Daily News Roundup - Apr 8 2009

DLF plans to raise Rs9bn in the next three months through the sale of at least eight hotel plots across cities. (ET)

TCS bags US$80mn outsourcing contract UK’s Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. (ET)

ONGC defers decision on hiring a drilling rig from Reliance Industries. (BS)

Tech Mahindra to take final call on Satyam bid next week. (ET)

Leila Lands, a 100% subsidiary of Bomay Burmah Trading Company, a Wadia group firm to buy out Danone’s 25% stake in Britannia for ~US$200mn. (ET)

The Wadia family plans to raise ICICI Bank’s five-year loan of US$200mn for buying out Danone’s stake in Britannia. (ET)

HCL Technologies has signed a six-year, multi-region data centre services and transformation deal worth ~US$100mn with Xerox Corporation. (ET)

The shareholders and creditors of Reliance Industries have approved the merger with RPL. (ET)

M&M launches Xylo in Nepal. (ET)

Tata Motors to set up a heavy truck manufacturing facility in Myanmar with a capacity of 1,500 units per annum. (BS)

BHEL to spend Rs8bn in FY10 on R&D. (BL)

Bharti Airtel’s US$750mn outsourcing deal with IBM has touched the US$2.5bn mark as of March-end 2009. (ET)

IVRCL has bagged orders worth ~Rs3.6bn from different vendors for construction related works. (FE)

Bharti Airtel is open to the DoT’s special audit of its books. (FE)

Mahindra Yueda Yancheng Tractor Company, a JV between Mahindra group and the Yueda Group of China, rolled out its maiden 125-hp tractor from its Chinese factory. (ET)

Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis are among multinational pharma firms that are currently doing a due diligence of Wockhardt’s Rs1.5bn animal healthcare business. (ET)

Reliance Communications has forayed into high-speed wireless broadband services in Kolkata. (ET)

Bharti Airtel introduced wireline broadband on DSL in the country at a speed of 16 Mbps. (FE)

Tata Steel’s production increased by ~14% yoy to 6.25mn tons in FY09. (FE)

Hotel Leelaventure has bought back ~US$50mn FCCBs at discount from the international markets. (FE)

JSW Steel’s production surged by 11% yoy to 1.1mn tons in Q4 FY09. (FE)

Videocon Industries to raise over Rs2bn through issue of warrants on preferential basis to Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd. (FE)

Radico Khaitan has bought back additional FCCBs worth US$4mn from the international markets. (FE)

SBI and Macquarie Group jointly tied up more than US$1bn to finance infrastructure projects. (FE)

NMDC to seek shareholders approval for merger of Sponge Iron India with it on May 22, 2009. (FE)

DLF Ltd to invest Rs4bn to develop a housing project of ~600 apartments in Delhi. (ET)

JSW Steel has cancelled 14.74% of its outstanding zero coupon FCCBs of US$100,000 each due 2012, aggregating to US$47.8mn. (FE)

JSL plans to raise Rs15bn through rights issue, FCCBs and private placement. (ET)

RPG Group’s retail flagship Spencer’s Retail is making a major foray into lifestyle retailing. (ET)

Essar Group is likely to dilute its stake in Econet, its telecom venture in Kenya. (FE)

Network 18 has acquired the investment advisory business of its group company Capital 18 Media Advisors, a venture capital and private equity firm. (FE)

NHPC plans to set up over 10,000mw capacity projects in the Northeastern region with an investment of ~Rs500bn by 2022. (FE)

iGate forays into healthcare to de-risk business. (BS)

Maytas Infra Ltd completed the construction of a six-lane outer ring road for the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). (BS)

M&M’s tractor joint venture in China rolled out its 125 HP tractor from its new tractor plant with the capacity of 38,000 units. (BL)

PTC cuts fund raising target to Rs5bn. (BL)

French company Vetoquinol is in race for Wockhardt’s vet unit. (ET)

NMDC has surpassed the production target set by the government for FY09. (ET)

Power Grid to borrow US$2bn from World Bank and Asian Development Bank to part finance Rs550bn investment plans till 2012. (ET)

Moody’s downgrades Tata Chemicals corporate family rating to Ba1 from Baa3. (BL)

Fortis Healthcare to expand network to 40 hospitals by 2012. (BL)

Essar Steel plans to start the first phase of production from its proposed US$1.1bn steel plant in US by 2011. (ET)

Tata Industries gets IT department notice, raising a demand of Rs2.98bn on capital gains on sale of shares in Idea Cellular. (BS)

V-Guard opens two new cable factories in Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu. (BS)

Exports declined 30% in March to US$12bn. (BS)

Corporate Affairs ministry clears DOT’s plan to impose three year ban on equity sales by owners of companies that acquired UAS licenses. (ET)

Specialized steel makers have raised prices by 3.5%. (BS)

Sugar production is expected to plunge 45% to 14.5mn tons during the current season ending September. (BL)

3G services of private players to go on stream only by FY11. (FE)

RBI said that the government’s borrowing program would be substantially higher in 2009-10 as against a year earlier. (BS)

With low credit demand, banks park ~Rs1,220bn with the RBI through the reverse repo window. (BS)

The mutual fund industry suffered an erosion of Rs1,000bn during the month of March alone due to huge redemptions from banks and institutional investors in liquid and money market funds. (BS)

The country’s steel imports dipped by about 18% in FY09 amid slackening demand. (BS)

The Government, in a bid to encourage private sector participation in the power transmission sector, proposes to rework a new bidding process. (FE)

Finance companies that lend to firms building infrastructure projects may be permitted to raise funds from overseas banks and markets. (ET)

The department of public enterprises has asked all central public sector enterprises to put in place an in-house energy audit team to give more focus to energy conservation measures. (ET)

Finished steel products imports increased by 40% qoq in March 2009. (ET)

Indian corporates have raised a total of US$452mn through external commercial borrowings during February 2009. (FE)

The second container terminal at the Chennai port, built by PSA-SICAL consortium at an estimated cost of Rs4.95bn, will become operational from May 1, 2009. (FE)