Mittal picks up stake in Indiabulls Credit
New Delhi: Steel tycoon L N Mittal's company LNM India Internet Ventures has acquired an 8.2 per cent stake in Indiabulls Credit a majority-owned subsidiary of Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd (IFSL), for about Rs90 crore.

LNM India will pay about Rs62 per share for investing Rs45 crore in Indiabulls Financial and making secondary purchase of shares for an equal amount. The investment values Indiabulls Credit at about Rs1,100 crore, IFSL said.

ICSL will issue 72.10 lakh shares to LNM India for about Rs45 crore. LNM India will hold a total of 1.44 crore shares in Indiabulls Credit. After the new investments, the shareholding of IFSL in Indiabulls Credit will decrease from 55.3 per cent to 53 per cent due to the issuance of new shares. Indiabulls Credit will have an enhanced equity capital base of about Rs460 crore with the new investment, it said. Mittal has been an investor in IFSL since 2000.

IFSL's scrip on the BSE on Thursday opened at Rs235.30 and closed at Rs246.50, up by over Rs11.
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Subhkam group to buy stake in Nagarjuna Agri Tech
Hyderabad: Mumbai based Subhkam Group, promoted by Rakesh S. Kathotia, is set to acquire a controlling stake in Nagarjuna Agri Tech (NATL), part of the diversified Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Group with interests in fertilisers, pesticides, agri-products, power and oil.

Subhkam Group will initially acquire 24.71 per cent holding in NATL through the preferential offer route adding up to two lakh shares and 2-lakh share warrants convertible into equity shares.

Since acquisition of more than 15 per cent holding attracts the SEBI Takeover Code, the group would go in for an open offer to acquire another 20 per cent holding, taking its total holding in the Nagarjuna Group company to 44.71 per cent. Subsequently, the conversion of share warrants into equity shares enables the Subhkam Group to further consolidate its stake in NATL to 55.66 per cent on the expanded equity of Rs10.09 crore from the current equity of Rs6.09 crore.
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Intel to acquire stake in fabcity JV
Hyderabad: Intel Corporation is likely to sign a deal with Nano-Tech Silicon India (NTSI) Ltd for the proposed fab facility in Hyderabad, both as a technology partner and an equity-holder. The senior vice-president and Intel Capital president Arvind Sodhani met chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, along with the promoters of NTSI, to discuss the final agreement including the issue of equity participation by the Andhra Pradesh government.

During this meeting, the chief minister formally announced the government's decision to pick up equity to the tune of $24 million in the project, besides providing infrastructure and tax exemptions. Sodhani is said to have apprised Reddy of his company's plans to become a technology partner in the fab facility, in addition to its intention to hold an equity worth $32 million in the project.

The sources said the meeting cleared the decks for signing a formal agreement by the stakeholders, including the state government, for setting up the project.

Even though the Andhra Pradesh government initially proposed to take $32 million equity on par with UTI and Intel, the chief minister told the Sodhani-led team and Min that the government would invest only about $8 million for the first phase and another $16 million for the second phase of the project, totalling $24 million as its equity.
sumer electronic chips, automobile ICs and memories.
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China Petro in race for stake in Reliance refinery
Mumbai: Chinese state oil company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is said to have joined the race with US energy majors Chevron and Exxon to pick up a stake in the Rs27,000-crore Jamnagar refinery project of Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries.

A Reliance Industries spokesperson confirmed that the company was in talks with CNPC. Reliance Petroleum is planning to enter into contracts with global exploration and production giants for supplying ultra-clean fuels to the major markets of the world - gasoline for the US and gas oil for Europe. The contracts may eventually extend to an equity tie-up with one of these companies.

Reliance Industries is also in the race to acquire more assets through the oil block auctions in India. Sources close to the development added that both CNPC and Reliance Industries were studying the feasibility of a joint venture for exploration and production abroad.
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Jet Sahara merger likely to be completed
New Delhi: The government has cleared the way for Air Sahara's Rs2,300 crore acquisition by Jet Airways.

The government's aircraft acquisition committee, which includes representatives from the civil aviation ministry, the directorate-general of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India, had agreed to the transfer of all Air Sahara properties, including parking bays and slots, to Jet Airways, civil aviation ministry officials said.

