Daily News Roundup - Aug 19 2011

Hotel Leelaventure plans to raise about Rs10bn through a share sale to institutions by December to trim its debt pile. (BS)

ICICI Bank will now offer loans that gives a choice of fixed rate for either one or two years, at differential rates for various slabs. (ET)

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will roll out a sub-four metre compact model of Verito which is expected to attract only 10% excise duty instead of the earlier 22%. (BS)



The income-tax department carried out extensive search and survey on Educomp Solutions for alleged tax evasion. (ET)

Essar Energy is to sign a power purchase agreement with the Bihar State Electricity Board for 300 megawatts of contracted capacity for 25 years for its 1,200-MW Tori 1 power station in Jharkand. (BL)

Emami Infrastructure is planning to merge its wholly-owned subsidiary Emami Realty with the realty arm of Zandu Pharmaceuticals. (ET)

Petroleum Ministry decided to grant two to three months credit to Air India for jet fuel instead of making daily payments. (FE)

DCGI has sent show-cause notices to Cipla and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for selling drugs banned by the government and is planning similar action against a few other top drug makers. (ET)

DLF is selling a 13-acre plot in Gurgaon, Haryana as part of its plan to ease debt burden through asset sales. (ET)

Hero MotoCorp has appointed Mr Sunil Kant Munjal as the Joint Managing Director of the company for a term of five years. (BL)

Minority shareholders of Cairn India used the occasion of the company’s annual general meeting to express deep skepticism about the final terms of a US$6.4-bn transaction. (ET)

Maruti Suzuki's exports may come down by 10,000 units in this fiscal due to the financial crisis in Europe. (BS)

Reliance Capital is planning to raise funds via 4 year bond issue at 10.5% (FE)

Future Group will invest Rs9bn in the next three years for expansion. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure bought back 0.5mn equity shares of the company, pursuant to on- going buy- back programme. (FE)

Jet Airways aims to increase domestic low-fare capacity to 80-85% of the total fleet from present 72%. (BS)

Power Minister has written to Coal Minister for a review of the decision to deallocate five coal blocks awarded to NTPC. (BS)
Economy Snippets

Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 9.9% in the previous week. The rate of price rise of food items was 14.51% in the first week of August 2010. . (ET)

Based on the data of world development indicators, the GDP of India at 2000 prices increased from US$270.5bn in 1990 to US$971.5bn in 2010 registering an annual average growth rate of 6.6% in real terms. (ET)

Overseas investment in India through participatory notes has hit a record low according to data available with SEBI. (FE)