Daily News Roundup - March 14 2012

Biocon’s US$350mn pact with global pharmaceutical major Pfizer was called off 18 months after the deal was signed. (BS)

A consortium of 27 banks will soon decide on HCC’s request to be allowed to restructure its loans under the CDR process. (BS)

The CLB asked Unitech to decide by Monday if it wanted to buy its JV partner Telenor’s 67% stake in Uninor or sell its 33% stake to the Norwegian firm. (BS)



SBI has no plans to lend more to Kingfisher Airlines, Pranab Mukherjee said. (BS)

Bajaj Hindusthan announced a decision to amalgamate its two subsidiary companies- Bajaj Ecotec and Bajaj Aviation- into itself to economise administrative costs, achieve better administration, operations and management by consolidation. (BS)

JSW Steel Ltd has urged Pranab Mukherjee to curb iron ore exports and has listed a clutch of other measures, which will help the steel industry in India. (BS)

SAIL has opted out of a proposed JV for setting up an integrated manufacturing unit for electrical steel. The proposed special steel venture will now be led by RINL. (BL)

IDFC announced its plans to launch an infrastructure debt fund through the mutual fund route. (BL)

IDBI Bank plans to sell its equity holdings in 229 Indian unlisted and unquoted Indian companies within the next 15 days. (BL)

At least five entities have shown interest in Thomas Cook India which was put up for sale by British parent Thomas Cook. (FE)

Trent raised US$50mn through a share sale to institutional investors at Rs912 a share. (FE)

Promoters of HDIL have pledged 160.2mn shares, or 38.24%, of their stake in favour of IL&FS Trust Company. (ET)

Economy Snippets
A Parliamentary panel has recommended I-T exemption limit be raised to Rs0.3mn a year in its report on the Direct Taxes Code Bill. (BS)

Mauritius has asked New Delhi to further ease provisions of the treaty to bring permanent establishments under its purview. (BS)

Indians abroad pumped in US$1.6bn into NRE deposits in January, following the central bank's move in December to deregulate NRE deposit rates. (BL)

Pranab Mukherjee said the government has set a target of Rs300bn from stake sales in state-run firms in the next fiscal. (FE)