Daily News Roundup - Feb 1 2011

Siemens AG is planning to increase its stake in the Indian subsidiary, Siemens Ltd, from the present 55.18% to 75% with an offer of US$1.4bn. (BS)

The Aditya Birla Group has finally agreed to buy out the US firm Columbian Chemicals Company for US$875mn from One Equity Partners, the merchant banking arm of JPMorgan Chase. (BS)

L&T Infotech, the information technology arm of engineering major Larsen & Toubro, has acquired Citigroup’s Canadian IT outsourcing arm, Citigroup Fund Services Canada (CFSC). (BS)



ITC Ltd is looking to acquire 1,000 acres of land to set up a mega Greenfield paper and paperboards factory adjacent to its existing one in Sarapaka village, Khammam, Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

Ranbaxy Laboratories has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Yaroslavl region in Russia for cooperation in the field of healthcare and medical science. (ET)

Dr Reddy's gets US court nod to sell its generic product version of Allegra D 24 tablets (fexofenadine hydrochloride). (BL)

Essar has abandoned plans to inject part of its 33% stake in the Vodafone Essar venture into a listed shell company, after objections by its partner, Vodafone. (BS)

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is finalising a report that questions the government’s move to allow Reliance Industries to increase its expenditure in developing the D-6 field in the Krishna-Godavari basin by over US$6bn. (ET)

RPG Group company Phillips Carbon Black (PCBL) has indicated that the company is in the race for the US$1.2bn carbon black division of Germany’s Evonik Industries. (BS)

Private equity firm Bain Capital LLC and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), a sovereign fund owned by the government, are close to picking up part of Honda’s 26% equity stake in the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero Honda. (BS)

HCL Infosystems has bagged Rs25bn project from state-run telecom firm BSNL. (BL)

PNB has hiked its base rate as well as benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 50bps each. (BL)

The environment ministry has imposed 61 conditions before giving approval to South Korean steel major Pohang Steel Company’s (Posco) US$12bn steel plant. (BS)

DB Realty is close to inducting private equity firm Starwood Capital in its Bandra government colony project by selling a 10% stake for Rs4.5bn. (ET)
Economy Snippets

India’s economy grew at a faster pace of 8% yoy in fiscal 2009-10 than estimated earlier at 7.4%. (ET)

The government approved Rs80bn subsidy to the three public sector oil marketing companies to compensate half the revenues they lost on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost for the quarter ending December 31. (BS)

The six key infrastructure industries' output growth recovered to 6.6% in December 2010, after having slumped to a 21-month low of 3% in November 2010.

The personal loans segment recorded a 13.4% growth yoy in December 2010, after it had seen a decline of 0.4% last year. (BS)

The data released by the insurance regulator showed that the life insurance industry registered a 28% growth in first premium income during April-December 2010. (ET)