Daily News Roundup - Sep 28 2011

JSW Steel threatened to trigger a price spiral following a crunch in iron ore supply which might force it to shut its showcase 10mt per annum Vijaynagar plant in Karnataka. (BS)

GlaxoSmithKline global CEO Andrew Witty said the company has a war chest of US$1-2bn to support its expansion plans in India. (BS)

GMR Infrastructure said it won a Rs72bn project for widening the 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway, from four to six lanes. (BS)



Areva T&D India Ltd's transmission business has bagged a Rs400mn contract from Reliance Power for the design and construction of a 220-kV substation. (BL)

ONGC gave its consent for stake sale in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources, provided Cairn Energy, Vedanta and their affiliates enter a formal agreement with the PSU on royalty and cess conditions. (BL)

SBI Caps is expected to complete the valuation of Adani Energy's city gas distribution assets in Lucknow in mid-October, paving the way for the merger of the assets in Green Gas Limited, a JV of GAIL and Indian Oil. (BL)

Dabur India is investing Rs70mn on a new unit in Sri Lanka to produce its Real brand of fruit-based beverages. (BL)

Anil Ambani said that Reliance Capital will explore all possible opportunities to enter the banking sector and the banking entity could be called Reliance Bank. (FE)

Spandana Spoorty, Share Microfin and Asmita are planning to approach the Reserve Bank of India with a merger proposal. (BL)

DLF has sold 10.8 acres in Gurgaon to a Dubai-based Indian investor for Rs2.8bn, as part of efforts to reduce its debt burden by a third this fiscal. (FE)

The SAT upheld a Sebi order against Axis Bank, which was asked to pay a fine of Rs0.2mn for alleged violations of debenture trustees norms. (FE)

Cognizant has acquired Zaffera, a SAP retail consulting and software development firm based in Princeton, New Jersey for an undisclosed value. (ET)

The government and Reliance Industries are formulating a strategy to ramp up output from the KG-D6 block by 30-35 mmscmd by pumping natural gas from new discoveries in the deep-sea region and to develop common infrastructure across the block to optimise costs. (ET)

The government said it has put on hold the share sale of SAIL amid volatility in the stock markets. (ET)
Economy Snippets

In August, eight core industries grew at their slowest in 11 months at 3.5%, down more than half of their highest growth in a year, which was 7.8% in July. (BS)

The RBI issued revised draft norms to regulate the growth in securitisation of bank loans. This may increase the securitisation of retail assets like home and consumer durables. (BS)

Coal demand in the country is pegged estimated at 696mt during the current fiscal, while domestic production is only expected to be around 554mt, the Coal Secretary said. (BL)

A government panel has said there should be no restrictions on FDI in the Rs470bn pharmaceuticals sector. (ET)