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Govt to divest NTPC stake
Support SMEs, PM urges banks
States can partially acquire land for SEZs: GoM
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Apollo buys US firm for Rs 697 cr
BHEL gets 1,900-cr NTPC order
Telcos’ AGR
TVS launches bikes, three-wheelers
Greentech award for Nathpa
FM favours RIL’s gas price formula
DoT forms spectrum panel
BoA clears 20 SEZ proposals
HDFC raises $800 m REF
Oil India to go public
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New Delhi, August 30 Power Ministry, acting on a request from the state-run firm, has approached the department of disinvestment in ministry of finance for approval of a follow-on public offer (FPO) of 4.75 per cent shares, official sources said. NTPC had a few years back proposed an initial public offering (IPO) of 24 per cent. But in February 2004, the government allowed NTPC to go for an IPO of 10 per cent of its paid-up capital in one or more stages to augment resources. The company chose to go for an IPO of 5.25 per cent, leaving balance 4.75 per cent of approved IPO for later date. The IPO of 5.25 per cent was tagged with government divesting an equal shareholding. Subsequent to the offer, government shareholding in NTPC fell to 89.5 per cent from 100 per cent. While the IPO in 2004 was priced at Rs 62 to raise about Rs 5,400 crore, the company’s current share price is hovering at Rs 166. Based on this price, the government could get about Rs 6,000 crore with the new offer of around 35 crore shares. Sources said NTPC has stated that as a result of low level of free float, turnover of the shares of the company was quite low. The increase in the free float would result in increased trading in NTPC shares, the company said in its proposal. After the FPO, government shareholding in NTPC would come down to 84.75 per cent from the present level of 89.5 per cent. Sources said NTPC has stated that the visibility of the company among foreign equity investors would have a favourable impact on debt investors. This would result in reduction in the cost of borrowings to be made from the foreign markets. NTPC stated that it did not find it appropriate to increase the equity base through fresh issue as it already had the highest paid up capital among the listed companies in the country. Besides, any increase in share capital would reduce the Earning Per Share. — PTI
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Support SMEs, PM urges banks
New Delhi, August 30 Pointing that the government has announced a policy package for stepping up credit to SMEs, he hoped that the credit flow to the SME sector could be doubled within five years. The Prime Minister, who gave away national awards for micro, small and medium enterprises at a function here, also said that his government was working on a scheme to provide health insurance to the poor, besides offering life and disability cover to one earning member of each economically weaker family. The health insurance model would help the poor bear the high cost of medical care while the life and disability cover would enable them to get over the consequences of injury or death, he added. Affirming government commitment to the growth and progress of SMEs, the Prime Minister said, “ A major area of concern of our SMEs is access to affordable credit… To improve the delivery of credit, we have announced a ‘Policy package for stepping up credit to SMEs.” “We have also set up a credit guarantee fund to provide relief to those small entrepreneurs who are unable to pledge collateral security.” On nursing SMEs through risk and venture capital support, he said, “I understand that this scheme has also been able to overcome the initial inhibition of bankers and has steadily gained acceptance.” “The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council has also recognised SMEs’ globally competitive nature and has come forward with new ideas to further enhance the competitiveness of this vital sector. The fact that SMEs have done well in terms of their share of exports shows that we have a globally competitive sector,” Singh said.
