Daily News Roundup - Sep 9 2011

Terming the labour problem at its Manesar plant as a "political issue", Maruti Suzuki India said it will not compromise on its established norms for industrial relations while attempting to resolve the disturbance. (ET)

Gitanjali Gems Ltd, values nine of its major brands at Rs55.84bn.(ET)



Efforts to finalise a US$2bnplus bid by India's GVK Power & Infrastructure for two Australian coal mines owned by Hancock Prospecting have been delayed due to differences over valuation.(ET)

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. will shut a 500,000 tonnes a year continuous catalytic cracker from end September or early October for maintenance for 20 days. (ET)

Jubilant Life Sciences said it has received the US health regulator's approval for the launch of Pantoprazole Delayed Release Tablets20 mg and 40mg. (ET)

Shree Ganesh Jewellery has tied up with Bharti Retail's 'Easy Day' market format to market its Gaja Lites range of jewelleries. The company is planning to triple its turnover from the retail segment from Rs4bn to Rs12bn in the next two years. (ET)

Expanding its footprint in Africa, Bharti airtel will operate 2G and 3G mobile services in Rwanda for which it has announced an investment of US$100mn in the next three years. (ET)

Mahindra & Mahindra has launched a new model of its top-selling Bolero SUV, at a starting price of Rs0.63mn (BS IV in Delhi, ex-showroom). (BL)

United Breweries is setting up two greenfield breweries — one in Mysore and the other in Patna — and also proposes to add capacity to several of its existing breweries . Investments for new breweries are in the range of Rs1.5bn per brewery and the total investment for the year is around Rs5bn. (BL)

TVS Motor Company has entered into a memorandum of understanding with HDFC Bank for inventory funding for its dealers. (BL)

Petronet LNG has said that it will decide on the location of the third LNG terminal on the eastern coast by the end of this year. (BS)

Shriram CCL, a subsidiary of Shriram Capital, has diluted 10 % of its equity to private equity (PE) firm LeapFrog Investments. The PE firm has infused Rs0.67bn into Shriram CCL , a financial services distribution company. (BS)

Sanlam Ltd (SLM), a South African-based insurer, is to buy 26 % in Shriram Capital Ltd (SCL). The estimated investment is Rs20bn. (BS)
Economy Snippets

The government has envisaged an investment of more than Rs220bn for setting up nine new major ports in the country over the next five years. (ET)

Food price index rose 9.55 % and the fuel price index climbed 12.55 % in the year to Aug. 27. (ET)

The Planning Commission wants India to set up a sovereign wealth fund with an initial corpus of US$10bn, mainly to invest in energy and mining assets abroad. (ET)

Fertiliser units could get higher share of domestically produced gas than the power plants, if the suggestions of a high-power panel are accepted. (BL)

A sharp jump in refunds eroded the Centre's net direct tax collections by 3.4 % during April-August 2011. (BL)