Oil companies told to bear losses on export account
New Delhi: The Oil Coordination Committee of the government has asked all the oil companies to take the losses incurred on account of exports on their books.

It is estimated that India will be in surplus in petrol by October 1999, by which time Reliance Petroleum's Jamnagar unit starts full production. The petroleum companies will then have to go in for distress sale of petrol overseas for the first time.

Earlier, while directing the public sector oil companies to lift Reliance's products, the Oil Coordination Committee had clarified that any loss on exports would have to be absorbed by Reliance. The same logic is now being extended to the public sector companies.
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Hudco to securitise loan assets
New Delhi: The Housing and Urban Development Corporation will securitise Rs 1,000 crore of its loan assets in the current financial year. Announcing this, chairman V Suresh said Hudco is now in the process of selecting an investment bank for the securitisation mandate.

A portion of the revenues will be assigned to a special purpose vehicle, which could be a company or a trust, through an escrow account, Mr Suresh said. The SPV could then place this security with investors for seven to 10 years through a debenture or a pass-through certificate.
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ANZ Grindlays taps debt markets
Mumbai: ANZ Grindlays Bank has raised Rs 120 crore of funds from the debt market for companies like Lurgi and Crompton Greaves, and substantial amounts by way of securitisation of rent receivables in the last three months.

The bank's officials said it has been involved in syndicating domestic rupee funds for companies like Siemens, Tisco, Whirlpool and Lurgi with ticket sizes of between Rs 30 and Rs 125 crore each.
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New HDFC scheme receives response
Calcutta: The Housing Development Finance Corporation says it has received a fairly good response to its floating rate interest loans. The company had announced the new scheme, adjustable retail home loan, which facilitates a changeover from the higher (fixed) interest rate scheme to a lower (flexible) interest rate scheme.

HDFC had introduced the scheme in order to retain its clients who have been wooed by multinational banks through loan transfer schemes.
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FIPB defers decision on Pfizer application
New Delhi: The Foreign Investments Promotion Board has allowed Distacom to buy out US multinational Motorola's 10 per cent stake in Modicom Network, the cellular service operator in Karnataka. The board has also permitted the Great Indian Railway Company of the US to operate luxury trains in India. This will make Great Indian Railway the first private company to operate railway services in the country.

These were among the 38 foreign direct investment proposals worth Rs 177 crore cleared by the board.

The board has deferred for two weeks the proposal of Reliance Capital Asset Management to allow international multilateral agencies to invest in two of its mutual fund schemes. It has also deferred the proposal of Pfizer of the US to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in India.
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Sakura Bank to offer online banking
Tokyo: Sakura Bank and Fujitsu unveiled a plan to establish an online banking joint venture in Japan. This will be the first company specialising in online banking. The venture is designed to help Sakura Bank expand its retail banking operations, which offer higher profit margins than the highly competitive banking services for corporate clients.

Fujitsu has a strong presence in internet-related technologies.
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