Daily News Roundup - March 2 2009

Reliance Industries says it would merge its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Petroleum, with it to create an integrated company in oil refining and petrochemicals.(FE)

Reliance Industries plans to ramp up production of gas from its D6 block in the KG basin in Bay of Bengal far faster than estimated earlier.(DNA)

ONGC is planning an IPO of its subsidiary, which is building the Rs124bn petrochemical plant at Dahej in 2011, even as it agreed to give GAIL (India) a 19% stake in the project.(FE)

Chevron Corp, which holds a 5% stake in Reliance Petroleum, is likely to exit the company.(BL)

GAIL (India) signs pact for gas supply to four fertilizer units.(BL)

Company Law Board is not in favour of superseding the board of Maytas Infra.(FE)

Petronet LNG plans to mobilise Rs22bn from the domestic and external markets to part-finance its captive port with re-gassification facilities at Kochi.(BL)

Hero Honda February sales rise 24% to 329,055 units. (BS)

TVS Motors February sales rose 13% to 107,301 units. (BS)

Union Bank, PNB cut rates on car, home loans.(BL)

GMR group has signed an agreement with Malaysian Airlines to set up an Rs4bn MRO facility at the Aerospace Park near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.(BL)

ICRA revises Tata Motor Finance to A1. (BS)

Shareholders of Zenotech, an associate company of Ranbaxy, have moved the Chennai High Court against the "low" open offer price quoted by Daiichi to acquire more Zenotech shares. (BS)

Shoppers Stop shut three of its unprofitable book stores 'Crossword' and airport store 'Stop & Go' in the country. (BS)

Sterlite cuts bid for US Asarco to US$1.5bn. (ET)

Unitech in talks with Oriental Bank of Commerce to sell its office building in Sake in New Delhi. (ET)

Tech Mahindra plans to launch a bid for Satyam jointly with a private equity fund. (ET)

Infosys cuts 5% of workforce at Australian unit. (ET)

TVS Group to raise Rs2bn via land sale. (ET)

Bidding for Satyam Computer not to be restricted to domestic companies but also open to international companies. (BL)

Reliance Industries’ gas production facility at the KG basin will supply gas to fertiliser, power and steel plants across the country in a couple of weeks.(TOI)

MTNL to launch 3G in Mumbai by April. (BS)

Raymond plans to have a 50 strong store network in Middle-East and SAARC markets by 2012. (ET)

BHEL dispatches the boiler drum for the first unit of 2x500 mw thermal project of NTPC TN energy company coming up in Thiruvallur district. (ET)

Orissa Sponge Iron to Coopt Monnet Ispat as strategic partner. (ET)

Ashok Leyland ties up with Bank of Baroda for extending finance to the company's end-customers. (ET)

Hindustan Motors looks for non-auto business to stay afloat. (BS)

Having bought two coal mines, one each in South Africa and Indonesia, the GMR Group is set to establish new power plants on the east and west coasts of India.(DNA)

Emami Group is planning to invest Rs 22bn for setting up a writing and printing paper manufacturing plant in West Midnapore district of West Bengal.(BL)

Coming to the rescue of new telecom licensees like Unitech Wireless, Datacom, Loop Telecom and Swan Telecom, the government has postponed and staggered the penalties liable for failing to meet year-one rollout obligations.(FE)

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic, a subsidiary of optical storage device maker Moser Baer India, said the construction of its new Chennai plant would begin in October and production from fiscal 2011.(DNA)

Power Grid Corp. of India says its board had approved investments in three transmission projects.(BL)

Honda has indefinitely put on hold opening of its Rs10bn second plant in India due to slowdown in the auto market.(FE)

BSNL launches 3G mobile services on commercial basis from 11 cities.(BL)






Forex reserves fell by US$165mn to US$250bn in the week ended February 20.(BL)

GDP expanded by 5.3% in Q3 FY09, the slowest in almost the last six years.(BL)

Government strikes deal with the RBI to receive Rs450bn of market stabilization funds in installments by March 30.(FE)

India's fiscal deficit for the April-Jan period stood at $52bn, or 80.5% of an upwardly revised budget target, according to a government statement.(FE)

Domestic pharma retail market has recorded nearly 15% growth in January.(TOI)

The government plans to invest upto Rs100bn annually into drug research. (ET)

Automobile companies plan their captive finance arms.(TOI)

Plan panel to review bidding guidelines for infrastructure projects.(FE)

State-run fuel retailers cut ATF rates by a further seven%, making it the 11th reduction since September last year.(FE)

Exports of garments and leather items to US & EU from April 1 to get a 2% incentive from government.(BL)