BSNL's mega tender now only for 42mn GSM lines
New Delhi: State owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd said on Monday that its mega tender for expansion of nation-wide mobile operations would be for 42 million lines instead of 60 million, as 30 per cent would be awarded to another PSU, ITI, under "Reserved Quota." BSNL chairman and managing director AK Sinha also said that the tender would be out "before the month end."

Earlier, it was expected that the tender would be to add 60 million lines envisaging an investment of about 4.5 billion dollars but taking out the Reserved Quota, BSNL would now be inviting bids only for the rest of the quantity. The balance 42 million lines would be for three regions of North, South and East while the contract for Western region would be awarded to ITI.

For 2006-07, the BSNL would lay 20 million lines across the country of which 80 per cent would be mobile. This is being done to meet immediate demand, Sinha said, adding the corporation would also aim at covering 14,000 villages with one telephone in each village over the next two years.

"These will be covered through satellite phone and HFCL will provide the phone equipments," Sinha said.

While most part of the investment would come from internal accruals of BSNL, the corporation may resort to borrowing of Rs5,000-6,000 crore from the market.

The investment plan has been finalised by the corporation and is yet to be ratified by the Planning Commission.
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IOC hopeful of stake divestment in ONGC and GAIL
Kolkata: Indian Oil's proposal to divest part of its holdings in both ONGC and GAIL (India) Ltd may result in accruals of up to Rs3,500 crore for the company. The proposal is currently pending with the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

The company is hopeful of getting the Centre's clearance for the sale by March.

IOC has received the approval of its board for selling 20 per cent of its 9.6 per cent stake in ONGC and up to 50 per cent of the 4.83 per cent stake in GAIL. At current prices, IOC's stake in ONGC and GAIL is worth close to Rs15,000 crore and Rs1,120 crore, respectively.

ONGC holds a 10 per cent stake in IOC and 4.83 per cent in GAIL. The latter holds 2.35 per cent in ONGC. Though ONGC had also received a board approval for selling its holdings in IOC and GAIL, the company had not submitted any firm proposal in this regard to the Petroleum Ministry.
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Jet to raise US$800-850mn in the next six months
Mumbai: Jet Airways has confirmed that it would be raising US$800-850mn in the next six months to fund its aircraft acquisition plans.

''We will be raising US$800-850mn in the next six months either through an FCCB, ADR, GDR or private equity issue,'' a senior company official said here today. A large part of this issue will be used for payments for its aircraft acquisition programme.

On the other hand, Jet shares plummeted below the IPO offer price of Rs1,100 on the bourses after the company, announced poor quarterly results on Saturday. The company reported a 53 per cent fall in profits for the third quarter ended December 2005.

The airline has ordered ten A-330s from Airbus Industrie during the Paris Airshow last year. It had also signed an agreement with Boeing co to acquire 20 wide-bodied aircraft.
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RPL to raise Rs.6,000 crore for Jamnagar refinery project
Mumbai: The Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries (RIL) has announced plans to raise US$1.3bn from the capital market as well as its entry into the retail sector.

RIL's capital raising plans is intended to finance an enormous expansion of its Jamnagar refinery, consisting of a 27mt export oriented refinery and a 1mt polypropylene project, to be located at the Jamnagar special economic zone.

The Rs27,000-crore (US$6bn) project will be part financed by a US$1.1bn to US$1.3bn (Rs5,000-6,000 crore) IPO in the first half of this year, most likely around April-May.

The name of the new RIL subsidiary will be Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL), which was also the name of the company which raised capital for the current Janmagar refinery in 1993. That company was subsequently merged into RIL in April '01.

Of the project cost of US$6bn, about US$3.5bn will be raised through debt and $2.5bn through equity (the IPO plus RIL's own investment), the company decided at a board meeting on Monday. RIL will maintain a majority stake in the latest avatar of RPL.

RIL has appointed four co-ordinating banks for the issue — ABN Amro, BankAm, Citibank and StanChart. The other banks in the issue are Bank of Tokyo Mitsbushi, DBS, HSBC, Mizuho, State Bank of India and Sumitomo.
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ONGC's deepwater projects in K-G basin to start production by June
Kolkata: ONGC is expecting its G-1 and GS-15 deepwater field in the Krishna-Godavari basin to start production by June. The initial production will be one million standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) of natural gas to be enhanced to two mmscmd in 2007.
The peak gain from the two fields is expected to be around 9,400

barrels of oil per day (bpd) and a gas production of 2.7 mmscmd.

G-1 and GS-15 are the country's first deepwater development projects using remotely monitored `smart well' concept. The total cost is estimated to be Rs 1,263 crore.
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Jetstar launches Bangalore- Singapore service from India
Bangalore: Jetstar Asia has launched its Bangalore-Singapore service to capitalise on the growing market for corporates, independents and family travellers from the Silicon Valley of India.

According to Neil Thompson, acting CEO for Jetstar Asia, the everyday low fares will start from Rs6,000 with tickets available via the website (www.jetstarasia.com). The five flights a week from Bangalore on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday provide for an early morning departure at 3:35 am, reaching Singapore's Changi airport at 10:25 am local time the same morning. The departure from Singapore will be around 1:05 am and arrival in Bangalore at 2:45 am.

About the Kolkata market, Thompson said the experience so far had been extremely encouraging with three flights a week.

Bangalore, with five was just a prelude with scope for other Indian sectors becoming extremely positive. What mattered for the airline was that it benefited from short haul routes and quicker turnaround
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Toyota workers call off strike — now conduct note becomes sticking point
Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor's workers union has said that workers will not return to work if the company imposes conditions on them. The union also said the strike has been called off because the Government has banned the strike.

The union said that the workers had no option but to return to work because the Karnataka Government had banned strikes under the Essential Services Act. Toyota Kirloskar, however, termed the union's refusal to sign the good conduct declaration "irresponsible." During the conciliation process organised by the Labour Department, the union members had agreed to sign a declaration, which was more stringent than the one proposed by the Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) management.

Over 500 workmen reported to work at the plant on Monday in response to the management's announcement of lifting the lockout. All the workmen have signed the good conduct declaration while reporting for work, the management said.
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