Daily News Roundup - Dec 21 2010

JSW Steel is close to buying a 45% equity stake in Ispat Industries for Rs21.6bn. (ET)

DoT has directed telecom service providers Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Reliance Communications (RCom) to stop launch of 3G mobile services till a lawful interception mechanism is in place. (BS)

Ranbaxy Laboratories' South African joint venture (JV) has bagged a two year government order to supply HIV medicines worth Rs6.03bn. (ET)



Reliance Industries plans to shut its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) of about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) at its older refinery at Jamnagar at the end of January. (ET)

Reliance Industries' prolific D-1 and D-3 gas fields off the East Coast, which have seen a 15% drop in production in recent times, are likely to touch a peak output of 80mn standard cubic metres per day in 2012-13. (ET)

Tata Chemicals is set to acquire British Salt, a soda ash raw material maker in the UK, for £93mn (Rs6.6bn). (BS)

Coal India (CIL) has signed a MoU with the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to create a JV to provide end-to-end logistics solutions for bringing internationally-produced coal into the country. (BS)

The Munjal family, promoters of the Hero Group, is likely to have over 50% stake in a special purpose vehicle to hold Honda's 26% share in Hero Honda, following termination of the joint venture. (BS)

Glenmark has received approval from US health regulator for its generic Felodipine tablets, an anti-hypertensive drug, in the American market. (ET)

Union Bank of India has raised its benchmark prime lending rate by 50bps to 13.25%. It has also raised retail term deposit rates across various maturities by 75-100bps and interest rate on one-year deposits to 8%. (ET)

Reliance Infrastructure has enhanced the capacity of its existing network by adding about 300 sub-stations and 450 kilometres of cable network to its Mumbai distribution. (ET)

Maruti Suzuki India’s ‘completely made-in-India car’ will hit the roads by 2012 and the company is likely to finalize the design within the next six months. (BS)

Voltas to form a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Financing Company to execute electro-mechanical projects in the country. (BS)

Unity Infraprojects has secured three orders worth Rs2bn. (BL)

A consortium led by Pipavav Shipyard has moved Bombay High Court challenging the legality of ONGC's decision to decline it award of a contract to carry out surveys and various other works of six well head platforms at the Bombay High. (ET)

Tata Steel is in negotiations to dispose off its South African plant and assets to raise upwards of US$150mn in cash. (ET)

Cinemax India plans to invest Rs1bn and double its screens to 200 by 2013. (FE)

Coca Cola India is planning to tie up with Jain Irrigation Systems to source orange pulp in India. (FE)

Moser Baer Solar has planned a capital expenditure of US$500-600mn over the next three to four years for expanding its manufacturing capacity of crystalline cells and crystalline silicon modules in India. (ET)

Lanco Infratech aims to generate 200-300MW of solar thermal power over the next two years. (ET)

The liquidity deficit in the system hit record high on 20th December, with banks borrowing nearly Rs1.6tn from the repo window. (BS)

Domestic Airline industry reported a 25% yoy increase in passengers flown in November this year. (BL)

Advance tax payments by India’s top 100 corporate taxpayers rose 18.7% yoy in December. (ET)

State-owned oil firms have seen their losses on diesel sales widen to over Rs6 per litre. (ET)