Daily News Roundup - Sep 7 2009

ArcelorMittal plans to become co-promoter of Uttam Galva Steels. (ET)

L&T is in talks to buy a thermal coal mine in Australia for about US$300mn. (ET)

NTPC moves to Supreme Court challenging Bombay High Court’s decision that allowed Reliance Industries to amend its petition on the gas dispute citing government’s pricing policy. (BS)

Aban Offshore may get contracts for more offshore rigs.(BL)

JSW Steel has reported a 53% growth in crude steel production in August, its highest-ever monthly crude steel production.(BL)

Patni joins TCS, Infosys and IBM in competing for a share of the lucrative domestic IT market. (ET)

Wipro plans to soon start offering complete IT solutions to mining and natural resource companies. (ET)

Bayer, failed to get a court stay on Cipla from seeking permission to launch the cancer treating drug, Nexavar, in India. (ET)

The proposed health insurance JV between Religare Enterprises and Swiss Re has fallen through. (ET)

Wockhardt plans to sell its key marketing divisions in a bid to ease its debt burden of Rs34bn. (ET)

SBI has cut deposit rates by 25bps for 1,000-day deposits with effect from September 8.(BL)

Tata Power plans to bid for more ultra mega power projects but wanted complete transparency in bidding documents. (BS)

ONGC Videsh to seek CCEA nod for 27% more capex in Brazil. (BS)

Foreign investment regulator rejects a plea by Zenotech Laboratories seeking the withdrawal of its earlier ruling that allowed Daiichi Sankyo to acquire a 20% stake in the open offer. (ET)

L&T eyes orders of over Rs120bn in a month. (ET)

RCF plans to spin off the third phase of its Thal unit in Maharashtra into a separate company. (ET)

Aditya Birla Group plans to increase its investment in Egypt. (ET)

Bajaj Auto is looking at building a factory in Egypt. (ET)

Kaya, the skin care services venture of Marico is making foray into Bangladesh. (ET)

Virgin, Spice Keen On Bidding for MTNL’s 3G bid call. (ET)

Bhushan Steel arm acquires a 60% stake in Australian exploration company, Bowen Energy. (BS)

Aban Offshore is in talks with SBI and other public sector and private bank lenders for restructuring its Rs130bn loan. (BS)

Vijaya Bank expects to receive Rs7bn as recapitalisation from the government by the end of third quarter. (BS)

India Infrastructure Finance has set for the current fiscal a disbursement target of about Rs110bn.(BL)

ONGC Videsh and its partners Indian Oil Corp and Oil India would invest around $5 billion in developing a gas field discovered in offshore Iran.(FE)

Nagarjuna Construction Company to raise Rs3.7bn via QIBs.(BL)

Maruti Suzuki plans to shift car production from its Gurgaon plant to the new facility at Manesar in a phased manner. (BS)

ONGC Petro-additions Ltd plans an IPO by 2011 and plans to dilute 25% of equity for an overseas partner. (BS)

United Spirits to invest Rs1bn in capacity expansion over 3 years. (BS)

Patel Engineering forays into power, to set up plants in Arunachal, TN over the next three years. (BS)

The government is considering listing BSNL on bourses by issuing nominal fresh shares and may shelve plans of directly divesting its equity for the time being. (ET)

Tata Teleservices again approaches the government for airwaves to roll out its GSM service in Delhi immediately. (ET)

Crompton Greaves says its subsidiary has entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia based-EIC Group to form a JV company to manufacture transformers.(FE)

Morgan Stanley may sell Indian back-office operations. (ET)

HDFC Property Ventures and Temasek are in talks to invest about Rs6.25bn in Prestige Estates Projects. (ET)

FDI beyond 24% in micro units to require FIPB nod. (BS)

A proposal to increase the price of natural gas produced from fields to be submitted to the Cabinet soon for its approval. (ET)

India agrees to lend up to US$10bn to the IMF. (ET)

The blanket ban on foreign companies and individuals from certain countries to undertake hydel projects in sensitive border areas may soon be lifted. (ET)

The government extended the implementation date for mobile number portability to December 31. (ET)

Road transport and highways ministry is seeking a loan of $2.96bn from the World Bank to develop 5,937 kms of highways. (ET)

New SEBI norms reduce public issue time to 10 days. (ET)

India’s total foreign exchange reserves rose US$4,405mn to touch US$276.4bn during the week ended August 28. (ET)

Sub-Brokers are likely to be exempted from the requirement of registering with the capital market regulator before starting their operations. (ET)

DTH industry opposes to hike foreign investment ceiling in direct-tohome distribution of telecast signals from the current 49% to 74%. (ET)

Pharma companies will require approval of central drug regulator Drug Controller General of India for exports

CERC has proposed a tariff cap of Rs11/unit for short-term power transactions on the two operational nationwide power exchanges and in the bilateral markets to rein in, what it called, runaway prices. (BL)

DoT is considering allowing telecom operators to exclude revenues from non-wireless services for the purpose of calculating spectrum charges.(BL)

General insurance industry grew at 14% in the month of July, riding mainly on sales of motor insurance policies.(BL)

SEBI cuts FII limit in gilts to Rs8bn.(BL)