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IFFCO in Rs.2,180 crore deal to acquire Oswal Chem units at Paradeep
New Delhi: The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Ltd (IFFCO) will acquire the di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), nitrogen phosphorus potash (NPK) and phosphoric acid facilities of Oswal Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd in Paradeep for Rs2,180 crore.

According to company officials, the deal was struck between IFFCO and the Oswals for a sale consideration of Rs2,180 crore. The amount also includes banks and financial institutions' (FIs) exposure of Rs1,915 crore. IFFCO has already advanced Rs250 crore to Oswals against this deal, they said.

The Oswal facilities include a two million-tonne capacity to produce DAP and complex fertilisers, annually. It also has a phosphoric acid plant along with railway siding facility. The asset sale, which includes the entire Oswal township at Paradeep on an "as-is-where-is-basis", is the largest deal in the fertiliser sector in the last few years.

Oswal Chemicals and Fertilisers, promoted by Abhay Oswal, would hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 24 followed by a meeting of board of directors on September 25, to ratify the deal. IFFCO, on the other hand, has convened a meeting of its board of directors on September 28, sources said adding that all IFFCO directors have already been consulted on the proposed takeover.

On a 100 per cent capacity utilisation, production cost of phosphoric acid has been projected to be in the range of US$415-420 per tonne, which is much lower than the price of US$445 per tonne prevailing in the international market.
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Dubai Aluminium and L&T sign up for US$1.1bn refinery and smelter JV
Dubai: The Dubai Aluminium Company ( Dubal) has signed a joint venture agreement with Larsen & Toubro, India's leading diversified engineering and construction conglomerate, for bauxite mining-cum-alumina refinery and smelter project in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

The project has already been approved by Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai, the UAE minister for finance and industry and chairman of Dubal. "The historic agreement is considered the UAE's largest foreign investment in the industrial sector in this country," said Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, Vice-Chairman, Dubal.

"L&T has been focusing on developing business relations with GCC Countries. This project being single largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in India by the UAE, will be fore-runner of many joint projects in the region. The project will bring substantial economic benefits to the people of Orissa including fresh employment generation and wealth creation," said A.M.Naik, Chairman & Managing Director of L&T.

L&T will have the responsibility for the construction of a major part of the project. Dubal will have an equity share of 74 per cent with L & T holding the remaining 26 per cent in this massive venture.

The upstream integration project's Phase-I consists of a 1.4 million tonnes per annum capacity world class alumina refinery, bauxite mining and development of related infrastructure including a captive power plant, port facility, a township and other utilities. Dubal and L&T will ensure that state-of-the-art environmental systems adhering to stringent standards are installed for the project.

The Project is due for commissioning in the second half of 2009. The project will ensure supply of around one million tonnes of alumina per annum, the principal raw material needed for Dubal. The financial closure is set to be achieved by the end of 2006 and construction will begin in 2007.

Phase-II of the project will add another 1.5 million tonnes per annum. The second phase also involves construction of an aluminium smelter utilizing Dubal's own in-house developed technology. This phase is expected to cost around US$2.5bn, taking the total investment in the project to an estimated US$3.6bn.

L&T has been undertaking major projects in Dubai. The company recently won an order from Nakheel, to build a prestigious residential property in Dubai. Out of the total project of Dh376 million, L&T's value of works will be Dh284 million. The company is also involved in another project for the construction of two 39-storied commercial and office buildings, and two towers of 35-storied and 25-storied luxury condominiums.
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Tata Steel may opt for production plant in Vietnam
Mumbai: Tata Steel, the country's largest private sector integrated steel company, may be planning to set up a production facility in Vietnam. The move may follow on the back of the company's acquisition of the Singapore-based NatSteel Asia last year, which has a presence in the Asia Pacific region, including Vietnam.

In addition to having a presence in Vietnam through the acquisition of NatSteel, the Tata group of companies sells iron and ferro steel in that country. Last year, the group had signed a contract to set up a hydro-electric power project in Vietnam. The Vietnam plant of NatSteel has a rolling capacity of 120,000 tonnes a year.

