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Land ceiling for SEZs may go
SEBI eases norms for bond issue
India may miss export target, says Pillai
Telecom Tangle
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Re rise emboldens India Inc for overseas buyouts
M&M to set up engg college at Chandigarh
India vs Pak for Citigroup CEO?
RINL to sell 25 pc govt equity
ABB to pump in $100 m
Asian Paints’ plan
Total IT Solutions to dilute stake
Emerson targets Rs 4,000-cr turnover
SBoP staff observe stir
Intelenet buys Mauritian SPV
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Land ceiling for SEZs may go
New Delhi, December 3 “Now that the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy is in place, the government may think of relaxing the ceiling on the size of SEZs,” commerce and industry secretary G K Pillai said at the India Economic Summit here, jointly organised by World Economic Forum and the CII. “It’s not that all of them are wanting the sizes to be increased. There are just 3 to 4 cases that are requesting for a higher limit,” Pillai told newspersons later on the sidelines of the Summit. Pointing out that no formal decision has been taken as yet on this, Pillai said it was up to the government to decide whether this relaxation will be done on a case-by-case basis or a specific policy in this regard is enacted. Out of the total number of SEZs that have been formally approved (472), only 34 are multi-product, he added. Earlier this year, faced with large scale violence and protest against acquisition of land for SEZs, the Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, had recommended a cap of 5,000 hectares on the size of SEZs. It had also asked the state governments not to intervene in any manner in land acquisition proceedings. Under the new R and R policy, apart from higher compensation the attempt on the part of the government would be to make the displaced population partners in the companies that are set up.
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SEBI eases norms for bond issue
Mumbai, December 3 The market regulator has relaxed certain requirements enlisted in the (Disclosure and Investor Protection) Guidelines 2000, for the issue of bonds by corporates in the country. The requirement for corporates to obtain credit ratings from two agencies has been relaxed to one credit agency. This relaxation would reduce the cost of issuance of debt instruments, SEBI said. It has also decided to allow issue of bonds even which are below the investment grade. In a disclosure based regime, it should be left to the investor to decide whether or not to invest in a non-investment grade debt instrument, SEBI added. The regulator has also decided on removal of structural restrictions currently placed on debt instruments such as those on maturity, put or call option on conversion among others. A move which would help the issuers to structure the instruments to suit their requirements making the process flexible for them, it said. — PTI
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India may miss export target, says Pillai
New Delhi, December 3 “We may at best reach $140-145 billion for the current (financial) year. We are also worried about employment-intensive sectors where job losses are taking place,” Pillai told newspersons on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here. Due to an appreciating rupee, which has appreciated by almost 15 per cent in the past one year, export sectors, especially of textiles, leather, handicrafts and marine products, are facing job losses. “In the textile sector, exports have come down by 22 per cent, handicrafts declined by 66 per cent, leather by 9 per cent and marine products by 20 per cent,” Pillai said adding the commerce ministry has submitted a paper to the ministry of finance for providing sops to exporters in these sectors. He also pointed out that almost 30,000 regular employees and 100,000 contract labourers have been laid-off in the exports sector. Meanwhile, according to the year-on-year data on exports released by the government, India’s exports grew in October at the fastest pace in 15 months. Exports in the first seven months of the current fiscal ending October 31 rose 21 per cent to $85.6 billion, while imports rose 25.31 per cent to $130 billion in the period, widening the trade deficit to $44.4 billion from $32.9 billion a year earlier. During April-October 2006, exports was $70.79 billion and imports were $103.74 billion. Oil imports during October 2007 were valued at $6.13 billion, which was 14.59 per cent higher than oil imports valued at $5.35 billion in the corresponding period last year.
