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Mukesh Ambani unveils big retail plans
Lhoist Belgium plans Rs 1,100-cr venture in India
SAIL to set up unit with Jaiprakash Associates
US co to set up jv in Bengal
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RIL invited to install ethanol unit in Punjab
GM unveils Tavera Neo
Three consultants shortlisted for
AI-Indian merger
Jet to move SC
Sardulpur village proud of
Mittal
Buffett donates $37.4 b to MS foundation
DVD players new rage
Package for small units on cards
SEBI guidelines for real estate mutual funds
CORPORATE RESULTS
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Mukesh Ambani unveils big retail plans
Mumbai, June 27 Addressing the company's first annual general meeting here today after he split with brother Anil Ambani, the RIL boss said organised retailing would be the "next big idea" for the company. Mr Ambani said RIL would generate a million jobs in the organised retail sector across the country. RIL is setting up a separate company, Reliance Retail Ltd, with investments between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 14,000 crore in retail and agri businesses. "Reliance is committed to making as much investments as necessary as retail business gains momentum," Mr Ambani added. RIL's retail venture would be into agriculture products and grocery, consumer durables, apparel, footwear and farm implements and would eventually require investments to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore, according to Ambani. He also mentioned that RIL's retail venture would have a presence in services, particularly travel. "Organised retail will have a profound impact and it will be a path-breaking initiative to touch the lives of rural people, who are yet to be touched by economic development the country is witnessing," Mr Ambani said. RIL's retail formats would be a mixture of neighbourhood convenience stores, supermarkets and speciality stores. The past year had seen RIL's profitability double from $1 billion to $2 billion, Mr Ambani said. He went on to state that the demerger of the Reliance group resulted in the unlocking of shareholder values. Jamnagar biggest refinery
Mr Ambani said capacity addition at RIL's facilities at Jamnagar would result in the largest refinery in the world with a capacity to process 1.24 million barrels of crude per day. The refinery would be built at a capital cost that will be lowest, and will produce high-quality ultra clean transportation fuel. About 100,000 workers are engaged in building the refinery which would start production by December 2008 making it one of the fastest executions of a refinery in the world.'' Mr Ambani added that RIL would continue its integration in petroleum retailing. The company, he said, had created 1,218 retailing outlets so far across the country. New investments
Ambani said RIL would invest Rs 1,20,000 crore in new businesses. This included Rs 70,000-80,000 crore for the SEZs in Haryana, Jamnagar and Navi Mumbai, and Rs 10,000-14,000 crore in retail and agri businesses. According to Mr Ambani, RIL would add capacities to the tune of 900,000 tonnes per year in the manufacture of polypropylene. This would be done by 2008 under the banner of Reliance Petroleum Ltd. Reliance would then become the fourth largest producer of polypropylene in the world. Mr Ambani said RPL had expanded the capacity of the polypropylene plant at Jamnagar by 280,000 tonnes in April. Strikes oil in KG basin Mr Ambani announced at the AGM the discovery of oil in RIL's wells in the Krishna Godavari basin. 'Reliance has discovered oil in its exploration block in the Krishna-Godavari basin off India's east coast where the company has already found the country's largest gas field,' Mr Ambani said. He, however, said the full potential of the oil discovery was still being evaluated. According to Ambani there was immense potential for future oil and gas discoveries as well. Mr Ambani added that the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons had declared six gas discoveries in NEC 25 block of the Mahanadi basin as commercial. Reliance was on the way to begin the monetisation of the discoveries made in 2002 in D6 block in the K-G basin, Mr Ambani said. "This entails implementing one of the largest deep water gas development projects in the world. It also involves transporation of gas through a 48-inch 1,400-km-long east coast to west coast pipeline, traversing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat," he said. The pipeline
project will be implemented through Reliance Gas Transporation Infrastructure Ltd
(RGTIL). Mr Ambani said RIL would have control over the pipeline but without any obligation to invest in the equity of
RGTIL. Mr Ambani added that RIL's tie-up with Chevron for supply of crude oil would deepen into collaboration in other areas as well. Chevron is investing $300 million for a 5 per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum Ltd., a Reliance subsidiary building the new refinery. The US company has an option to increase its stake to 29 per cent. ``The Chevron relationship is a forerunner to the emergence of Reliance as a significant global player in the energy sector,'' Mr Ambani said. While the Chevron alliance helps secure crude oil supplies for the new refinery, Mr Ambani said the company would also continue to aggressively pursue exploration and drilling operations. |
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Lhoist Belgium plans Rs 1,100-cr venture in India
Kolkata, June 27 "Lhoist has decided to set up a lime-manufacturing unit in Orissa, suitable for the steel industry with an investment of Rs 1,100 crore," Additional Secretary, Orissa Department of Industries, Mr D.P. Mohapatra said. "The MoU has already been signed with the company and they will tap the lime reserves of Rigarha and Soundergarh region of the state," Orissa Director of Industries Hemant Sharma said. The project would be located at Paradip and the company was betting on the announcement of several steel projects in Orissa like Korean major Posco, Tata Steel, and Jindal Steel, to name a few. Lhoist, a privately held 1.8-billion euro Belgian major specialises in the extraction and transformation of lime and dolmite and will produce metallurgy grade lime for the Indian steel sector. Orissa has signed 45 MoUs, out of which 43 were in steel and two in aluminium sector. Total investment proposed from the new projects would be Rs 1,70,000 crore, Mr Sharma said. — PTI
