GAIL's
separate gas trading co by 2008
New Delhi: GAIL (India) Ltd has begun its journey
towards separating gas trading business from its core
business, gas transmission. The process is expected to
be completed, and a separate company for gas trading created,
by 2008, when the Rs 20,000-crore national gas pipeline
grid will be set up.
"For
GAIL to become a national gas transmission company and
develop confidence of producers and users, we plan to
separate the trading business by creating a Chinese wall
between transmission and marketing functions," the
GAIL (India) chairman and managing director, Proshanto
Banerjee, told newspersons here on Monday.
This
year, the accounts for the gas trading business were separated
from that of other businesses. The next stage will be
the creation of a strategic business unit and finally
a separate corporate entity that will be listed on major
bourses. The new entity will undertake transactions involving
gas purchase from producers and importers (LNG) and sale
to consumers. Meanwhile, GAIL (India) will retain all
other businesses such as LPG production (15 per cent of
the country's demand), petrochemicals besides the core
business of gas transportation.
Elaborating
on the proposed gas grid, the GAIL executive director
(Business Development), Rajeev Khanna, said the only Government
approval, Right of Use (RoU) for the 7,900-km National
Gas Grid, would be completed by June 2004. ``We are talking
to all producers (of gas) and importers of natural gas/LNG
which include Shell, British Gas, Reliance and Cairn Energy
for transporting their gas/LNG through our network. We
have reached some degree of analogy with Shell for transporting
LNG it would import at Hazira to markets in Maharashtra
through the Dahej-Uran pipeline,'' Banerjee said.
On
the expansion plans in the CNG business, he said, "The
company proposes to take Shell, Botas of Turkey and IFCO
of Iran as strategic partners in executing city gas projects
in Agra, Faridabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Pune, Bareilly, Vijayawada,
Secunderabad and Hyderabad." CNG service is expected
to commence in Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra and Bareilly in mid-2004.
On
the exploration front, GAIL plans to double its investment
in business to Rs 254 crore in 2004-05. GAIL currently
holds interest in 10 exploration blocks. It is in talks
with Royal Dutch/Shell to acquire a 15 per cent stake
in an offshore medium-sized gas field in Egypt.
In the gas distribution business, GAIL is planning to
acquire equity stakes in two city gas distribution projects
in Egypt. "Shell has offered us 19 per cent equity
in Fayum gas company and 10 per cent equity in Shell CNG
company (both in Egypt). Financial, legal and technical
due diligence study for both have been completed and valuation
and other terms and conditions for investment are under
preparation," he said. GAIL is also evaluating the
feasibility of participation in another gas distribution
company in Egypt, Natgas, Banerjee said.
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Dr
Reddy's gets FDA nod for new drug
application
Hyderabad: DR Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, the Hyderabad-based
pharmaceutical major listed on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE), has received the final approval of the United
States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for AmVaz
(Amlodipine Maleate).
With
this, the company has become the first Indian pharmaceutical
company to receive FDA approval for a new drug application
(NDA) under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug
and Cosmetics Act. Preparations were on to launch Amlodipine
Maleate in Europe upon expiration of the Supplementary
Protection Certificate in March 2004.
The
company said its US product pipeline currently comprises
27 abbreviated NDAs (ANDAs), 2 NDAs (including Amlodipine
Maleate) and 44 drug master files (DMFs). Of these ANDAs,
20 were submitted under Paragraph IV. During the current
fiscal, the company expects to file 15-18 ANDAs, 15 DMFs
and additional NDAs.
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Reliance
raises polymer prices
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd has raised polymer
prices. Polyethylene prices have gone up by 6.6 per cent
to Rs 44 per kg (Rs 41.50) while polypropylene and polyvinyl
chloride prices are up 4.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent each
to Rs 46.85 per kg (Rs 44.85) and Rs 42.50 per kg (Rs
40.50) respectively. Among fibre intermediates, monoethylene
glycol prices have been increased to Rs 41.05 per kg (Rs
40.60), while purified terephthalic acid prices were slashed
to Rs 33.90 per kg (Rs 34.50). Among polyester products,
polyethylene terephthalate prices have been cut by 5.5
per cent to Rs 52 per kg (Rs 55), while polyester staple
fibre prices are up to Rs 62.75 per kg (Rs 60.75). Prices
of partially-oriented yarn and linear alkyl benzene remain
unchanged at Rs 74 per kg and Rs 54.40 per kg.
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Deccan
Gold Mines announces Rs 5-cr rights issue
New Delhi: Deccan Gold Mines Ltd, the only listed
gold exploration company in the country, on Monday announced
a rights issue to aggregate nearly Rs 5 crore to expand
exploration activity.
"We
would offer 4.9 crore equity shares of Re 1 each for cash
at par to the existing shareholders in a ratio of 20 shares
for every share held. The shareholders have the option
of renouncing the rights. The funds would be used to undertake
exploration in the Dharwar-Shimoga block in Karnataka,"
the company executive director, Sandeep Lakhwara, told
newspersons here.
