Daily News Roundup - Sep 23 2009

New takeover rules may make Bharti Airtel’s takeover of MTN even more expensive. (ET)

NTPC is set to ink an agreement with Reliance Industries to buy gas at the officially approved price of US$4.2/mmBtu. (ET)

IOC and Adani Energy combine has bagged rights to retail CNG to automobiles and piped gas to industries in Ghaziabad by quoting zero pipeline tariff. (FE)

ONGC to speed up exploration in western offshore, looks to hire an ultra deep-sea drill rig at a daily cost of ~Rs50mn. (BS)

Planning Commission study says ONGC and OIL gas prices are too low and they should be aligned to US$4.2/mmBtu. (BS)

Tata Steel Kalinganagar plant to start work on its 6mn ton greenfield steel project. (BS)

GAIL has signed contracts for sourcing of natural gas from PY-1 fields in the Cauvery basin. (BS)

DLF sold off the entire block of 1,250 apartments in the second phase of its Capital Greens project in West Delhi. (ET)

Axis Bank slashed interest rates by 150-200bps in the car loan segment over the past one month in select southern markets. (ET)

Axis Bank fixed the price for the sale of equity shares through the QIP route at Rs906.7/share. (BL)

Sterlite Industries, inorder to sweeten its bid for Asarco, offers to limit the extent of a lawsuit recovery from Grupo Mexico to US$900mn. (ET)

Vedanta Resources Plc has increased its stake in Sesa Goa by 2.12% through open market purchase. (FE)

Reliance Communication will seek regulatory approval to sell 10% stake in it is telecom infrastructure unit, Reliance Infratel. (ET)

Large companies are looking to tap the real estate revival with HUL and Mafatlal putting their real estate assets on the block. (ET)

Jaiprakash Associates is set to sell the second tranche of its treasury shares to raise US$200mn to finance its existing projects. (ET)

Tata Motors owned premium luxury carmaker Land Rover launched its compact SUV Freelander 2 in India. (ET)

Britannia plans to enter flavoured milk mart. (BS)

Cipla will sell ~4% of its equity to institutional investors to raise close to US$175mn to fund its capital expansion plans. (BS)

Blackstone will convert its 1.1mn compulsorily convertible debentures of Allcargo Logistics Global at its pre-set price of Rs934/share. (BL)

After facing stiff resistance from villagers at Khunti and Gumla of Jharkhand, Arcelor Mittal is seriously contemplating some alternative site for its 12mtpa project in the state. (ET)

Kingfisher Airlines seeks to raise US$80-100mn via a rights offer and another US$60-75mn via GDRs to repay its Rs60bn debt. (BS)

Astra Zeneca and US based Nektar Therapeutics have entered into a worldwide licencing agreement for two drug development programs. (FE)

Natco Pharma plans to sell 10mn capsules of Natflu for treatment of swine flu by the end of next month. (ET)

Patni Computers has identified two acquisition targets, one each in USA and continental Europe and hopes to close one by November. (ET)

Federal Bank has started due diligence of Catholic Syrian Bank for a merger proposal. (FE)

Dewan Housing Finance has raised Rs2.5bn through private placement of debt and plans to raise another Rs5bn through private placement of non-convertible debentures. (BS)

Pipavav Shipyard has fixed the issue price at Rs58/share. (ET)

Hinduja Group looks to establish a pan-India footprint in healthcare through its second 100 bed hospital in Mumbai. (BL)

Yamaha plans to enter the automatic scooter market in India in the next three years. (BS)

MERC has decided to draft rules that allow consumers to switch from one power utility to another. (ET)

RBI plans to allow banks to trade in loan portfolios bought from other banks and specialized financial institutions to meet priority lending obligations. (ET)

Asian Development Bank has raised India’s growth forecast to 6% in the current fiscal. (ET)

Government has levied a penalty of Rs320mn on mobile operators for failing to adhere to the subscriber verification norms in 2008-09. (ET)

Private terminal operators in major ports may soon get to independently decide tariffs for various activities like cargo and container handling and documentation. (ET)

SEBI amended the takeover regulations and offered the facility of anchor investors to IDR issues. (FE)

Draft code set to do away with review of double taxation pacts. (FE)

CERC says that for the derivatives market to function correctly the price discovery process in the spot market has to be robust. (FE)

Total funds raised by India Inc through ECB and FCCB have fallen by 45% to US$1.08bn during August 2009. (FE)

Punjab government has decided to defer the power tariff hike. (FE)

Road projects worth over Rs2.4bn in Himachal Pradesh, falling under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, have been cleared by the central government. (BS)