Daily News Roundup - Feb 25 2011

RIL and BP will shortly float a joint venture company over next months, which will look at the trading and marketing of natural gas in India. (BS)

Bajaj Auto on Thursday launched its 2011 edition of Discover 100. (ET)

RPower joins US$3.5bn race to buy out Australian coal mining company Whitehaven Coal. (BS)

RPower appears to be in the lead for the 3,000-MW long-term power purchase agreement called for by the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation. (BL)

Tata Steel UK signed a definitive sale agreement to sell certain assets of TCP to Sahaviriya Steel Industries UK, a subsidiary of Thailand’s largest steel producer, for US$469mn. (BS)

NMDC is setting up a 300,000-tonne plant in Karnataka for making iron ore concentrate from iron ore waste with an investment of Rs1.5bn. (FE)

TCS has been appointed as the official technology partner to the pro-cycling team – Team Garmin-Cervélo — for the racing season 2011. (BL)

SBI has decided to withdraw from the certificate of deposit (CD) market. (BS)

SBI has mopped up Rs39bn on the retail side through its latest bond issue. (BS)

Shipping Corporation of India is planning to invest US$1bn every year to acquire new ships. (BS)

IDFC plans to raise up to Rs21.7bn through long-term infrastructure bonds. (BS)

BEML may hive off one or two businesses, possibly rail and metro, in a corporate restructure it plans to roll out in fiscal 2012-13. (BL)

Gammon-OJSC Mosmetrostroy, a joint venture between Gammon India and Russian company OJSC Mosmetrostroy, has bagged two contracts worth Rs19.5bn for design and construction of seven underground stations and associated tunnels for Chennai Metro Rail. (FE)

Gammon India’s subsidiary Metropolitan Infrahousing has stepped in to buy the balance 45 acres owned by PAL-Peugeot in Dombivli on the outskirts of the city. (ET)

Fortis Global Healthcare said it has acquired a specialized under construction cancer hospital in Singapore from First Real Estate Investment Trust for a consideration of S$33mn. (BS)

Tech Mahindra has won an IT outsourcing contract from Vodafone for its Qatar operations. (BL)

Jubilant FoodWorks signed the agreement with the international arm of Dunkin’ Donuts. (BS)

Kingfisher Airlines has announced 11 new flights on its domestic routes and launched special complimentary offers ahead of the summer season. (BL)

Kotak Mahindra Bank hiked its base rate and BPLR by 50bps. (BL)

FDA ban to cost Aurobindo US$26mn. (FE)

Dishtv on Thursday said it has added over 1mn connections in the last three months, crossing the 10mn subscriber mark. (ET)

Uttam Galva has initiated the process to refinance about Rs14bn worth of debt to reduce interest payments and has mandated SBI Caps to carry out the programme. (ET)

Vijaya Bank will get a further capital infusion of Rs3.7bn from the Government by the fiscal-end. (BL)
Economy Snippets

The Budget estimate for the fiscal deficit for 2011-12 will be 4.8% of GDP. (BS)

Food inflation rose to 11.49% for the week ended February 12 from 11.05% in the previous week. (BS)

Exports from SEZs stood at Rs2.23tn in the April-December 2010 period, a rise of 47%, compared with Rs 1.52tn in the same period of the last financial year. (BS)

The Commerce Ministry has sought a Plan outlay of Rs20bn for itself in the Union Budget 2011-12, up from Rs16.8bn in 2010-11. (BL)

The South Asian Real Estate has announced Rs5bn residential township at Kolathur, GST Road, in Chennai. (BS)

Banglore to get an infrastructure development package of Rs47.7bn through various sources. (BS)

Exports from special economic zones during April-December this fiscal grew by 47% to Rs2,231bn over the same period last year. (FE)