Daily News Roundup - Aug 21 2009

Bharti - MTN deal is likely to be closed by mid September. (ET)

Tech Mahindra’s plan to raise upto Rs10bn via a QIP has received low interest from potential investors. (FE)

CERC dismissed the petition filed by Tata Power Trading Company, a subsidiary of Tata Power, seeking compensation for alleged unlawful termination of agreement by DVC. (FE)

GAIL has opposed $6.75/mnbtu price for Cairn India led JV for gas produced from the Ravva Satellite fields in the KG basin. (FE)

HDFC Ltd has no plans to dilute its stake in its subsidiary HDFC Bank as the regulator put an equity exposure ceiling of 20% in a company. (FE)

NTPC Ltd has tied up a long-term pact with GAIL (India) Ltd for supply of 2.5mmscmd of R-LNG at close to $6/mBtu. (BL)

NTPC appoints Macquarie as their consultants for acquiring coal mines in Indonesia. (ET)

Sterlite Industries ups Asarco bid by $500 m, revised bid will be $2.1 billion in cash. (BL)

Mahindra Satyam launched the ERP Shared Support Services as part of the company's current focus on expanding its footprint in the Middle East & North African region. (BS)

BHEL has supplied state of the art Speedtronic Mark-VI control system for the first Advanced-Class gas turbine to Gujarat State Electricity Generation Company, Hazira. (BS)

Cipla, Ranbaxy, Johnson & Johnson and Dr. Reddy’s may have to pay over Rs20.3bn to the government for overcharging consumers on price controlled medicines. (ET)

Moody’s cuts L&T’s outlook due to rising debt. (ET)

JSW Steel has postponed its fresh capital expenditure plan by one year as a part of its financial restructuring aimed at reducing debt. (ET)

DLF won the bid to acquire 350 acre land parcel in Gurgaon for Rs17bn in the first major deal in the past one and a half years. (ET)

Maruti Suzuki targets to export about 0.1mn units of its small car A-Star. (FE)

Bajaj Auto Fin to seek shareholders nod for MF biz and Finance infrastructure projects. (BS)

Wockhardt has completed the sell-off process of its animal health division to France-based Vetoquinol SA. (BS)

Posco plant to come up at its proposed site in Orissa. (BS)

REC plans to raise Rs2bn through private placement of shares with qualified institutional buyers. (BS)

ABG Shipyard plans to raise upto Rs4bn via equity or equity linked instruments to reduce its working capital loans and lower its debt-equity ratio. (FE)

Omaxe has received approval from Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority, UP for construction of a township with an investment of Rs2.5bn. (FE)

Tata Teleservices is flaunting its NTT DoCoMo connection to win enterprise-wide telecommunication deals from Japanese companies for Indian operations. (BL)

JSW Energy plans an IPO over the next two months to raise upto Rs30bn to partly fund its expansion plans. (FE)

Apollo Hospitals Group has set up a multi-speciality hospital in Moka, Mauritius through its JV with the British American Investment. (ET)

EIH awaits ITC’s proposal on the latters 14.98% investment in the company. (ET)

Sundaram Fasteners plans to foray into non-auto sector apart from expanding its auto component business. (ET)

Dredging Corporation of India plans to buy three dredgers for Rs17.2bn. (FE)

Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone plans to set up a second facility near Pune for an investment of Rs2bn. (BL)

Inflation stood at -1.53% for the week ended August 8, marginally higher than -1.74% recorded in the week before. (ET)

Finance minister approved the proposal that government owned and private companies should increase the public float by 5% annually until it reaches 25% of the shareholding in the hands of the public. (ET)

The dry spell in Maharashtra is leading to longer hours of power cuts of 1-3 hours. (ET)

Mobile companies add 14mn users in July. (ET)

Government and SEBI have asked states to waive off or rationalize the stamp duty on financial transactions executed electronically. (ET)

States will now be able to borrow an additional Rs210bn in the current financial year to fund infrastructure projects. (ET)

Government has proposed to extend the excise waiver and income tax holiday benefit to power projects based on supercritical technology, including large sized energy efficient power equipments. (ET)

Oil ministry is working on a new policy for the pricing of gas, part of which entails the government fixing the price of gas on a cost plus basis for the next couple of years. (ET)

Centre raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs100/quintal and that of pulses by Rs240/quintal. (FE)

Steel minister says that the iron ore pricing policy, both long term and spot market needs a relook. (FE)

Commerce ministry released a series of guidelines which seek to partially relax land acquisition norms for SEZs by state governments. (FE)

Government approves Rs7.5bn project for Kandla Port in Gujarat. (BS)

The government has approved the Rs1.5bn expansion of Rajmahal Coalfields to take the annual production capacity at its opencast mines to 17 million tons. (BS)

Seasonal rainfall has improved thus lowering the deficit by 3% to 26%. (BL)