Daily News Roundip - Jan 27 2010

Murli Deora seeks to resolve the issue of payment defaults on the pipeline ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) built in the African nation.

Mahindra Satyam plans to recruit 2,000 professionals, a mix of freshers and lateral hiring. (BS)

DLF is likely to complete the sale of DT cinemas to PVR Ltd in a fortnight. (BS)

L&T and Malaysia’s Scomi Group are expected to commission the first phase of Mumbai Monorail by the end of this year. (BS)

Essar Oil is looking to expand the capacity of its refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat, to 18mn tons, 12.5% more than the original plan, at the same project cost of Rs78bn. (BS)

NMDC will offer 332mn shares, constituting 8.38% of its equity, through its follow-on public offering. (BL)

PGCIL is set to float its overseas subsidiary by early next year to tap the opportunities outside the country. (BS)

Jet Airways board has given in-principle approval for an investment of up to 26% in the share capital of MAS GMR Aerospace Engineering Company. (BL)

Indian Hotels has offloaded its stake in ELEL Hotels & Investments Ltd, which owned Sea Rock Hotel in Mumbai. (BL)

Bajaj Hindustan plans to use its robust cash flow from the sugar business to set up hydro power projects. (BS)

The Union Government is keen to resolve the land acquisition and regulatory hurdles for Posco's Rs540bn project in Orissa, within 4-5 months. (BL)

ARCIL will convert Rs0.3bn of Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation debt into equity. (BL)

HDFC has invested around Rs 0.4bn in back-office services provider Intelenet Global Services. (ET)

Haldia Petrochemcials is set to reopen its operations by month-end, with higher ethylene capacity. (ET)

MTNL has revived its plans to enter the overseas market to overcome competition and declining revenues. (BS)

Hotel Leela Venture would raise up to US$130mn through a mix of issue of equity shares via QIPs and/or FCCBs. (FE)

The boards of NMDC and REC have approved the filing of their respective draft red herring prospectus with Sebi for their follow-on offer. (FE)

The finance ministry has rejected the two-rate goods and services tax (GST) structure proposed by the states, adding further doubts to the April 2010 deadline for the roll-out of a unified indirect tax system for Indian states. (BS)

The Centre has provided flexibility to telecom companies on the issue of tapping external commercial borrowing (ECB) for payment of spectrum allocation. (BL)

The government is likely to extend the 2% interest subsidy given to exporters on rupee export credit from March 31 to December 2010. (BS)

With private players deliberating on investing in infrastructure projects, nearly half of the projects for capacity expansion at ports, scheduled for awarding this year, are likely to spill over into the coming financial year. (BS)

Leading IT companies bet big on the various e-governance projects in the country as different state governments take up projects to streamline governance and administrative procedures using IT. (BL)

Moody's has changed the fundamental credit outlook for the Indian banking system to stable from negative that was assigned in January 2009. (BL)