TCS, Infosys and Engineers India to witness some action today

Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank in China selected Tata Consulting Services' (TCS) core banking solution Bancs to achieve competitive advantage by introducing new products and manage transformation.

Film content developer and aggregator, Eros International Media, is eyeing 35% growth in its bottomline for FY12 as it will focus more on profitability than its top line.

Improper evaluations by ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) while investing in assets abroad has resulted in a losses of nearly Rs 2,300 crore, the government auditor CAG said.

Kotak Mahindra Bank launched Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) for its customers. With this facility, customers will enjoy 24x7 instant funds transfer, thereby enabling the beneficiary to avail of the credit immediately.

Infosys Technologies is planting the seeds for a long-term IT services play in the African continent.

In its maiden foray into the fertiliser sector, state-owned Engineers India will take up equity in the Rs 4,000 crore revival of the Ramagundam urea plant in Andhra Pradesh.

The Environment Ministry's expert appraisal committee has given conditional permission to Lavasa Corporation to complete pending construction work on 257 residential buildings in the 3,000-crore planned hill station township. The incomplete buildings are located in a 614 hectare area of the proposed hill town.

Steel pipe maker PSL will commission its second pipe mill of 75,000 tonne a year capacity at Sharjah in May as the company is anticipating strong demand from West Asia in the coming months.

Aegis Logistics has issued 6.3 per cent stake to private equity fund Infrastructure India Holdings Fund LLC on a preferential basis.

The Central Bank of India plans to raise Rs 2,500 crore through a rights offering at a discount to the market price as its dominant shareholder, the government, sets about infusing capital in state-run banks.

Bharti Airtel, India's top telecoms carrier, has no immediate plans for an initial public offering of its telecoms tower unit.

Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the flagship entity of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), has bagged a fresh order of exporting rails to Sri Lanka.

Tanishq, the jewellery retail business of the Tata group, is planning to invest around Rs 150-200 crore in setting up around 15 showrooms in various parts of the country in the next fiscal year.

PowerGrid Corporation of India (PGCIL), the country’s largest power transmission utility, will submit a revised offer for consultancy project in Nigeria and expects to finalise a deal in the next two to three months.

Less than a year after 'Munni Badnaam Hui' song helped pushed Zandu Balm sales, Emami wants something similar for its Himani Navratna extra thanda hair oil, and it's funding the entire cost of a Bhojpuri film song that will mention the brand.

Tulip Telecom promoter firm Cedar Infonet has increased stake in the company to 33.16%.

GAIL (India) has set a target of transmitting 118.2 mmscmd of natural gas from domestic sources and through LNG route during FY 2011-12 under the annual memorandum of understanding signed with Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for performance targets for the financial year 2011-12.

Usha Martin has raised $125 million via external commercial borrowing [ECB] from State Bank of India as sole mandated lead arranger and book runner with DBS Bank, State Bank of India [Canada] and The Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi UFJ as other participating lenders.

BHEL has won a contract from PowerGrid Corp along with Swedish firm ABB for supplying equipment for the construction of a transmission link

Mahindra & Mahindra, country's largest utility vehicles maker, will invest more than Rs 300 crore in a new tractor plant in Andhra Pradesh.

Greycells Education flagship brand EMDI Institute of Media and Communication (EMDI) receives the 'Chanakya Awards - 2011' for 'Business Communication School of the year' from Public Relations Council of India (PRCI).

Dhunseri to commence construction work on Egypt plant

Dhunseri Petrochem and Tea will start construction of its PET Resin manufacturing unit in Egypt by June. The company has put on hold its plans to start construction because of the political instability after an uprising in that country, which put an end to the 30-year-old rule of Hosni Mubarak.
The plant will be built with an investment of about $160 million and will have the capacity of about 420,000 tonnes per annum (TPA).

NTPC plans to raise $500 mn through dollar denominated bonds

The country’s largest power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is looking tap foreign markets to raise as much as $500 million through dollar denominated bonds. The proceeds are to be used to fund its plan to add 5,000 mw capacity next fiscal. It is also planning to raise funds through tax-free bonds in the country.
On the hand, the company is discussing the plans with the investment bankers and will unveil the final details in the coming weeks. The company has big plans for its coal and gas based power plants and is also trying to acquire coal assets abroad.
Recenlty, it has commissioned unit 6 of 500 MW of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station. Following the commissioning, the total capacity of the company has become 33,694 MW. With the coming of unit 6, the total installed capacity of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station has become 2,100 MW. Recently, the company had started Stage-III commercial operation at Unit-VII of 500 MW of Korba Super Thermal Power Project with effect from March 21, 2011.
NTPC posted a marginal increase of 0.27% in its net profit of Rs 2371.48 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 as compared to Rs 2364.98 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Its total income has increased from Rs 11961.31 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009 to Rs 14165.90 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010

ABB bags contract worth $900 million from Power grid

ABB has bagged a contract worth $900 million from Power Grid Corporation of India to build an electricity highway of more than 1,700 kilometers long in India, reflecting the unabated demand for power in emerging markets that has been a boon to the Swiss electrical-engineering giant during the economic crisis.
Besides ABB, Indian government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) will also participate in the project, which uses ABB’s cutting-edge, long-distance power technology that may have been the key trigger in ABB's success to outbid rivals.
This will be world’s first 800 kV, 6,000 MW Ultra High Voltage Multi-terminal DC transmission link. The link comprises three converter terminals and a power transmission system with a built in capacity of up to 8,000 MW which is the largest HVDC transmission system ever built. In financial terms, this is the largest order finalized in T&D sector anywhere in the world and is valued at Rs 1,590 crore. The 800 kV North-East Agra UHVDC link will have a capacity to transmit up to 6,000 MW of clean hydroelectric power from the North-East Region of the country to Agra across a distance of 1,728 kilometers.
ABB reported a decline of 93.82% in net profit of Rs 6.77 crore for the quarter ended December 2010 compared to Rs 109.61 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter increased 8.80% to Rs 2074.60 crore compared to Rs 1906.78 crore in the same quarter last year.

Government-run Union Bank of India (UBI) which is aiming to expand its overseas business is likely to get regulatory approval in the next six months. It is planning to set up a subsidiary in the United Kingdom and a branch in Australia and Belgium. However, the bank has already got approval from RBI for setting up operation in these countries. It plans to open a branch in Antwerp, Belgium and Sydney, Australia. The bank also plans to open a subsidiary in UK, which can cater to customers in the European region. Presently, the bank has representative offices in Sydney and London. Apart from this, the bank has a full-fledged branch in Hong Kong. The branch carries out normal commercial banking operations like acceptance of deposits, trade finance, external commercial borrowing (ECBs) and syndicated loans.

Government-run Union Bank of India (UBI) which is aiming to expand its overseas business is likely to get regulatory approval in the next six months. It is planning to set up a subsidiary in the United Kingdom and a branch in Australia and Belgium.
However, the bank has already got approval from RBI for setting up operation in these countries. It plans to open a branch in Antwerp, Belgium and Sydney, Australia. The bank also plans to open a subsidiary in UK, which can cater to customers in the European region.
Presently, the bank has representative offices in Sydney and London. Apart from this, the bank has a full-fledged branch in Hong Kong. The branch carries out normal commercial banking operations like acceptance of deposits, trade finance, external commercial borrowing (ECBs) and syndicated loans.

Mahindra Satyam sets up NMS for Nimsoft

Mahindra Satyam has set up the Nimsoft Monitoring Solution (NMS) on its Unified Service Management Platform (USMP) - a managed services platform developed to optimize client infrastructure performance and service levels for Nimsoft. The company leverages the multi-tenancy and online reporting capabilities of NMS to provide mid-market and on-demand/managed hosting clients with cost-effective, enterprise-class monitoring services.
NMS combines a highly-scalable cloud monitoring platform with customizable portals to help USMP meet the scalability, complexity and service performance requirements of its clients’ enterprise IT service demands. With its combination of comprehensive coverage, ease of use, and scalability, NMS enables organizations to leverage existing and emerging technologies and services, with unprecedented agility and ROI.
Mahindra Satyam is leading information, communications and technology (ICT) company providing top-class business consulting, information technology and communication services. It is part of the $7.1 billion Mahindra Group, a global industrial federation of companies and one of the top 10 business houses based in India.

NMDC likely to acquire the US coal mine for building steel plants

NMDC, the state-owned miner is looking to acquire a coal mine in the US for building steel plants in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. It is reported that the company is in talks with the promoters of midsized coking coal mines in Pittsburg and Alabama to do due diligence part.

The company is keen to secure coal for its captive needs as it gets ready to build a steel plant in Chhattisgarh and another in Karnataka through a joint venture with Russia's Severstal. For the Karnataka plant, NMDC had inked a pact with Russia's leading steel maker OJSC Severstal in December last year to jointly set up a steel plant with an initial capacity of 2 million tons per annum, expandable to 5 million tons per annum later at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore.

