Daily News Roundup - Apr 20 2010

The Government is considering divesting 10% stake in the state-owned National Aluminium Company (NALCO). (BS)

L&T to bid for airport projects in West Asia. (BL)

ArcelorMittal in talks with Delhi-based Ferro Alloys Corporation (Facor) for a strategic stake. (BS)

BHEL has bagged contract of Rs63bn from Raichur Power Corporation Ltd’s for setting up a 1,600 mw supercritical power plant in Karnataka. (FE)

GMR group is planning to raise an additional US$100mn from a group of private equity companies, led by Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, to fund its expansion plans. (BS)

Siemens to invest Rs5bn for wind turbine manufacturing facility in Gujarat. (BS)

Bajaj Auto has increased its stake in Austrian power bike maker KTM further to 35.7% from present 31.9%. (FE)

Cipla has developed three low-cost generic medicines to treat blood pressure, allergic rhinitis and control excessive bleeding in women during delivery. (BS)

United Spirits plans to expand into Southeast Asia and Africa by buying distilleries as it seeks to bolster its position as the world’s second-biggest seller of alcohol. (ET)

JSW has beaten two South African bidders to acquire a majority stake in South African Coal Mining Holdings (SACMH) at a price of 85.4mn rand (~Rs511.6mn). (BS)

Coal India Limited (CIL) has fallen short of its targeted coal supplies to consumers in sectors like power, steel and fertilizers during April-February 2009-10. As against the 281.8mn tons which was to be supplied by CIL to the power sector, the coal major managed to supply 270.2mn tons, thus falling short of the target by 4.1%.(BS)

Philips has outsourced its entire TV business, including manufacturing, distribution and selling, to Videocon industries. (BS)

Shree Renuka Sugars has been insisting for at least 8% more equity in the Brazilian firm, Equipav. (ET)

Jay Shree Tea & Industries is close to acquiring tea estates in Uganda and Rwanda. This overseas acquisition is expected to lift production from 23.5mn kg to nearly 29mn kg in 2010-11. (ET)

Coal India is expected to seal deals worth US$1.8bn with foreign firms in the next two months for mining coal abroad (ET)

The government would rake in a minimum of over Rs240bn from the auction of third generation (3G) spectrum on the eighth day as the pan-India licence reached a bid of Rs60.7bn, up by about 73% from the base price of Rs35bn. (BS)

Government has managed to add over Rs96.5bn in 2009-10 as non-tax revenue from the oil exploration companies. (BS)

The sugar production in Uttar Pradesh for the 2009-10 crushing season is likely to fall short of 5.2mn tons as earlier projected. (BS)

Credit growth surpassed the RBI's projection of 16% in FY10 mainly on account of public sector banks reporting robust growth in lending. (BL)

A key committee of Parliament has said that the proposed Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) should be constituted at the earliest to address the inter-regulatory issues in the financial sector, creating pressure on the government to make the council some sort of a super regulator. (ET)