Daily News Roundup - Sep 26 2012

United Spirits and Diageo Plc confirmed that Diageo is in discussion with United Spirits Ltd and United Breweries (Holdings) in respect of a possible transaction for Diageo to acquire an interest in United Spirits. (BL) The partnership between Bajaj Auto Limited and the alliance of global auto giants Renault and Nissan to manufacture and market small cars has been shelved. (BS) Bajaj Electricals Ltd is scouting for acquisition, including brands in electricals and lighting with a corpus of Rs10bn. (BL) According to a wage settlement agreement signed between the Maruti Suzuki and the Gurgaon based Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union, permanent workers at the Gurgaon unit will be given an increment of ~Rs18,000 in their monthly salary spread over a period of three years. The wage agreement is effective retrospectively from April 1. (BS) Godrej Consumer Products Ltd has entered into an agreement for exclusive rights to include the hair extensions business in Kenya and exports to other East Africa geographies in its partnership with the Darling Group. (BL) Reliance Industries is likely to bid for mobile telephone spectrum in the upcoming auction to complement its wireless broadband services with voice call facility. (BS) Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has denied reports that the company has bid US$5bn for the Canadian assets of ConcoPhillips along with Oil India and IndianOil, but said it is looking at international assets purchases. (BL) Lanco Infratech will be entering into a fresh agreement with the Madhya Pradesh government for supply of the entire 300 Mw power from its Korba power plant in Chattisgarh. (BS) Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd intends to set up a 5 MW solar power plant in its boiler auxiliary plant complex at Chennai. (BL) Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will invest Rs15bn on a new platform to be developed in collaboration with SsangYong. (BL) The ministry of steel has said Posco and Severstal cannot have majority stakes in their proposed JVs with SAIL and NMDC respectively. (ET) States buying electricity from Tata Power’s Mundra ultra mega power project in Gujarat have turned down the company’s plea to revise the contracted tariff. (ET) NTPC isn’t ready to sign fuel supply agreements with Coal India despite changes in the format to include higher penalties, tweaked force majeure clauses and no moratorium on penalty. (ET) Economy Snippets Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan pegged FY13 economic growth at 5.5-6.5%, adding it would take a few years to record growth of 8-9%. (BS) The Finance Ministry has extended the validity of existing anti-dumping duty on Paracetamol imports from China by one more year. (BL) To promote cashless transactions, the finance ministry has asked public sector banks to take steps to reduce the fee to zero for electronic transfer of funds up to Rs0.1mn. (ET)