Daily News Roundup - Oct 20 2010

Reliance Industries will shut a crude distillation unit (CDU) for scheduled maintenance at its 660,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) for around a month starting November. (BS)

NMDC has been offered coal mines in Russia's Siberian region for US$400mn by Intergeo. (FE)



The environment ministry has decided to halt the plans of Vedanta Alumina to expand its Rs46bn Lanjigarh refinery in Orissa. (ET)

Larsen & Toubro has won an order worth Rs14.5bn from Bhaskar Group’s DB Power to supply and erect balance of plant package for a 1,200-mw power plant in Chhattisgarh. (ET)

Sesa Goa is talking to the Orissa-based Ahluwalia family to renew a mining agreement that will enable Sesa to expand its capacity to five million tonne (mt). (ET)

Sesa Goa said it will respond by this week to the latest Sebi query on making open offer to acquire up to 20 per cent stake in Cairn. (BS)

Indian Oil Corp said its Rs298bn Paradip refinery in Orissa will be commissioned by March 2012 and will cater to domestic market. (ET)

Indian Oil Corp is planning a follow-on public share offer to raise about Rs190bn. (BS)

Indian Oil Corp Gujarat refinery to process Cairn crude from November. (BL)

Bharat Petroleum Corp said it has made a second natural gas discovery in a block off Mozambique. (ET)

Britannia Industries entered the baked snacks category with its brand, Time Pass. (ET)

Public offers of three blue chip companies SAIL, Indian Oil and ONGC will hit the capital market in the last quarter of the current fiscal. (BS)

Rural Electrification Corp has raised the coupon rate on its planned bond issue to raise at least Rs5bn to 8.8 per cent from 8.7 per cent. (BS)

Ceat has expanded the production capacity at its Nashik plant by 1,000 tonnes per month. (BS)

Natco Pharma said American pharma company Celgene Corporation has filed a lawsuit against it in the US seeking to prevent it from marketing generic Lenalidomide capsules used to treat cancer. (BS)

Opto Circuits India has entered into a merger agreement with US-based cardiology device maker Cardiac Science Corporation. (FE)

Rolta India said it has acquired maritime security solutions from The Mariner Group based in the US. (FE)

Future Capital Holdings said it acquired Mauritius-based Anchor Investment & Trading Pvt Ltd to expand in the international market. (BS)

Power Grid Corp of India has raised coupon limit on its 15-year bond to 8.85%. (FE)

Rico Auto plans to invest Rs850mn to set up three new plants over two years. (BL)

Direct tax collections rose 19% in the six months to September. (ET)

A ministerial panel on roads today approved a proposal for an agreement between India and Malaysia on highway projects, road transport and highways. (ET)

The Centre today constituted the standing committee of the National Integration Council (NIC) with Home Minister P Chidambaram as its chairman and four Union Ministers and nine Chief Ministers as members. (BS)

The Government today said it will take on board the concerns of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank before giving powers to CCI for vetting mergers of banks. (BS)

Telecom regulator Trai today said it would come out with the 2G spectrum pricing norms by the end of this month. (BS)