Daily News Roundup - July 3 2012

NCL Industries Ltd is planning to set up a 30-MW captive power plant with Rs1.5bn investment. (BL) Essar Energy Plc will sell half its stake in Vietnam’s offshore gas exploration block 114 to Italian oil major ENI International B.V. (BL) Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has launched Ibandronate Sodium tablets in the US market. (BL) Pratibha Industries Ltd has announced that it has bagged an order worth Rs10.9bn from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and another worth Rs.3.45bn from IREO Private Ltd. (BL) Yes Bank is seeking shareholders’ approval to raise US$500 mn to take care of the "growing requirement of funds for expanding business" and to shore up capital to meet the Basel II norms of capital adequacy. (BL) ICICI Bank has exited Kingfisher Airlines by selling the last of its nearly Rs.6bn loans to a fund run by Srei Infrastructure Finance, ending speculation that it may have to incur losses on loans to the troubled aviation company. (ET) Coal India is game for a price-pooling mechanism, which will lead to an increase in the average price charged by the monopoly miner, to ease the burden of growing imports by private power producers. (ET) Jindal Steel and Power is under the scanner for allegedly accessing iron ore from Sarada Mines, the group’s mining associate, at rates below the market price, thus depriving the Odisha state government of royalty at actual market rates. (ET) ASingapore-based fibre and pulp-maker has agreed to pay 13 times its market cap to buy an Indonesian coal major and help GMR and the Sinar Mas Group get a listing in the island state for its coal assets. (ET) GVK has plans to raise about US$600-650 mn (Rs 3,300-3,500 crore) through the stake sale in its airport arm. (BS) TTK Prestige is looking at acquisitions in Europe. The proposed exercise would help the company have an exclusive brand for the overseas market, according to its executive chairman T T Jagannathan. The size of the acquisition would be about Rs.3bn. (BS) VA Tech Wabag has received orders worth Rs1bn from overseas, according to a company announcement. (BS) Economy Snippets The Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission have opposed the proposal to charge one-time fee for the entire spectrum held by from incumbent telecom players.(BL) The government is readying to bring in a new overarching law that will help ease investment flows into India’s ailing civil aviation sector, while protecting interests of passengers and ensuring safety.(ET) The rupee could rise as much as 10% by the end of the current fiscal year as policy reforms and sustained softening in commodity prices could lead to lowering of India’s current account deficit, which hit a record 4.5% in the March quarter. The worst performing currency in Asia during the last quarter could climb to 50 per dollar by the end of the current fiscal year, Crisil Ratings estimates.(ET) Helpless Indian car buyers saddled with vehicles having engineering glitches may be less of a phenomenon in the years ahead. Automobile industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM), has announced a voluntary ‘Recall Policy’ where all companies will follow standard procedures on detection of manufacturing defects in their products.(ET) State-run banks have urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consider perpetual non-cumulative preference shares (PNCPS) as part of their core Tier-I capital under Basel-III norms. This will ensure government banks do not have to rush for equity capital in the current uncertain macroeconomic environment.(BS)