73 applications from India, which is 13% of the total applications received. Under the Sirius programme, where the UK government is helping the brightest business idea to take shape, the UKTI has tied up with three top business schools/universities in Punjab — Indian School of Business, Chitkara University, and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research — where we are going and scouting for talent, " she said.

Chugh said they are targeting young investors in various sectors such as agriculture, fashion technology, education technology tools, development of mobile and web applications, financial technology, clean technology waste management et al.

In all, the top 30 business ideas from across the world will be selected and each selected entrepreneur will get visa facilitation, financial support of 12,000 GBP per person (for a maximum of 4 persons in a team) besides the facility to use the accelerators (incubation centres) which will provide infrastructure for setting up operations and acquainting the entrepreneurs with legal and financial framework of doing business in the UK. She said while they were initially targeting the BRIC countries, they were equally focused on getting entrepreneurs from the Middle-East, South Asia, the USA, and African countries.

New York, December 4
Technology giant Microsoft has raised about $8 billion by selling securities and the proceeds would be utilised for funding acquisitions, among others.

The fund raising exercise comes at a time when Microsoft is in the process of acquiring the devices and services businesses of Finnish handset maker Nokia in a deal worth $7.2 billion.

The total amount includes bonds denominated in dollars as well as euros. — PTI

Chennai, December 4
Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland has offered Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for 500 senior officials as on November 30, a top official said today.

"Roughly 500 executives were offered VRS on November 30, representing about 10% of the executives...," Ashok Leyland MD Vinod K Dasari told reporters here, on the sidelines of the conference SIMCOMVEC — the eighth edition of SAEIndia International Mobility Conference and first Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress.

The commercial vehicle major, last month announced the VRS scheme for its employees as part of the plans to cut manpower costs in the wake of continued slowdown.

"While the company maintained market share in the last quarter, volume pressures continue and we need to take some definite steps to manage the slowdown. The VRS package will be fair and would provide adequate compensation to any employee who opts for it", Dasari had said earlier. — PTI

Beijing, December 4
Making a strong pitch for investments from China, Haryana today offered large tracts of land for setting up a Chinese Industrial Park in the state with comprehensive facilities.

A high-level official delegation from Haryana, headed by S S Dhillon, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, held a seminar at the 5th China Overseas Investment Fair here offering land, power and other necessary infrastructure for the Chinese to build a comprehensive industrial Park. — PTI

New Delhi, December 4
Much against the general notion that Indian firms were investing more abroad because of the policy paralysis at home, a study says that net outward foreign investment by Indians declined sharply in the first half of 2013-14, as compared to the same period of the last fiscal.

"This makes the argument of some sceptics fall flat on its head since it was being contended that Indian firms were investing abroad because of the policy paralysis at home," an Assocham study said.

Net foreign investment by India to the rest of the world stood at $952 million in the first half of the current fiscal, which is far less than $3.4 billion in the same period last year, the study said.

On the other hand, between April-September of 2013-14, the money repatriated home by Indian businesses was much higher at $3.23 billion than $2.29 billion in the comparable period of the previous fiscal, as per official data.

"The numbers clearly show how the bogey raised by some people that fresh investment was going outside the country is without any foundation... On the contrary, investments have declined both in the domestic economy and the international markets," Assocham president Rana Kapoor said.

Moreover, portfolio investment outflows by Indians were negative to the extent of $191 million in the first half of FY 2013-14, which implies that domestic investors pulled back money from the overseas markets, against a positive portfolio investment of $581 million in the same period last fiscal.

The net FDI by Indians globally in 2012-13 was robust at $7.13 billion. However, going by the H1 trends, the money going abroad as FDI could exceed $2 billion, the study said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Honda Cars to hike prices of all models from January
New Delhi: Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) is looking to hike prices of its entire product range in the country from the first week of January as it aims to partially offset the effects of adverse exchange rate and inflation. "The price hike will be across our entire model range comprising Amaze, Brio, CR-V and Accord," HCIL senior vice-president Jnaneshwar Sen said. — PTI

Vodafone contests Matrix Cellular’s allegations
New Delhi: Vodafone has contested allegations levelled on it by SIM card provider Matrix Cellular that the telecom major misrepresented facts in SIM renting case of 2007 in which DoT and Intelligence Bureau found various irregularities. In 2007, DoT had found involvement of Vodafone, Airtel and Idea in a case where the three had sold bulk connections to third parties who in turn were selling those SIMs to retail subscribers and in the process flouted rules. — PTI

‘India to be largest source of oil demand after 2020’
New Delhi: India will become the largest single source of global oil demand growth after 2020, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. Paris-based IEA in its annual World Energy Outlook said the centre of gravity of energy demand is switching decisively in favour of emerging economies, particularly China, India and the Middle-East. — PTI

Private sector output dips for 5th month: HSBC
New Delhi: India's services sector activity witnessed a moderate improvement in November over October, even while indicating the fifth successive monthly contraction, an HSBC survey said on Wednesday. The HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers Index for the services industry inched up to 47.2 in November from 47.1 in October, the fifth sub-50 reading and indicated an output contraction across the Indian service economy. — PTI