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SAIL to set up unit with Jaiprakash Associates Mumbai, June 27 Informing the BSE, the company said it had identified JAL as the strategic partner for setting up 2 million tonnes per annum slag-based cement plant at its Bhilai Steel Plant. A letter of intent in this regard is being issued to JAL today, the company said. The proposed cement plant would use slag generated at the blast furnace of its integrated steel plant at Bhilai. Further, the lime stone would be made available to the joint venture company from the lime stone mine of SAIL at Satna in Madhya Pradesh. — UNI
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Kolkata, June 27 Chairman of California-based Nano Technical Industries Limited Richard D Siminski told newsmen after his meeting with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here today that in order to set up a battery and allied product unit under a joint venture with an Indian partner he had sought about three acres of land from the state administration. “We have already visited a number of sites in south Bengal and selected land at Sankrail in neighbouring Howrah district for the proposed plant, “ Mr Siminski said ,adding that he had also apprised the Chief Minister of the proposal in detail and Mr Bhattacherjee had promised full cooperation. Mr Siminski also said since the proposed plant would be an 100 per cent export-oriented unit, the entire production would be meant for export to China and Japan. Incidentally, Chairman of the cigarette major ITC Limtied Y.C. Deveswar called on Mr Bhattacharjee last evening and promised to invest Rs 1,000 crore in a number of new projects, including those in Agro-processing, information technology, logistics, hotel and retail units, within the next two years. He had also sought about 70 acres of land from the state government for his expansion programme. — UNI
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RIL invited to install ethanol unit in Punjab
Chandigarh, June 27 The Commission has stated that enough raw material in form of maize is available in Punjab to prepare ethanol.
— TNS |
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GM unveils Tavera Neo
New Delhi, June 27 Customers now have an option of 7-seater captain seats with leather upholstery on the top end fully-loaded variant. The Neo range starts at a price of Rs 7.26 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
— TNS |
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Three consultants shortlisted for
AI-Indian merger
New Delhi, June 27 The shortlisted consortia are Accenture with Ambit Corporate Finance; ICICI Securities in association with Deloitte Touche Dohmatsu, N M Rothschild, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and M V Kini; and JM Morgan Stanley and AT Kearney with Amarchand Mangaldas. The three parties would be given the detailed terms of reference to enable them to submit their final technical and financial bids, the sources said. The Board sub-committee would meet again in the second week of July to consider these bids and take a final decision on the appointment.—
PTI |
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Jet to move SC
New Delhi, June 27 As both carriers are now locked in a bitter legal battle at Mumbai and Lucknow courts, Jet said it was also filing a transfer petition before the Supreme Court. The share purchase agreement between Jet and Sahara expired on June 21. Jet said the pact was based on some permissions from the government and certain policies relating to mergers and acquisitions relating to airlines being in place.
— UNI |
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Sardulpur village proud of
Mittal
Churu, June 27 Natives of Churu say they are proud of Mittal for becoming the largest producer of steel in the world. They hailed Mittal's tenacity in overcoming the difficulties to acquire Arcelor and emerge triumphant ultimately. Mr Mittal was born in Sardulpur on June 15, 1950. His maternal uncle, Mr Shankar Lal Pansari, who resides in Sardulpur, is happy over his nephew's achievement. Mittal's maternal cousin Ramavtar Pansari said his family takes pride in being related to Mittal. Mittal's father Mohan Lal Mittal and mother used to stay in Rangoon where they had a flourishing business, but as violence erupted they came to Sardulpur in 1949. Mittal was born the following year.
— UNI |
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Buffett donates $37.4 b to MS foundation
New York, June 27 “I am not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth,” is how the 75-year-old billionaire investor put it, explaining to reporters yesterday his decision to give away the staggering amount to charity instead of family. Standing with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Melinda Gates to whose foundation Buffett is giving away most of his wealth, he said, “This has been coming for 50 years.” ‘‘There is never really any other plan in terms of where the money should go’’, he said. Buffett and Gates together account for roughly $ 100 billion (US) and are the richest men in the world. Buffett is estimated to be worth $ 44 billion. Of the $ 37.4 billion worth of stocks of Berkshire Hathaway, he plans to give to charities; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will get $ 31 billion to fund its programmes improving education and health in poor nations. The charities run by his three children and one named after his deceased wife will receive a total of $ 6.4 billion. The donation is said to be largest in the United States history which dwarfs the charitable grants of John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carengie.
