Madhya Pradesh signs MoU with Bharat Oman for Bina refinery
Mumbai: The Madhya Pradesh Government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd to set up a six-million-tonne per annum refinery at Bina, reviving a project, which has been lying stalled for almost ten years.

Bharat Oman Refineries is a joint venture between BPCL and Oman Oil Company Ltd. The investment in the project would be in the region of Rs7,500 crore.

The package of concessions awarded to the refinery project, include commercial tax deferment of Rs250 crore per annum and CST exemption for its products, both for 15 years, stamp duty and registration concessions and the like.

According to state officials other projects under active consideration are the Khandwa power project (Rs8,000 crore), an Essar coal power plant (Rs7,500 crore), and a coal power project by Jai Prakash Associates of Rs5,000 crore.
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ONGC-Cairn, IOC and HPCL to submit proposals for oil refinery
New Delhi: The Government has asked ONGC-Cairn combine, IOC and HPCL to submit proposals for a refinery in Rajasthan, Petroleum ministry officials have said. Their detailed proposals have to be submitted by June.

Cairn Energy has discovered more than 500 million barrels of proven reserves in Barmer district of Rajasthan and hopes to begin production from October 2007. ONGC has 30 per cent stake in Cairn Energy's Rajasthan oilfields.

ONGC, through its subsidiary, MRPL, and Cairn Energy of UK want to set up refinery in Barmer district. IOC in the meantime is claiming rights over the crude produced from Cairn fields in Rajasthan by virtue of being the Government-nominated agency for marketing the crude, and wants to either pipe it to its Panipat refinery in Haryana or set up a wellhead refinery in Rajasthan.

Besides IOC, HPCL is another claimant as it has plans for a refinery in Punjab. It also feels that a refinery by either IOC or ONGC-Cairn would dampen the prospects of its Bhatinda refinery.

For the period during which no refinery can be set up, officials said that there were two proposals of either carrying the crude to Panipat or transporting it through a pipeline to Kandla port in Gujarat and further shipping it to MRPL for processing. The pipeline used for carrying crude to Kandla for further processing at MRPL could be used to import crude oil for processing at a 7-8 million tonnes refinery in Rajasthan.
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GAIL and NTPC reach agreement over gas supply
New Delhi: Ending a period of uncertainty, NTPC and GAIL (India) Ltd have reached an agreement over the price of gas supplies from the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) fields.

GAIL started supply of gas from the Panna-Mukta Tapti (PMT) field to NTPC on Friday at the rate of 2.1 million metric standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd), according to a GAIL release.Efforts are on to supply additional 1.9 mmscmd of gas, thereby enhancing supplies by up to 4 mmscmd.

According to the company, GAIL has taken these steps keeping in view the onset of summer and to help ease the overall power situation. NTPC has agreed to take the additional 1.9 mmscmd at a market related price of Rs4,160 per SCM plus other charges.

Regarding the quantity of 2.1 mmscmd, NTPC has confirmed that it will abide by the final outcome of the ongoing discussions between the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Six mmscmd of PMT gas was to be marketed by GAIL from April 1 to the power and fertiliser sectors at Rs4,160 per SCM plus other charges.

While consumers such as NFL, Chambal Fertilisers, Tata Fertilisers, Indo Gulf, IFFCO, Oswal Fertilisers, Pragati Power and Delhi Vidyut Board, accepted this price, NTPC was reluctant which resulted in a lower offtake of PMT gas by GAIL.

With NTPC now accepting the market related price for 1.9 mmscmd, the price issue of the remaining 2.1 mmscmd is also expected to be resolved soon.
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DAKS ties up with The Loft for footwear sales
Mumbai: DAKS, premium British apparel and accessories brand, has tied up with The Loft, one of the largest footwear stores in India, to sell its footwear in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

DAKS shoes will be sold at The Loft's Mumbai and Hyderabad showrooms. DAKS has a premium following and its products would soon include golf footwear as well. Over the next few months it will be introducing leather accessories as well.

Company officials said that the DAKS store at Inorbit Mall, Mumbai, had broken-even in six months, which has made the company confident about its association with The Loft in selling its shoe range.

In the initial phase of the launch, The Loft has exclusive selling rights.
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JK Tyre tops in J.D. Power customer satisfaction
New Delhi: JK Tyre ranks highest in customer satisfaction with original tyres purchased in India, according to the J.D.Power Asia Pacific 2005 India Original Tyre Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI) study released today.