The Chhattisgarh plant, which is the first steel venture of the company with 3 million tons per annum capacity, being constructed at a cost of Rs 15,500 crore, is expected to be operational by 2014, while the constructions work of the proposed 2 million tons per annum steel plant in Karnataka is expected to begin in 2012.

The company is also in talks with Tata Steel to ink an equal joint venture for setting up a 2 million tons per annum steel plant at Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

Godrej Consumer Products commences commercial production at Guwahati Factory

Godrej Consumer Products has commenced commercial production of personal care products at its factory at Plot no. 52, Brahmaputra Industrial Park, Dol Gobinda Mandir Road, Village Sila, Guwahati on March 23, 2011.
Recently, Sara Lee Corporation has terminated Godrej Household Product’s (GHPL), a 100% subsidiary of Godrej Consumer Products license for Kiwi (shoe care) and Kiwi Kleen brands in India and Sri Lanka with effect from April 3, 2011. Consequently, Sara Lee will pay a consideration of Rs 177 crore to Godrej Household Product.
Also in an effort to battle mounting raw material costs, personal care products maker - Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is planning to hike soap prices by 4-5% starting in month of April.
On consolidated basis, the group has posted a net profit of Rs 118.82 crore for the December 2010 quarter as compared to Rs 85.12 crore for the December 2009 quarter, up 39.59%.

Unitech soars on selling 300 housing units of mid-income housing project

Unitech is currently trading at Rs 38.45, up by 1.50 points or 4.06% from its previous closing of Rs 36.95 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs 37.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs 38.70 and Rs 37.25 respectively. So far 22,00,562 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 98.45 on 07-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs 30.70 on 25-Feb-2011.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 38.70 and Rs 35.90 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 9876.54 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 48.57% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 36.28% and 15.15% respectively.

The country’s largest realty firm Unitech has sold over 300 units worth Rs 200 crore in its Unitech South Park project in Gurgaon launched last week. The company has received over 300 bookings, garnering almost Rs 200 crore in its mid-income housing project.

Realty firm had announced in February that it plans to make available 10 million sq ft (msf) of area in the next few months with an estimated construction cost of Rs 1,500 to 2,000 crore. In February last week, Unitech had also launched a township project in Rewari in Haryana with an estimated construction cost of Rs 55 crore.

The company has reported a net profit of Rs 111.36 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 down by 36.73% as compared to Rs 176.01 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Its net sales / income from operations has decreased by 14.80% to Rs 659.79 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 from Rs 774.46 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Unitech is a real estate development company with over three decades of experience; today it has a market capitalization of nearly USD 6 billion. Unitech is engaged into development of residential, commercial/Information Technology (IT) parks, Retail, Amusement parks, Hotels and Special Economic Zones. It has also forayed into wireless telecommunication business. In this 60% stake amounting to Rs 6,120 crore has been brought by Norway-based Telenor, the world's seventh largest telecom operator with a subscriber base of about 159 million

Pipavav Shipyard in green on receiving Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s approval

Pipavav Shipyard is currently trading at Rs. 79.55, up by 1.15 points or 1.47% from its previous closing of Rs. 78.40 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 79.40 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 80.50 and Rs. 79.05 respectively. So far 2,85,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 119.95 on 30-Aug-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 61.60 on 29-Mar-2010.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 83.60 and Rs. 77.90 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 5303.08 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 45.00% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 20.50% and 34.51% respectively.

Pipavav Shipyard has received clearance from Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), Ministry of Finance and Government of India which permits foreign direct equity investment. The company has also obtained all statutory clearances required for warship building for defence sector.

All statutory clearances required for warship building for defence sector is been obtained by the company. With this clearance the company will be able to bid for all the future warship projects like frigates, destroyers, aircraft carriers, LPDs, submarine, corvettes etc., of Indian Navy.

Recently, Ovira Logistics has acquired 5.11 crore shares or about 7.7% stake in Pipavav Shipyard at Rs 80.83 a share under bulk deal on Monday. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, IL&FS Financial Services and IL&FS Employee Welfare Trust sold the shares.

Pipavav Shipyard’s principal activity is to set up shipyard project. It is the sole sponsor of training at two Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) situated at Rajula and Mahuva, Gujarat, in the vicinity of the company's shipyard.

Zuari Industries gains on plans to acquire land to build urea plant in Karnataka

Zuari Industries is currently trading at Rs. 605.45, up by 6.75 points or 1.13% from its previous closing of Rs. 598.70 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 604.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 606.00 and Rs. 600.20 respectively.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 895.00 on 25-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 557.25 on 10-Feb-2011.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 606.00 and Rs. 562.80 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 1757.60 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 34.37% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 8.52% and 57.10% respectively.

Fertiliser-maker Zuari Industries is in the process of acquiring land in Belgaum district to set up a Rs 5,000 crore gas based urea plant in Karnataka with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes a year. Further, the company has got the green signal from the Karnataka government to go ahead with the project.

The plant will be built near the Dabhol-Bangalore gas pipeline project, which is expected to complete by 2012-13. The Belgaum plant will be commissioned by 2015-16 after the government's new fertilizer investment policy comes into force. The project will be built in Belgaum district, bordering Maharashtra and Goa, which has a gas pipeline running through it.

Apart from this, Zuari Industries is also eying at land acquisition near Karwar, in Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka, for building a phosphate and customized fertilizer plant at an estimated investment of Rs 700 crore.

Recently, Zuari Industries had acquired 20,00,000 shares of Zuari Holdings, a company incorporated with the object to carry on the main business investment. Consequently, Zuari Holdings has become a 100% subsidiary of the company effective from March 10, 2011.

Zuari Industries, part of the K.K. Birla Group, was incorporated as Zuari Agro Chemicals to manufacture urea and complex fertilizers. The company forayed into various business areas such as cement, furniture, hybrid seeds, engineering consultancy, financial services, and oil tanking through a route of subsidiaries and joint ventures.

HDFC Bank gains on winning Asian Banker's Best Retail Bank in India award

HDFC Bank is currently trading at Rs. 2178.95, up by 14.55 points or 0.67% from its previous closing of Rs. 2164.40 on the BSE.
The scrip opened at Rs. 2181.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 2185.40 and Rs. 2169.00 respectively. So far 3,255 shares were traded on the counter.
The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 2518.00 on 04-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 1785.00 on 25-May-2010.
Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 2199.90 and Rs. 2142.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 101364.39 crore.
The promoters holding in the company stood at 23.40% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 40.23% and 18.90% respectively.
HDFC Bank, country’s second largest private bank, has won the Asian Banker's Best Retail Bank in India award this year.
The bank has won the 'Best Retail Bank in India' award for the fifth year in a row beating a host of other competitors in Asia Pacific, Middle-East, Central Asia and Africa on a range of parameters. There were more than 150 retail financial institutions from 29 countries across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Central Asia and African regions who have participated in this competition.
Recently, HDFC Bank has paid higher advance corporate tax for the fourth quarter. The company has paid Rs 500 crore as advance corporate tax, higher by 66.67% as compared to Rs 300 crore paid during same quarter last year. The bank posted an increase of 33% in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, which stood at Rs 1087.83 crore as compared to Rs 818.50 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Sara Lee terminates Godrej Consumer’s arm license for Kiwi and Kiwi Kleen brands

Sara Lee Corporation has terminated Godrej Household Product’s (GHPL), a 100% subsidiary of Godrej Consumer Products license for Kiwi (shoe care) and Kiwi Kleen brands in India and Sri Lanka with effect from April 3, 2011. Consequently, Sara Lee will pay a consideration of Rs 177 crore to Godrej Household Product.

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is a flagship company of Godrej Group. The company is major player in FMCG market. It has three manufacturing units located at Malanpur (M.P) Guwahati (Assam) and Baddi (H.P).

On consolidated basis, the group has posted a net profit of Rs 118.82 crore for the December 2010 quarter as compared to Rs 85.12 crore for the December 2009 quarter, up 39.59%. Total income for the quarter grew by 86.64% to Rs 986.68 crore from Rs 528.64 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Vikash Metal & Power to issue GDR

Vikash Metal & Power has informed that the company plans to issue Global Depository Receipts (GDR) up to an aggregate of US$ 12 Million and the aforesaid issue of GDRs will open tentatively in the last week of March subject to necessary statutory and legal approvals.

The fixed minimum issue price of the proposed GDR is Rs.15.00 (INR) which has been determined in accordance with the amended guideline vide circular, New Delhi dated November 27, 2008 issued by the Joint Secretary to the Government of India.

Vikash Metal & Power was incorporated with the object of carrying on the business of trading in dolomite and iron & steel products.

