Daily News Roundup - Dec 14 2009

Vodafone Group plans to offload its 4.39% indirect holding in Bharti Airtel. (ET)

ONGC has sought levy of windfall tax on any crude oil price of over US$60 per barrel to pay for fuel subsidies. (BS)

BHEL is in talks with L&T and Pipavav Shipyard to jointly build off-shore oil rigs. (BS)

Reliance Infra bags Rs10bn Kandla-Mundra road project in Gujarat. (BS)

Government has initiated the process of divesting a further 8.4% stake in NMDC through a fresh public offering. (BL)

Tata Steel is in talks with international investors to raise at least Rs50bn through equity and an equivalent amount through debt. (DNA)

ONGC lost a bid to acquire a large oilfield in Iraq to a consortium of Chinese, Malaysian and French energy firms. (ET)

Taro Pharmaceutical asked its shareholders to reject a takeover bid by Sun Pharmaceuticals ahead of its AGM on December 31. (ET)

ACC plans to review its decision of scaling down the company's ready-mix concrete business and recommence the expansion plan by the middle of 2010. (BS)

GAIL (India) is looking at the D6 block and re-gasified LNG as probable sources of gas for its ongoing Dabhol-Bengaluru and Kochi-Kanjirkkod-Bengaluru-Mangalore pipeline projects (BL)

Tata Power to commission first unit of Dagachhu in 2013. (BS)

DLF is set to merge the real estate investment trust DLF Assets into itself. (FE)

SAIL and Tata Steel have submitted to the government a joint proposal asking to be allocated Coal India long-neglected coking coal mines. (DNA)

DLF, which was in talks with Brussels-based GDF Suez Energy International and Akuo Energy International for selling its wind mill business, is set to seal the deal by the month-end. (DNA)

Aditya Birla Group to hive off financial services business. (FE)

Procter & Gamble agreed to buy Sara Lee’s air-care brands, including Ambi Pur, for about US$700m. (ET)

Apollo Tyres plans to increase tyre prices by up to 10% by this month end. (ET)

Parsvnath Developers has raised Rs750mn by selling 50% stake in a housing project to US-based PE firm Sun Apollo. (ET)

Jindal Power plans to invest Rs650bn in new power projects and part of the financing for these would be done through its up to Rs100bn IPO. (ET)

The Tiruchi unit of BHEL plans to consider four-five companies as candidates for acquisition. (BS)

Power Finance Corporation plans to raise US$300mn through external commercial borrowings. (ET)

Shree Renuka Sugars in preliminary talks to acquire Balrampur Chini. (ET)

Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd inks pact with Torrent Power to develop a 1000MW coal-based power plant at Pipavav in Amreli district of Saurashtra region. (BS)

PNB plans to open 100,000 biometric ATMs by 2013. (BS)

JK Lakshmi Cement plans to set up a cement factory at Jharli in Jhajjar district of Haryana. (BS)

Vodafone Group plans to list its Indian arm and was open to acquisitions when opportunities are available in the country. (BS)

VW-Suzuki plans to carry out hybrid car R&D in India. (FE)

PTC to acquire coal assets abroad. (FE)

ONGC plans to raise US$1bn to service Imperial loan. (BS)

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer it temporarily suspended operations at its factory in the industrial estate of Dowlaiswaram in Andhra Pradesh, due to political unrest. (BS)

Merck Inc said it had no immediate plans to delist its newly-acquired subsidiary, Fulford India. (BS)

BSNL today became the first company in the country to start wireless broadband services and announced a tariff starting with Rs140 per month for rural areas. (DNA)

The government plans to work out a new subsidy formula to replace the current system of compensating the oil marketing companies for selling below cost through issue of oil bonds. (ET)

India’s Industrial output expanded by 10.3% in the month of October from a year ago. (ET)

Import duty on equipments halved to 2.5% for mega power projects. (BS)

Foreign exchange reserves rose by US$651mn to US$287bn, for the week ended December 4. (BL)

Centre may allow private developers to use surplus land in housing projects under the Rajiv Awas Yojana for commercial activity, according to the Union Minister of State for Urban Development. (BL)

Government says there is no proposal to tax capital inflows in to the stock markets. (BL)

PSU oil marketing companies are projected to incur under recoveries of Rs455bn on the four petroleum products in 2009-10 based on the refinery gate prices of the first fortnight of December. (BL)

Goods and services tax under the new tax regime, would have four slabs and these are likely to be unveiled within 15 days, says Chairman of empowered committee of state finance ministers. (BL)

The government may delay its plans to introduce a uniform licence fee for mobile phone operators. (ET)