Vietnam has been witnessing a 7.5 per cent growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) annually and expects to record an 8.5 per cent growth this year. The country has good quality iron ore and coal. In addition, the per capita steel consumption in Vietnam is pegged at 6 kg a year, India's one-fourth, indicating room for growth in steel demand.

Tata Steel, as part of its policy to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, bought NatSteel for over Rs1300 crore last year, which provided it a presence in seven countries - Singapore, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.

With more than 3,000 employees across the Asia-Pacific region, NatSteel Asia produces about 2 million tonnes of steel a year, making it a leading supplier of premium steel products for the construction industry.

Tata Steel recently unveiled a road map for the next 15 years, entailing an investment of Rs1,00,000 crore for enhancing production capacity to 34 million tonnes. This includes the setting up of a 12-million-tonne greenfield plant in Jharkhand, a six-million-tonne plant in Orissa and a five-million-tonne in Chhattisgarh, besides projects in Iran and Bangladesh.

According to sources, the company is also eyeing a fresh acquisition in Southeast Asia, with due diligence on for fresh capacity acquisition in the region to the tune of two million tones. The deal is expected to materialise over the next 4-5 months.
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TRAI: No hike for intra-network mobile rates
New Delhi: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked the department of telecommunications (DoT) not to issue directives disallowing differential tariff for intra-network calls. According to Trai a directive disallowing operators to offer intra-network discounts would be against the interests of the consumers as it would lead to an increase in tariffs.

Reliance Infocomm, for example, under some of its schemes charges 40 paise per minute for calls made to its own network. Similarly, Hutch-to-Hutch local calls cost 50 paise a minute and Airtel-to-Airtel local calls cost Re 1 per minute. Such intra-network discounts are offered by almost all the mobile operators.

DoT had earlier planned to issue a directive asking all the telecom operators to withdraw tariff schemes discriminating between calls terminating within the same network and calls terminating in other networks. This would have increased tariffs for more than 60m mobile subscribers as the operators would have withdrawn lower tariffs for intra-network calls.

All over the world, operators offer lower tariffs to the subscribers for calls terminating in their own networks.
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IIT-Bombay and CII to set up automobile research centre
Kolkata: The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, (IIT-Bombay), is planning to set up an automobile research centre in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), under the institute's sponsored industrial research programme.

The centre is likely to be funded through a consortium of partners, consisting of some of the leading domestic auto majors. Among the players likely to participate in it are Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Bharat Forge and Tata Motors. The proposed centre would be fully equipped to take up jobs in automobile engineering and design.
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DoT rejects FWP plea for extension of time
New Delhi: The government has rejected the plea of fixed wireless service providers (FWP) for a three-month grace period to confine their services to the premises of subscribers.

Executives from all fixed wireless terminals (FWT) service providers had jointly approached the department of telecommunications on Friday, seeking a three month waiver on the August 26 directive, which put FWTs at par with mobile services.

While rejecting the plea, the government cited the September 9 ruling by the Telecom Dispute Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which had said 'Walky', an FWT service offered by Tata Teleservices, was a mobile service. TDSAT has also directed the Tatas to pay access deficit charges (ADC), a levy to compensate BSNL's unviable services in rural areas, for its FWT services.

Following the judgment, BSNL had sent notices on ADC payment to Tata Teleservices, Reliance Infocomm, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, HFCL and Shyam Telelink. It hopes to collect around Rs500 crore from Tata Tele, MTNL and Reliance.
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SIAM: Two-wheeler exports up 92 per cent in August
New Delhi: According to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the overall exports of the auto industry jumped 54 per cent in August, with two-wheelers registering a phenomenal increase of 92 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The commercial vehicles segment posted a 33 per cent increase in exports in August as against the same month last year. While three-wheeler exports grew by almost 21 per cent, passenger car segment was not too far behind either, posting a growth of 11.43 per cent. Cars manufactured in India registered a 14 per cent jump in cumulative exports during April-August this year at 72,011 units as against 63,020 in the corresponding period last year.

Leading the growth in car exports is homegrown major Tata Motors, which recorded exports of 2,277 units in August this year as against a mere 265 units in the same month last year, a growth of 759 per cent.

Hyundai Motor India continued its impressive exports growth posting a 9.87 per cent increase at 9,409 units in August as against 8,663 units in the same month last year. (Agencies)
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