Tirupati Inks reports fire incident at its Kanpur factory

Tirupati Inks informed that a major fire has erupted at the factory premises at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh during early hours of March 21, 2011. The company has clarified that plant and machineries, inventories and other assets were fully insured. In this regards the company is in process of taking necessary action along with assessing the loss suffered and filing claims with insurance authorities.
The company has also informed that its manufacturing facilities at Jammu are fully operational and hence it is not anticipating any major disruptions in the delivery schedule of the finished products.
The company is mainly engaged in the business of manufacturing of printing ink and trading in polyester films. The Company has two manufacturing facilities i.e. one at Kanpur & another at Jammu. At Kanpur Unit, mainly printing ink is manufactured apart from a small volume of printing cylinders and at the Jammu Unit, only printing ink is manufactured.

City Union Bank opens three new branches

Private sector lender - City Union Bank - has opened three new branches at Gudiyatham, Kallakurichi on March 23, 2011 and Bhavani in Tamilnadu on March 24, 2011 respectively.
Recently, the bank has opened two new branches at Rohini in New Delhi and Jalandhar in Punjab on March 6, 2011 and March 7, 2011, respectively.
The bank reported an increase of 42% in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 which stood at Rs 57.70 crore against Rs 40.65 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. It reported total income stood at Rs 349.28 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 278.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

NTPC rises on commissioning unit 6 of 500 MW of Farakka plant

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is currently trading at Rs 176.20, up by 1.20 points or 0.69% from its previous closing of Rs 175.00 on the BSE.
The scrip opened at Rs 176.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 176.40 and Rs 175.60 respectively.
The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 222.20 on 04-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs 168.60 on 25-Feb-2011.
Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 177.50 and Rs 172.60 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 144295.63 crore.
The promoters holding in the company stood at 84.50% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 11.78% and 3.72% respectively. The country’s largest power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has commissioned unit 6 of 500 MW of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station. Following the commissioning, the total capacity of the company has become 33,694 MW. With the coming of unit 6, the total installed capacity of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station has become 2,100 MW. Recently, the company had started Stage-III commercial operation at Unit-VII of 500 MW of Korba Super Thermal Power Project with effect from March 21, 2011.
NTPC posted a marginal increase of 0.27% in its net profit of Rs 2371.48 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 as compared to Rs 2364.98 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Its total income has increased from Rs 11961.31 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009 to Rs 14165.90 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010.

Lovable Lingerie gets marvelous debut on the bourses

Lovable Lingerie debuted at Rs 261.50, up by 56.5 points or 27.56% from its issue price of Rs 205 on the BSE.

The scrip is currently trading at Rs 268.30, up by 63.30 points or 30.87% from its issue price and has touched  a high and low of Rs 269.40  and Rs 255.00 respectively. So far 1959589 shares were traded on the counter.

India’s leading women’s innerwear ‘Lovable Lingerie’ got listed today , the issue price was fixed at Rs 205, higher end of price band of Rs 195-205 a share. The issue got overwhelming response and was subscribed around 35 times raising around Rs 93 crore.

The company will be using the issue proceeds for Setting up of a manufacturing facility to create additional capacity at Bengaluru; Expenses to be incurred for Brand Building; Brand Development expenses for our “College Style” brand; Investment in Joint Venture; Setting up of Exclusive Brand Outlets (“EBO’s”); Setting up of retail store modules for “shop-in-shop”; Up gradation of design studios and General corporate purpose.

The Mumbai based company manufacturer’s women’s innerwear. The company is having joint venture with Lovable Lifestyles which will market, manufacture, distribute and direct retail in the super premium lingerie segment. Lovable will hold 90% stake in the JV with London's Lifestyle Galleries. The company’s brands include 'Lovable', 'Daisy Dee' and 'College Style' which are retailed through 103 distributors in India. Lovable has three manufacturing facilities - two in Bengaluru, with an installed capacity of 60 lakh pieces p.a. and another unit in Uttarakhand with an installed capacity of 7.5 lakh pieces p.a.

US markets closed modestly higher despite weak housing data

US markets closed modestly higher on Wednesday, worries of Japanese crisis was still looming and the stocks remained lower for most of the day however a spurt in energy stocks was seen after Energy Department report showed that gasoline consumption continues to grow despite sharp price increases at the pump, it shows that higher fuel cost has not made much impact. Meanwhile the Japanese government estimated that rebuilding costs for the earthquake could be as high as $300 billion, dragging the economy growth by 0.5 percent this year due to the widespread devastation. Also there was a disappointment from the housing front; sales of new single-family homes plunged to the lowest on record in February.

Commerce Department reported that home sales fell 17 percent to 250,000, well below the 700,000 rate being expected, it was the third straight monthly drop. That decline in activity is weighing down the construction industry, which in the past has fueled economic recoveries.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 67.39 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 12,086.02.The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 3.77 points, or 0.29 percent, to close at 1,297.54. The Nasdaq composite index rose 14.43, or 0.54 percent, to 2,698.30.

Most of the Indian ADRs closed in green on Wednesday, Infosys was up by 1.64%, Wipro was up by 0.29%, HDFC Bank was up by 4.78%, ICICI Bank was up by 2.62%, MTNL was up by 0.05% and Tata Motors was up by 0.60%.

FII DII DATA 24/03/2011

Net Index Futures (358), Net Stock Futures (-119), Derivative Market: Total Open Interest (Rs 1,45,535 cr), Stock Futures Open Interest (Rs 33,141 cr)

Indian ADRs Update 24/03/2011

INFOSYS Up 1.6 (2.5%), WIPRO Up 0.3 (2.1%), ICICI BANK Up 2.6 (5.9%), HDFC BANK Up 4.8 (3.1%)

City Union Bank opens three new branches

Private sector lender - City Union Bank - has opened three new branches at Gudiyatham, Kallakurichi on March 23, 2011 and Bhavani in Tamilnadu on March 24, 2011 respectively.
Recently, the bank has opened two new branches at Rohini in New Delhi and Jalandhar in Punjab on March 6, 2011 and March 7, 2011, respectively.
The bank reported an increase of 42% in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 which stood at Rs 57.70 crore against Rs 40.65 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. It reported total income stood at Rs 349.28 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 278.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Markets likely to get a positive start on good global cues

The Indian markets remained in jubilant mood for the second consecutive day with benchmarks gaining over one percent each in last session, there were lots of short covering and the gains remained broad based, though the PSU oil marketing companies remained a bit under pressure. Today the start is likely to be good with global cues indicating for a positive start, fund buying in realty, banking and pharma may continue for yet another day, while the latest governments’ proposal of lowering taxes in some sectors may continue to support the stocks move further high. There is a new listing of one of India’s leading women’s innerwear ' Lovable Lingerie' today that too is likely to keep the markets buzzing. The issue price has been fixed at Rs 205, at the higher end of price band of Rs 195-205 a share. The issue got overwhelming response and was subscribed around 35 times raising around Rs 93 crore.

In a latest development Capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ordered restriction on transmitting ‘unauthenticated news’ by brokers and wealth managers on blogs and mobile phones. The Advice from the SEBI also says that broking firms will have to ensure that staffs don’t circulate rumours, or unverified information, obtained from client, industry or any other sources. They will also have to restrict their employees from accessing blogs and messenger sites.

The US markets closed modestly higher as the Japanese worries along with report that new single-family homes plunged to the lowest on record in February capped the gains. Most of the Asian markets have made a positive start though the Japanese Nikkei is trading marginally lower on government estimation that the direct damage from a deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck the country’s northeast this month was at as much as $310 billion.

Back home, Indian benchmarks carried forward their northbound journey for yet another session on Wednesday, as optimistic cues from across the globe helped the indices to surpass crucial support levels of 5,400 and 18,000 and move in higher trajectories. Sentiments remained sanguine right from the start of trade as tabling of the banking sector amendment bill and the Constitution Amendment Bill in parliament on Tuesday buttressed the chances of a rebound for the domestic indices. The discouraging leads from Japanese markets which plunged over one and half a percent too went unnoticed amid reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffet intends to use the huge cash pile of his flagship firm Berkshire Hathaway to acquire companies in India, an investment destination Buffett feels is too big to be called an emerging market. Meanwhile, spiraling crude oil showed little signs of dying down as they toped $105 a barrel amid the ongoing turmoil in Libya and other parts of the Middle East, thereby raising skepticism over the advance on fears that the market lacks clear direction amid mounting global and local uncertainties. The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, settled just below the crucial 5,500 support level while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, Sensex garnered a double century to regain the psychological 18,200 mark. The broader markets too remained amid the thick of the things but failed to outperform their larger peers. Rate sensitive banking index soared after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed changes to tax and banking laws. The reform bill seeks to make voting rights for bank shareholders proportional to their holdings, a move believed to boost the attractiveness of state-owned banks for investors. Earlier on Dalal Street, the benchmarks had slipped to their intra-day low levels in the initial moments of trade tracking weak cues from the Wall Street and towering crude oil prices on concerns that conflicts in Middle East could pinch oil supplies. However the frontline indices staged a strong and stable pullback thereafter led by gains in banking, FMCG, healthcare and metal stocks. The indices gradually gained traction and sailed beyond the crucial support levels of 5,450 and 18,200 in the absence of any bouts of profit booking. Sustained buying interests across the board through the session helped the bourses eventually snap the day’s trade around the high point of the day with over a percent gains. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 217.86 points or 1.21% to settle at 18,206.16 while the S&P CNX Nifty climbed 66.40 points or 1.23% to end at 5,480.25.

