News Roundup - Sep 16 2009

Finance Minister indicated India’s support for the proposed alliance between Bharti Airtel and MTN. (ET)

NTPC is exploring opportunities for acquisition of coal blocks or coal mines in South Africa, Indonesia, Mozambique and Australia. (FE)

Tata Motors may sell 10-15% in its subsidiary Tata Motors Finance to raise funds for reducing debt. (ET)

IOC sheds EoU status for the forthcoming refining project in Paradip, Orissa, as local demand for petroleum is more than global demand. (ET)

IOC, BPCL and HPCL picked up governments 10% stake in Oil India for ~Rs22bn. (ET)

A consortium led by ONGC Videsh has dropped its plans to produce oil from the Farsi block in Iran due to high sulphur content in the crude. (ET)

Biocon takes drug regulator, NPPA, to court challenging NPPA’s decision to fix and monitor prices of its diabetes product, Basalog. (FE)

Mahindra Satyam has added 32 new clients and is seeking an end to the eight year ban imposed by World Bank. (FE)

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rasied Rs4.1bn via issue of shares to institutional buyers on a private placement basis. (FE)

HCL Infosystems plans to raise Rs8.2bn via QIP. (FE)

Nalco is in talks with NPCIL to jointly set up a Rs120bn nuclear power plant in Orissa. (BS)

Pipavav Shipyard raised Rs920mn by private placement of shares to six anchor investors. (BS)

Reliance Communication and Atom Technologies, Financial Technologies arm, may ink deal for mobile commerce. (BS)

SAT has set aside SEBI’s ruling of Tata Tea paying non-compete fees to all shareholders of Mount Everest Mineral Water. (BS)

Wipro has signed a pact with Schneider Electric for industrial automation. (FE)

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is embroiled in a fresh patent infringement row with US based drug-discovery firm Albany Molecular Research. (ET)

Idea awarded US$50mn seven year outsourcing contract to IBM for providing technology. (ET)

Foreign lenders have threatened to block the US$130mn deal to sell Wockhardt’s nutrition business to US based Abbott as they are upset with the formers corporate debt restructuring package. (ET)

Elder Pharmaceuticals is in preliminary talks with US based PE firm T A Associates to sell upto 20% stake. (FE)

Asian Paints has started selling its 10% stake in ICI. (ET)

Essar Power has tied up Rs36bn for its forthcoming 1,200MW coal based power project at Salaya in Gujarat. (ET)

Reliance Industries has fixed September 29 as the record date for the proposed merger of Reliance Petroleum with itself. (ET)

Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Infrastructure have released 149mn pledged shares. (ET)

TCS stops variable pay for fresher recruits for the first six months. (ET)

Indian Energy Exchange on the first day of the launch of the term-ahead contracts transacted 3,800MWh. (FE)

Tata Metaliks has put on hold its proposed integrated steel project in Karnataka owing to losses it incurred in FY09. (FE)

Apollo Tyres has tied up with Mitsubishi to supply tyres as an original equipment partner. (FE)

Norwegian telecom major, Telenor, said that its Indian arm - Unitech Wireless - will suffer losses of Rs155bn in the first five years of operation. (ET)

Unitech Wireless raised Rs50bn from SBI to finance the roll out of its network. (BS)

Mumbai SEZ has sought extension for the third time for the validity of its in-principal approval granted in 2006. (ET)

Datacom Solutions, a new telecom licensee, has awarded US$400mn tower sharing contract to Aircel Cellular. (BS)

Consumer durable firms revive interest free finance plans for the festival season. (ET)

Air India cuts fares by 20-46% on select domestic routes for three days. (ET)

Corporate tax figures for July-September quarter show improved margins for several companies. (ET)

NASSCOM has projected that ~30,000-40,000 students will get absorbed by IT companies this year. (ET)

RBI governor said the central bank will not raise rates till the economy is back on high growth track. (ET)

Government will form an empowered group of ministers to fast track highway development projects. (ET)

Government issued Rs103bn oil bonds to three state run marketing companies. (ET)

Shipping ministry will sign 20-25 public private partnership agreements this year to boost port infrastructure. (ET)
Government said it would come up with a road map by November to help companies adopt International Financial Reporting Standards which will become operational by 2011. (FE)