— PTI |
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DVD players new rage
New Delhi, June 27 “With the changing trends in viewers’ entertainment and growing incomes, the market for DVD players has crossed 5 lakh units a month. “The fall in prices and added features have also fuelled the growth of these gadgets,” said Mr Ajay Mehta, Managing Director, MCC Group. Although the local manufacturers still control the market, but major players like LG, Samsung, Onida and Videocon are bringing down the prices and strengthening their market network. Since the latest movies, music albums are available in MP3 for Rs 40-50, more and more people find it convenient to watch them through DVD players, said a dealer in Palika Bazar. The MCC Group, which is so far marketing camcorders, plasma TVs of JVC, is also foraying into DVD players under its own brand by importing them from Taiwan, China and Malaysia. The company is bringing two new models with added features. “We are launching two models of MCC DVD players — Sporty & Turbo Pix. The Sporty model with a price tag of Rs 3,090 would be available with a 5.1 channel, 2 joysticks and an in-built software for 300 games. Turbo pix will be the country’s first DVD player with an in-built memory card slot which will enable viewing of still pictures on one’s TV, with a price tag of Rs 3,790,” said Mr Mehta. Industry estimates that DVD players’ market is growing at a rate of 18-20 per cent annually, showing the highest growth in consumer durables segment. In the grey market, the DVD players are available between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500. Mr Anoop Kumar, president, Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association said: “The government can further help expand the market by bringing down taxes to zero level, considering that DVDs are used like other IT products and Indian industry has to compete with Chinese and Thailand manufacturers.” According to Mr Ravinder Zutsi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung Electronics, “The company is focusing on sale of DVD players and TV sets in the semi-urban towns and rural market.” Mr Mehta said, “ We are witnessing a high demand for DVDs in the northern market, especially in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi”.
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Package for small units on cards
Ludhiana, June 27 Mr Gupta said implementation of the package was likely to be done this year itself. "It would redress most of the problems that this sector is facing," he told The Tribune. While asserting that government's schemes like technological upgradation fund (TUF) had helped SMEs considerably, he said the government endeavored to promote and assist this segment through various schemes. Refuting a section of industry's claims that a large number of small units had closed down, Mr Dasgupta said the statement was merely an exaggeration. "There is no considerable evidence to prove that small units are closing. The fact is that their number has grown significantly. The latest census data proves it and currently there are over 1.25 million such enterprises across the country." On whether the department was taking any measures towards assuring sufficient finance availability to small-scale sector through banks, he said even private sector banks were likely to enter the arena soon. He also said the Micro and SME Development Bill, 2005, that would be notified soon would give a fillip to the small and micro enterprises by strengthening provision of delayed payment, procurement preferences and by establishing statutory board with large representation from these enterprises.
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SEBI guidelines for real estate mutual funds
Mumbai, June 27 At its meeting here, SEBI also announced changes in the venture capital fund lock-in period for IPOs. The market regulator has defined a real estate mutual fund scheme as a scheme of a mutual fund which has the investment objective to invest directly or indirectly in real estate property and shall be governed by the provisions and guidelines under SEBI (Mutual Funds) regulations. The structure of the REMFs, initially, shall be close ended. The units of REMFs shall be compulsorily listed on the stock exchanges and the NAV of the scheme shall be declared daily. The REMFs shall appoint a custodian who has been granted a certificate of registration to carry on the business of custodian of securities by the Board. The custodian shall safeguard the title of real estate properties held by the REMFs. These schemes can invest, including directly in real estate properties within India, mortgage (housing lease) backed by securities, equity shares/bonds/debentures of listed/unlisted companies which deal in properties and also undertake property development and in other securities, SEBI said. SEBI also decided to exempt shareholding of venture capital funds and foreign venture capital investors held in a company prior to making an initial public offering from lock-in requirements only if the shares are held by them for a period of at least one year at the time of filing of draft prospectus with SEBI. — PTI
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CORPORATE RESULTS
Mumbai, June 27 The total income (net of excise) of the company grew 12.68 per cent to Rs 396.91 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2006, from Rs 352.23 crore in the corresponding quarter 2004-05, the company informed the BSE. The Board of Directors recommended a dividend of (22.50 per cent) Rs 2.25 on shares of Rs 10 each, it added. For the year ended March 31, 2006, the company posted a net profit of Rs 125.76 crore as compared to Rs 86.87 crore a year ago and the total income (net of excise) increased to Rs 1,228.61 crore for the financial year 2005-06 from Rs 1,157.94 crore in 2004-05. Birla Corporation Limited is the flagship company of the M.P. Birla group and deals with manufacturing of cement, jute, autotrim products, vinoleum, carbide and gases, textiles. Ballarpur Industries Ballarpur Industries Ltd said today it would raise Rs 6.90 crore through the allotment of over 8 lakh equity shares upon conversion of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) to a Netherlands-based foreign institutional investor. The committee of Directors at its meeting today approved the allotment of 8,00,638 equity shares of Rs 10 each upon conversion of FCCBs worth $1.5 million at a conversion price of Rs 86.20 to Nederlandse Financierings Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden NV (FMO), Ballarpur informed the BSE.
— PTI
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