Daily News Roundup - June 9 2009

Reliance Communications is close to awarding a US$500-600mn operations and maintenance contract to Foprench telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent. (BS)

Pfizer to buy RFCL’s animal healthcare division - Vetnex - from ICICI Venture for ~US$75mn. (ET)

Government may announce a seven year tax break to natural gas producers like ONGC and Reliance Industries. (ET)

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) defers United Breweries’ proposal to raise Rs7.08bn. (ET)

Areva T&D India has won four orders worth ~Rs3.5bn from Power Grid Corporation of India. (BL)

NMDC is likely to negotiate the current fiscal’s long-term contract prices for iron ore with Japanese and South Korean steel mills by July. (ET)

SBI plans to double branch network in Singapore in FY10. (ET)

PTC India plans to set up a US$1bn equity fund to finance power projects in India. (ET)

The Rajasthan government is firm on levying a 4% VAT on crude oil to be produced from Cairn India-operated RJ-ON-90/1 Block in the state. (BS)

The SC allowed TVS Motor Co to manufacture "Flame’, the 125 cc bike that has been caught in a patent dispute with Bajaj Auto since last year, but stipulated that the finished two-wheelers could not leave the company’s warehouse. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki, posted higher revenues from the US than that of the Japanese car-maker during FY09. (BS)

Promoters of Indage Vintners plan to increase their stake in the company to 35% from existing 28%. (ET)

Pantaloon Retail India plans to raise Rs10bn through issuance of securities to various investors. (ET)

Reliance Communications has bagged Rs1.3bn Wide Area Network (WAN) contract from global consultancy major Mott MacDonald. (BS)

TRF, a Tata Steel arm is targeting the merger and acquisition route in a bid to notch up a five-fold revenue growth. (ET)

Hindustan Unilever has postponed its plans to sell 49% stake in its BPO unit to Capgemini SA from March 2009 to March 2010. (ET)

FIPB has cleared the Hyatt group’s proposal to set up hotels in India with its realty firm Emaar MGF at an investment of Rs1.5bn. (FE)

Jet Airways plans to cut domestic flights by 10%. (ET)

Jindal Stainless’ proposal to set up a 1000MW (2x500Mw) power plant will require fresh approval of the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) following change of site of the project. (BS)

Central Bank of India has put non-performing assets (NPAs) with a total outstanding amount of Rs1.02bn on sale to clean up its balance sheet. (BS)

PTC India plans to buy mines in Australia and Indonesia. (FE)

Tata Communications and Qatar Telecom have signed deal for infrastructure sharing. (ET)

DCB has slashed deposit rates by up to 0.5% across different tenures with immediate effect. (ET)

Omaxe Ltd plans to raise Rs18bn. (FE)

Dish TV promoters have sold 5.8% stake in the company to raise ~Rs2.7bn. (ET)

IDBI Bank, JSW Steel, United Phosphorous, Cummins India and Educomp Solutions would be included in Nifty Midcap 50 Index w.e.f. June 26. (ET)

Lanxess India to acquire assets of Gwalior Chem for Rs5.4bn. (BL)

Vodafone Essar’s plan to hive off towers has hit a hurdle with a government agency flagging the vexed issue of using a tax haven for such deals. (ET)

Aegis Ltd sets up a subsidiary Aegis Tech Ltd to offer end-to-end software solutions. (FE)

Chinese telecom vendor Huawei may be one of the interested bidders for picking up stake in the factories owned by State-run Indian Telephone Industries Ltd. (BL)

US-based consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion to buy additional 27.51% stake in Credit Information Bureau India (CIBIL). (ET)






RBI may standardize the way banks calculate their prime lending rates (PLR) and bar them from lending below their respective PLRs. (ET)

Government is examining a demand to abolish the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on equity transactions in the Budget. (ET)

Government has imposed a special duty on imports of compact discs-recordable (CD-Rs) from Iran, Thailand and Korea. (ET)

Nabard proposes to provide refinance of over Rs50bn to regional rural banks in 2009-10 at 4.5% p.a. (FE)

Public sector banks might look at further reduction in interest rates in order to boost credit demand. (BL)

International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects US$9bn loss in 2009 for global aviation sector. (FE)