Daily News Roundup - Jan 9 2013

Lenders to bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines have decided to take legal action against the airline company for its failure to repay debt of over Rs70bn despite repeated reminders. (ET) The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Hindustan Unilever against a magistrate’s direction to the police to conduct an inquiry into the veracity of an advertisement of its water purifier ‘PURE IT'. (ET) Marico plans to demerge its services business Kaya into a separate listed firm in a move that could help improve valuations of the parent company that has been weighed down by the weak performance of its services arm. This is effective April 1. (ET) Jet Airways cut fares for a limited period on select Dubai flights as part of its New Year offering. The airline will also add a second flight to Dubai from New Delhi from the middle of this month. (ET) Diageo is unlikely to stick to its January 7-18 schedule for completing the Rs55bn open offer to the shareholders of United Spirits, as many statutory clearances are pending for its US$2.1bn acquisition of India’s largest spirits company. (ET) After protracted wrangling, CAG will on Wednesday begin the second round of audit of Reliance Industries spending on the flagging of eastern offshore KG-D6 gas block. (ET) Tata Power said it has synchronized another 800 MW unit at the Mundra ultra mega power project, taking the utility’s generation capacity to 7,699 MW. (ET) The Kajaria Ceramics Ltd-Vennar Ceramics joint venture to manufacture ceramic tiles is all set to expand its capacity this year to 10,000 sq. m a day. At present, the capacity is 6,500 sq. m a day. (BL) Bajaj Auto stepped up competition in the 100-cc motorcycle market, launching the Discover 100T, a premium bike that provides more power and mileage compared to other bikes in the segment. (BS) GMR Infrastructure has terminated the concession agreement on its Rs75bn, 555-km highway project connecting Rajasthan and Gujarat. (BS) Financial institutions, led by LIC, have declined to participate in the open offer made by GlaxoSmithKline for its Indian subsidiary GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, terming the Rs3,900-a-share offer unattractive. (BS) Economy Snippets The government plans to fast-track approvals for real estate projects and put up all the status online in a move that will help consumers check if a project is approved before booking a house. (ET) A panel of ministers on spectrum recommended up to a 50% cut in the reserve price for airwaves used for CDMA-based mobile services and approved a plan to start the next round of spectrum auctions from March 11, a telecom department official said. (ET) Relaxing the ECB norms, the RBI said NBFCs operating as infrastructure finance companies (IFCs) can now avail overseas borrowings up to 75% of their owned funds without its approval. (ET) The Centre must consider levying commodities transaction tax to improve transparency in the trading of commodities, especially gold. This was suggested by some of leaders of the domestic finance industry at a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister, at North Block. (BL)