US markets closed modestly higher on Wednesday, worries of Japanese crisis was still looming and the stocks remained lower for most of the day however a spurt in energy stocks was seen after Energy Department report showed that gasoline consumption continues to grow despite sharp price increases at the pump, it shows that higher fuel cost has not made much impact. Meanwhile the Japanese government estimated that rebuilding costs for the earthquake could be as high as $300 billion, dragging the economy growth by 0.5 percent this year due to the widespread devastation. Also there was a disappointment from the housing front; sales of new single-family homes plunged to the lowest on record in February.

Commerce Department reported that home sales fell 17 percent to 250,000, well below the 700,000 rate being expected, it was the third straight monthly drop. That decline in activity is weighing down the construction industry, which in the past has fueled economic recoveries.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 67.39 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 12,086.02.The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 3.77 points, or 0.29 percent, to close at 1,297.54. The Nasdaq composite index rose 14.43, or 0.54 percent, to 2,698.30.

Crude oil futures moved higher on Wednesday as Middle East crisis aggravated after attacks on Israel, unrest in Yemen and other neighbouring countries. Falling gasoline stocks in the United States too supported the prices to touch two and half year peak above $105 a barrel at settlement. US gasoline inventories fell 5.32 million barrels in the week to March 18. The stocks fell in the first three weeks in March, which was the biggest decline for the period since 1990 even though refiners boosted utilization rates by 0.7 percentage point.

Meanwhile, Yemen's president offered to step down by the end of the year in a bid to appease opposition groups demanding his resignation, but they showed no sign of easing up on efforts to force him out.

Benchmark crude for May delivery rose 78 cents, or 0.74 percent, to settle at $105.75 a barrel, after trading in a range of $104.38 to $106.34 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent May crude futures pared losses and settled down 15 cents at $115.55 on the ICE.

Reliance Power, GMDC, Unitech and Zuari Industries to witness some action today

Reliance Power is in advance stage of tying up debt of Rs 7,000 crore for financing its 2,400 MW gas-based power project at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh.

Amidst opposition from some quarters on the proposal of the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) to carry coal from the Naini coal block in Orissa to meet the requirement of Torrent Power and Adani Enterprises, the state steel & mines department has given its go-ahead for the proposal.

Swiss engineering group ABB has clinched a $900 million order -- its largest single order ever -- from the Power Grid Corporation of India to deliver an ultrahigh-voltage transmission system.

Fertiliser-maker Zuari Industries is in the process of acquiring land to set up a Rs 5,000 crore gas-based urea plant in Karnataka with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes a year.

Cairn, whose $9.6-billion stake sale in its Rajasthan oilfields to Vedanta has run into a roadblock, appears to have turned the tables on partner Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in their joint venture in the Krishna Godavari basin

Realty firm Unitech has sold over 300 units worth Rs 200 crore in its mid-income housing project at Gurgaon launched last week.

The Saroj Poddar-led group of companies, which include Zuari Industries and Texmaco unveiled a new group identity, Adventz Industries India.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering is in talks with a Japanese consortium for an equal joint venture to make suburban train coaches.

India's biggest gas transportation firm Gail India has endorsed petroleum sector regulator's proposal allowing pipeline companies to charge tariffs lower than approved rates but the move has been opposed by Reliance Gas Transportation.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) has beefed up its investment team at Aditya Birla Private Equity, naming Amitvikram Sharma as additional Investment Director.

Nippon Life’s plan to buy a stake in Reliance Life may be delayed as the deal requires special permission from the government.

The country’s largest power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has commissioned unit 6 of 500 MW of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station.

Agre Developers will be enhancing its presence in the realty sector. The company’s board of directors for this has authorized a committee of directors to consider suitable proposals for strategic acquisitions through such mode, for consolidating the company's presence in real estate development.

Goldman Sachs cut its 12-month target price on Reliance Communications by 26 per cent to Rs 115, citing reduction in the company's core business value.

Global Markets update 24/03/2011

 DJIA Up 67 (0.6%) NSDQ Up 14.4 (0.5%) FTSE 100 Up 33.2 (0.5%) Asian Markets as on 8.45 AM  NIKKEI Down 19 (0.2%) HANG SENG Up 167 (0.73%) SGX NIFTY Up 11

Ind-Swift Laboratories gets USFDA nod for two more DMFs

Ind-Swift Laboratories has received the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) nod for two more DMFs - Temozolomide and Telmisartan - filed by it in US. Besides commercially supplying four molecules to the US, the company has hitherto filed 20 DMFs with the USFDA, of which all have been approved. Temozolomide is an anti-neoplastic drug with market size of $700 million and Telmisartan is a drug for hypertension with market size worth $1.6 billion, the company has a strong basket of 40 plus products across 16 therapeutic segments.

The company’s subsidiary in the US, which has been operational since 2005, is playing a significant role in boosting the company’s business in the US market as it has forged key contracts with leading US generic companies.

The company has so far filed 302 DMFs with various regulatory authorities, including 4 DMFs filed in Japan. Also, 124 patents have been filed, of which one has been granted for cardiovascular drug. 

Recently, the company had received PMDA approval (Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices Agency) from Government of Japan for Pioglitazone and Risedronate Sodium to be manufactured at its facilities in Derabassi (Punjab). With this achievement, the company has become the first Indian company to get Japanese Government approval without any observations.

Ind-Swift Laboratories is a part of the Ind-swift Group and is based at Chandigarh, India. The company is engaged in manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API). 

Corporate advance tax payments up 22%

In a signal of robust increase in corporate incomes, overall advance tax payments by the India Inc for the current financial year have increased by buoyant 22%. Total advance tax paid by the corporates reached Rs 1.97 lakh crore in the current fiscal compared Rs 1.60 lakh crore in the last fiscal.

Highest tax payer as per the advance tax figures was publically controlled ONGC which paid Rs 8,492 crore, an increase of 35% compared to 2009-10. Another oil sector major, Reliance Industries, saw its overall advance tax payment increase by 38% to Rs 4,244 crore in the current financial year. Insurance major LIC paid Rs 3,599 crore as advance tax, nearly 11% higher than previous year.

Advance tax payments are often considered as a good barometer of overall performance of the economy and also serve as a lead indicator for growth in overall gross domestic product. However, part of the growth seen this year could also be attributed to the somewhat lower base as growth last year was weaker in many sectors and hence tax outgo also grew at a slower pace.

Nonetheless, the robust growth in tax receipts indicates that overall economy was doing well and if the trend continues, it will help the government meet an ambitious budgeted fiscal deficit target. The finance ministry has pegged fiscal deficit at 4.6% for the next fiscal. But experts have been raising doubts that given the high crude prices and implied increase in subsidy outgo, it would be difficult to adhere to the target deficit, particularly in light of the fact that there will be no one time receipt like the 3G revenue in next fiscal. 

Government panel to meet for pooled pricing of natural gas

The government has constituted a panel for deliberating on pooled pricing of gas irrespective of the source, international or domestic or public or private within the domestic space and the group is likely to meet within a week. The panel will be headed by Planning Commission Advisor on energy and is expected to come up with final recommendations pretty soon.

Demand for natural gas in the country has been increasing sharply, particularly from the power and fertilizer companies for whom there is a major feed stock. Further, overall output of gas in the country has been increasing rapidly and there are prospects of more gas supply from newer discoveries in near term. In this wake the government has been actively looking at a framework for pool pricing of gas in India.

At present, gas is sold at different prices based upon the source of the gas. For instance, domestic gas from public and private sector companies is mostly sold at $4.2 per per million British thermal unit (mmBtu). On the other hand, Australian LNG, which is to be imported by Petronet from its Kochi terminal in Kerala is indexed at 14.5% of crude oil price and will therefore cost over $14 mmBtu.

The terms of reference (ToR) of the committee indicate that the government wants an early alternative to differential pricing and is more inclined to get a pooled pricing solution as soon as possible. This is also reflected in the fact that the ToRs pre-suppose that the decision of a pooled price has already been taken and that the panel will only deliberate on the best method or formula for operating pool prices, without evaluating any other option.

Finance Minister tables Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill in Parliament

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday tabled the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill - 2011 in the lower house of the Parliament. The main aim of the Bill is to improve the regulatory powers of the central bank and reform the norms governing voting rights in both the public sector and private sector banks.