Post
rights, the subscribed capital of the company would expand
to Rs 5.145 crore. The company, at present, has issued
and subscribed share capital to the tune of Rs 2.45 crore
comprising shares of Rs 10 each, which would be split
into 10 shares of face value of Re 1 each.
He
said that the block, comprising as many as 11 gold bearing
prospects, had the potential of becoming an open pittable
gold mine. Deccan Gold has already started exploration
to ascertain the exact length, width and depth of zone
and gold grade. Deccan Gold is majority owned by Australian
Indian Resources, a company floated in Australia, which
has invested Rs 10 crore till now in the country.
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Saregama
to restrict film budget
Kolkata: Saregama, the entertainment company in
the RPG group, has decided to restrict its budget in film
production to about Rs 5 crore, making a re-entry into
the segment with Hindi and Bengali films.
The
Group vice-chairman, Sanjiv Goenka, told presspersons
that the company, which has hived off its TV software
and filmmaking into a separate company, is also expecting
to gain from the songs of these films which would be marketed
by Saregama.
Pointing
out that emphasis would be placed on marketing of these
films, especially the Bengali ones that the film subsidiary
would produce, he said that the first Hindi film under
this banner is expected to roll out by next year. This
would be a Rs 4-5-crore budget film `shadow directed'
by Mahesh Bhatt and with a new star cast.
Goenka,
who was releasing a music album of a Bengali film, said
that he also hoped to give a help to revitalise the Bengali
film industry which was once a pioneer industry. The film
' Aalo ' has nine Tagore songs and is directed by Tarun
Mazumdar.
Goenka
said that while new and old Hindi film songs constitute
70 per cent of the recorded Hindi music market, Bengali
film songs had a very small share. "There is scope
for doubling the market share," he said.
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Tata
Steel plans big in mineral business
New Delhi: Tata Steel has said the company will
focus on the minerals business in a major way and is prospecting
for titanium dioxide, a key ingredient for paints and
high-grade paper, along the Tamil Nadu coast.
"The
sand along the eastern coast in the states of Tamil Nadu,
Orissa and Andhra Pradesh is rich in titanium dioxide.
We have narrowed down on Tamil Nadu to begin with and
we would start mining in the near future," a senior
Tata Steel official said here.
As
the country grew, the need for the mineral, used as a
whitening agent, would also grow. At present, most of
the demand was met by imports but there were adequate
resources already available within the country to cater
to the domestic demand, he said.
Tata
Steel was also focused on chromium, and as part of its
strategy to enhance its business internationally, the
company was setting up a Ferro-chrome unit at Richard's
Bay in South Africa. "We are awaiting environmental
clearance for the Rs 250 crore unit that will produce
1,25,000 tonnes of Ferro-chrome annually," he said.
Production
of Ferro-chrome was a power intensive industry and environmental
clearance was the most critical aspect, he added.
On
Tata Steel's expansion plans, he said that the company
was planning to add an additional capacity of two million
tonnes to its Jamshedpur facility over and above a one
million tonne brown-field expansion that was already underway.
"We
are already in the process of adding 1 m.t. additional
capacity. That Rs 2,000 crore expansion would be completed
by 2005 and would come up partly due to de-bottlenecking
and partly due to capacity augmentation. Simultaneously,
we are working on a plan to add another 2 m.t. capacity.
The detailed plan is likely to be worked out by the end
of the current financial year and the capacity would go
on stream by 2008," he said.
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Indraprastha
Gas in talks with OIDB for debt swap
Chennai: Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) is in talks
with its lender, Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB),
for prepaying its high-cost loans with cheaper funds borrowed
either from the market or from the board itself.Currently,
it is paying nine per cent interest for the Rs 68-odd
crore it borrowed from OIDB.
The
company, which pipes natural gas into Delhi for automobiles,
commercial enterprises and households, expects to prepay
the loan with funds that are at least two percentage points
cheaper. IGL expects to invest Rs 183 crore this year
- Rs 147 crore in building more CNG filling stations in
the Capital, and Rs 36 crore in extending the network
of pipes that reach natural gas to kitchens.
All
but some Rs 20 crore of the budgeted investments are likely
to be funded from moneys generated by the company's operations.
"Our sales gets us Rs 1.2 crore each day," A.K.
De, managing director, told newspersons. The company does
not expect to go to the market for more loans, so interest
costs may not climb up much this year. But an interest-lowering
debt-swap is needed now since the company's shares are
likely to be bought by the public. For the first time
since the company was set up in 1998, the public will
have an opportunity to own IGL shares, as the three institutional
investors who co-promoted the company are selling a part
of their holdings.
IGL,
a joint venture of GAIL (India) Ltd, Bharat Petroleum
and the Government of Delhi, who hold 50 per cent of the
company's Rs 140-crore equity. The other half of the equity
is held by IL&FS, IDFC and UTI. The first two own
20 per cent each; UTI has 10 per cent. These institutional
investors now want to sell half of their respective holdings.
