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4 Jet officials cleared to join Air Sahara Board
Punjab offers 300 acres to Volkswagen in Ropar
London court ratifies Unocal stake sale in HOEC
RIL eyes global exploration
Big foreign funds eye India
Thailand TVs to hit Indian market soon
Bumper returns may be history
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BILT to buy 97.8 pc in Malaysian co
Indage to invest Rs 25 cr in HP
Glenmark signs royalty deal for
Patni Computer buys ZAiQ Tech for $425,000
Biotech sector revenue to
touch $1.5 b
IFFCO pays dividend
Rajinder Nath is HCCI chief
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4 Jet officials cleared to join Air Sahara Board
New Delhi, June 5 The officials who are part of the Jet Airways Board and would join the Air Sahara as Directors are Saroj Dutta, Vijay Kelkar, Javed Akhtar and Victoriano P Dunca, official sources said. Following the acquisition, Air Sahara had applied for grant of clearances to the new members to the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to become members of their Board. The file was forwarded by the Civil Aviation Ministry to the Union Home Ministry for security clearance, which was granted last week, the sources said, adding that the DGCA also cleared the four names after security clearance was granted to them. Jet Airways is likely to operate Air Sahara as a wholly-owned subsidiary till some other regulatory clearances are granted to the acquisition process. While the name of the 100 per cent subsidiary has been finalised, it will be announced only after all necessary approvals are received from regulatory bodies, including the DGCA. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has listed the Jet-Sahara case for a final decision in July. Once security clearance is granted, the reconstituted Air Sahara Board would meet to adopt a resolution to enable Jet operate the airline as its subsidiary, airline sources said. Ten Jet officials have been working for the past two months with their Air Sahara counterparts to help them streamline sales, ticketing and several managerial issues, they said. Jet Airways had acquired Air Sahara for an enterprise value of $500 million (about Rs 2,300 crore) in January and had paid an advance of Rs 500 crore in March end as part of the buyout package. — PTI |
Punjab offers 300 acres to Volkswagen in Ropar
Chandigarh, June 5 Top officials in the Punjab Industries Department told TNS that a delegation of Volkswagen, led by its India operations head, will be arriving here on June 7. "The delegation will hold talks with the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, on June 8 to work out the modalities for setting up the plant," informed Mr S.C. Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, Industries, Punjab. If the deal comes through, it will be the largest foreign investment in Punjab till date. Punjab had initially offered two sites to Volkswagen, one at Nabha and the other at Ropar, but the company officials have zeroed in on the Ropar site. The company proposes to manufacture its popular small car, Beetle, from the plant. Officials say that the auto major is likely to set up an assembly-line unit. It may be mentioned that for the past two years, Volkswagen has been scouting for sites in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. The Punjab Government will be offering a slew of sops to the company, including free land and tax incentives, for choosing Punjab as the destination for its investment. The setting up of the facility in Punjab could also aid the ailing auto ancillary units. Punjab had also offered free land to the Tatas for setting up their small car unit near Mohali. "However, informed a source in the Industries Department, "the Tata officials were not just demanding free land, but asking the government to construct the buildings for the company's unit. Since the company was ready to invest only Rs 800 crore and employ 5,000 persons, the proposal was not viable," he added. |
London court ratifies Unocal stake sale in HOEC
New Delhi, June 5 Hardy Oil and Gas Plc, which holds an 8.5 per cent stake in HOEC, had contested the stake sale saying that as per the shareholders’ agreement, it had the first right of refusal in case any of the promoters were to sell their holding. “The Tribunal has declared that Hardy is not a party to the shareholders’ agreement dated October 14, 1998, and Hardy is not entitled to claim any rights and/or benefits “under it,” HOEC said in a statement .In February 2005, Burren paid Unocal $26 million to purchase a 26 per cent stake in HOEC, the owner of 100 per cent interest in the undeveloped PY-1 gas field, 80 per cent in an adjacent exploration block (CY-OSN-97/1) and 21 per cent in the producing PY-3 oil field (all in Cauvery basin, Tamil Nadu). Hardy stated that it had rights of pre-emption in relation to the sale of shares, a claim disputed by Burren. Subsequent to the purchase, Burren launched an open offer for acquiring additional 20 per cent share capital of HOEC. At the end of the offer, Burren’s stake grew to 26.01 per cent. HDFC has a 10.7 per cent stake while Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd 1.7 per cent in HOEC. — PTI |
