Daily News Roundup - Apr 5 2011

Suzlon Energy is all set to acquire the residual stake in German company REpower, to get 100% control of the company. (BS)

Petroleum secretary said that Cairn Energy Plc will need to take the consent of partner ONGC before selling majority stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta. (BS)

United Spirits has acquired 41.5% stake in Karnataka-based Sovereign Distilleries Ltd. (FE)




BPCL plans to build an LNG import facility and pipeline infrastructure in India to transport gas from a Mozambique block in which it holds stake with Videocon Industries. (ET)

Bajaj Auto clocked a 12% yoy jump in sales in March this year to 3,07738 units. (ET)

The revival in sales of the Nano in the last four months has encouraged Tata Motors to double production plans for the small car by up to 20,000 units a month this fiscal. (BL)

Marico will focus on four key brands Saffola edible oil, Parachute hair oil, Nihar and Hair & Care. (ET)

GAIL India plans to foray into power sector through a tie-up with the NTPC Ltd. (ET)

The price of the Indian basket of crude averaged US$85.09/barrel in 2010-11, up 22% from the US$69.8/barrel in 2009-10, resulting into an estimated gross loss of Rs780bn for the public sector OMCs — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum in FY11. (BS)

After months of intense negotiations and competitive bidding, Hyderabad-based GVK group has been shortlisted to acquire Hancock Coal. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) plans to continue with its proposed 7.2km sea link between Worli and Haji Ali in Mumbai, even as the Maharashtra government plans to explore a coastal road instead, as it would be much cheaper. (BS)

Tecpro Systems has bagged an order worth Rs2.6bn from NTPC for the supply and installation of coal handling plant in Jharkhand. (ET)

The Supreme Court has directed Glaxo India to pay Rs712mn to the state in a 20-year-old dispute over pricing of the drugs scheduled under the Drug Price Control Order. (ET)

Dabur and Emami have opted out of the race to acquire controlling stake in the Indian subsidiary of German household goods maker Henkel. (ET)

Nalco has achieved the highest-ever cast metal production of 4,43,597 tons for 2010-11 against the previous best of 4,31,488 tons in 2009-10. (BL)

Maruti Suzuki India expects its sales growth to moderate to ~15% in FY12 from nearly 25~ in FY11. (BS)

Uflex plans to invest Rs3.8bn in setting up a polyester films plant in the US with an annual capacity of 30,000metric tones. (ET)

Fortis Malar Hospitals has taken over operations and management of cardiac centre at 170-bed Oasis Hospitals in Sri Lanka. (ET)

Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular is believed to be in talks with global telecom operators to sell its stake in the company. (ET)

Temasek Holdings is in talks to buy a part of US private equity firm TPG Capital's holding in Shriram Transport Finance in a deal valued at Rs25bn. (ET)

Suzlon Energy plans to raise Rs50bn via FCCB route due in 2016 and to be listed on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading. (ET)

Mundra Port and SEZ, handled 50mn tons of cargo in 2010-11, making it the seventh largest port in terms of annual cargo handling volume in the country. (ET)

BHEL reported 40% jump in its profit-after-tax at Rs60bn for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. (ET)
Economy Snippets

The Union coal ministry has issued a draft of the guidelines being framed for putting in place a competitive bidding regime for allocating coal blocks in the country. (BS)

Foreign investment in India rose by $22.7bn in the quarter ending December 2010 to US$628bn, mainly on account of increase in portfolio investment and FDI. (FE)

The government will set up two high-level bodies to frame policies for promotion of hybrid and electric vehicles in the country, which depends largely on imports for its automobile fuel. (ET)

The government may miss its annual tax collection target for 2010-11 because of an all-time high outgo of income tax refunds. (ET)

Ministry of corporate affairs will ask finance ministry's to review its proposal to impose a hefty alternate minimum tax on limited liability partnerships, a hybrid business form combining the features of company and a partnership form of operation. (ET)

The finance ministry has sought strict norms for non-banking finance companies, or NBFCs, that want to convert into banks or promote banks. (ET)