Jindal bags development rights for world's largest iron ore mine
New Delhi: Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Friday announced that it has won the development rights of 20 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves at the El Mutun mines in Bolivia near the Brazil border.

The company has announced investments worth $2.3 billion over the next 10 years towards mining and setting up of a steel plant in the South American country.

According to the company's vice-chairman and managing director, Naveen Jindal the company would set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Bolivia for this purpose and a detailed contract with the Bolivian Government would be signed next month while an agreement has already been signed.

The El Mutun mine is said to be the world's single largest iron ore mine with probable reserves of 40 billion tonnes. JSPL has obtained mining rights for half of it.

The company's plans to set up a 1.7-million-tonne integrated steel plant for long products. It would also set up a 6-million-tonne per annum sponge iron plant and a pellet plant with 10 million tonnes annual capacity. The company's plan also includes supporting infrastructure including a 400-MW power plant
Back to News Review index page  

Gail sells out its Algerian LNG spot cargo
Mumbai: Gail India Ltd has announced that it has sold out the entire lot of the first ever LNG spot cargo bought from Algeria. The LNG, equivalent to 80 MMSCM of natural gas, was sold to consumers such as NTPC, Delhi Vidyut Board, Birla Copper and some others.

Commenting on the development, of the Gail C&MD, Proshanto Banerjee said, "In April 2004, GAIL created history in the gas sector by selling regasified LNG for the first time in India. This was a long term contract supply from RasGas, Qatar. Two years later in June 2006, GAIL has now once again achieved a milestone by selling the first internationally-traded spot cargo of LNG. The Indian gas market has now attained full maturity despite all speculations. This summer, consumers can look forward to cheaper power produced from LNG rather than naphtha."

The company is in discussions with major suppliers for bringing more LNG cargoes from South East Asia, Middle East and North Africa.
Back to News Review index page  

Punj Lloyd takes over SembCorp E&C, Singapore
New Delhi: Punj Lloyd Ltd has announced that the Company has acquired a majority stake in SembCorp Engineers & Constructors (SembE&C), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SembCorp Industries (SCI), a leading utilities and marine group in Asia.

The company has acquired 88 pc stake in SembE&C at a consideration of SD35.2 million through its wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Punj Lloyd Pte Ltd.

The remaining 12 pc stake would be acquired by Punj Lloyd Pte Ltd on or before December 31, 2007.

SembCorp Engineers & Constructors (SembE&C) is a design-and-build engineering and construction service provider with core capabilities encompassing process and plant engineering, heavy civil engineering and building. SembE&C recorded revenues of over 1 billion Singapore dollars for year ending December 2005 (1 Singapore Dollar (SGD) is equivalent to Indian Rs29.33).

This acquisition is in line with the Punj's strategic intent to expand its geographical reach and portfolio enhancement in complementary sectors. The company already has a formidable presence in South Asia, Middle East, Asia Pacific, Caspian and Africa. With this acquisition, its operations will expand to Europe, China besides Iran and other SE Asian market, by leveraging the opportunities through this acquisition.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance, Singapore acted as advisors to the Company on this transaction.
Back to News Review index page  

German kids wear major Hucke AG plans India foray
Hyderabad: Hucke AG of Germany, one of the largest European clothing manufacturers, is all set to foray into the Indian kids wear market in tandem with domestic partner, Novotex Exim.

Hucke will launch its popular brand `Whoopi', and plans to open 12 exclusive outlets across the country during the current year. The company, which has a three-tier plan for outlets comprising exclusive shops, shop-in-shops and multi-brand outlets (MBOs), has earmarked an investment of Rs6 crore for setting up 12 exclusive showrooms, officials said.

Novotex is also setting up a modern manufacturing facility at a cost of around Rs5 crore at Balanagar here with a capacity of 50,000 pieces per month. The plant would be operational by next month. Apart from being a master franchisee for India and South Asia for Hucke brands, Novotex Exim would also be catering to the requirements of Hucke world over, exporting 80 per cent production to Hucke and selling around 20 per cent in the domestic market.
Back to News Review index page  

Nissan to share Maruti production facilities
New Delhi: Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co is set to enter the Indian markets through a sharing of manufacturing facilities with Suzuki Motor Corp, the parent company of Maruti Udyog.

"Nissan and Suzuki will start a manufacturing collaboration in new emerging markets by sharing their respective manufacturing facilities. This activity will start at Suzuki's plant in India,'' a joint statement by the companies said.

According to Nissan officials the partnership between Suzuki and Nissan in India could be similar to the one the two companies have in Thailand, where Suzuki uses Nissan's facilities to manufacture its models. Nissan now sells only the X-Trail in India, which it imports through the CBU route.

Maruti is setting up a new plant in Manesar with an initial capacity of 100,000, which will go up to 250,000 cars per year by 2009. The company's existing unit has a capacity of 600,000 units.
Back to News Review index page  

Punjab okays Anil Ambani group's Rs.5,000cr SEZ
Chandigarh: The Punjab government has accorded official approval to the Anil Ambani group for its Rs5,000 crore multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) in the state.

The proposal of Reliance One World, a Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) firm, was among the 43 mega projects approved by Punjab's empowered committee, headed by chief minister Amarinder Singh yesterday, a state government spokesperson said.

The proposed SEZ is likely to be set up over an area of 5,000 acres and is expected to involve direct investment in excess of Rs5,000 crore and would have food and agri product units, auto and engineering industries and garments and apparel manufacturing plants.

The approval comes close on the heels of super mega agri-product SEZ being developed by Mukesh Ambani-managed Reliance Industries.
Back to News Review index page  

Baring India unloads its entire stake in Mphasis to EDS
Bangalore: Baring India Investment Ltd has sold its entire stake of 34.73 per cent in IT services and BPO firm Mphasis BFL Ltd to EDS on Friday.

