Daily News Roundup - Aug 31 2009

The SAT dismissed a petition filed by a Bharti Airtel shareholder opposing an informal guidance by the SEBI exempting MTN Group from having to make an open offer to Bharti shareholders in the event of a merger of the two. (BS)

Reliance Communications has signed an agreement with S Tel, a new telecom operator, for sharing passive telecom infrastructure.(BL)

GAIL signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement for buying 2.6mn standard cubic meter per day of gas from Reliance Industries KG-D6 fields at government approved price of US$4.2 per mBtu. (BS)

CAG rejects Reliance Industries, BG audit records; says they don’t reflect its views declared during two meetings.(TOI)

The final hearing in the row between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources regarding supply of gas from the KG basin will start in the Supreme Court from October 20.(BL)

USFDA clears all the nine manufacturing deficiencies pointed out in Cipla’s facilities. (ET)

TCS secured an order in Saudi Arabia for executing an Oracle ERP implementation project. (ET)

Suzlon Energy is in discussions with a consortium of wind equipment component manufacturers in Belgium to sell off its gear box manufacturing subsidiary, Hansen Transmission. (BS)

LOOP Telecom shortlisted Tech Mahindra, Wipro and IBM for an IT outsourcing contract worth around US$400mn. (ET)

Government may divest 10% in SAIL thru follow-on issue.(BL)

The Supreme Court dismissed a special leave petition filed by Hoffman-La Roche challenging Delhi High court order of April that allowed Cipla to sell a generic version of lung cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib) in India. (BS)

ONGC decides to invest US$1.7bn by 2012 to develop two clusters of marginal fields off the Mumbai coast.(TOI)

Tata Motors has pledged its entire holding of over 10.4mn shares in Tata Steel, currently worth around Rs4.58bn. (ET)

M&M is likely to buy a manufacturing facility in the US for assembling its pick-up trucks. (ET)

TCS plans to double revenues from the domestic operations to US$1bn in the next 3-4 years. (ET)

Wipro has announced a strategic partnership with Lavasa Corporation to help the latter manage Information & Communication Technology services across Lavasa city. (BS)

Cipla has terminated its marketing agreement with Avesthagen and is looking at selling its 5.8% stake in the Bangalore-based company. (ET)

L&T is expecting orders worth Rs100bn from power, infrastructure and hydrocarbon sectors within a month. (BS)

GlaxoSmithKline is in talks with government for introducing its patented drug, Relenza, which is used for the treatment of Influenza A H1N1. (BS)

The government plans to disinvest 10% in Coal India Ltd in the first phase. (BS)

Mauritius based investment fund IPRO plans to pick up 10% stake in Ansal Properties & Infrastructure for Rs880mn. (ET)

Air India is likely to receive about Rs50bn as equity from the government over the next two years.(BL)

Bombay Dyeing has developed nearly 1mn square feet of land in Mumbai. (ET)

Government plans to divest 10% in NTPC.(TOI)

Dish TV plans to raise Rs10bn from foreign markets, issuing foreign currency convertible bonds in a month. (BS)

W L Ross & Co acquired 1.8mn ADRs of Mahindra Satyam from NYSE Euronext for US$4.6mn at an average price of US$2.5 per share. (BS)

Cadila Pharma plans to launch a one-of-its-kind typhoid detection kit this October. (BS)

Sicom Ltd sold a 4.8% stake in Maytas Infra over the past two days. (BS)

Mahindra Satyam is pursuing around 30 "large deals" and expects some of these to materialise during the current financial year. (BS)

L&T will sell its 6% holding in Mahindra Satyam by March.(BL)

Peninsula Land plans to raise Rs5.5bn through a qualified institutional placement.(DNA)

GSPC plans to sell a 5% stake to a private equity firm by October, and will take a call on its stalled IPO after this deal is finalized.(Mint)

CESC has acquired over 50% stake for Rs2bn in Dhariwal Infrastructure which is setting up a 600MW thermal power station at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.(BL)

KEC International receives orders worth Rs7.8bn.(DNA)

Maruti Suzuki India will soon increase its production capacity by at least 0.1mn vehicles.(DNA)

JSW Infrastructure, part of the JSW group, has lined up plans to raise its Jaigarh port capacity five-fold to 50mn tonnes.(DNA)

CESC plans to offload 20% stake in its loss-making subsidiary Spencer's Retail to private equity funds.(BL)

Karnataka Bank has reduced the rate of interest on domestic term deposits by 25-50bps on various maturities.(BL)

Indian Overseas Bank plans to raise an amount totalling to Rs8bn by issue of bonds on private placement basis. (ET)

JB Chemicals gets USFDA nod for its anti-allergic tablets. (BS)

United Bank of India to raise up to Rs5bn by diluting 15% of the government’s equity in an IPO by January 2010. (ET)

Foreign exchange reserves increased by US$932mn to touch $272bn for the week ended August 21.(BL)

UPA government is set to revise the growth target from 9% to 7.8% for the 11th five-year plan period.(TOI)

The Centre plans to spend around Rs310bn to support the state universities across the country to improve the quality of higher education. (BS)

Traffic handled at 12 major ports in the country has seen a 1.2% increase during the April-July period compared with the same period last year.(TOI)

Government has turned down a demand for imposition of safeguard duty on imports of certain steel and aluminum products.(BL)

Minister of Road Transport and Highways says that all corrections relating to the model concession agreements would be in place by September 30 to ensure investments by contractors.(BL)

Gujarat government is toying with the idea of rolling back the policy stipulating state PSUs to set aside 30% of their gross profit in favour of Gujarat Socio-Economic Development Society.(TOI)

Of the 36 ‘monsoon divisions’ 12 have achieved the normal average for this three-month period this year, IMD. (BS)