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States can partially acquire land for SEZs: GoM
New Delhi, August 30 State governments can now acquire 30 per cent of the land on behalf of the project developer if the company has already taken 70 per cent of the land in possession, commerce minister Kamal Nath said after a meeting of the GoM. The decision is not specific to SEZs but would apply to all industrial projects, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said. The GoM, headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, was constituted to frame a relief and rehabilitation policy for the benefit of the people displaced by land acquisition for SEZs and industrial projects. The Centre had earlier asked states not to acquire land for the companies setting up SEZs and industries after protests. — PTI
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Apollo buys US firm for Rs 697 cr
Chennai, August 30 The fourth acquisition for Apollo Health Street and the second in the US provider space, it strengthens AHS’s position as a leading provider of outsourcing solutions to the healthcare industry, Apollo chairman Prathap C Reddy said here. While the Bank of India and Barclays Capital had agreed to lend Rs 550 crore for the acquisition, the rest would come from internal generation, he said. The acquisition would also make the combined organisation the largest healthcare BPO organisation in the country with a significant IT business, Reddy said. The company, which is setting up a back office at Chennai, would employ 400 persons initially, which would go up to 2,000, the Apollo chief added. Both AHS and Zavata have trained professionals in their service centres in the USA and India, allowing them to leverage technology, time zone differences and human expertise to deliver the right solutions to their clients, Reddy said. AHS’ acquisition of Zavata comes at a time when the US healthcare sector is looking at ways to reduce costs while improving service quality to the end consumer, AHS CEO Andrew Devoe said. — PTI
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New Delhi, August 30 Outbidding leading European equipment suppliers, BHEL received the order from NTPC-Tamil Nadu Energy Company Limited (NTECL), a joint venture between NTPC and Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). The order comes close on the heels of BHEL winning three contracts for supply and installation of seven sets of 500 MW each at Jhajjar STPS, Koderma TPS and Durgapur Steel TPS, it said in a release. Being set up under the government’s mega power project policy, the Vallur project is targeted for synchronisation during the 11th Plan and would add nearly 24 million units every day to the grid on commissioning. As per the order, BHEL’s scope of work would involve designing, engineering manufacturing, supply, erection and commissioning of steam and turbine generators, electrostatic precipitators, associated auxiliaries and controls and instrumentation system. So far, BHEL has won orders for supply and installation of 60 units of 500 MW each, of which 31 have been commissioned. — PTI
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Telcos’ AGR
New Delhi, August 30 The Tribunal, however, included income earned from telecom handsets given to subscribers bundled with their services in the AGR for the purpose of licence fee. A Bench comprising TDSAT chairman Justice Arun Kumar and member D P Sehgal passed the judgement on a petition filed by Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) challenging regulator TRAI’s recommendations to include such incomes in AGR. Under the interest income head, TDSAT categorised such income into three parts and held that income earned on investment of savings made by an operator after meeting liabilities including liability on account of share of government in the gross revenue should be excluded from AGR.
— PTI |
TVS launches bikes, three-wheelers
Hosur (Tamil Nadu), August 30 Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, TVS today said it will now give competition to Bajaj in the three-wheeler auto segment. The three-wheelers will be operating on eco-friendly fuels LPG and CNG (factory fitted) in the passenger segment with an estimated industry size of 3.6 lakh every year (domestic and exports). The company will manufacture these vehicles in two-stroke, petrol, CNG and LPG versions at its green field modern facility at Hosur, which has a capacity of 100,000 units per year. TVS has already invested Rs 125 crore for this plant. The seven products launched today, included the three-wheelers, an electric scooter, new 110 cc StaR City , new 125 cc motorcycle ‘FLAME’ and an Apache variant with fuel injection technology. It has also rolled out a new scooty ‘Teenz Electric’. An electric vehicle, with 800-watt power, it is slated to do a maximum speed of 40kph. Refusing to divulge the cost of the products, Srinivasan stated the products would be available only around Divali. He was, however, aiming at rolling out 35,000 ‘FLAME’ bikes by April. Already having invested Rs 700 crore in the past three years, TVS intends on investing around Rs 60 crore every year. “If things go well, we might invest another Rs 200 crore.” However investments in R&D would be at three per cent of sales. TVS hopes that once the production in Indonesia picks up, it will open up the markets in south-east Asia, aiming at increasing its exports to half a million in the coming year.
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Greentech award for Nathpa
Shimla, August 30 The country’s largest hydro-power project, implemented by the SJVN, had been taking steps for upgrading the environment and maintaining ecological balance in the project vicinity. The SJVN’s 412-MW Rampur project was also given the ‘Greentech Environment Excellence’ bronze award for the second time for addressing environmental aspects during construction stage, especially with regard to the laid down environment clearance guidelines. Chamera-I bags award
Dalhousie (OC): The 540-MW Chamera Power Station-I of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh has been selected for the prestigious silver award of ‘National Greentech Environment Excellence in Hydro-power Sector’ for the year 2007. |
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FM favours RIL’s gas price formula
