Daily News Roundup - March 3 2009

Reliance to double KG Basin gas output by 2009-end to make up for the delay in launching gas production. (BL)

Bharti Airtel clocked ~Rs76.4bn revenues from wireless services during the Sep-Dec’08 quarter, surpassing that of RCom and Vodafone Essar put together. (ET)

BHEL to setup a manufacturing unit at Tirumayam in Tamil Nadu at an initial investment of Rs2.5bn. (BL)

NTPC’s Solapur project to be commissioned in 2013. (BL)

Moser Baer PhotoVoltaic plans to enter the US market and expand its presence in Europe. (BS)

SBI, IDBI Bank and Yes Bank slashed deposit rates by 25 to 75 basis points across various maturities. (BS)

Infosys to absorb all campus hires in July 2009. (BL)

Consortium partners British Gas, ONGC and RIL of Panna-Mukta-Tapti (PMT) fields propose to invest US$510mn in FY10 in the asset. (BL)

GSPL expects 60% growth in volume in April 2009. (BL)

Aditya Birla group and ACC have recorded increase in production by 9.5% and 2.9% yoy respectively, while the despatches increased by 10% and 3.5% yoy respectively. (ET)

L&T has further scaled up its stake in Kalindee Rail Nirman by 0.6% to 14.5%. (ET)

Reliance Globalcom, part of the Rcom, bagged a three-year contract with Rémy Cointreau Group to implement a new dedicated telecom network to support the distribution strategy of the company. (BL)

SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam recorded an increase in steel sales in February 2009. (ET)

Mahindra Logistics, the 100% subsidiary of M&M, to phase out its investment of Rs10bn over the next 3-4 years instead of the originally planned two-year period. (BL)

Vedanta Group to invest Rs700bn in India by 2011-12. (BS)

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular will save ~Rs40bn each in FY09, if the new government decides to charge a one-time spectrum acquisition fee from these companies for holding spectrum beyond 6.2Mhz. (FE)

Apollo Tyres’ board will meet on March 19 to consider buy-back. (FE)

Jain Irrigation to raise US$15mn through preferential allotment. (BL)

The Tata Group may offload stake in Tata Technologies – an unlisted company to raise ~US$100mn. (ET)

The Essar-group promoted Aegis BPO has made an offer to acquire ICT Group, US for ~US$130mn in cash. (ET)

Marriott International Inc plans to open six new properties in India this year and to launch its sixth brand in India, the luxury Ritz-Carlton by end of 2010. (FE)





Fresh polls to elect a new government at the Centre will be held between April 16 and May 13, 2009. (BS)

FMC to appoint external auditors for all three national commodities exchanges NCDEX, NMCE and MCX along with an Indore-based regional exchange NBOT. (BS)

Cement prices for western region in the non-trade segment have increased by Rs6-10 per bag. (FE)

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has issued amended stricter regulations for open access in inter-state transmission. (FE)

All airlines operating from Delhi will collect the development fee of Rs200 and Rs1,300 from each departing domestic and international passenger, respectively. (BS)

The Government has partially relaxed the ban on import of toys from China. (BS)

Tender for bulk order of ~Rs210bn power equipment to companies with manufacturing base in India is likely to be floated in Q1 FY10. (FE)