The Jet-Sahara deal, announced in January, got stuck over the transfer of assets as the government was initially opposed to it. Last week, after several rounds of negotiations, Jet Airways and Air Sahara had decided to extend the March 23 deadline for concluding the deal by 90 days as a result of the delay in approvals. The permission to transfer the assets has been granted on the condition that these will not be further transferred or leased to a third party.

With this, Jet Airways gets the entire 26 aircraft belonging to Air Sahara, its 26 parking slots in various airports across the country as well as rights to operate 134 flights a day to 34 destinations. Jet Airways operates 300 flights a day to 43 destinations with its 53 aircraft.
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Reebok pulled up by MRTPC for differential commission
New Delhi: Sporting goods major Reebok India has been pulled up by the Monopolises & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) for payment of differential commission rates to its retailers.

The Director General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) searches revealed that Reebok's commission rates paid to its retailers varied from 5 to 23 per cent of MRP, which the Commission says amounts to indulging in `restrictive trade practices'. The DGIR said: "Such a restrictive trade practice by its (Reebok) inherent nature impairs competition and is prejudicial to the public interest."

The company on its part has stated that the different rates of the commission, which are fixed at the time of entering into the franchise agreements do not have any nexus with the higher net-sales and that consumers are not affected in any case as Reebok products are available at the same price throughout the country.
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Reliance, Wockhardt receive IT notices over ECB payments
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) and Wockhardt have received notices from the income-tax department for not paying withholding tax on interest payments for external commercial borrowings (ECBs).

While the notice to RIL has been issued for interest payments on ECB for December and July 2005, the matter with Wockhardt pertains to interest on loans raised in 2003-04.

For RIL, the matter pertains to a 2005 case, wherein an I-T appellate tribunal had upheld RIL's view of non-payment of the tax, but the income-tax department had moved the Mumbai High Court against the appeal. The matter is now under pending before the high court.

Corporates are required to pay 20 per cent withholding tax to the I-T department on interest payments of ECB loans.

Wockhardt has explained to the I-T department that the borrowings were used by the company for export earnings outside India. However, the department was of the view that the material exported originated in India.

According to industry sources, Reliance had in 1996 borrowed around $1.3 billion overseas, which was to be paid back in 2016 and 2026. Since the amount was to be used for import of capital goods, the government had exempted the company from paying withholding tax on interest payments on this loan.
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GSM players to get double the spectrum than CDMA cos
New Delhi: Issuing the criteria for allotment of additional spectrum to GSM and CDMA operators the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said GSM operators will continue to get twice the amount of spectrum that CDMA operators get.

The new criteria will benefit GSM operators like Bharti, Hutch, Idea, Spice, MTNL and BSNL, while CDMA operators like Reliance and Tata Teleservices will be hit.

Under the new guidelines, GSM operators will be allotted 2.5 MHz of spectrum for the same number of subscribers for which CDMA operators will be allotted 1.25 MHz of spectrum. Currently, GSM operators get 10 Mhz of spectrum when the subscriber figure reaches 10 lakh in metros, while CDMA operators get 5 Mhz of spectrum for the same number of subscribers.
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Mukesh Ambani cos raise stake in RIL
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance group of companies have raised their stake in Reliance Industries by 2.17 per cent to 46.28 per cent.

RIL informed the National Stock Exchange that the group companies along with the persons acting in concert have acquired 2.88 crore equity shares, aggregating to 2.07 per cent of the total paid up capital of RIL from March 14, 2006 to March 23, 2006.
The mode of acquisition is intense transfer among the group under SEBI regulations by way of block deals on BSE and NSE, aggregating to 2,82,75,000 equity shares and 6,03,400 equity shares through open market acquisition, it said.

The shareholding of the promoter group companies after the acquisition is 64, 48, 50,380 shares aggregating to 46.28 per cent of the total paid up capital of RIL, it added.
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L&T to raise funds from overseas markets
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro is planning to raise 300 million dollars through issue of Global Depository Receipts and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds in the international markets.

The shareholders of the company would consider by way of postal ballot the issue of FCCBs, GDRs or other convertible securities for an aggregate sum up to 300 million dollars, provided that the issue of securities would not result in increase of the issued and subscribed equity share capital of the company by more than 10 per cent of the enhanced and outstanding equity shares, subject to necessary approvals, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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