Mumbai, June 5 “The company has the capacity and the ability to emerge as a significant player on the global energy scene. To this effect, we are also pursuing global opportunities in exploration and production. We will share our progress in this area with you in the days to come,” RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani said in a letter to shareholders. Mr Ambani said the exploration programme was going on “full throttle” and the signs were very encouraging. “We believe that we will emerge as a significant producer of energy, both of oil and natural gas,” he said, adding that RIL has become the first private sector company to cross the Rs 9,000 crore mark in terms of net profit. On the retail expansion, Mr Ambani said RIL was planning a pan-India footprint of multi-format retail outlets to provide the customer with choice in products and services. “All the outlets will be connected seamlessly through a state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure,” he said. — PTI |
Big foreign funds eye India
Mumbai, June 5 USA-based American International Group and JP Morgan, British fund house Dawnie Day and Singapore-based Temasek are learnt to have drawn up their plans to enter the Indian mutual fund industry. These are expected to get operational in the next five-six months. Association of Mutual Funds in India Chairman A.P. Kurian said here. These would enter India either by starting their own arm or in collaboration with some other companies. “We are planning to enter the mutual fund business very soon. We have applied to Sebi for approval and are awaiting it. We also plan to launch a realty fund and are in talks with AIG Country Head Sunil Mehta said. AIG, besides starting an asset management company in India, had planned to start consumer finance, mortgage guarantee and capital recovery businesses.
— PTI |
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Thailand TVs to hit Indian market soon
New Delhi, June 5 Indian manufacturers, which are feeling the heat of low-priced Chinese TV sets, are apprehensive that with a provision of zero per cent customs duty under the free trade agreement (FTA), these TVs could prove a death knell for the Indian manufacturers producing around 10 million sets annually. “Since the colour TV set is included in the early harvest scheme of FTA with Thailand, the import duty on TV sets from Thailand would become zero from September 1. Indian manufacturers who are paying around 40 per cent taxes as against 7 per cent paid by the Thailand manufacturers, would be forced to revise the prices though at the cost of their survival,” said Mr Ravinder Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung Electronics. The domestic industry is also worried, he said, by the government’s proposal to introduce a 10 per cent licence fee on the purchase of each TV set, to finance the Prasar Bharati for running DD channels. “Levying of the licence fee will increase the tax to about 50 per cent as compared to 15 per cent internal taxes in China, and just 7 per cent in Thailand, leading to sharp fall in domestic production, besides decline in government revenues,” said Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association (CETMA) president Anoop Kumar. |
New Delhi, June 5 The current stock market valuations reflect the corporate earnings growth expectations more reasonably following the recent correction, the bank said in its latest monthly investment newsletter for its customers. The shareholder returns should remain volatile going forward, while historic returns are unlikely to be repeated, the bank said. The market has just gone through an unprecedented correction after rising sharply through the past 18 months. Sensex surged to a life-time high of 12,612 on May 10, while more than doubling from the nearly 6,000 level in November, 2004. When Sensex peaked above 12,600 last month, it was trading at one-year forward P/E of about 20x, making it one of the most expensive markets in the world, the bank said. According to HDFC Bank, the sharp rally in the recent past has been primarily driven by two factors — strong earning growth and a re-rating in P/E of Indian companies. However, the record high level witnessed on May 10, reflected a one-year forward P/E of as high as 18.6x, sharply higher than a ratio of 8.5x on March 31, 2003. However, the record high level witnessed on May 10, reflected a one-year forward P/E of as high as 18.6x, sharply higher than a ratio of 8.5x on March 31, 2003. The average earnings growth of 30 Sensex companies also dropped considerably to nearly 15 per cent as on May 10 this year, from as high as 36.46 per cent on March 31. However, the correction witnessed on the bourses between May 10-22 led to a sharp decline in the P/E ratio to 15.6x making the current