Daily News Roundup - Nov 25 2008

ONGC strikes oil at Block IG at a water depth of 225 meters in well G-4-6, 15kms off Yanam coast in Andhra Pradesh. (FE)
BHEL is in talks with Japan based Toshiba Corporation to set up a JV. (FE)
Suzlon Energy is looking at selling part of its promoter’s stakes in its unlisted Indian units to raise money for buying Martifar’s stake in REpower. (ET)
L&T lines up an investment of Rs20bn for forgings foray. (DNA)
Tata Steel will continue with its Rs270bn plan to expand capacity at Jamshedpur and build a new plant in Orissa. (ET)
The 441mn pound bid by HCL Technologies for Axon Plc has been approved by Axon shareholders. (FE)
Tata Steel to push back capex plans and greenfield units at Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. (ET)
Areva plans to supply six European pressurized water reactors to India by 2020. (FE)
Sterlite Industries shuts down its 0.4mn tons smelter in Tuticorin due to failure of its cooling tower. (DNA)
Jindal Steel plans to maintain steel production and wont cut output. (DNA)
Mindtree is evaluating a bid to acquire Edison, New Jersey headquartered SAP services firm Seal Consulting in a deal estimated at ~US100mn. (ET)
Firstsource Solutions has cut its revenue guidance from 33%-38% growth in dollar terms to 21% for FY09. (ET)
Tata Chemicals’ US based subsidiary General Chemical Industrial Products has raised US$300mn. (ET)
Reliance ADAG forays into the online retail business which is pegged at Rs92.1bn for the year 2007-08. (FE)
Bajaj Electricals promoters have hiked their stake to 75% from 67% through an open offer. (ET)
Titan Industries plans to open 300 retail stores for its ‘Titan Eye’ in the next three years across the country. (ET)
KS Oils has acquired an edible oil refinery in Haldia port from Kolkata based Ambo Agro Products for a consideration of ~Rs1.25-1.5bn. (ET)
Adhunik Metaliks has decided not to cut down production. (ET)
The Government has asked Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd to scout for iron ore mines and coal properties overseas for acquisition. (FE)
Monnet Ispat plans to buyback shares worth Rs70mn from the market at a price not exceeding Rs300 per share. (FE)
Tata Motors to shut down its Jamshedpur plant for five days from November 25 to avoid stock build-up. (FE)
KEC International emerges the lowest bidder for supply and installation of 500kV overhead power transmission line to Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co. (DNA)
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is in talks with the Government for a 1bn pound loan. (ET)
Nuclear Power Corporation of India is planning to set up six nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of 3,160mw and take the number of reactors t o 12 during the ongoing Five Year Plan period of 2007-12. (ET)
US pumps in US$20bn in cash in Citigroup; guarantees another US$306bn. (ET)
Cambridge Technology decides not to proceed with allotment of warrants. (BL)
Petron Engineering bags order worth Rs670mn from Engineering India for mechanical works. (BL)
Alphageo India gets an order worth Rs440mn to provide seismic data to ONGC. (BL)
Omaxe sells 2.6mn shares of Sukhversa Properties Pvt Ltd thereby ceases to be subsidiary of the company. (BL)
IVRCL Infrastructure, water and power division has won five orders worth Rs5.29bn. (BL)
BHEL secures order worth Rs2.4bn for manufacturing and supplying transformers to Tata Power. (BL)
BHEL, BEL plans integrated Photovoltaic facility. (BL)
Stone India drops plans to acquire European company. (BL)
Essar Exploration and Production has won two offshore petroleum exploration blocks in the northern basins of Australia. (ET)
Emami plans to set up a manufacturing facility in Africa. (BL)
Tech Mahindra has set up a new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for supporting the companies’ expansion plans. (BL)
Bajaj Group plans acquisitions to enter media space. (BL)
SBI enters into JV with IAG to enter the general insurance market. (BL)
Axis Bank set to enter the Mutual Fund business in next six to eight months. (BS)
HDFC raises Rs8bn via bonds. (BS)
IDFC to double its borrowing in the second half of this financial year to boost liquidity. (BS)
IOC has lowered the prices of branded diesel across the country. (BS)
Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy’s Lab to cut production as overseas buyers are hurt by credit crunch. (BS)

The Government wants RBI to give infrastructure status to SEZs. (ET)
Telecom operators added 10.42mn mobile users in October 2008, taking the total subscribers base to over 325mn. (ET)
Foreign subsidiaries of Indian finance companies may be barred from raising funds overseas by pledging collateral from their parent firms. (ET)
Tobacco exports may surge by ~40% in value terms in FY09 on the back of record prices. (FE)
The Government is open for amending the Central Sales Tax Act to make Aviation Turbine Fuel cheaper, says Finance Ministry. (BL)
The Government and SEBI soon to put up a simplified delisting framework for small companies. (BS)