Daily News Roundup - Apr 6 2009

Reliance Industries, ONGC plan to jointly bid for oil exploration and production blocks in Venezuela.(Mint)

Hinduja Group is learnt to have opened talks with Wockhardt to acquire a majority stake in its healthcare arm, Wockhardt Hospitals.(FE)

Satyam board has extended the deadline to submit technical and financial bids to April 13 from April 9.(BL)

Suzlon is likely to seek time to pay Martifer for REpower stake.(BL)

GSPC makes a huge discovery of gas in the KG-21 well located on the western side of Deendayal west block in the KG Basin. (BS)

Unitech to clear Rs10bn debt burden through sale of assets, issuing convertible instruments and pre-sale of apartments. (BS)

Wockhardt may not be able to sell head office in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. (BS)

Fitch Ratings downgrades the long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating for Tata Steel to 'BB+' from 'BBB-'.(BS)

Chinese, European firms approach Reliance Industries for hiring rig. (ET)

SC to hear plea of the Commissioner of Customs regarding evasion of import duty of Rs1.74bn against Reliance Industries in August. (ET)

Apollo Hospitals looking to acquire Wockhardt Hospitals provided it gets a majority stake. (ET)

Power Grid Corp plans to put up its projects for laying new transmission networks-worth Rs100-150bn-for competitive bidding.(DNA)

Sanofi Aventis's plans to acquire majority stake in Piramal Healthcare has fallen through due to differences over valuation. (ET)

Jaguar Land Rover is likely to get approval for a loan of about Rs20bn from the European Investment Bank on April 7. (BS)

Ambuja Cements says project cost would go up by 10% from earlier estimates. (ET)

HUL cuts prices by up to 20%.(TOI)

PE fund Duet set its sights on Parsvnath Developers’ hospitality projects.(TOI)

Satyam Computer modifies the bidding process to ensure if no bid comes within at least 90% of the highest bid the highest bidder would be declared the final buyer. (BS)

Pantaloon in talks for stake sale in subsidiaries like Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar. (BS)

Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India starts the financial year with accumulated dues of Rs40bn to oil companies and airports. (BS)

Bosch to invest Rs2.5bn to expand India IT operations. (BS)

Ashok Leyland reported a fall of 52.2% in commercial vehicle sales at 5,112 units in March this year compared to same month in 2008. (BS)

Government has received US$218,960 as first installment of profit-share generated from sale of crude oil from Reliance’s D6 block in the KG basin since mid-September.(ET)

Maruti will launch its sixth global car, ‘Ritz’ in May, priced between Rs0.4-0.5mn.(ET)

L&T is looking to exit from the infrastructure projects in which it holds minority stake, but open to bid in consortium with less than 50% holding in large and complex projects like metro. (FE)

Neyveli Lignite plans to set up a new company NLC Videsh Ltd. to handle substantial quantity of coal required for its coal-fired thermal power stations. (FE)

Bank of India plans to offer a three-month moratorium on interest and principal payment to loans for the purchase of Tata Nano. (ET)

IFC has approved US$12mn loan for the second phase of expansion of TVS Motor Company in Indonesia.(FE)

Bajaj Auto claims that it has won a patent case against rival TVS Motor Company over the ‘ExhausTEC’ technology. (FE)

Aircel will invest ~Rs11bn for its foray into the Mumbai cellular circle. (ET)

Domestic airlines such as SpiceJet, Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, and Paramount Airways will increase airfares by 5-8% per ticket from mid-April. (ET)

Tata Motors postpones plans for an overseas equity issue and sale of investments to repay the US$3bn bridge loan it took in June last year. (BS)

Trichy and Ranipet units of BHEL to invest in capacity expansion and new lines. (BS)

The proposed Rs163bn second aluminium and captive power complex of NALCO in Orissa has been pushed into uncertainty with the government asking the company to shift the venue of the project. (BS)

HCL Technology bags US$170mn contract from Microsoft. (ET)

L&T, Tech Mahindra, Wilbur Ross and Cognizant reach the final stages to acquire Satyam. (ET)

Aircel in talks to acquire Loop Mobile. (ET)

Reliance Infrastructure’s Dahanu Thermal Power Station to expand its generation capacity from 500MW to 1,700W. (ET)

3iInfotech to triple its network of IT Kiosks in rural areas to over 12,000 by the year end. (ET)

NTPC to secure gas supplies from Nigeria for its fuel-starved power stations haven’t yielded results. (ET)

SBI plans to raise Rs410bn through equities and debt in the next two years.(FE)

Gitanjali Group plans 30 Gitanjali Jewels outlets across the country in the next four months. (BS)

Fitch downgrades Wockhardt's long-term rating. (BL)

UCO Bank receives capital infusion worth Rs4.5bn from the Government. (BL)

Government plans to restructure the priority list of power plants awaiting natural gas supply from Reliance Industries D-6 block in Krishna-Godavari basin. (ET)

Colgate-Palmolive raises prices of some brands by at least 4%.(Mint)


Forex reserves declined by US1.5$bn to US$252bn in the week ended March 27.(BL)

Government not to allow import of refined sugar at zero duty. (BS)

Rates of seven farm products rule below support prices.(BL)

Prime Minister Panel lowers FY09 GDP forecast to 6.5-7% from earlier 7.1%.(TOI)

Private airport operators asked to pay Rs4.2bn as compensation.(Mint)

Investment plans for pension schemes to be unveiled by the middle of this month.(TOI)

Government suspended a key accounting norm on forex losses for the period starting December 7, 2006 to March 31, 2011. (ET)

Banks may have to shell out 50% higher deposit insurance premium to get deposits up to Rs0.1mn covered. (ET).

India will launch its biggest-ever auction of oil and gas exploration blocks, Nelp-VIII on April 09, 2009. (FE)

Indian railways reported a 5% rise in freight loading in FY09. (ET)