Daily News Roundup - June 26 2012

The merger proposal of Anil Agarwal promoted Vedanta Resources flagship firms Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries managed to scrape through after a large number of votes were found invalid at the court-convened meeting. (ET) The government has asked Reliance Industries to sign agreements to increase supply of natural gas from KG-D6 fields to urea manufacturing units of IFFCO and Indo Gulf Fertilizer. (ET) LKP Finance, a Mumbai-based non-banking financial services company has acquired optionally convertible debentures worth Rs1.6bn of Kingfisher Airlines which will translate into an equity stake of up to 8% upon conversion. (ET) Natco Pharma has lost a patent infringement suit in the US filed by Israeli pharma major Teva over sale of Copaxone, a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis. (ET) GMR Infrastructure has appealed to the Appellate Tribunal to further increase the aeronautical charges at the Delhi International Airport Limited that it manages. (BS) Fortis Healthcare Ltd is looking at acquiring a stake in a renewable energy company through its subsidiary Fortis Malar Hospital for captive purpose. Fortis Malar would invest around Rs2mn in equities of a wind power company to acquire at least 26% stake. (BS) In a setback to Essar Oil, the Gujarat High Court today directed the state government to expedite the recovery of the company’s sales tax deferral liability of about Rs80bn, including interest and penalty. (BS) Coromandel International Limited is planning to infuse additional money into Sabero Organics Gujarat Limited, which was acquired by the former recently. The proposed investment is part of a turnaround plan for Sabero to address its major constraints related to environment management systems. (BS) Hatsun Agro Product plans to raise Rs500mn through a rights issue of equity shares to fund its retail expansion, secure captive power capacity and bring down debt. (BL) Infosys has opened a second development centre in Japan as it prepared to have a more evenly distributed geographic spread across the globe. (BL) Bharti Airtel will be approaching the Supreme Court to challenge the CESTAT order alleging customs duty evasion. The telecom operator has been asked to pay about Rs8bn in an order passed by the tribunal. (BL) Economy Snippets Moodys Investors Service maintained a stable outlook on India, but warned lower growth, higher expenses compared to revenues, and stress in the banking system could lead to downward pressure on the rating. (ET) Under RBI’s policy package, the overall FII investment ceiling in government securities (G-Secs) has been hiked to US$20bn from US$15bn earlier. (BL) Of the overall FII investment ceiling of US$25bn in long-term infrastructure bonds, the Finance Ministry has now reduced the residual maturity to 15 months and lock-in to one year completely for investments of US$12bn. (BL) The Government has decided to allow public sector oil companies to import crude oil from Iran by Iranian tankers for a period of six months from July 1. (BL)