Daily News Roundup - Oct 1 2009

Bharti Airtel and MTN have called off talks after the South African government refused to soften its stance on the proposed deal structure. (ET)

ONGC-Hinduja Group alliance lost the rights to develop Iran’s South Azadegan oilfield to CNPC of China. (FE)

Government may allow GAIL to charge marketing margin on APM gas. (FE)

With a warchest of US$2bn, Oil India plans to acquire crude oil producing assets or oil companies in Australia, South East Asia, Africa, Russia and South America. (FE)

Tata Power willing to use Reliance meters for supply to Mumbai. (BL)

Dr Reddy’s is recalling four of its drugs used to treat ailments such as allergy, depression and high cholesterol from the US market. (ET)

HCC ties up with UK based AMEC to jointly provide consultancy for execution of nuclear power plants in India and is eyeing an annual revenue of Rs50bn. (FE)

1st phase of Durgapur Steel Plant of SAIL will go onstream in October 2011. (BS)

ArcelorMittal to change location within Jharkhand for its 12mn ton capacity plant. (BS)

United Spirits expects to raise up to US$350mn either through private equity or qualified institutional placement to pre-pay debt related to acquisition of Whyte & Mackay. (BL)

Top three food companies, ITC, Britannia and Parle Products, plan to increase their presence in the Rs90bn branded biscuits market. (FE)

BHEL has expanded its presence in the CIS region by bagging its first export contract from the Republic of Belarus worth Rs2.7bn. (ET)

TCS has signed a two year multi million dollar deal with Singapore based People’s Association for application management services. (ET)

Siemens won two orders worth Rs3.6bn from Power Grid for setting up substations at Gaya in Bihar and Ranchi in Jharkhand. (FE)

Torrent Power to foray into wind, solar power generation with a capacity addition of 9,500MW in next 5-7 yrs. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki’s R&D center is close to developing a dual fuel engine, running on petrol and CNG. (ET)

Maruti Suzuki expects its September sales to jump by 30% due to robust demand during the festive season. (FE)

USFDA’s decision to defer approval of Cervarix, GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine for cervical cancer may affect the vaccine’s sales in India. (FE)

Israeli drug firm Taro Pharmaceuticals has filed a lawsuit in the US district court against Sun Pharmaceutical alleging violation of non-disclosure agreement and misleading shareholders. (ET)

Reliance Communications announced its partnership with Microsoft for offering Windows Mobile solutions on its wireless networks. (FE)

Opto Circuits’ subsidiary, Criticare Systems, entered into an agreement with US based company to provide anesthetic gas monitoring technology. (FE)

MindTree launched its new multi-channel commerce solutions designed to help retailers adopt a more customer centric strategy. (FE)

Parsvnath has joined hands with private equity players to finance three of their projects. (FE)

Orchid Chemicals targets to become US$1bn in next 3 years (BS)

Dhabol has started to buy natural gas from Reliance Industries to cut electricity generation cost. (FE)

ICSA eyes 60% revenues from infrastructure services. (BS)

Harrisons Malayalam turns to engineering, construction to diversify its operations. (BL)

Reliance Infratel is talking to its existing shareholders in an attempt to rope them in as anchor investors in their forthcoming IPO. (ET)

Tata Teleservices and BSNL signed a 15 year infrastructure sharing deal across the country. (ET)

DB Realty has submitted the prospectus with SEBI to raise Rs15bn by selling 10% stake through an IPO. (ET)

Glenmark Generics, the generics arm of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, filed the draft prospectus with SEBI to raise Rs5.5-6bn from the primary market. (ET)

Emaar MGF and Sahara Prime City too have applied to SEBI for raising funds from the market, taking the total amount to be raised by realty companies to Rs110bn. (ET)

The government has consented to 10% divestment in MMTC, which can fetch it Rs170bn, and also plans follow on public offer of either NTPC or REC. (FE)

Satyam has sought time till March to restate its financial statements. (FE)

Shipping Corporation of India said it has put its plans to acquire vessels on hold. (FE)

CMPDIL, a subsidiary of Coal India, will invest over Rs1bn for acquiring advanced drilling equipments in the next two years. (FE)

Mr. H. M. Nerurkar will take charge of Tata Steel from Mr. B. Muthuraman. (ET)

Gee Kay Finance & Leasing buys Sigrun Realities for Rs3.4bn. (BS)

Marg gets board's nod to raise Rs30bn. (BS)

Air India pilots called off their strike after reaching a compromise with the management over a cut in incentives. (ET)


India’s balance of payment position improved considerably at the end of the first quarter as a slowdown in imports narrowed the current account deficit. (ET)

India’s fiscal deficit rose 35% in the first five months of the fiscal as the government continued tax cuts and increased public spending. (ET)

India’s external debt rose marginally by US$3.7bn during Q1 FY10 to US$227.7bn. (ET)

The government introduced an interest rate subsidy scheme that could help a home loan borrower save upto Rs10,000 in monthly payments. (ET)

State owned oil firms have slashed jet fuel prices by 2.1% in line with softening international rates. (ET)

India and Russia have decided to encourage high level bilateral investments in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, energy, IT, high technology co-operation, agro processing and gems and jewellery. (ET)

The Forwards Market Commission has taken strong objection to the introduction of term ahead contracts by IEX and PXI. (FE)

Despite strong demand and infrastructure spend, cement prices have fallen Rs60 per 50kg bag in some regions. (FE)

Government has increased the time frame for commodity exchanges to comply with the restriction of 5% stake by a foreign individual investor till March ’10. (FE)

Inflated estimates push down cost overruns for infra projects. (BS)

The CBDT has given effect to the budget declaration to tax all gifts in kind above Rs50,000 from October 1. (ET)