Daily News Roundup - Mar 23 2011

Tata Steel has initiated talks with the government of British Columbia, a Canadian province, to acquire coking coal mines. (BS)

Tata Power has announced a partnership with Australia’s Sunengy for executing a solar power project in India this year. (ET)

China's Yanzhou Coal Mining Co and India's Aditya Birla Group are among parties preparing to submit second-round bids for Australian coal miner Whitehaven Coal, which is seeking offers of more than US$3.5bn. (BS)



NALCO is planning to set up a carbon absorption unit at its coal-fired Captive Power Plant at Angul to reduce carbon emission and get carbon credits. (BS)

NTPC's new 500 Mw unit-VII of Korba project started its commercial production on Monday.(BS)

IndusInd Bank to buy Deutsche Bank's card biz in India. (BS)

Sesa Goa has acquired the assets of the upcoming steel plant of Bellary Steel and Alloys, put on the block by a consortium of lenders led by IFCI for Rs2.2bn. (ET)

Hero Investments has raised its stake in Hero Honda to 52.2% by buying 26% stake from Honda Motor Company through a market transaction on Tuesday. (ET)

In a bid to boost the SMEs, SBI has decided to focus on cluster financing from the next financial year. (FE)

Essar Oil will supply coal-bed methane to Graphite India. (BL)

Loan dues of SKS Micro Finance mount to Rs12.5bn in Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

GM Rao, chairman of GMR Group, pledged Rs15.4bn to create an endowment fund for the group's social activities arm, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. (FE)

Promoters of DB Realty pledge an additional 8% stake in the company to cover margin calls from the pledgee, ICICI Bank, pushing the total pledged position to around 40% of the company’s shares. (ET)

Jyothy Laboratories forayed into the north Indian market by acquiring a New Delhi based laundry services provider Diamond Fabcare for an undisclosed amount. (ET)

Ballarpur Industries is looking to raise US$330mn by listing its overseas subsidiary Bilt Paper on the London Stock Exchange, to fund expansion and reduce debt. (ET)

Mahindra Satyam moved to the Andhra Pradesh High Court, seeking a stay on the proceedings related to Rs6.2bn claim made by the tax department. (ET)

IDFC plans to raise Rs2.5bn long-term capital. (ET)

Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, has won a bid to develop a coal import terminal at Visakhapatnam. (ET)

Essel Propack plans to restructure global operations. (BL)

Bafna Pharmaceuticals announced that the company has signed an agreement with an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson, for acquisition of the TradeMark Raricap. (FE)
Economy Snippets

States will enjoy virtual veto power on matters concerning the proposed GST, with the centre ceding ground to opposition-ruled states on the Constitutional Amendment Bill in an attempt to build consensus in Parliament. (ET)

Finance minister rolled back the controversial 5% service tax on high end hospitals and certain diagnostic services. (FE)

The government gave some relief to garment makers by raising the abatement available for levy of excise duty on retail price of branded garments and textile made-ups from 40% to 55%. (FE)

Duty on car CKD imports halved from 60% to 30%. (FE)

In a bid to provide relief from high inflation, the government on Tuesday increased dearness allowance for central Government staff by 6% to 51%. (FE)

RBI’s repeated hikes in key policy rates is hurting corporates as it increases their cost of production and squeezes profit margins, industry body Assocham said on Tuesday. (ET)

RBI will allow a promoter or a promoter group to establish new banks if they set up a holding company, which will own the bank and all other financial services companies regulated by the central bank or other financial sector regulators. (ET)