Daily News Roundup - May 25 2009

Areva T&D has won an order worth Rs1.1bn from the West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company.(BL)

Crompton Greaves eyes overseas acquisition.(BL)

Cairn India will begin commercial production of oil from the Rajasthan fields by mid-2009 for which sales talks are going on.(BL)

JSL has shelved its US$1.2bn JV project with Indonesia’s PT Antam TBK in the southeast Asian country.(TOI)

Bharti Airtel launches low-cost PC.(FE)

Welspun Power and Steel, which had signed the agreement to buy Vikram Ispat 11 months ago completes the takeover of the sponge iron business from Grasim Industries.(TOI)

Satyam has 10,000 excess staff, says Tech Mahindra.(TOI)

HDIL to raise $600m via QIPs.(FE)

Tata Group to invest Rs2k-cr in logistics parks.(FE)

Reliance Capital to offload 26% in its life insurance subsidiary.(FE)

Essar Energy plans to raise a debt of Rs4bn to fund its project to produce gas found on coal beds in its Raniganj block in West Bengal. (BS)

Parsvnath to raise up to Rs25bn through issuance of securities, including Qualified Institutional Placements. (BS)

Era Infra bagged a Rs810mn contract from the Central Public Works Department for development of flats in New Delhi. (BS)

Matrix Laboratories has assigned its right to purchase 1% equity in Astrix Laboratories to Mylan Luxembourg, another subsidiary of Mylan. (BS)

Reliance Retail to add 1mn sq. ft of space; will invest Rs5bn.(Mint)

Ranbaxy Laboratories Chairman, CEO and MD Malvinder Mohan Singh stepped down, within a year of its acquisition by Japanese giant Daiichi Sankyo.(DNA)

BHEL cancels all its overseas acquisitions plans.(Mint)

Tata Housing Development Company has partnered with Micro Housing Finance Corporation to provide easy housing finance to the lower income group for its housing initiative. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure to raise up to Rs43bn through issuance of 42.9mn equity shares to its promoters. (BS)

I-T authorities have slapped a tax liability of Rs3-4bn on DLF for understatement of income and fund diversion by the company. (BS)

Unitech sells more than a quarter of its launched projects in the first two months of the financial year. (BS)

Aurobindo Pharma expands its partnership with Pfizer Inc for supply agreements of solid dosage and sterile products for a number of emerging markets. (BS)

IOC plans to set up 40 retail outlets and 25 Kisan Seva Kendras in Orissa in 2009-10. (BS)

ONGC approaches the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons seeking permission to retain the Ambe field block, located off the Gujarat coast. (BS)

Dabur to foray into premium skin care. (ET)

ONGC to help fix price of Cairn’s crude from Barmer oilfield. (ET)

Reliance Industries and Essar Oil may not buy crude oil that Cairn India will start pumping from Rajasthan in the next few weeks. (ET)

Jharkhand government grants a prospecting licence to Tata Steel for the Ankua iron ore mines. (ET)

Apollo Hospitals received a notice from the Mumbai Enforcement Directorate seeking explanation on the end-use of the GDR issue. (ET)

Sobha Developers to hive off non-realty businesses.(DNA)

CESC to invest Rs80bn in two 1000MW plants.(DNA)

GMR Infrastructure plans to raise US$1bn to fund the next phase of its growth.(DNA)

Foreign exchange reserves fell by US$1.7bn to US$254bn for the week ended May 15.(BL)

Government announce portfolios for six of its Council of Ministers; Pranab Mukherjee retains finance portfolio.(BL)

RBI Governor has cautioned the new government that another fiscal stimulus package would exert pressure on the rising fiscal deficit.(BL)

DoT and the Ministry of Defence have finally signed the memorandum of understanding for vacating spectrum.(BL)

Government may extend duty-free white sugar import till Oct’ 09.(FE)

Petroleum ministry proposes a reduction in the customs duty on denatured alcohol and molasses. (BS)

Commerce Ministry has proposed a US$5bn trade finance facility to augment resources for the export sector.(BL)

Commerce ministry officials recommend removing the export ban on all agricultural commodities as surplus production keeps domestic prices under check. (BS)

Government to consider deregulating petrol and diesel prices, as also increasing rates of natural gas sold by state firms. (BS)

Finance ministry plans softening of FBT.(FE)

The outstanding credit-deposit ratio of scheduled commercial banks has dropped below 70%-the first time in almost three years.(BL)

The new UPA government plans to cap profits of crude oil producers such as ONGC, Oil India, RIL and Cairn India. (ET)

Civil aviation ministry has revived a proposal to allow foreign carriers to invest in domestic airlines by putting it on its new list of reforms. (ET)