Daily News Roundup - Sep 2 2010

Reliance Industries has hiked its stake in hospitality firm EIH Ltd to 14.8%, taking the Mukesh Ambani-led firm a step closer to the threshold limit of 15% for making an open offer. (BS)

Jaguar Land Rover, a Tata Motors subsidiary, will launch a slew of entry-level cars, including a station wagon and a roadster, to boost volumes across markets. (ET)



ONGC, foreign arm ONGC Videsh is set to acquire shale gas assets in the US. (ET)

ICICI Bank seeks help from debt recovery tribunal in an attempt to recover dues from Subhiksha, which owes the bank over Rs1.5bn. (ET)

Bajaj Auto hiked his stake in the company through the open market purchase of 590,000 shares for Rs164 crore, as part of the promoters’ move to consolidate their holdings in the two- wheeler major. (BS)

ONGC has over a month to decide if it chooses to exercise its pre-emption or right of first refusal to block sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources. (BS)

Fortis Healthcare plans to launch an IPO for its diagnostics business unit, Super Religare Laboratories (SRL), in 2011. SRL had acquired the diagnostics business of Piramal Healthcare for Rs6bn in the first quarter of this financial year. (BS)

TCS, UK subsidiary has acquired Unisys Insurance Services, in lieu of which the company received business worth £250mn for the next six years. (BS)

Nalco is considering selling stake in its $3.9-billion aluminium project in Indonesia in lieu of acquiring equity in coal mines in the island country. (BS)

Reliance Broadcast Network, plans to raise Rs4bn through a preferential issue (BS)

Colgate Palmolive has received judicial approval to merge its wholly owned subsidiary, CC Health Care Products with itself. (BS)

JSW Energy has commissioned commercial operation of the first unit of 300 MW of the 1,200-MW (4x300 MW) thermal power project at Jaigad, Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. (BL)

L&T Power Ltd, a subsidiary of L&T, expects its Hazira facility to be fully commissioned by the end of this year. (BL)

Tata Chemicals, which early this year entered the water purifier market through manufacturing and marketing of low-cost microbial impurities removers, would expand its production capacities. (BL)

BSNL has once again scrapped its tender for buying GSM gear and has invited fresh bids for supplying equipment to support 5.5mn mobile subscribers. (BL)

Ranbaxy Laboratories has set up a new manufacturing facility in South Africa with an investment of US$30mn. The new facility will manufacture analgesics, cold, cough and flu preparations, anti-histamines, anti-hypertensive, CNS drugs, vitamins and minerals as well as a comprehensive range of over-the-counter medication. (BL)

Bombay High Court will examine on Thursday the Ernst &Young report on the erstwhile Sahara Airlines buyout by Jet Airways to decide the onus on payment of tax liability amounting to Rs1.1bn. (BS)

Bilcare completes Rs6.07bn acquisition of INEOS unit. (ET)

A third partner is likely to join NTPC and Bharat Forge in their joint venture for manufacturing power equipment. (BS)

Mundra Port is looking for a new partner to commission LNG terminal as the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) is yet to give a clear response about its participation in the project. (ET)

DCB increased its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 15.5%. (ET)