Daily News Roundup - Jan 18 2010

Lyondell creditors want audit of Reliance Industries bid appraisal. (ET)

Tata Motors reported an 84% jump in its global sales at 74,707 units for December 2008, compared to the corresponding month in 2008. (ET)

Suzlon Wind Energy, the international business arm of Suzlon Energy, has received its first order of Rs250mn from Sweden for setting up 4.2MW turbines. (BL)

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will soon take up the Steel Ministry's proposal to offload 10% stake in SAIL. (BL)

Mundra Port and SEZ will invest at least Rs10bn in the first phase of development of non-LNG port facilities at Hazira in Surat district of Gujarat, and commission the port in 2012. (BL)

L&T, Reliance ADAG and GMR are among the eight bidders who have filed qualification documents for the Rs121bn Hyderabad Metro Rail. (BL)

ONGC Videsh gets Cabinet panel nod to invest in Nigerian blocks. (BL)

DLF plans to exit from its mutual fund venture DLF Pramerica mutual fund by selling its entire stake to the overseas partner, the us-based prudential financial. (ET)

Suzlon in talks with lenders to recast Rs86.5bn debt. (ET)

Shree Renuka Sugars is in the race to acquire a majority stake in Brazil’s Equipav Group for an estimated US$300mn. (TOI)

Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, has received the SEBI nod to go ahead with its public issue. (BL)

L&T decides to put its heavy engineering SEZ near Surat on hold. (BS)

NMDC is in talks with ArcelorMittal for a possible joint venture. (DNA)

Power Grid Corp. might raise US$1bn through bonds next fiscal, to develop the transmission network of Tilaiya UMPP. (DNA)

Bharat Forge board approved raising US$150mn through equity-cum-debt issue for expansion into non-automotive areas like power and oil and gas. (ET)

Maruti Suzuki announced a marginal increase of up to 2% in prices. (BS)

HCC says ICICI Bank has invested Rs2.5bn in its subsidiary, Lavasa. (FE)

SpiceJet is mulling various fund-raising options to fuel its expansion plans. (ET)

Dalmia Cement is planning to raise Rs12bn by equity sale to part finance its plans to double capacity in four years. (ET)

Apollo Tyres expects its Chennai facility to start commercial production of truck, bus and passenger car radial tyres beginning February-March this year. (BL)

The Bombay High Court refused to grant interim relief to Kingfisher Airlines, which sought stay on a preliminary inquiry ordered against it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). (ET)

Jindal Stainless is planning to come out with rights or GDR issue with a size range of Rs3 to 5bn. (BS)

NTPC-NPCIL may get nod for nuke plant in 2-3 months. (BS)

PE firm 2i Capital sold 3% stake in Pipavav Shipyard for Rs1.1bn. (ET)

Wockhardt-Abbot deal gets high court go-ahead. (BS)

Crompton Greaves plans to buy companies to expand the company and add capacity. (BS)

IOC’s US$500mn five-year bond issue gets subscription of 13 times. (BS)

Dabur Ltd plans to re-expand its pharma research. (BS)

ABG Shipyard has acquired more than 15.23% stake in Great Offshore for Rs2.94bn through open offer route. (ET)

Hindustan Copper has decided to walk out of a pact with National Aluminium Co to jointly develop its Banwas copper mine in Rajasthan. (DNA)

Pyramid Saimira has moved the Securities Appellate Tribunal against SEBI's order which banned the company in November 2009 from trading in the Indian securities market for seven years. (BS)

Engineers India follow-on offer may hit market in July. (BL)

Reliance Retail to acquire three brands from Henkel India, namely Aramusk and Moloy soaps and Mahabringol hair oil. (ET)

Ruchi Soya Industries, one of the leading edible oil processors, announced a major farm land acquisition in Ethiopia for soybean cultivation. (BL)

BSNL floats tender for dedicated defence network. (BS)

Anil Ambani plans a takeover of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Hollywood studio. (BS)

Cement dispatches in December stood at 17.74mn tons, recording the highest sequential growth rate at 12.78%, whereas on the year-on-year basis, the growth was in double digits at 10.8%. (BS)

Foreign exchange reserves rose US$741mn during the week ended January 8 to US$284.3bn. (ET)

SEBI sends proposal to Finance Minister, wants STT cut by a third. (ET)

The Maharashtra government has decided to extend its policy of selling sugar at a subsidised rate of Rs20 per kg even to people above poverty line (APL) for another three months. (ET)

To ensure competition in the third generation mobile segment, DoT is likely to impose a ban on mergers between operators who win the auction to be held later this year. (BL)

Union Government has decided to limit the number of Ultra Mega Power Projects awarded to a single company to a maximum of three projects. (BL)

Oil firms may get Rs120bn compensation from Finance Ministry. (BL)

Cargo traffic at major ports up 5% in April-Dec '09. (BL)

After two months of price cuts, the state-run oil companies hiked ATF price by 6.5% in step with hardening international rates. (TOI)

DoT may halve 3G auction slots to two. (TOI)

Union steel minister says Central government wants to discourage export of iron ore to promote export of value addition and finished products. (DNA)

3G winning bid to be new base price for spectrum. (Mint)

CERC has issued new regulations fixing trading margins for inter-state trading in electricity. (Mint)