Daily News Roundup - Jan 13 2012

Coal India Ltd has reached at a broad consensus with the labour unions to enhance workers' salaries by 25% in the forthcoming National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA)-IX. (BL)

The Bombay High Court has dismissed the public interest litigation filed against Reliance Industries on the ground that the company has still time to submit its reply to the government. (ET)

Unitech and Telenor have agreed to set up two committees to manage expenses and projects undertaken by Uninor. (BL)



LIC Housing Finance Company launched a Rs5bn fund to invest in companies involved in low-priced housing. (ET)

Suzlon Group subsidiary, REpower Systems SE, has concluded a contract with a US wind power developer for the delivery of 73 wind turbines. (BL)

Starbucks is moving forward with the memorandum of understanding signed with Tata Coffee and hopes to make an announcement soon even as the government has notified 100% foreign direct investment in single brand retail. (BS)

Fortis Healthcare has completed the US$665mn acquisition of Singapore based Fortis Healthcare International Pte, a privately-held firm owned by its founders. (ET)

L&T Infra Finance, a subsidiary of L&T Finance Holdings has raised close to US$100mn through the external commercial borrowing route this year. (BS)

The Supreme Court has declined to grant Cox and Kings a partnership with IRCTC in running the luxury Maharaja Express train. (BS)

Oil India is considering a possible purchase of Cove Energy, which has assets in East Africa. (ET)

The government reviewed the progress of over 100 coal and lignite blocks allocated to companies, including Hindalco, Essar Power, Jaiprakash Associates, Adani and Power Finance Corporation for captive use. (ET)

IDFC has launched retail issue of long-term tax saving infrastructure bonds offering coupon rate of 8.7% with maturity of 10 years. (BS)

Pravin Shah, the current head of international operations of Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors will take over as the Chief Executive of the automotive division of Mahindra and Mahindra. (ET)
Economy Snippets

India's industrial output growth bounced back in November 2011 to clock a 5.9% rise. The index of industrial production recorded 6.4% growth in November 2010. (BL)

Food prices remained negative for the second consecutive week, falling to -2.90% for the week ended December 31, 2011. (BL)

The Reserve Bank of India sold US$2.92bn in the foreign exchange market during November — the highest monthly dollar sales in two and a half years. (BS)

The government has formally asked the petroleum regulator to determine marketing margins for natural gas on the basis of costs. (ET)

Higher input prices and a rise in interest outgo resulted in the profit growth of non-Government, non-financial listed companies decelerating sharply in the first half of 2011-12 as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the Reserve Bank of India's bulletin. (BL)