In case of the nationalized banks, the Bill proposes to raise the ceiling on voting rights of shareholders from 1% prevailing currently to 10%. It also proposes to enable the nationalized banks to increase or decrease their authorized capital with approval from central government and RBI. Presently, the nationalized banks are subjected to a ceiling of Rs 3,000 crore authorized capital.

In case of private banks it proposes to remove the voting right restriction of 10% for private sector banks in the total voting rights of all the shareholders of the banking company. It is proposed to “remove the existing restriction on voting rights limited to 10% of the total voting rights of all the shareholders of the banking company,” said the statement of objects and reasons of the bill.

The Bill also includes provisions to further empower the central bank. Such a step was felt necessary before new banking licenses were issued so that the central bank is in a better position to regulate the industry. Once the bill is passed, it will be mandatory for anyone to obtain prior approval from RBI to acquire 5% or more of the share capital of a bank and the central bank will have the right to impose whatever conditions it deems fit for such acquisitions.

The bill will also exempt bank mergers and acquisitions from provisions of competition act. This is being done to ensure that bank mergers and acquisitions are exempted from scrutiny of competition commission of India (CCI) and continue to be overseen by the RBI only. This point was request by the central bank itself as bank mergers also often have to be evaluated from point of view of stability of overall banking industry. Many times a bank merger might become necessary to rescue an ailing bank even if it leads to significant increase in market share of acquiring bank.

SEBI grants MF license to Indiabulls, IIFL and UBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given a final approval to Indiabulls Financial Services, India Infoline (IIFL) and Union Bank of India-KBC Asset Management to start their mutual fund business. Indiabulls and India Infoline had applied for a mutual fund license in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Union Bank had applied in 2009.

India Infoline will be launching the products in two months time. The company is looking to launch Index and ETF products. With a GDP of 9%, India Infoline feels that the mutual fund is a long-term business in India and it has a huge growth proposition.

SEBI is not comfortable in granting licenses to financial services companies and has expressed concerns over granting mutual fund licenses to non-serious players. Currently it has around 23 pending mutual fund applications.

The MF industry is witnessing a phenomenal 9% growth with close to asset under management of Rs 6.2 lakh crore. The new entrants in the mutual fund industry feel that India's asset management industry is underpenetrated and doesn't even constitute even 10% of the GDP. At the same time the industry is also witnessing exits by HNIs from mutual funds to other short-term investment opportunities.

The financial crisis in 2008 has seen many new entrants in the mutual fund business burning their fingers.  Also the market regulator has removed the entry load barrier which many fund houses see as a boon to the MF industry.

Assocham sees excessive use of monetary policy hurting growth

A recent study by the industry body Assocham has concluded that continued monetary policy tightening by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was beginning to have negative impact on Indian businesses as rising cost of funding was not only squeezing profit margins but also rendering some investment plans unviable.

“The country is pursuing a high growth strategy and braving the pains of high inflation. If the economy continues to use monetary policy without fiscal consolidation of appropriate degree, higher interest rates will continue to fuel high cost of production and squeeze profit margins of India Inc,' observed the study conducted to evaluate current economic health of the country.

It advocated that the government should also begin focusing more on the fiscal consolidation and try to focus on improving the efficiency of public spending. The central bank too had pointed out a number of times that a high fiscal deficit was hindrance to effective working of monetary policy. While the government has budgeted the deficit for current fiscal at 4.6%, which sounds reasonably low in current circumstances, experts doubt that there could be upside to the budgeted level in wake of surging crude prices and implied increase in subsidy outgo.  

The study by Assocham also observed that a large part of the inflation problem stemmed from food prices that were rising because of supply shortage. Even though some food article prices were cooling, the food articles index was still hovering at 10% rate from previous year. This could result in a more broad-based inflation in manufactured sector as well, concluded the study.

Further, while inflation was high, industrial growth was slowing down. The Assocham noted that the industrial production dropped to 5.5% in the third quarter of current fiscal year from 9.1% in second quarter and 12% in the first. While there was a slowdown in consumer goods too, greater worry was the slump seen in capital goods sector. The latter reflected that future industrial growth prospects too would be weak until the investment cycle picks up further. This however is unlikely while the central bank is hiking its policy rates in every review.

Essar Oil inks pact with Graphite India for the supply of 55,000 scmd of coal-bed methane

Essar Oil has inked a pact with K K Bangur - controlled Graphite India (GIL) for the supply of 55,000 scmd (standard cubic metre a day) of coal-bed methane (CBM), latest by the fourth quarter of 2011. Gas will be supplied from Essar's CBM block near the industrial city of Durgapur in West Bengal. The Durgapur facility is the largest as well as the oldest of the GIL facilities in India (three) and abroad (one in Germany).

Essar for this has also recently approached the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to build a 3-km dedicated pipeline connecting the graphite facility in Durgapur. The proposal is reportedly approved by the regulator.

Based on an expression of interest (EoI) submitted by Essar, PNGRB recently invited bids for laying a trunk pipeline from Asansol to Howrah (approximately 200 km) in the State. If implemented, it will be the first common carrier pipeline in the State as well as the Eastern region paving way for monetization of CBM assets in the coal bearing areas of Bengal and Jharkhand.

Essar produces coal-bed methane from 38 production wells. The company further hopes that the production is likely to reach between 40,000 and 60,000 scmd by end of March and would be ramped up to 80,000 - 1,00,000 scmd by July-September.

Essar Oil (EOL) offers a spectrum of products to bulk customers in the industrial and transport sectors. It supplies aviation turbine fuel to Indian Armed Forces. It the first private company in India to enter into petro-retailing sector through franchisee model.

Godrej Properties to jointly develop residential properties

Godrej Properties is in talks with various firms to form a joint venture as quickly as possible, since there is huge demand coming from residential properties. It is negotiating for jointly developing residential properties and expects to announce a couple of them in the first quarter of FY12.
Godrej Properties had earlier entered into joint ventures for construction of commercial properties.
Realty sector is expecting a price correction over the next 3-4 months but Godrej Properties has no plans to cut prices while in most of their project the prices are increasing. The company expects the sales to double in FY11 on strong growth across regions and segments.
Recently, Godrej Properties acquired the entire paid up share capital of Udhay OK-Realty from HDFC Ventures Trustee Company (in its capacity as trustee of HDFC Property Fund). This is pursuant to an approval of the shareholders in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on July 17, 2010. Godrej Properties reported a net profit of Rs 13.25 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 17.59 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, declined 24.67%.

HCL Infosystems unveils new range of laptops and desktops

HCL Infosystems, India’s premier hardware, services and ICT system Integration Company, has launched its new range of laptops and desktops. The laptop series - HCL ME 1014 and HCL ME 1015 and desktop series - HCL Infiniti M A365 Pro are packed with unique features embedded with latest technologies.

The newly launched HCL laptop and desktop series are amongst the first dual-core computers in India powered by the new latest 2nd Generation Intel Core family of processors. The products are also available on quad-core platform. The new devices from HCL are empowered with powerful configuration along with excellent features like Multi-touch Gesture Touchpad for laptops, HCL Desktop Management Software (HDMS) for desktops, one touch in-built customer service button with HCL Touch, in-built data recovery button with EC2 etc. will ensure a better and more-enhanced experience to the users.

The newly launched HCL computing devices ensure better customer experience with enhanced computer performance and better energy efficiency. This a breakthrough for providing robust media processing, more computing muscle for higher workloads, and a smoother multi-tasking experience without compromising on the style factor. It supports faster encoding and decoding of different media formats, along with smooth HD playback with high visual quality and colour fidelity enhancements.

Kotak Bank’s property investment arm to raise $500 million by the second quarter of this year

In a bet on the long term case for property in Asia's third-largest economy, Kotak Realty Fund, the property investment arm of India's Kotak Mahindra Bank, plans to raise as much as $500 million by the second quarter of this year. The fund intends to raise about $150-$200 million from domestic investors and another $300 million from global markets. Separately, Kotak is raising a $300 million private-equity fund to invest in infrastructure projects in the country.

Kotak Realty Fund had in the last week, sold one of its property assets - Peepul Tree Properties - to Tata Realty Fund for Rs 525 crore or $117 million. The fund had made an initial investment of Rs 95 crore.

Further the fund, which has about $750 million worth of assets under management, plans to invest close to $100 million over the next couple of months in major Indian cities. The investments will mainly be in the residential property assets.

Private equity funds, including four domestic and 10 international funds, have invested a total of $14 billion in Indian property during the last ten years. Of that, private equity firms have sold Indian property holdings worth nearly $2 billion.

Perfect Octave’s album “Silsila Suron Ka” gets GIMA Award 2010

Perfect Octave Media Projects’ album -- Silsila Suron Ka -- has won the prestigious GIMA Award 2010 for Best Classical Music Instrumental Album of the year. The album featured world’s best Indian Music instrumental Jugalbandi by legendry maestros Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma.

The company owns the copy rights in the said album. While retaining the copy right in the said valuable IP, the company has recently licensed this album to Times Music and now is available at leading music stores.

