Daily News Roundup - May 14 2009

RoC has asked Reliance Industries to clarify certain shareholder complaints received against the company’s proposed merger with Reliance Petroleum. (ET)

ONGC will invest Rs90bn over the next 3-4 years to enhance oil and gas output. (ET)

As per the petroleum secretary IOC, HPCL and BPCL may face Rs150bn revenue loss during the current fiscal. (FE)

BPCL’s Kochi Refinery is about to receive the mega main reactor for its new vacuum gas oil hydro desulphurisation unit. (BS)

Tata Power is approaching the Supreme Court seeking to overturn a government decision allowing Reliance Power to divert surplus coal from Sasan’s captive mines to other projects. (ET)

TCS bags a 5 year contract from Volkswagen to deliver IT transformation and support services. (ET)

SBI cuts deposit rates by 50bps. (ET)

L&T, Siemens VAI, SMS Siemag and Paul Wurth and other 8 companies have evinced interest for 9 turnkey contracts of NMDC’s Rs140bn steel plant. (FE)

Suzlon cancels its plan to repurchase bond amounting to US$166mn. (FE)

Suzlon’s promoters sell 2% stake in the company to raise Rs2.3bn. (Mint)

DLF plans to raise Rs100bn in the next 2-3 years through sale of its treasury investments, land parcels and real estate projects. (ET)

DLF may sell 66% in Hindoostan Mill for Rs3.1bn. (ET)

DLF promoters sold 9.9% stake for Rs38.6bn to buy out hedge fund DE Shaw’s investment in DAL and infuse fresh capital into it. (Mint)

DLF has exited the troubled Rs330bn public-private partnership township project at Dankuni in Hooghly district of West Bengal. (BS)

DLF promoters plan to list DAL in 18-24 months. (BS)

Unitech, Omaxe and Raheja Developers are waiving penalty on late payments so that customers do not quit. (BS)

Auto ancillary suppliers associated with the Nano project want Tata Motors to guarantee their loans for investing in Sanand. (BL)

Maruti is in talks with Reliance Industries and GAIL on the availability of natural gas and possibilities of more fuel stations. (BL)

M&M to offer trucks with 16-44 ton capacity by the end of this year. (BS)

Britannia has taken full control of the Bangalore based bakery foods retailer Daily Bread. (ET)

Godrej Consumer Products may consider a price hike in September following strong demand. (BL)

UltraTech does not intend to rein in expansion plans. (BS)

Max India is raising Rs1.5bn through preferential allotment of shares to IFC. (ET)

Lupin plans to increase its stake in Generic Health Pty Ltd, a major generics drug supplier in Australia, to over 50% in order to gain a major share of the growing Australian market. (BS)

AB Nuvo plans to deploy Rs10bn of surplus cash from its value business into growth businesses. (FE)

Educomp bags Rs838.2mn from the Gujarat government for introducing computer aided learning. (FE)

Usha Martin will achieve increased steel manufacturing capacity of 700,000 tons by June and 900,000 tons by March ‘10. (BL)

Maharashtra Seamless has deferred its plans to set up two separate steel plants by almost two years. (ET)

PE firm Actis plans to reject Swaraj Mazda’s rights issue. (ET)

CC&C Ltd bagged Rs1.8bn order as a part of the runway expansion at the Chennai airport. (BL)

FDI inflows during October ’08 - March ’09 stood at US$11bn even as foreign investors pilled out US$8.3bn during the same period. (ET)

Government plans to develop a National Gas Highway network to ensure supply across the country. (ET)

NHAI launches tax free bonds to raise Rs40bn. (ET)

India’s trade with US dipped 23% to US$8.2bn in January-March ’09. (ET)

A committee set up to resolve the controversy on spectrum allocation to the operators asked the government to allow them to share it among themselves for a fee. (ET)

Ministry of Communications plans to bring on a uniform levy regime for all the telecom companies. (ET)

TDSAT today allowed the broadcasters and direct-to-home service operators to negotiate for channels provided on DTH platform as add-on packages. (BS)

FICCI has sought reduction in corporate tax rate to 25 per cent and reintroduction of investment allowance, besides continuation of tax holiday benefits for housing, telecom and power sectors. (BL)