And that is how four crore shares of IGL are being offered
to the public, through the book building route.
Speaking
of the earnings potential the company has, De said that
a large number of automobiles in the National Capital
Territory (Delhi) is yet to convert to CNG, which is 42
per cent cheaper than petrol, 18 per cent than diesel
and only half as costly as LPG. Besides, only about 10,000
households today get gas through pipelines.
IGL
has plans to expand its operations to areas such as Gurgaon,
Noida, Greater Noida and Faridabad. De said that since
no other company could come in and set up a competing
infrastructure for piping gas, IGL was a virtual monopoly.
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Galaxy
net at Rs 87.4 lakh
Mumbai: Galaxy Entertainment Corporation Ltd has
reported a net profit of Rs 87.41 lakh during the second
quarter of this fiscal against a loss of Rs 4.34 lakh
in the year-ago period. Income from operations moved up
to Rs 9.63 crore from Rs 1.92 crore last year. The total
turnover (Rs 10.03 crore) has shown a 373 per cent jump
from the unaudited turnover (Rs 2.12 crore) of the second
quarter of last fiscal.
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Hyundai
October sales up 27.4 pc
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India has registered 27.4
per cent growth in October 2003 sales, which touched 13,297
units. Domestic sales grew by 22.5 per cent over October
2002 sales of 9,250 units to touch 11,334 units in the
month, while exports grew by 65.4 per cent over October
2002 sales of 1,187 units to 1,963 units.
Sales
of the Santro grew 28.8 per cent to 10,618 units, while
that of Accent grew 24.6 per cent to 2,548 units. Sonata
sales dipped by 33 units to 117 units, while sales of
the SUV, Terracan, stood at 14 units with an order backlog
of about 100 units.
According
to a company release, the monthly average domestic sales
of the Santro has zoomed to around 9,000 units a month
after the launch of the Santro Xing in May 2003, about
32 per cent more than its 2002 monthly average sales.
Meanwhile, the Accent CRDi and Viva launched in 2002-end
have pushed up the monthly average domestic sales of the
Accent by 21 per cent to 2,022 units.
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Maruti
Oct sales zoom 35.2 pc
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) on Monday said
its passenger car sales in October this year grew by 35.2
per cent at 38,715 vehicles, including exports of 5,260
units, against 28,630 units in October 2002, powered by
a robust performance of its compact cars. Aiding the boost
in car sales during the month was also the end of a strike
at one of Maruti's vendors. The strike at DCM Engineering,
which supplies the bulk of an important engine part, had
hampered Maruti's production in the past few months, affecting
sales.
Maruti
said sales of its compact cars, the Zen, the Alto and
the WagonR, surged by 41 per cent during the month while
the offtake of the entry-level Maruti 800 grew by 7.3
per cent. Sedan sales increased by 45 per cent. The Zen,
the Alto and the WagonR together sold 14,810 units in
October this year. The sales of the Maruti 800 was 12,195
units, while the midsize cars, the Baleno and the Esteem
suffered a drop of six per cent with sales of 1,055 units.
Total
passenger car sales in the month grew by 25.2 per cent
to 33,330 units, Maruti said in a statement here. The
Omni and the Versa vans recorded a sales growth of 45
per cent during October 2003 at 5,270 units, but sales
of the utility vehicles, the Gypsy and the Vitara, dropped
by 57.5 per cent to 125 units from 294 units in the same
month last year. Total domestic sales of Maruti in October
stood at 33,455 units, up by 24.2 per cent. Exports in
the month soared 208 per cent to 5,260 units from 1,704
units a year ago. During the April-October period, Maruti's
total sales surged by 31.6 per cent to 2,51,183 units
over 1,90,940 units in the corresponding period a year
ago.
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Grasim,
Guj Ambuja cement output, despatches up
Mumbai: Grasim Industries Ltd and Gujarat Ambuja
Cements Ltd have reported higher production and despatches
of cement during October 2003. Grasim reported a 12.59
per cent increase in cement production at 10.53 lakh tonnes
(l.t.) during October 2003 and despatches rose by 10.78
per cent to 10.29 l.t.
Gujarat
Ambuja Cements Ltd (GACL) reported an eight per cent increase
in production and despatches at 8.38 l.t and 8 l.t respectively.
The Ambuja Group reported an eight per cent increase in
production at 10.62 l.t and a 10 per cent increase in
despatches at 10.15 l.t.
Cement production for the April-October 2003 period for
Grasim moved up by 5.84 per cent at 71.99 l.t against
68.02 l.t during the year-ago period. Despatches during
this period rose by 5.84 per cent to 71.97 l.t (68 l.t).
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Yamaha
sales up 23 pc in October
New Delhi: Yamaha Motor India on Monday said its
sales in October went up 23 per cent year on year on the
back of the Crux and Libero models. The company sold 40,296
units in October as compared to 32,792 units in the same
month last year, Yamaha said in a statement here. On a
sequential basis, sales in October were up by 16 per cent
over September this year.
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