Daily News Roundup - Oct 4 2010

L&T sells 28mn shares of Mahindra Satyam in the open market for ~Rs2.95bn last month. (BS)

Tata Motors plans to raise US$525mn through a QIP of ordinary and differential voting rights shares as part of its Rs47bn fund raising plan, aimed mainly at reducing debt. (BS)



Reliance Industries approached banks to help it raise at least US$1bn from a bond sale. (ET)

Reliance Industries informs the United States that it has stopped selling refined petroleum products to Iran. (ET)

Finance ministry has agreed to re-consider ONGC's request to reimburse the royalty it is paying to the Rajasthan government on behalf of Cairn India, its partner for the Barmer oilfield. (FE)

Government revives plan to offload SUUTI stake in Axis Bank. (FE)

REC has got approval from the RBI to raise FII stake limit in the company to 35% from existing 24%. (BL)

Videocon Industries’ Rs80bn thin film transistor liquid crystal display panel project in Navi Mumbai has hit a block. (BS)

SCI orders 28 new vessels, eight of which would be delivered in 2010, the government said. (BS)

Omnitech is eyeing a five-fold growth in topline at Rs10bn by 2013 fiscal and is close to sealing an acquisition in Holland by next month. (BS)

Hindustan Copper plans to reopen its closed copper mine at Singhbhum, in Jharkhand, by 2013. (BS)

Jindal Steel plans to start commercial production from the Shadeed Iron & Steel plant in Oman. (BS)

CESC is in talks to buy a 40% stake in an Indonesian coal mine. (DNA)

IOB raises its base rate by 25 bps to 8.5%. (BL)

Indian Bank raises its base rate by 50 bps to 8.5%. (BL)

Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, UP government and Reliance Power on a bunch of petitions filed by farmers, seeking CBI inquiry into the alleged acquisition of about 2,500 acre by force for a power project at Dadri. (BS)

Punj Lloyd said its subsidiary Sembawang Engineers and Constructors has bagged water treatment project contracts worth Rs6.1bn from Singapore's national water agency. (FE)

Essar Power and GMR are among the global bidders for a 450MW dual fuel power project planned by the Bangladesh government at Sirajgonj. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure starts the Rs19.85bn widening work on the 140-km Pune-Satara highway from October 1. (ET)

Nalco may set up IPPs at Jharsuguda, Kamakhyanagar, lines up Rs60bn Phase-III expansion plan. (BS)

The Supreme Court stayed a lower court order to close Sterlite Industries’ copper smelter at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu on environmental grounds. (BS)

Firstsource Solutions bags a five-year outsourcing contract worth US$80-100mn from the UK-based Barclaycard. (ET)

The high court in an interim order, has directed the Thane municipal corporation not to grant any approvals to Raymond for re-development of the land, which currently houses a textile unit. (BS)

Tata Communications plans to acquire Sri Lanka’s second-largest land-based telephone company Suntel. (ET)

Nestle India plans to set up a food and beverage manufacturing unit in Himachal Pradesh with an outlay of Rs2.5bn. (ET)

UltraTech Cement announced that the company's cement production for September 2010 grew 2.9% and dispatches during the same month were higher by 2.7% yoy. (FE)

Sundaram Finance acquires entire 49.9% of the equity share capital held by France-based BNP Paribas Asset Management in two of its units, for Rs1.41bn. (BS)

IDBI Bank plans to raise US$2-3bn from abroad over the next 12 months. (BS)

United Bank of India embarks on a technology upgrade drive, under which it plans to spend about Rs770mn over the next two years. (BS)

Jubilant Organosys has offered to buy 17.6% stake in US-based Cadista Holdings for Rs280mn to make it a wholly-owned company. (ET)

NMDC has lowered prices of iron ore by 5% to about Rs3,200 a tonne for the October-December period. (BS)

Gateway Distriparks the joint venture floated by Gateway Distriparks and Chakiat group wins Cochin Port Trust tender to develop CFS opposite Vallarpadam Port, Kochi. (ET)

GTL Infrastructure said that the income tax authorities had conducted search and seizure operations on the company and its promoters at various locations in past three days. (BS)

Reliance Broadcast Network said it had raised ~Rs3bn by allotting 33.3mn shares to potential investors and promoters of the company. (BS)

Suven Life Sciences plans to raise Rs900mn for R&D. (BS)
Economy Snippets

Trade deficit in August rose to a 23-month high of US$13bn on the back of imports that jumped 32.2% annually to ~US$30bn as against exports that rose 22.5% in August to ~US$17bn annually. (BL)

India’s merchandise exports rose 22.5% in August to US$16.64bn from US$13.58bn a year ago. (BS)

Imports jumped 32.2% annually to US$29.67bn from US$22.44bn. (BS)

India’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$3.86bhn to US$291.59bn in the week ended September 24. This is the highest weekly rise since July 31, 2009. (BS)

Passenger and commercial vehicle sales of leading automobile makers rose by 20.6% in September. (BL)

Funds raised through equity issues in the first nine months of CY10 were 43% higher than last year. (BL)

Domestic steel manufacturers have increased prices by up to Rs1,500 a tonne to cash in on the pick-up in demand this festive season and to partly offset the rise in input costs. (BS)

Legal advisor to the DoT has backed the formula prescribed by the TRAI to allocate 2G spectrum first to those operators which already have initial start-up airwaves. (BL)

Average AUM of the mutual fund industry saw a nearly 4% increase in September. (BL)

Ministry of petroleum has sought a subsidy of 130bn from the ministry of finance for OMCs as compensation for under-recoveries on petroleum products for Q1 FY11. (DNA)