Daily News Roundup - Feb 8 2010

Tata Motors may reopen Nano bookings before December. (BS)

Larsen & Toubro is gearing up to enter the general insurance business with no plans of a foray into the life insurance space. (BL)

Reliance Industries gives a US$2bn acquisition proposal to Canadian oil-sand major Value Creation Inc. (BS)

After an uncertain three days of the NTPC's FPO, the issue was subscribed 1.2x on its last day, according to NSE data. (BL)

Tata Steel, Nippon Steel joint venture plans to invest US$400m to set up an automobile venture in India. (BS)

Mahindra Satyam wins two multi-million dollar contracts in South America to deploy enterprise business systems technology. (DNA)

Indiabulls Group plans to develop a 2500 acre SEZ at Sinnar near Nashik in association with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation. (BS)

Maruti looks to export Ritz to SE Asia, Middle East. (BS)

DLF looks to start construction work of Rs10bn Infopark project in the city by April 1 this year. (BS)

Tata Steel says steel sales from its Indian operations rose 9% in January to 0.6mn tons. (DNA)

US FDA has rapped Ranbaxy's US-based subsidiary, Ohm Labs Inc, for manufacturing an old `unapproved drug'. (FE)

NTPC plans to start on 500MW project in Sri Lanka by February end. (BS)

Maruti to produce over 1mn cars in 2009-10, says Suzuki. (FE)

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court orders a halt on any activity at DLF’s River Valley project in south Goa on February 1. (ET)

HUL may hike prices by mid-year. (TOI)

Shree Renuka plans to put in final bid for Brazil’s Equipav SA Acucar E Alcool. (ET)

McNally Bharat bags Rs 57-cr orders from Hindalco. (BS)

Istithmar PJSC, Dubai sold entire 13.05% stake in SpiceJet. Reliance Mutual, Birla Mutual and DSP BlackRock — and a FII together bought the offloaded stake. (BS)

TPG looks to acquire a majority stake in Vishal Retail for Rs2.5bn. (BS)

Dishman Pharma receives USFDA nod for producing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) at its Naroda facility. (BS)

ICICI Prudential investment arm set to buy 40% in residential project of the Ansal API group in Ghaziabad. (BS)

BPCL plans to convert 60 ‘In&Out’ outlets into profit making ventures such as food courts and coffee shops by the next fiscal. (ET)

Inox Leisure purchased an additional 7.21% stake in Fame India through a block deal for Rs127.7mn. (ET)

Kingfisher Airlines hires Seabury Aviation & Aerospace, US to advise on its restructure plans. (BS)

Reliance Media objects to Inox’s Fame acquisition at Rs 44 a share. (ET)

Electrotherm India is looking at exporting its Yobykes to developed countries like the US and in Europe. (BS)

Graphite India has lined up investments of Rs4bn over the next one year for capacity expansions and setting up a thermal power plant in Durgapur, West Bengal. (DNA)

Eveready mulls Rs1.5bn acquisition of a FMCG firm. (FE)

BSNL says that it has rolled out 3G services in 318 cities with 0.9mn subscribers. (BL)

Foreign exchange reserves fell US$1.98bn to US$280.95bn during the week ended January 29. (BS)

PM signals further opening of retail trade to curb price rise. (BL)

Government plans to set up an exclusive Rs30bn pharma fund to promote innovation, R&D in drug discovery. (BL)

Cap on FDI needing cabinet nod raised. (TOI)

The long awaited reform of India’s indirect taxes system is set to get a major fillip, with a broad consensus forming within the finance ministry on a rate of 16% for the proposed GST for both Centre and states combined. (TOI)

The government has decided not to take any fresh initiatives to discuss mergers and acquisitions among public sector banks. (BS)