Recently, the company had also won an award by prestigious MTV-IMMIS for its one of the best selling album titled “Hari OM Tat Sat” by Jagjit Singh as best devotional album of the year.

Content creation is an ongoing and continuous process. The company’s objective is to create classic, thematic and world class music products in the targeted musical segment.

Godrej Consumer products to hike soap prices

In an effort to battle mounting raw material costs, personal care products maker - Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is planning to hike soap prices by 4-5% starting in month of April. The company is hiking the price since vegetable oil prices have rose significantly. Rising crude prices due to unrest in North Africa and West Asia will affect the fuel prices and freight cost.
GCPL has already hiked the prices of soap on two occasions one in September by 5% and other in January by 3-5 %. In the new fiscal year, the company is also planning to launch its own brand of air freshener along with various other new launches.
GCPL in FY12 hopes to continue announcing new buys in domestic and overseas market and expects Rs 30-40 crore in revenue, from recently acquired Naturesse Consumer Care Products and Essence Consumer Care Products which own brands like Swastik and Genteel.
Recently, FMCG major GCPL had announced its plans to boost growth in Rs 7,500 crore soap market through more acquisitions. Godrej Consumer Products has reported a surge of 18.19% in net profit to Rs 66.39 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 56.17 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

BHEL secures Rs 1,590 crore worth of order from Power Grid Corporation of India

State-run power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) in consortium with ABB, Sweden has bagged an order from Power Grid Corporation of India for 800 kV 6,000 MW HVDC Multi-Terminal System Package associated with the NE/ER-N/WR Interconnector-1 project.

This will be world’s first 800 kV, 6,000 MW Ultra High Voltage Multi-terminal DC transmission link. The link comprises three converter terminals and a power transmission system with a built in capacity of up to 8,000 MW which is the largest HVDC transmission system ever built. In financial terms, this is the largest order finalized in T&D sector anywhere in the world and is valued at Rs 1,590 crore. The 800 kV North-East Agra UHVDC link will have a capacity to transmit up to 6,000 MW of clean hydroelectric power from the North-East Region of the country to Agra across a distance of 1,728 kilometers.

BHEL together with its partner ABB, Sweden, will execute the project involving system engineering, design, supply and installation of three HVDC converter stations. The first stage of the system is scheduled to be operational in 2014 and the second stage in 2015.

Lanco Infratech consortium emerges as the lowest bidder for a power project by Maha Tamil Colleries

A consortium of Lanco Infratech and US-based Massey Energy Company emerged as the lowest bidder for a power project by Maha Tamil Colleries. The company informed that the final decision is yet to be announced as the bids were opened today. The developer has to supply 35 per cent of the coal obtained to Maharashtra and can use the rest of the coal to set-up a power project.
Half of the power produced from this project should be supplied to Tamil Nadu state government and the other half can be sold via the merchant route by the company. As per the rules of the bid, any excess coal should be diverted back to the joint venture company.
The 1,980 megawatt power project located in Raigarh, Chhatisgarh includes the development of the coal mine, which has an estimated annual production capacity of 10 million tonnes and reserves to the tune of 650 million tonnes. Maha Tamil Collieries is a joint venture company of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and the Maharashtra State Mining Corporation, each an arm of their respective state governments.
The project had six other bidders, all of whom have submitted bids where they charged Maha Tamil to supply coal which is developed from the mine. Reliance Power asked for a price of Rs 380 per tonne, Sterlite’s bid asked for Rs 175 per tonne, GMR put in a bid for asked for Rs 234 per tonne, and GVK’s at Rs 405 per tonne and L&T Power put the highest bid at Rs 819 per tonne, while the Lanco and Massey consortium submitted a negative bid of Rs 112 per tonne where instead of charging Mahatamil, they would pay them for the coal used

IDFC plans to raise 250 crore long-term capital

Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) is planning to raise 250 crore long-term capital through the private placement subordinated debt market before the end of the current fiscal. IDFC plans to raise funds via private placement as the company did not have enough time to come out with the fourth tranche of tax saving infrastructure bonds.
The company has mobilized around 1,500 crore by selling bonds to tax payers in three tranches, 56% less than what it had targeted to raise via retail bonds.
IDFC fixed the coupon rate at 9.33% a year for the 15-year bond issue. The bonds will carry a call option at the end of 10 years. ICICI Bank and Trust Capital are the lead arrangers to the issue.
Recently, IDFC has extended the closing date of its Rs 3,400 crore bond issue by five days from its scheduled closure date of March 16, 2011 and the issue consequently closed on March 21, 2011.

Reliance Industries’ FCC unit likely to start production from this week

Reliance Industries’ fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit is likely to start production from this week. Earlier, the FCC unit of about 2, 00,000 barrels per day (bpd) at reliance‘s older refiner at Jamnagar was closed for maintenance in early February.

The FCC converts vacuum gas oil into light value-added products like liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline-blending components and diesel.

Recently, the company is reported to have paid Rs 1054 crore in the fourth and final installment due on 15 March 2010 against Rs 770 crore in the similar quarter previous year.

The company’s net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 rose by 28.14% to Rs 5136 crore as compared to Rs 4008 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. On the other hand, the company’s net Income rose by 5.52% at Rs 60530 crore for the December quarter for the year 2010 as compared to Rs 57364 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Mindtree completes pilot execution of software testing course at RVCE

Mindtree, a global IT Solutions and product Engineering Service Company, has successfully completed the pilot execution of a software testing course at R V College of Engineering (RVCE) in Bangalore as part of the core syllabus for the final year Information Science and Engineering (ISE) students.

The company designed and developed the entire curriculum of this course in association with ISE department faculty with Vishweshwaraya Technological University’s (VTU) guidelines as base line.

MindTree offers IT services across the consumer goods value chain, spanning product development and manufacturing intelligence systems, supply chain execution and optimization solutions and customer and consumer management solutions.

CESC to double Balagarh thermal power plant capacity: Report

RPG Group Company CESC is reportedly planning to double the earlier planned capacity of its Balagarh thermal power plant in West Bengal from 660 mw to 1,320 mw. The Balagarh project, which is likely to be commissioned by 2016, would be set up for an investment of Rs 6,800 crore, making it the single biggest investment in a power project. CESC’s planned investment in thermal power projects of 4,440 mw capacity now stands at Rs 22,700 crore. The company has already received the terms of reference for the environmental impact assessment report but is awaiting final approval.
Meanwhile, the company is in the process of setting up projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Maharashtra apart from West Bengal, where all its existing plants are located.
By 2016, CESC is also looking to commission 600 MW each at Chandrapur in Maharastra, Haldia in West Bengal and Dumka in Jharkhand apart from 1,320 mw at Dhenkanal. By 2018, CESC’s 1,000 MW capacity at Pirpainty in Bihar, 1,320 mw in Orissa under second phase and additional 300 mw in Haldia would be executed.

CARE reaffirms the ratings assigned to Amtek India’s bank facilities

Credit rating agency, CARE has reaffirmed AA- rating assigned to Rs 1,815 crore (enhanced from Rs 1,411.90 crore) long term bank facilities of Amtek India. The rating agency has also reaffirmed PR1+ rating assigned to Rs 38 crore short term bank facilities. Further, the rating agency has also reaffirmed PR1+ rating assigned to Rs 200 crore commercial paper of the company.
The rating continues to derive strength from experienced and resourceful promoters, long-standing relationships with a large number of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and relatively improved industry scenario resulting in increased sales & profitability.
Amtek Auto manufactures components such as connecting rod assemblies, flywheel ring gears and assembly, steering knuckles, suspension and steering srms, CV joints, crankshaft assemblies and torque links. It is backed by in-house design and development facilities engaged in developing new product and processes.

Tata Steel looking to buy coking coal mines in western Canada: Report

Tata Steel, the world's No. 7 steel-maker, is reportedly in talks to buy coking coal mines in western Canada. The company has initiated talks with the government of British Columbia, a Canadian province, to acquire coking coal mine.
Tatas are keen to acquire coking coal mines for its European operations, which have zero raw material integration. The company needs to find more mines as coking coal prices continue to go up, pressurizing the margins for the company.
On Tata Steel Europe's raw material integration, iron ore from its Canadian DSO project is expected to reach its mills from 2012 onwards. So is coking coal from the Benga project at Mozambique. Tata Steel has 100 per cent off take at the DSO project, which will be producing four million tonnes of iron ore every year from 2012.

Shoppers Stop opens one new store at Durgapur

Shoppers Stop has opened one new store at Durgapur. With the opening of this store, the company has now 37 stores (including two airport stores) under its operation.

Further, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary - Crossword Bookstores - has also opened one franchisee store at Sadashiva Nagar, Bengaluru. With opening of this store, there are now 69 Crossword stores.

Recently the company’s subsidiary - Crossword Bookstores opened one franchise store at Junction Mall, at Durgapur.