Baring, the largest shareholder in the Mphasis BFL prior to the sale, will realise close to Rs1,150 crore through the sale of over 5.6 crore shares that it held in the IT firm.

Baring had entered Mphasis way back in June 1998 and had made an unsuccessful attempt to exit the IT firm in May-August last year. The deal then was said to have fallen through on the pricing front, with the Hindujas and Temasek being the final front-runners in the bidding process.

Subsequently, EDS came out with an open offer early this year to acquire 52 per cent stake in Mphasis. The EDS' offer at Rs204.5 per share opened on May 17 and will close on June 5.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Motors vehicle sales up 45 pc in May
Mumbai: Tata Motors on Friday reported 45 per cent growth in overall vehicle sales (including exports) to 44,357 units in May 2006, from the previous corresponding 30,593 units.

Domestic sale of commercial vehicles rose 64 per cent to 21,903 units (13,338 units for the year ago period), including 55 per cent increase in M&HCV sales to 12,682 units and 79 per cent growth in LCV sales to 9,221 units.

However, through a statement the company clarified, "The growth in May 2006 is on the low base of May 2005, which was due to unanticipated difficulties in certification and procurement of some critical parts."

Domestic passenger vehicle sales for the month moved up 29 per cent to 18,115 units, including 46.3 per cent rise in Indica sales to 12,409 units and 15 per cent growth in volumes of the Sumo and Safari to 2,862 units. However, Indigo sales registered 6.2 per cent decline to 2,844 units.

The model also dipped 8.1 per cent in cumulative FY07 sales to 5,431 units.

On the other hand, the Indica showed growth of 28.2 per cent to 20,902 units and Sumo and Safari volumes, a rise of 13 per cent to 5,110 units, in cumulative passenger vehicle sales, which increased by 18 per cent to 31,443 units.
Back to News Review index page  

Crompton to buy 59 pc stake in MCPPL
Mumbai: Crompton Greaves Ltd has informed BSE that it is considering making an investment of up to Rs16.03 crore in the share capital of Malanpur Captive Power Pvt Ltd, comprising 59 per cent of MCPPL's share capital. As a result, MCPPL will become a subsidiary of the company.

MCPPL plans to develop, finance, construct and operate a 25.5 MW gas-based group captive power plant in Malanpur, Madhya Pradesh.
Back to News Review index page  

GE Shipping de-merger plan may go off course
Kolkata: ONGC has thrown a spanner into the works of the de-merger and hiving off of the offshore services business of Great Eastern Shipping into Great Offshore Ltd.

ONGC, which has 40 un-executed contracts tendered out to GE Shipping, claimed that the company should continue to be responsible for the services and for the execution as also performance of the contracts with ONGC, the contracting counter-party.

ONGC's insistence on the execution of contracts by GE Shipping, first articulated in February this year, could throw the de-merger process completely off course and stall the separation of businesses among the promoter family members of GE Shipping.

Under a scheme of arrangement between Great Eastern Shipping and Great Offshore Ltd, the offshore services business of the former is to be looked after by Great Offshore.
Back to News Review index page  

Corporate results: Kajaria Ceramics, IVRCL Infrastructures, MRPL

Kajaria Q4 net profit at Rs 8.91 crore
Tile manufacturer Kajaria Ceramics Ltd registered a net profit of Rs8.91 crore for the quarter ended March 31, up 50 per cent from Rs5.93 crore for the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.

The sales of the company for the quarter ended March 31 stood at Rs116.25 crore, up 35 per cent from Rs90.66 crore for the corresponding quarter.

The net profit of 2005-2006 stood at Rs28.17 crore, up 11 per cent from Rs25.49 crore for the preceding fiscal. The sales of the company stood at Rs351.8 crore, up 17 per cent from Rs300.39 crore for the preceding fiscal.

IVRCL Infra Q4 net up, to pay 50%
IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Ltd has reported an impressive performance for the quarter and fiscal ended March 2006.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, the company posted a growth of 72.2 per cent in turnover at Rs594.89 crore against Rs345.44 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal, while the net profit rose 74.5 per cent to Rs43.81 crore (Rs25.17 crore), yielding an EPS of Rs4.17 (Rs 2.98).

For the full year, the company posted a growth of 43.68 per cent in turnover at Rs1,501.44 crore (Rs1,044.96 crore) and 63.84 per cent in net profit at Rs92.95 crore (Rs56.7 crore), yielding an EPS of Rs8.84 (Rs 6.71).

On a consolidated basis, the company attained a growth of 59.43 per cent in turnover at Rs1,694.55 crore (Rs ,062.87 crore), while the net profit improved by 88.77 per cent to Rs107.62 crore (Rs57.05 crore), which translates into an EPS of Rs10.23 (Rs6.80).

MRPL announces Q4 & FY 06 results
Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has announced the following results for the quarter & year ended March 31, 2006:

The unaudited results are as follows
The company has posted a net loss of Rs295.00 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 (Q4 FY 05-06) as compared to net profit of Rs3108.90 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 (Q4 FY 04-05). Total Income (net of excise) has increased from Rs52928.40 million in Q4 FY 04-05 to Rs64153.80 million for Q4 FY 05-06.

The audited results are as follows
The company has posted a net profit of Rs3716.10 million for the year ended March 31, 2006 (FY 05-06) as compared to Rs8797.50 million for the year ended March 31, 2005 (FY 04-05). Total Income (net of excise) has increased from Rs186947.60 million in FY 04-05 to Rs250443.20 million for FY 05-06.

The board has recommended dividend of 7% on the equity share capital and 0.01% on the 0.01% preference share capital for the year ended March 31, 2006.
Back to News Review index page