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Telecom Tangle
New Delhi, December 3 "No peace formula has been proposed to us by the government on spectrum issue," Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal today told reporters after the meeting. According to sources, Mathur asked the leading service providers to find a solution only in the short term on a provisional basis and urged them to accept telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation on enhanced subscriber-linked criteria for additional airwaves. It is pertinent to mention that the GSM operators' lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has challenged the TRAI recommendations and this may stop them from accepting it as an interim solution. In a significant development, some of the GSM players like Aircel and Spice Telecom today met the secretary separately from the COAI, thereby indicating a clear divide in a powerful lobby at one time. — PTI
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Re rise emboldens India Inc for overseas buyouts
New Delhi, December 3 Business heads of three leading Indian firms from as many sectors — automaker Mahindra and Mahindra, consumer goods major Godrej and biotechnology firm Biocon — today said they were looking at acquisitions in overseas markets as the rupee appreciation had made such plans a good-value proposition. "With the rupee appreciating, you are going to be able to acquire companies," Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw told reporters here on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. Biocon is looking to buy companies in the US, Europe and emerging markets and this could happen by the end of this fiscal, she said. "Rising rupee is a good time to go and acquire companies abroad," Godrej group CMD Adi Godrej said at the same summit. "We are looking at emerging markets like Latin America, South Africa and China," Godrej said, adding that the acquisition would be in the range of $500 million. An acquisition of this size would cost today less than Rs 2,000 crore in the Indian currency, but would have been higher by 10-15 per cent as of last year. Rupee is currently trading at around 39.80 to a dollar, representing a surge of about 14 per cent in a year. Automotive major M&M's vice chairman and MD Anand Mahindra also said the company was planning to acquire companies in overseas markets as the rupee's rise against the dollar had cut down the cost of overseas acquisitions. In the past one year, there has been a spurt in overseas acquisitions by Indian companies, including Tata Steel's $12.1 billion takeover of world's sixth-largest steelmaker Corus, even though the Anglo-Dutch firm was much larger in size compared to India's largest private sector steel firm. Besides, companies like Hindalco Industries and Suzlon Energy have also made substantially large acquisitions this year. Rupee appreciation is believed to have led to a significant reduction in the overall acquisition costs for the cross-border deals made in the recent months. However, this trend in the currency market is not auguring well for exports from the country.— PTI
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M&M to set up engg college at Chandigarh
New Delhi, December 3 "We will start five campuses of Mahindra College of Engineering. The first one in Chandigarh is expected to begin session by the next academic year in June," M&M vice-chairman Anand Mahindra told PTI on the sidelines of India Economic Summit here. Besides Chandigarh, the group has identified land in Goa and Maharashtra for two campuses, while locations for another two were still under study. "On a full scale, we are looking at having around 5,000 students in each campus...and in the long term the plan outlay for this entire project will be about Rs 250 crore," Mahindra added. He said each campus will have speciality in different disciplines and the intention was to tackle shortage of skilled manpower, not only for the group but also for the overall industrial sector in the country. "The students will be guaranteed absorption in the group, but we will be more than happy if other companies were to poach our students," he said. — PTI
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India vs Pak for Citigroup CEO?
New York, December 3 The list of contenders for this job include Vikram S Pandit, currently Citigroup's investment banking head and a former Morgan Stanley investment banker, and Shaukat Aziz, formerly the bank's global private banking business head and most recently the prime minister of Pakistan, according to various media reports. According to a report in the New York Times this weekend, Citigroup board expects to name a new CEO next week and Pandit's name has emerged as a favourite, although no clear choice has emerged so far. Meanwhile, reports have been surfacing in the US and international media that Aziz, who resigned as Pakistan's Prime Minister last month, could also be a potential candidate and has already sent his feelers to Citigroup board. Queries sent by PTI on the candidature of Pandit and Aziz to Citigroup spokesperson Christina Pretto remained unanswered. The CEO position fell vacant after Charles Prince resigned as Citigroup's chairman and CEO at an emergency board meet on November 4 on the back of losses worth billions of dollars suffered by Citigroup in the subprime crisis. After Prince's departure, Citigroup named its Europe chairman Win Bischoff as an acting CEO and its executive committee chairman and former US treasury secretary Robert E Rubin as chairman on interim basis. Rubin is also part of a search committee for the new chairman and CEO and this committee has been reviewing candidates from both inside and outside the bank. — PTI
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RINL to sell 25 pc govt equity
New Delhi, December 3 "In response to a proposal of the finance ministry asking us to consider offloading some stake, the RINL Board has okayed (sale of) 25 per cent stake in the company, of which 5 per cent would go to the employees and the remaining 20 per cent to the public," RINL chairman and managing director P K Bishnoi told PTI. Steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan had earlier categorically opposed any dilution of stake in any of his ministry's PSU. When asked, a top steel ministry official confirmed that the ministry has received the RINL Board's approval to this effect. According to sources, offloading of stake would fetch nearly Rs 4,000 crore to the government. The company had reported a net profit of about Rs 1,350 crore last fiscal and the equity capital of the company is around Rs 5,000 crore. Steel ministry sources said around 10 per cent of the government equity could be diluted at the first instance and 15 per cent thereafter.
