Daily News Roundup - March 31 2010

Bharti Airtel closes deal to acquire most of African assets of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom. (ET)

Government intends to review the allocation of gas produced from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 field. (BL)

NMDC plans to increase iron ore prices by 70% for both domestic and export markets. (BS)

Hero Honda declared an interim dividend of Rs80 per share. (ET)

Hero Honda is looking to set up a Rs20bn manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh. (BS)

ITC has tied up with La Aurora to sell a mint based cigar in India. (ET)

Tata Motors sells 20% stake in Telcon to its JV partner Hitachi for a sum of Rs11.6bn. (ET)

Tata Motors reduced its debt by Rs15bn as a large section of its bond holders opted for conversion of bonds into share before maturity. (ET)

M&M is merging its two tractor JVs in China into a single entity. (BL)

GAIL has commenced supply of 0.33mmscmd of gas to Maruti’s Manesar plant. (BL)

Bank of Baroda raised US$350mn by way of 5.5 years senior unsecured bonds. (ET)

Crompton Greaves acquired a UK based company Power Technology Solutions for Rs2.04bn. (BS)

Jet Airways deposited Rs1.37bn in the Bombay High Court in relation with Sahara case. (ET)

Omaxe Ltd to raise Rs8bn through QIP. (BS)

JSL raised Rs2.5bn via sale of shares to qualified institutional buyers. (ET)

Pyramids Saimira to sell all businesses and investments to pay up Rs5.8bn high cost debt. (FE)

Bridgestone a Japanese Tyre major to invest Rs26bn at Chakan in Maharashtra. (BS)

Retail investors could be offer up to 10% discount on the issue price for future government disinvestments. (BS)

Rupee touched a 19-month high to 44.97 against the dollar. (BS)

Service tax on railway freight deferred by 3 months to July 1, 2010. (BS)

The telecom ministry has cleared all nine telecom companies to participate in 3G auction scheduled to commence on April 9. (ET)

Implementation of number portability has been postponed by three months to June 30. (ET)

RBI has released guidelines on how banks must classify capital in their balance sheets to ensure uniformity in reporting. (ET)

Cement prices are likely to increase by Rs7 from tomorrow. (ET)