JK Tyre was in third position in 2004.The study measured customer satisfaction with tyres equipped on new vehicles at the time of purchase. More than 2,700 new vehicle owners of 26 different models in India were surveyed between June and August 2004 after 12 to 18 months of ownership.
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Sun Micro to ramp up operations in India
Bangalore: Sun Microsystems is planning to ramp up its operations to about 2,000 people in two years in the country. The company also expects its Indian operations to work on developing products to suit the needs of the Indian and other growing markets, Stephen Pelletier, Senior Vice-President, Global Engineering, Sun Microsystems, said.

"India is a very important geography for Sun and we recognise that India and China will be the drivers of our growth in the next decade. This signals the increased focus on the India Engineering Centre (IEC) by Sun, globally and we expect significant impact on the way we operate in India as well as on our customer relationships, partner collaborations and product development,'' Pelletier said.

New hires and replacements to the technical workforce in `high-cost geographies' will be discouraged and R&D team growth will largely happen from India and the other 'growth sites', Pelletier said. "We are over-invested in the Silicon Valley and we are aware that we are under-invested in low-cost geographies such as India.''

Sun Microsystems' `global strategic programme' is aimed at streamlining and consolidating R&D operations at key growth sites. Bangalore is the largest of these with about 1,000 people, said Pelletier adding that Beijing has about a half of that while Prague and St Petersburg have also been identified as growth sites.This move will allow the IEC to develop products in India to suit the needs of the Indian market which could then be benchmarked globally, Pelletier said.
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Infosys ADR to open on May 9
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies's second sponsored ADR offering of 1.6 crore American Depository Shares will open on May 9.

In a notice to the BSE the company said the issue will close on May 19. If it goes through, the ADS float will increase by six percentage points, taking the total to 14 per cent. Conversely, it will reduce the float on the Indian exchanges by 1.6 crore shares.
The price of listing will be discovered through the book-building route.

Infosys shares at the Nasdaq was trading at $62.37, while the company's shares closed at Rs 2,021.35 on the BSE on Friday.
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Corporate Results: Maruti Udyog, Dr Reddy's, Associated Cement Companies
Maruti Q4 net jumps 65 per cent
New Delhi: India's largest carmaker, Maruti Udyog Ltd has reported a 65 per cent jump in net profit in the fourth quarter of 2004-05 to Rs259.45 crore as compared to Rs157.15 crore during the year ago period. The Board of Directors has also recommended a final dividend aggregating Rs57.78 crore i.e. Rs2 per share (nominal value Rs5 per share) for 2004-05.

Total income (net of excise) increased by 9.3 per cent to Rs3142.10 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, as against Rs2874.70 crore in the corresponding quarter in previous fiscal. Net profit for 2004-05 grew 57.44 per cent to Rs853.63 crore compared to Rs542.18 crore in 2003-04.

Total Income grew 19.68 per cent to Rs11,353.87 crore for 2004-05 from Rs9,486.62 crore in FY-04.

The consolidated net profit of the company rose 56.9 per cent to Rs880.14 crore during 2004-05 compared to Rs560.94 crore in 2003-04. Total Income increased from Rs9,597.66 crore in FY-04 to Rs11,498 crore in 2004-05.

Dr Reddy's FY05 net plummets
New Delhi: Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) Ltd today reported a massive decline in its net profit to Rs21.1 crore for fiscal 2004-05 from Rs247.4 crore in the previous year.

The fall in the profits was on the back of declining revenues from its key products Fluoxetine and Tizanidine in the US as well as Ramipril in Europe due to stiff competition.

The revenues of the company also declined by three per cent to Rs1,950 crore in the fiscal year 2004-05 over the previous year and the earnings per share was also diluted to Rs2.76 as against Rs32.32 in 2003-04, a company statement said.

DRL's generics business in North America decreased to Rs220 crore from Rs340 crore.

ACC FY05 consolidated net up at Rs.402.52 crore
Mumbai: Cement major Associated Cement Companies (ACC) has reported a 82.85 per cent increase in consolidated net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005 at Rs402.52 crore compared to Rs220.13 crore in the previous fiscal.

The board has recommended payment of dividend at the rate of Rs7 per share for the reporting fiscal, ACC informed the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Total income for the reporting fiscal increased to Rs4,323.91 crore compared to Rs3,725.93 crore, it said. On a standalone basis, the company has posted a net profit of Rs165.52 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31 compared to Rs105.90 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal, it said.

Total income for the reporting quarter grew to Rs1,155.02 crore from Rs1,038.47 crore in Q4-04, it said.
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