Shoppers Stop is engaged in the retailing business. It runs a chain of departmental stores with brands including Shopper’s Stop, Home Stop, Crossword and Cafes and Restaurants etc. The company has reported a surge of 45.03% in net profit to Rs 27.86 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 against Rs 19.21 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Total income of the quarter stood at Rs 458.68 crore, up 26.50% over Rs 362.60 crore for the year ago period.

Elder Pharmaceuticals plans to raise Rs 105 crore through seven-year bonds

Elder Pharmaceuticals, one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in India, is planning to raise Rs 105 crore through seven-year bonds at 11.25%. The bond features repayments in 10 equal semi-annual installments commencing two years after the issue date.

Meanwhile, proceeds from the secured non-convertible debenture issue will refinance existing higher cost debt. Almondz Global Securities is the sole arranger of the deal.

Elder Pharmaceutical is engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceutical brands, surgical and medical devices. It holds market leader position in three therapeutic segments - Women’s Healthcare, Wound Care and Nutraceuticals.

Sugar stocks trade higher on allowing exports to the tune of 5 lakh tonnes

Sugar companies stocks continued their upward journey for yet another session after the government decided to allow sugar exports to the tune of 5 lakh tonnes.

Shree Renuka Sugars is currently trading at Rs 73.80, up by 1.60 points or 2.22% from its previous closing of Rs 72.20 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 73.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs 74.85 and Rs 73.10 respectively. So far 6,12,298 shares were traded on the counter.

Balrampur Chini Mills is currently trading at Rs 72.70, up by 1.15 points or 1.61% from its previous closing of Rs 71.55 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 72.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs 73.75 and Rs 72.50 respectively. So far 1,11,039 shares were traded on the counter.

Bajaj Hindusthan is currently trading at Rs 72.05, up by 1.60 points or 2.27% from its previous closing of Rs. 70.45 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 70.65 and has touched a high and low of Rs 73.15 and Rs 70.65 respectively. So far 2,46,555 shares were traded on the counter.

Rana Sugars is currently trading at Rs 6.06, up by 0.16 points or 2.71% from its previous closing of Rs 5.90 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 6.11 and has touched a high and low of Rs 6.17 and Rs 6.05 respectively. So far 1,29,663 shares were traded on the counter.

Ballarpur Industries trades in green on the BSE

Ballarpur Industries  is currently trading at Rs. 32.85, up by 0.05 points or 0.15% from its previous closing of Rs 32.80 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 33.15 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 33.25 and Rs. 32.70 respectively. So far 136218 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 43.55 on 11-Nov-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 23.45 on 06-Apr-2010.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 33.90 and Rs. 30.40 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 2173.06 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 49.40 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 35.71 % and 14.89 % respectively.

BILT Paper Plc - unit of Ballarpur Industries is planning to raise at least $330 million from a London listing next month to fund its expansion and to pay its debt. The paper production capacity of BILT Paper has increased by nearly 90 percent over the last two years and it plans to grow it by another 50 percent by the end of 2014.

Ballarpur owns a 79.5 percent stake in the firm, part of the Mumbai-based Avantha group, with the rest held by private equity investors JP Morgan Mauritius and Lathe investment.

The company would be raising $330 million from the sale of new shares while the private equity investors may also sell some secondary shares in the offering, is also expecting to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index.

The listing is expected to be completed in mid-April with a price range due during the week of April 4. Citigroup and JP Morgan are joint global co-ordinators and joint book runners of the initial public offering.

Recently, Ballarpur Industries has acquired entire paid up capital of Premier Tissues India (PTIL), a company engaged in business of manufacturing and trading of tissue paper and related products under the Brand names “Premier” and “Royal”.

Most Asian equities trade with marginal gains despite weak global cues

Majority of Asian benchmarks are trading in the green terrain this Wednesday morning session, however, the gains remained capped as weak cues from the Wall Street and towering crude oil prices on concerns that conflicts in Middle East could pinch oil supplies spoiled investors’ mood. The over one and half a percent plunge in Japanese stocks on reports that workers at Japanese nuclear plant were unable to continue work at reactor no 2 due to high radiation levels,that too did no good to the regional sentiments. The Singaporean benchmark, Straits Times remained the top gainer in the space as they climbed around half a percentage point.
Shanghai Composite advanced 12.01 points or 0.41% to 2,931.15, Jakarta Composite added 8.22 points or 0.23% to 3,525.94, KLSE Composite rose 11:41  0.41 points or 0.03% to 1,509.51, Straits Times climbed 14.34 points or 0.48% to 3,017.09, Seoul Composite inched up 1.45 points or 0.07% to 2,015.11 and Taiwan Weighted gained 2.94 points or 0.03% to 8,510.98.
On the other hand Hang Seng fell 57.77 points or 0.25% to 22,800.13 while Nikkei 225 plummeted 153.26 points or 1.60% to 9,455.06.

Aurobindo Pharma gets USFDA approval for Famciclovir Tablets

Aurobindo Pharma’s tentatively approved ANDA for Famciclovir tablets 125mg, 250mg and 500mg has received the final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA).

Famciclovir tablets 125mg, 250mg and 500mg is the generic version of Novartis Pharamaceuticals Corp’s Famvir tablets 125mg, 250mg and 500mg and is indicated for the treatment of recurrent mucocutaneous herpes simplex infections in HIV-infected patients and suppression of recurrent genital herpes in immunocompetent patients.

The products have a market size of approximately $175 million for the twelve months ending September 2010 according to IMS and are ready for commercial launch. Aurobindo now has a total of 132 ANDA approvals (100 final approvals and 32 tentative approvals) from USFDA.

Last month, Aurobindo Pharma has received tentative approval from the USFDA to manufacture and market Venlafaxine Hydrochloride extended-release capsules 37.5mg, 75mg and 150mg.

NMDC expects to renew a five-year iron ore contract with Japan by the end of March

India's top iron ore miner - NMDC - is planning to renew soon a five-year iron ore contract with Japanese customers which expire by the end of March. The company currently supplies to a consortium of Japanese steels companies called Japan Steel Mills and to POSCO in South Korea.

Surprisingly, Japan despite facing power shortages from the earthquake and tsunami that crippled production at several steel mills and other industrial units, did not asked for supplies to be halted from the company.

The company is confident of bagging the order since they feel that the Japanese customers would try to maintain the continuity notwithstanding the fact that the physical lifting will be affected by their economic condition.

NMDC's contract with Japan Steel Mills was on an annual basis for the first four years. The buyers had then agreed to switch to a quarterly price mechanism in line with other firms such as BHP Billiton for the 2010/11 fiscal year.

However, the company’s contract with South Korean importers is also up for review. The company current price agreement for the January-March period with Japanese steelmakers and South Korea's POSCO has been fixed at about $140 per tonne for iron ore fines and about $158 for lump variety on free on board (FOB) basis.

revises the ratings assigned to Simplex Projects’ bank facilities

Credit rating agency CARE, has revised the ratings assigned to Simplex Projects’ long-term bank facilities from ‘CARE A-‘to ‘CARE A’.  The amount is also enhanced from Rs 1,151.00 crore to Rs 2,130.00 crore. It has reaffirmed the ‘PR1’ ratings assigned for short-term bank facilities of the company. The amount is been enhanced from Rs 35.00 crore to Rs 300.00 crore.
The agency has also revised the long/short- term bank facilities from ‘CARE A-/PR1’ to ‘CARE A/PR1’ for Rs 145.00 crore. Further, the agency has reaffirmed the ‘PR1’ rating assigned for the company’s Short Term Debt (including CP) for Rs 70.00 crore.
The revision in the long term rating takes into account the healthy order book position, high growth in revenue, profit level and cash accruals in FY10 as well as comfortable debt-equity ratio and interest coverage ratio and improved average collection period during the aforesaid period.

Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea starts production from its Haldia Plant

Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea has commenced production from its Haldia Plant which was shut down after a fire broke out in raw material store of the plant. The production from the plant has started at the rate of 420 TPD and full capacity is expected to be achieved shortly.

Further, the company’s Haldia Unit-2 project implementation is going on as per schedule and is expected to achieve mechanical completion by March 2012. Meanwhile, implementation of IT SEZ project first phase of 365000 sq ft is in full progress and is expected to be completed by June 2012. Second phase implementation is scheduled to start within 3 months from now.

Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea reported a net profit of Rs 24.99 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 down by 4.67% as compared to Rs 26.21 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Viceroy Hotels gets approval for assignment deeds for hiving-off its 'Bangalore Project Division'

Viceroy Hotels’ board of directors have approved the execution of assignment deeds between the company, Viceroy Bangalore Hotels (VBHPL) and the owners of the land on which the Bangalore Project is implemented for assignment of the lease pursuant to hiving-off the 'Bangalore Project Division' to VBHPL.
The company’s board of directors also took in consideration the revised terms of the proposed investment by JP Morgan India Property Mauritius Company II in VBHPL and approved the draft Supplemental Agreement to be executed with VBHPL and JP Morgan India Property Mauritius Company II inter alia, thereby amending the terms of the Share Subscription Agreement and the Shareholders' Agreement dated April 13, 2010.
According to revised terms of such proposed investment VBHPL will cease to be a subsidiary of the company. Further, the investment under the Supplemental Agreement is proposed to be made immediately pursuant to the transfer of the Bangalore Project division to VBHPL.
The board approved to hive-off the said division at a consideration of Rs 205 crore and also approved to make investment in the equity share capital of the said WOS.

Glenmark Pharma’s US arm gets USFDA approval for Norethindrone and Ethinyl Estradiol

Glenmark Generics’ (GGL) United States (US) subsidiary -- Glenmark Generics Inc., (GGI) -- has been granted final approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Norethindrone and Ethinyl Estradiol, USP 0.4 mg/0.035 mg tablets, their generic version of Ovcon 35 tablets by Warner Chilcott, Inc. The product will be marketed under the trade name Briellyn and distribution is expected to start immediately.

Briellyn provides a continuous 28 day regimen for oral contraception derived from 21 tablets composed of Norethindrone and Ethinyl Estradiol to be followed by 7 inert tablets and is indicated for the prevention of pregnancy. Glenmark remains the only Indian company to be granted ANDA approval for an oral contraceptive product and today’s approval marks their fourth female hormonal product authorized for distribution by the USFDA.

The company received approval in April 2010 for Heather tablets, their generic version of Watson’s Nor-QD tablets as well as approvals in July 2010 for Norethindrone 0.35mg tablets, their generic version of Micronor tablets by Ortho McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Norethindrone Acetate 5 mg tablets. Total market sales of Glenmark’s current hormonal product line are approximately $141 million for the 12 month period ending December 2010.

The company’s current portfolio consists of 69 generic products authorized for distribution in the U.S. market and approximately 40 ANDA’s filed with the US FDA pending approval. In addition to these internal filings, GGI continues to identify and explore external development partnerships to supplement and accelerate the growth of the existing pipeline and portfolio.

Glenmark Generics (GGL) is a subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and aims to be a global integrated Generic and API leader. GGL has an established presence in North America, EU and Argentina and maintains marketing front-ends in these countries.

India Infoline gets SEBI approval for IIFL Mutual Fund

India Infoline (IIFL) has received SEBI’s final approval for IIFL Mutual Fund sponsored by the company. This enables commencement of mutual fund business and launching of mutual fund schemes in due course.
IIFL is engaged in business of equities broking, wealth advisory services and portfolio management services. The company was incorporated in October 1995 as Probity Research and Services and later in April 2000 the name was changed to India Infoline.com. In March 2001 the company again changed its name to India Infoline. The company is part of India Infoline Group. It has pan- India presence through its distribution network of 607 branches, 151 franchisees located in 346 cities.

M&M to establish tractor manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh

Auto-maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is planning to establish its tractor manufacturing unit at its existing facility at Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh to give boost to industrialization in the backward Telangana region. In this regard, the company will invest Rs 300 crore on the tractor manufacturing facility over the next three years and provide direct employment to about 2,000 people and indirect employment to another 5,000 persons.
This will be the company’s first facility in South India which intended to manufacture 90,000 tractor units per year and also 3 and 4-wheeler commercial vehicles.
At present, the company has its automobile plant spread over 343.36 acres of land at Zaheerabad, 136-km from Hyderabad, where its products like UV (Maxx), 3-wheelers (Champion Alfa), Light Commercial Vehicles and buses are manufactured. It now has employee strength of 641 and a vehicle assembly capacity of 218 vehicles per day.
M&M reported a surge of 77.59% in net profit from ordinary activities after tax of Rs 734.68 crore for the quarter ended December 2010 compared to Rs 413.70 crore in the same quarter last year.

BILT Paper planning raise $330 million from a London listing

BILT Paper Plc - unit of Ballarpur Industries is planning to raise at least $330 million from a London listing next month to fund its expansion and to pay its debt. The paper production capacity of BILT Paper has increased by nearly 90 percent over the last two years and it plans to grow it by another 50 percent by the end of 2014.

Ballarpur owns a 79.5 percent stake in the firm, part of the Mumbai-based Avantha group, with the rest held by private equity investors JP Morgan Mauritius and Lathe investment.

The company would be raising $330 million from the sale of new shares while the private equity investors may also sell some secondary shares in the offering, is also expecting to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index.

The listing is expected to be completed in mid-April with a price range due during the week of April 4. Citigroup and JP Morgan are joint global co-ordinators and joint book runners of the initial public offering.

Recently, Ballarpur Industries has acquired entire paid up capital of Premier Tissues India (PTIL), a company engaged in business of manufacturing and trading of tissue paper and related products under the Brand names “Premier” and “Royal”.

Jain Irrigation in green on its bank facilities getting ratings upgrade by CRISIL

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 264.57 on 09-Aug-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 155.15 on 01-Feb-2011.
Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 187.00 and Rs. 178.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 6987.15 crore.
The promoters holding in the company stood at 30.76% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 57.82% and 10.78% respectively.
Credit rating agency, CRISIL has upgraded its ratings on the bank loan facilities of Jain Irrigation Systems to ‘A-/Stable/P2+’ from ‘BBB+/Stable/P2’. The upgrade reflects rating agency’s belief that the company’s business risk profile will benefit on the back of healthy growth in revenues and continued strong profitability. The rating agency also believes that the company will fund its ongoing capital expenditure towards capacity augmentation with prudent proportion of debt and accruals, thereby improving its financial risk profile.
The ratings continue to reflect the company’s diversified revenue profile and strong market position and benefits. The company is expected to derive the healthy growth prospects from the micro irrigation system (MIS) segment in India over the medium term. These rating strengths are partially offset by Jain Irrigation’s large working capital requirements and the high dependence of the company’s MIS division on government policies.
Jain Irrigation is a diversified company with a market capitalization of Rs 7,500 crore approx. Jain’s product portfolio includes Irrigation Products, Piping Products, Plastic Sheets, Dehydrated Foods, Fruit Puree and Juice concentrates.

Jindal Saw gains on talks to acquire a logistic firm

indal Saw is currently trading at Rs. 184.50, up by 1.50 points or 0.82% from its previous closing of Rs. 183.00 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 184.70 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 185.30 and Rs. 184.50 respectively. So far 5,171 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 234.40 on 25-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 170.00 on 26-Nov-2010.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 194.35 and Rs. 181.05 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 5054.96 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 46.00% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 33.84% and 20.16% respectively. 

Jindal Saw is in talks to acquire a logistic firm that operates container trains and owns terminals for about Rs 100-150 crore. The deal is likely to be closed in three months, officials stated.

The company is planning to acquire a firm in such a space which has terminals at critical locations. At that level, it would probably become India's only multi-modal logistics company which has its own terminals, its own rail operations and ships.

The company has consistently created value by creating low-cost capacities in capital-intensive industries in businesses largely overlooked by other corporate. Jindal SAW had recently launched its Jindal ITF (infrastructure, transportation, fabrication) subsidiary.

Golden Tobacco to ink pact with Sheth Developers and Suraksha Realty

Golden Tobacco has received its members’ approval to enter into an agreement with Sheth Developers and Suraksha Realty or their affiliates/nominees for the joint development and or sale or otherwise disposal of plots of land owned by the company admeasuring about 31128.48 square meter situated at S V Road, Vile Parle (West) in Mumbai.
The company is engaged in manufacturing of cigarettes and tobacco related products. Its first manufacturing zone is a primary manufacturing division which is a tobacco processing plant located at Vadodara. This unit caters to the needs of the factory, as well as the requirements of Mumbai unit.

AI Champdany Industries suspends work at its Rishra unit

AI Champdany Industries has declared suspension of work at one of its 100% EOU - Wellington Jute Mill unit located at Rishra from March 21, 2011. The company has declared suspension for eradication of all wasteful practice, indiscipline, frequent concerted stoppages of work on one pretext or other, state of lawlessness throughout the mill and to comply with manning pattern followed in the industry by the workers of the unit.

In January this year an incident of fire occurred on the night of January 21, 2011 in the same unit. The fire came under control in the early hours of January 22, 2011. The fire caused damage to the mill's finishing department. The work has been resumed on January 24, 2011 after suspension of work on 22nd & 23rd January 2011.

AI Champdany Industries has gradually moved from manufacture of traditional Jute products like Hessian, Sacking etc. towards more value-added non-traditional Jute Products like Jute Yarn, Blended yarn made of Jute blended with other natural and man-made fibres like Cotton, Ramie, Viscose, Poly Propelene, Flax, Wool etc. Special Food Grade Jute Bags, Jute blended carpets, Fabrics for soft luggages / shoe uppers / wearing apparels for export markets.