valuations more reasonable. An analysis of the past movements in the stock market shows that a 1,000-point rally has shown a faster pace than the previous thousand-point jump, except for the 8,000-9,000 movement. The quantum of accelerating rally in Sensex could be gauged from the fact that average return per day has also consistently increased with each 1,000-point rally in the past. The Sensex’s average return per day was an astounding 0.83 per cent during the 600-point jump between April 20 and May 10, as against a meager 0.13 per cent between November 17, 2004, and June 21, 2005, when Sensex surged from 6,000 to 7,000. Back in December, 2002, the market was grossly undervalued and was de-rated consequently due to various reasons, the bank said. The barometer index had jumped nearly 314 per cent, from its March, 2003 level, when it scaled a new peak last month. — PTI |
BILT to buy 97.8 pc in Malaysian co
Mumbai, June 5 The company signed a conditional agreement yesterday for acquiring 97.8 per cent equity of SFI either directly or through its affiliates, it said. The acquisition is proposed to be done jointly with J P Morgan, which would purchase a 20 per cent stake in SFI with the balance being acquired by Ballarpur. The consideration of $261 million would be paid over 18 months. SFI, which operates Malaysia’s largest integrated paper and pulp mill, has a paper capacity of 1,44,000 MTPA and a pulp capacity of 1,20,000 MTPA.
— PTI |
Indage to invest Rs 25 cr in HP
Lucknow, June 5 The French conglomerate has major interests in verticals such as wines and champagnes, hotels, fruit juices and confectionaries. “The company already has an R&D unit in Goa on a smaller scale. However, to cater to our expanding business operations, we decided to set up the new facility,’’ Seabuckthorn Indage Ltd (SIL) President M S Dhanota said here today.
— UNI |
Glenmark signs royalty deal for $27 million
Mumbai, June 5 In return, Paul royalty will receive undisclosed royalties on net sales, following US FDA approval, and launch of each product. GPI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd (Glenmark), the research-led global pharmaceutical company. “The products in the portfolio currently have a total US market revenue of about $1 billion. Under the agreement, Glenmark will be responsible for pre-clinical development, manage the clinical trials and manufacture the products,” Managing Director and CEO Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Glen Saldanha said here today. GPI will be responsible for filing the abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and, upon approval, marketing the products in the USA. “Paul Royalty will finance product development through milestone payments to GPI over the next two years. In return, Paul Royalty will receive a royalty on net sales for these products, with the percentage varying by product and performance,” Mr Saldanha said. “Sharing clinical and operational risks inherent in the portfolio and reducing impact of generic R&D expenditure are among the key reasons we entered into this deal,” he said. — PTI |
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Patni Computer buys ZAiQ Tech for $425,000
Mumbai, June 5 The company is buying intellectual property in Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design and validation space, active customer contracts and business pipeline along with a sales head and trademarks including other capital assets like hardware and software, Patni said. ZAiQ would provide ASIC capabilities for Patni’s PES business unit. Patni aims to benefit from ZAiQ’s technical capabilities and would get access to ZAiQ’s intellectual property for verification and validation.
— PTI |
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Biotech sector revenue to
touch $1.5 b
Bangalore, June 5 Disclosing this here at a meet held on the eve of the sixth edition of “Bangalore Bio” here, Biocon Chairperson Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said Karnataka had earned leadership in the biotech sector and was set to maintain its position in the years to come. "The country’s Biotech Vision 2010 of reaching $10 billion in revenue and providing employment to 1 million people is well on track," said Ms Shaw, who is also Chairperson of Karnataka Vision Group of Biotechnology. She said right now it was their endeavour to build a world-class incubator centre in Bangalore for biotech firms. |
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Chandigarh, June 5 Presenting the cheque to Mr Rajan Gupta, MD, Hafed, the state Marketing Manager of IFFCO, Haryana, Mr S.S. Panwar, said this was the fifth year in a row that IFFCO had distributed a 20 per cent dividend to its shareholders. — TNS |
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Rajinder Nath is HCCI chief
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RCoVL to raise $1 billion PFC public offer Essar Shipping Stake bought Indo-Asian Fusegear |
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