Daily News Roundup - Oct 21 2009

Sterlite Industries has got a leg-up in its takeover battle for bankrupt copper Tata Motors announced the acquisition of full control in Spanish bus and coach maker Hispano Carrocera by purchasing the remaining 79% stake in the foreign firm. (ET)

IOC announced a 1:1 bonus issue after a gap of six years. (ET)

PSU refiners HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil face Rs50bn monthly losses as crude oil hits US$80. (BL)

The Orissa chief minister urged the Union government for allocation of the entire 1,320Mw power to be generated from the proposed expansion units of Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) of NTPC to Orissa. (BS)

miner Asarco in the US as a district court in Texas has allowed it to argue for its amended bid of US$2.6bn which was earlier rejected by a lower court. (BS)

The 20% disinvestment in SAIL through a two phase follow on public offer would comprise of 5% divestment of the government equity and 5% fresh issue. (ET)

Lanco Infratech Ltd is all set to commission the first unit of Kondapalli expansion project, its maiden merchant power plant, by October-end, and first unit of imported coal-powered project at Udupi in Karnataka by March 2010. (BL)

Essar Group withdrew from the A$144mn bidding contest for Australian coal explorer Rocklands Richfield Ltd leaving JSPL’s offer of A$121mn the only one on the table. (FE)

Production at 60 auto component manufacturing units, except that of Maruti Suzuki, in Gurgaon-Manesar belt was severely affected after around lakh workers observed a day long token strike protesting the death of a striking employee of Rico Auto on Sunday. (ET)

HCC bagged Rs1.7bn order from Gujarat Water Infrastructure for water supply related works. (FE)

HCL Technologies has partnered with Varicent Software for providing the latters solution products in the Asia-Pacific region. (FE)

Reliance Infrastructure led consortium bagged Rs5.9bn contract from NHAI. (FE)

Company Law Board has allowed Mahindra Satyam to file its re-stated accounts by June 30, 2010. (ET)

Merger between Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam is likely to happen over the next three to four quarters. (FE)

Etisalat DB Telecom, a new entrant in the Indian telecom space yet to launch its services, has awarded a 5-year Rs7.5bn end-to-end outsourcing contract to Tech Mahindra, Aegis and Conflux. (ET)

Pipavav Shipyard has signed Rs5.1bn contract to build 12 offshore support vessels for ONGC. (ET)

Ess Dee Aluminium is close to making its first major global acquisition in Europe. (ET)

ABG Shipyard has raised queries about there being any connection between Great Offshore and Bharati Shipyard. (ET)

Sical Logistics has entered into an agreement with New Mangalore Port Trust to set up iron ore handling facilities. (ET)

Century Textiles plans to start commercial real estate development at its Worli mill land and will float a separate division to control it. (ET)

Indiabulls Power IPO is priced at the upper band at Rs45/share. (ET)

The Drug Controller General of India has allowed ~100 stores of Apollo Pharmacy to stock and sell oseltamivir phosphate a drug used in the treatment of H1N1 influenza. (FE)

ArcelorMittal has clarified that it has not deferred its Orissa plan by two years as speculated in different circles. (BS)

NMDC is ramping up diamond production at its existing mines, but will stop new exploration projects due to economic reasons. (BL)

Clenergen India Pvt Ltd, which has entered into a 15-year power purchase agreement with PTC India, plans to set up over 80 MW of biomass based power projects. (BL)

FGL Refractories, which made two overseas acquisitions in the past four years, one each in the UK (2005) and Germany (2008), is planning more such buys. (BL)

Rallis India plans to invest Rs2.5bn over the next three years to set up a new facility in Dahej, Gujarat. (BL)

Coca-Cola wins the legal battle against Bisleri International over Maaza. (ET)

Government plans to give small investors a 5% discount when it sells shares in three state owned companies. (ET)

A RBI panel has proposed a transparent pricing structure for floating interest rate loans where banks cannot manipulate the rate. (ET)

Overseas investors have insisted on higher interest coupons on FCCBs after some of the Indian companies failed to pay back on maturity. (ET)

Many small scale producers could come in the tax net under the proposed GST as the draft seeks to impose the new levy on units with a minimum annual turnover of Rs1mn. (ET)

The government has constituted an EGoM, headed by the finance minister, to allocate additional gas production from the KG Basin to new users. (ET)

Government companies, state owned mining corporations and tariff based power projects including UMPPs may be kept out of the proposed competitive bidding process for captive coal blocks, thus allowing them to get coal at below market prices. (ET)

The Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council expects industrial output to grow in double digits through the remainder of 2009-20. (FE)

New norms released as a measure to liberalise FDI flows in India had resulted in seven Indian banks being labeled as ‘foreign owned and Indian controlled’ thus severely restricting their existing downstream investments in sectors like insurance. (FE)

Communications and IT minister expressed his doubts whether the 3G spectrum allocation which is supposed to be held in 90 days can be concluded at all in this fiscal due to a shortage of frequencies. (FE)

CERC’s draft power market regulations envisage tighter prudential norms for power exchanges. (FE)

Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has proposed to cap coal exports at around 150mt a year in a bid to guarantee supplies for domestic power plants. (BS)

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is planning to set up a separate body called the Civil Aviation Authority of India to lay down the administrative guidelines for the industry. (BS)