— PTI |
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Bangalore, December 3 Talking to newspersons here, group chairman Hubertus Von Grunberg said ABB India had played an important role in strengthening the ABB's global footprint and India, as one of the fastest growing economy, was a key focus area. The company aimed to increase its human resource base to 10,000 by 2010 from the current strength of 6,000. — UNI
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New Delhi, December 3 "We have acquired 130 acres of land at Rohtak and would initially invest Rs 300 crore to set up a greenfield manufacturing unit there," Asian Paints' corporate relations chief manager Rajeev Batra said on the sidelines of India Economic Summit here. The new plant will initially have a capacity of 1,50,000 kilo litres of paint per annum. He said the company is also looking at doubling the capacity at the Rohtak plant in near future.
— PTI
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Total IT Solutions to dilute stake
New Delhi, December 3 “Several Private Equity (PE) and venture capitals have shown interest in taking stake in our company and we would be finalising the deal soon,” managing director of the company Rajiv Kumar Mishra told The Tribune. The turnover of the company was Rs 20 crore in 2006-07 and in the current fiscal, the company has appointed distributors in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei to tap overseas market. Total IT Solutions provides e-resources management and search solutions, an integrated single window search facility, which facilitates users of e-library with advanced search engine.
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Emerson targets Rs 4,000-cr turnover
New Delhi, December 3 To achieve the target, Emerson and Cisco, a global leader in IT networking for industrial and business management applications, are combining their expertise and technology to deliver a complete solution that would improve productivity, safety and operational efficiency . Mark Schumacher, president, Rosemount Division, Emerson Process Management, India, expressed, "This smart wireless networks will extend asset optimisation and predictive maintenance, helping manufacturers avoid costly, unexpected process interruptions and shutdowns; optimise performance and lifetime of processing equipment; and maximise production output.
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SBoP staff observe stir
Chandigarh, December 3 Devinder Singh, president of All India State Bank of Patiala Employees Association, and I.G. Gupta, general secretary, All India State Bank of Patiala Officers Association, said the merger of associated banks with the SBI was not justified in any way as these banks were working in a systematic network and were giving good results in their respective areas across the country. Devinder Singh said the agitation would be further intensified in the coming days.
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Intelenet buys Mauritian SPV
Mumbai, December 3 This is Intelenet's first major step in its inorganic growth strategy, which was set in motion following the management buyout backed by Blackstone in June, 2007. Upstream, headquartered in the US, employs over 1,200 persons across three on-shore delivery centres in the US, two near-shore delivery centres in Latin America (Guatemala and Panama) and an off-shore delivery centre in Mauritius. The company provides multi-channel contact centre solutions, including voice and back office operations spanning customer relationship management, and sales support for nine key clients primarily in the travel and information technology domain. Whereas, Travelport ISO offers voice, BPO, finance and accounting services to leading global travel brands and employs 1,100 persons at two locations in India.
— UNI |
Rupee gains Mirae
Asset Sintex buyout Dabur foray Gujarat NRE SBI centre Patel Engg IISCO order
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