Daily News Roundup - Feb 17 2010

Dutch firm Lyondell Basell Industries’ agreement with its creditors, that will help its emergence from Chapter11, could hit Reliance Industries plans. (FE)

Government has demanded another US$2.7mn from Reliance Industries towards royalty and profit petroleum payments on gas produced from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) D6 for the six-month period from April-September 2009, arguing that the company did not take into account the marketing margin it levies while calculating the dues. (ET)

Bharti Airtel said the acquisition of Zain Group's African assets would result in a total payout of US$9bn, which includes any loans payable by the operating companies to Zain Group. (BL)

TCS said it will review salary increment plans by this month-end, as signs of revival of demand in the sector get stronger by the day. (ET)

Entering the business of combat vehicles manufacturing for the defence sector, Tata Motors plans to bid to supply light bullet-proof vehicles to the Indian Army, with a possible order size of Rs3.5bn. (BS)

Tata Motors said it has cut production by about 5-10% in its commercial vehicle business since January due to shortage of key components like trucks/bus radial tyres. (BL)

Tata Motors plans to increase prices of its commercial vehicles by 1-2% from April when the new emission norms become effective. (ET)

Tata Motors is looking to offload stake in its finance arm, Tata Motors Finance. (ET)

Italian defence and aerospace manufacturer Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland and Tata Sons signed a JV to assemble AW119 helicopters in Hyderabad. (BS)

BHEL will sign a MoU with Japan's Toshiba Corp for a transmission and distribution joint venture to offer turnkey services in the country’s power transmission sector and set up focus on the distribution segment as well. (BL)

The ground-breaking ceremony for the 4,000MW greenfield thermal power project being taken up by NTPC in Bijapur would be held in March, with the first phase comprising of three units expected to commission by 2013-14. (BL)

Tata Steel could face industrial action in the latest tragic twist to the ongoing saga at its British division, Corus. (BL)

Wipro announced its tie up with Texas Instruments to offer services on Texas Instruments' OMAP processors. (FE)

The ongoing strike by contract workers at the Durgapur Steel Plant of SAIL, if continues for a few more days, could affect the plant's normal production of 6,700 tons of hot metal/day. (BL)

SAIL targets to commission its Rs150bn expanded production line at its Bhilai unit by the end of FY13. (ET)

The Aditya Birla Group plans to set up Rs10bn aluminium downstream project near its existing smelter at Hirakud where it envisages setting up a rolling mill to manufacture high quality aluminium flat rolled products and cans. (BS)

L&T announced that it has submitted a joint proposal with US defence technology firm Raytheon to upgrade India’s T-72 tanks. (BS)

L&T has lined up an investment of more than US$400mn to expand its ship building capacity, especially for defence, by mid-2011. (BS)

Tata Power and Korea East-West Power have entered into a pact to identify and execute operation and maintenance opportunities in power generation assets in Asia, the Gulf region and Africa. (BL)

Reliance Communications has placed an order to buy close to 2mn CDMA handsets from Huawei Technologies of China for about Rs3.4bn. (BL)

Jaiprakash Associates plans to invest Rs12.5bn in raising its clinker and cement manufacturing capacity at its existing facility in Himachal Pradesh. (BS)

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad here, developed and operated by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, is expecting to post operating profits in a span of two years. (BS)

REpower, in which Suzlon Energy holds a majority stake, bagged an order from Eole-Res SA of France to supply 26 wind turbines of 2MW each, generating a total capacity of 52MW. (FE)

Essar Steel said it is looking at increasing prices of its products amid higher input costs and improved demand by April-May this year. (FE)

Bharat Electronics Ltd has signed a follow-on contract with the Suriname Armed Forces for the delivery of Coastal Communication System Network server. (BL)

United Breweries is eyeing a 20% growth in its beer sales in the current fiscal, to touch 100mn cases by March 2010. (BS)

Jet Airways announced the commencement of its daily non-stop flights from Mumbai to Johannesburg from April 14. (BL)

Chennai Petroleum hopes the government will hike prices of petrol and diesel sufficiently to pay back refiners' investments in auto fuel upgradation. (BL)

JK Lakshmi Cement plans to set up a new plant in Gujarat with an investment of Rs10bn over the next 3-4 years to meet rising cement demand from the infrastructure sector. (ET)

TVS Motor launched its 110cc clutch-less TVS Jive in Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India launched its first mass segment bike, CB Twister, in Hyderabad. (BL)

Two major IT investors - MindTree Consulting and ICICI Bank, whose proposed projects in the city were put on the back burner for couple of years, seem to be gearing up to translate their plans into reality. (BS)

Spice Jet plans to expand its capacity in the domestic market as it gets delivery of four new aircrafts by end of this year and three next year. (FE)

MTNL plans to set aside 30% more capital expenditure for FY11, at Rs13bn. (FE)

Balaji Telefilms has gone for a corporate image makeover, unveiling a brand new visual identity (Alt Entertainment), with plans to diversify into movie and new media production. (ET)

Golden Tobacco said the board has approved an agreement with a builder to jointly develop its Vile Parle property in Mumbai. (ET)

United Bank of India has received the final clearance from SEBI for its IPO which is expected to hit the market in the last week of February. (ET)

Atlas Copco (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of Atlas Copco AB, plans to expand its product range in Construction & Mining segment. (BS)

The country’s largest insurer LIC said it would pump in about Rs100bn in the stock markets by March, taking its annual equity investment to Rs600bn this financial year. (BS)

The Union petroleum ministry plans to take up the issue of revising the price of APM gas with the Union Cabinet, with a recommendation for 44% increase in price retrospectively from April 1, 2009. (BS)

The Department of Telecommunications says it requires some time to decide on the 3G auction, while the Union law and finance ministries have cleared the way. (BS)

The Indian Sugar Mills Association has urged the government to withdraw the 20% levy in the new season starting October 1 and also discontinue with its policy of exempting imported sugar from stock holding limits. (BS)

The National Fibre Policy, aimed at restoring competitiveness of the domestic textile industry, is set to come into being early in the next financial year, 2010-11. (BS)

The steel industry expects the Centre to increase import duty on cold rolled and galvanised steel to 7.5% from 5% and withdraw the 5% duty on ferro alloys as most of these are not produced in India. (BL)

The Textile Ministry has sought Rs10.5bn additional allocation under the Technology Upgradation Fund in the Budget. (BL)

India and the 10-nation South East Asian trading bloc ASEAN are expected to widen their trade engagement by signing in October, a free trade agreement (FTA) that will cover services and investment. (ET)

SEBI has agreed to change the auction norms for follow on public offers to allow institutional bidders lower their bids in response to a request from the department of disinvestment. (ET)