New Delhi, August 30 Chidambaram earlier this week told the Empowered Group of Ministers (EgoM), constituted to go into the issue, that Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, after examining the price formula proposed by RIL, suggested its acceptance as it was in line with international practice and the EGoM may, therefore, consider accepting it, sources close to the development said. RIL has proposed to price natural gas from KG-D6 at $ 4.33 per million British thermal unit, a rate that power and fertiliser units feel is “too high”. Chidambaram, sources said, wanted RIL to supply natural gas to sectors, which EGoM prioritised at the approved price. Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, however, wanted gas utilisation and pricing policies to be framed before approving a price for RIL gas. Petroleum Ministry disagreed with Cabinet Secretary’s conclusion. It said the reference to gas utilisation policy in the Production Sharing Contracts signed for areas auctioned under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), was only for reservoir management and extent of gas to be used in India or abroad. Unlike crude oil discoveries, export of gas is permissible under the
Parliament- Suggesting taking opinion of Attorney General on the matter, the ministry said there was already an informal policy for allotment of gas to sectors like power and fertiliser and even RIL’s proposal was for selling the entire gas to these. Sources said oil ministry said that the price proposed by RIL would bring down fertiliser subsidy when plants using costlier liquid fuels like naphtha and fuel oil shift to gas, and the cost of generating power from KG-D6 gas would be comparable with electricity to be generated by imported coal. — PTI
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New Delhi, August 30 The committee, with members from Telecom Engineering Centre, Member (Technology) of Telecom Commission, Wireless Planning and Coordination and Indian Institute of Technology, has deliberated on a new criteria of spectrum allocation once and will meet in the near future to move ahead, official sources said today. It will soon invite members from both associations of telecom players - COAI and AUSPI - to participate in the meeting, they said. On other proposals, the officials said as they cover crucial areas, which need elaborate examination, DoT may constitute a committee each on merger and acquisition issues and on allowing the use of GSM and CDMA technologies by a single operator in the same circle. TRAI, while suggesting no cap on the number of access service providers in any service area, has proposed new criteria for spectrum allocation to new as well as existing players. It had asked the DoT to form a multi-disciplinary committee, consisting representatives from DoT or TEC, TRAI, WPC wing, COAI and AUSPI. An eminent scientist or technologist from a national level scientific institute may head the committee. The committee will look into ways suggested by the regulator to enhance the present subscriber norms as an interim measure so that the task of spectrum allocation is not stalled. TRAI has suggested a revision in the spectrum allocation criteria where it has raised the revenue share percentage and subscriber base, making it more difficult for the existing operators to get additional spectrum. In category A circle, a GSM operator will now need to have one crore subscribers to get 15 MHz of spectrum from the earlier 26 lakh. In B circles, the subscriber base of 21 lakh has also been raised to one crore while in C circles, the criterion has changed from 12 lakh to 80 lakh for 15 MHz. In all four metros, the operators now need 50 lakh users to get 15 Mhz of spectrum from the earlier 21 lakh (in Delhi and Mumbai) and 13 lakh (in Chennai and Kolkata). — PTI
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BoA clears 20 SEZ proposals
New Delhi, August 30 BoA has given formal approval to 15 SEZs and in-principle nod to seven, commerce secretary and BoA chairman GK Pillai said here. With these approvals, the total number of formally cleared SEZs now stand at 381, even as 183 proposals have been given in-principle nod. The next meeting of BoA is scheduled on September 18. BoA also gave in-principle approval to Gitanjali Gems’ for setting up a 102-hectare gems and jewellery zone and a 1,000 hectare multi-product project in Maharashtra. Proposal of AEC Marketing for a gems and jewellery zone in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Anant Raj Industries’ IT zone in Haryana were not considered as authorities in the respective regions withdrew their permissions.
— PTI |
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HDFC raises $800 m REF
Mumbai, August 30 The fund makes HDFC the largest player in the real estate private equity space in India, a company release said. One of the largest international real estate pools, the nine-year close-ended fund, that was open only to foreign investors had been privately placed and subscribed by 28 investors. “The objective of the fund is to invest in FDI compliant real estate projects in India to achieve long-term capital appreciation. The fund will target equity returns of 20-25 per cent,” HDFC Property Ventures chairperson Renu Sud Karnad said in the release. Devoid of regional or sector bias, the fund would have a conservative approach and would invest in residential, commercial, hospitality, education, healthcare and developers’ entity
level. — PTI |
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New Delhi, August 30 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved a proposal for fresh equity issue of 10 per cent of OIL’s paid up capital through an Initial Public Offer. It also approved issuing an additional one per cent to the employees of OIL, finance minister P Chidambaram said. In addition, it approved divestment of 10 per cent of OIL’s paid up capital in favour of IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. Chidambaram said the price band would be approved by an Empowered Group of Ministers on disinvestment already constituted by the government. The price of shares for IPO and oil marketing companies would be same, he said. Oil India follows other PSUs like Power Finance Corp and Power Grid Corp of India Ltd (PGCIL), which have seen partial divestment of the government's stake. While PFC was listed on the bourses earlier this year, PGCIL will hit the market next month. The government also plans to sell 4.75 per cent of its stake in another power PSU NTPC Ltd. — PTI
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BHEL bags order Wheat prices up BoB foray Parsvnath TCS bags deal Sun TV Reliance Money IVRCL projects Ma Foi HPMC tie-up |
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