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Aditya Birla group to merge units and create Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.
Mumbai: The Aditya Birla group has said that it was merging its fertiliser, financial services, textile and retail companies into one diversified conglomerate.

The move will allow the group to make better use of its cash and aid its growth. The combined revenue of the merged entity is expected to be over US$1bn for the current financial year ending March 2006.

The group will merge Indo Gulf Fertilisers Ltd., Birla Global Finance Ltd., and Indian Rayon and Industries Ltd. to form a new company called Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.
Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group, said that regulation in the fertiliser industry had triggered the move, because further profitability in fertilisers was limited due to price controls. The govt. controls fertiliser prices in order to protect the interests of farmers.

The diversified Aditya Birla group, which has revenues of over US$7.6bn, also has interests in cement, steel, aluminium and copper through listed companies like Grasim Industries Ltd. and Hindalco Industries Ltd. It also has cross-holdings in various businesses through a web of listed and unlisted firms. So as part of the group holdings, the new Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. will also hold stakes in group ventures like insurance, telecoms, software and asset management.

As per the merger proposal, shareholders of Indo Gulf Fertilisers and Birla Global Finance will get one share of Aditya Birla Nuvo for every three shares held in those companies, Birla said.Indian Rayon shareholders will get one share in Aditya Birla Nuvo for every share held. The Aditya Birla Group will hold a 38 percent stake in the merged entity, overseas investors will have 15 percent, domestic institutions 22 percent and 25 percent will be held by retail investors.

Birla said cash flows generated from fertilisers could meet the capital needs of its telecom and insurance businesses.

Aditya Birla group also has stakes in mobile phone company IDEA Cellular Ltd., a joint venture with the Tata group, and insurance and asset management businesses in joint venture with Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada.
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Major setback for Karnataka IT event as business chamber joins boycott
Bangalore: The Karnataka government's forthcoming IT exhibition - Bangalore IT.in 2005 received a further set back as the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) decided to join the 'boycott' of the event. Earlier a group of around 20 companies under the Bangalore Forum for IT had decided to pull out of this event.

According to a statement released by this industry body, which has a membership of 450 firms, including 135 from the IT and the ITeS segments, this stand has been taken in view of the government's apathy towards infrastructure woes - particularly traffic congestion, power shortage and airport facilities.
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Govt. steps up heat on RIL for failing to sign gas purchase agreement with NTPC
New Delhi: Accusing Reliance Industries Ltd. of adopting "dilatory tactics", the power ministry has demanded a review of the government's production sharing contract (PSC) for the KG basin with the company since it was reneging on its original agreement with the National Thermal Power Corporation for supplying gas to the latter's 2,600 mw power projects in Kawas and Gandhar.

RIL was shortlisted by NTPC through an international competitive bidding process to supply 3 million tonne a year of gas at $2.97 per million british thermal unit (btu). It has now placed eighteen new conditions before executing the formal gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) with NTPC.

The major relaxations sought by Reliance relate to altering the price structure by changing the tax liabilities, dilution/deletion of most of the clauses relating to compensation for non-supply of gas and on capping its liabilities.

NTPC chairman and managing director CP Jain has informed the power ministry that Reliance, which had initially raised three issues with the corporation in its letter dated May 6, had now raised another 15 issues in its subsequent letter of June 27.
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Assocham survey: US visa administration most difficult for IT professionals
New Delhi: For Indian IT and BPO professionals, the US is the most difficult country to get visas for, while China and Japan are the friendliest ones, an Assocham Business Barometer (ABB) survey has said. Leading countries in western Europe are rated as having the second most difficult visa rules for entry of professionals, the survey says.

More than 90% of the professionals interviewed by the ABB across different BPO/IT hubs including Gurgaon, Chennai and Bangalore, singled out the US as the most difficult country to grant them visa even as they do bulk of their offshore business with the American firms. About 50% of the respondents found western Europe as the other difficult visa administrator.

More than 60% of the BPO and IT companies find that the visa restrictions act as the biggest obstacle to their business, which could grow at a faster pace if the entry barriers were eased, the ABB survey across the new economy firms revealed.

Majority of the 150 professionals surveyed said that the visa regime for the Indian IT and BPO personnel was most friendly in China and Japan.

Most of the professionals based in the BPO and IT centers have strongly built a case for a major increase in the H1-B visa quota of 65,000 persons by the US. They want this limit to be raised to 2,00,000, which is somewhat similar to what the commerce and industry ministry has asked for, from the US in the ongoing WTO negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats).

Over 87% of the BPO and IT executives wanted India to forcefully take up the issue of visa restrictions at the WTO negotiations under the Gats.
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MMTC to set up Rs.4000-cr power project in Orissa
New Delhi: State-run trading house MMTC plans to set up a Rs4,000-crore gas-based power project in Orissa. The move comes close on the heels of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's plans to foray into power generation by setting up a 750-MW wellhead-based gas station in Tripura.

According to sources involved in the exercise, MMTC is in talks with the country's biggest power generator, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), for jointly setting up a 1,000mw power station in Orissa. MMTC has roped in Crisil Advisory Services as consultants for the deal. The company has also bagged a power-trading licence and also plans to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at Paradip.

The estimated cost of the 5-million tonne LNG facility at Paradip will be around Rs2,500 crore.
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