Daily News Roundup - Dec 10 2008

HDFC Bank has cut its benchmark prime lending rate by 50bps. (ET)

ONGC Videsh will go ahead with its planed US$2.1bn purchase of Imperial Energy and will meet the deadline for making an open offer to shareholders of the UK firm. (ET)

RPL’s Jamnagar refinery to go on-stream by March 2009, but is likely to start producing some products by next month. (FE)

Fire broke out at RPL's under-construction refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat. (BS)

Walt Disney and UTV Motion Pictures have inked a deal, whereby UTV will handle the sales and distribution of all the Walt Disney’s Hollywood releases in India from January 1, 2009. (ET)

Jet Airways has agreed to pay 3% commission to agents on the gross fare. (ET)

Indian Oil and Adani Energy Ltd entered into a MoU for setting up 50:50 city gas distribution joint venture. (BL)

Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd won a gas pipeline contract from GAIL valued at Rs2.4bn. (BL)

Binani Cement has no plans to reduce cement prices post 4% excise duty cut. (ET)

Dalmia Cement Bharat plans to cut cement prices by Rs5-6 per bag from next week. (ET)

Jet Airways has leased out five aircrafts to foreign carriers. (FE)

RNRL has criticized the Government for fixing the selling price of gas from Reliance Industries’ KG basin at US$4.2 per mmbtu. (ET)

The government awarded start-up spectrum to two telecom operators Unitech and Idea Cellular in Kolkata to enable them start operations. (BS)

US drug major Eli Lilly has sued Sun Pharma over Cymbalta patent. (FE)

Unitech plans to invest Rs25bn to develop 35 hotels over the next seven years. (ET)

ACC and Ambuja Cements have slashed cement prices by Rs4-6 per 50kg bag. (ET)

GVK-BHP Billiton to invest US$400mn in 7 oil blocks in the exploratory face. (BL)

MTNL to launch 3G services tomorrow. (BL)

Gas production from RIL’s KG D6 fields is expected to be further delayed due to inclement weather condition. (FE)

Suzlon’s REpower to supply wind turbines for projects in northeast France and US state of Oregon. (BS)

RCom, Bharat Forge and United Phosphorous among others are finalizing plans to buy-back their FCCBs. (ET)

Wockhardt is in talks to raise US$100mn for clearing FCCB dues. (ET)

Nagarjuna Construction has been asked to pay a penalty to RBI and then seek a fresh permission from FIPB to offload an additional 3.5% stake to Blackstone. (ET)

Financial Technologies acquires 60% stake in Bourse Africa. (DNA)

DLF plans to build office complex in IT SEZ space in Delhi. (DNA)

Tata Coffee in talks with Russian company to set up a Joint venture deal is likely to be finalized in three months. (DNA)

Maytas Infrastructure bags a contract worth Rs1.8bn. (DNA)

Nissan-Ashok Leyland to delay India truck output. (FE)

Hindustan Motors to cut prices of its ambassador car model by Rs10,000-14,500. (FE)

Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto to cut rates of their vehicles. (BS)

Essar Oil to re-open petrol pumps next month. (DNA)

Gabriel India to sack up to 150 employees at its Parwanoo plant in Himachal Pradesh. (BS)

SpiceJet is looking at re-structuring its core leadership team. (BS)

The price for the sale of natural gas by RIL from the D6 Block in the Krishna Godavari Basin will remain unchanged despite the steep fall in global crude oil prices. (BL)

Tata Teleservices has partnered with Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies from rolling out 60mn GSM lines under separate five-year contracts valued at ~US$3.5bn. (ET)

LIC plans to invest Rs150bn in debt offerings over the next four months and Rs120bn in stock market before the end of current fiscal. (ET)

Pivet Finance, an investment arm of industrialist Analjit Singh, has picked up ~1% stake in East India Hotels for Rs450mn. (ET)

JK Tyres and Apollo Tyres have slashed their product prices to pass on the 4% excise duty cut benefit to customers. (FE)

Many MNC-local JVs – Nissan-Ashok Leyland, Hero-Daimler and Eicher-Volvo projects may get delayed due to cut in production of commercial vehicles by many players. (ET)

ICRA has assigned the highest credit rating to Rs20bn bond issue of NTPC. (FE)

J Kumar Infra projects has bagged orders wroth ~Rs5.6bn from MMRDA and MSRDC for skywalk projects. (FE)

Max India to consider rights issue. (FE)

The Government has awarded start-up spectrum to Unitech and Idea Cellular. (FE)

SBI Life Insurance may infuse ~Rs5bn in its insurance business in 2009 and consider public listing in H2 FY10. (ET)

Sun Direct has launched its DTH services in Mumbai with a starting price of Rs299 for four months, which is lower by ~50-60% than other service providers. (ET)

Merrill Lynch has sold its ~5% stake in Religare Enterprises for an undisclosed sum. (ET)

Leading automakers have passed on the benefit of 4% cut in excise duty to customers by reducing prices by 3-3.5%. (ET)

Indian auto companies are likely to take a hit of Rs10bn on unsold vehicles post 4% excise duty cut. (ET)

Cognizant wins US$100mn US contract. (ET)