IVRCL bags order worth Rs558-cr from AP Govt
Hyderabad: IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects has received an order worth Rs557.8-crore from the Irrigation and CAD Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, for execution of `Handri Niva Sujala Shravanthi' (HNSS) project. The company has to execute phase-I project for investigation, design, estimation and construction of pumping stations. The contract includes manufacture, supply of pumps at site of work, commissioning and testing of mechanical, electrical, accessories etc, complete civil works and maintenance of system for two years of Peruru branch canal in Ananthapur district of AP.

The company said this project is part of the ongoing irrigation development projects in the State of AP.
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ONGC to sell natural gas to Torrent
New Delhi: ONGC will supply 0.9 million standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas to the Gujarat-based Torrent Power Generation Ltd. A gas sales agreement has been signed between ONGC and Torrent to formalise the terms of this sale. ONGC would revise the price of the gas every three years, a company statement said. Currently the price, based on calorific value of gas, is set $4.75 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu).

The natural gas would come from ONGC's share of gas produced from the offshore Panna-Mukta-Tapti joint venture. Supply would commence around August 2007, when the 1,100 MW combined cycle power plant of Torrent in Surat - SUGEN CCPP - would go full steam, the company said. The sales agreement is valid for 12 years.
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Godrej Sara Lee to revise prices
Mumbai: Godrej Sara Lee has decided to increase the prices of its insecticide aerosols and refills, along with its car perfume range. The price hikes range from Rs 3 in the high selling Good Knight 90 night refills to Rs21 in Ambipur Car Perfume Starter Kit. The company said it has been compelled to raise prices as petroleum-related input costs and freight charges, the world over, have witnessed a sharp increase. The price rise is necessary to maintain the superior quality of our products. Last year, prices of petroleum-based ingredients and transportation costs have gone up by 11-15 per cent. Costs of paper-based ingredients and agricultural or natural ingredients have also risen by 5 per cent.
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Aban Loyd to acquire 33.7 per cent stake in Norway co for Rs2,050-cr
Chennai: Aban Loyd is acquiring a 33.76 per cent stake in Sinvest ASA of Norway for Rs2,050 crore. The company's wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore, Aban Singapore Pte Ltd, had entered into an agreement with the Skeie Group of Norway, which owns the shares.

After the deal Aban will be the largest shareholder in the company and will have control over the management. Taking into account the drilling rigs and ships it possesses, those under construction and those controlled by it through its subsidiaries or joint ventures, Sinvest has 10 drilling assets.

The acquisition of controlling stake in Sinvest gives Aban effective control over 26 drilling assets, which makes it the ninth largest drilling company in the world and the biggest in Asia. Aban Loyd recently announced acquisition of an Indonesian company, which owns six rigs. Aban itself has 10 drilling assets.

The company has no intention of buying the remaining shares in Sinvest.
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Forbes Gokak enters into jt venture
Mumbai: Forbes Gokak has agreed to set up a joint venture with Shipping Corporation of India for acquiring and operating vessels. Shipping Corporation of India will hold 50 per cent of the issued share capital, while Forbes and Sterling Investment Corporation Pvt Ltd together will hold the balance 50 per cent.

The partners will assist the joint venture in acquiring new, second-hand, resale or in chartering of chemical carriers or other vessels; in the technical and commercial management of vessels.
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Steel PSU merger plan put off
Kolkata: The Union Government seems to have pushed the issue of mega merger of steel public sector units on to the backburner due to the severe political pressure created by the Andhra Pradesh Government and its MPs at the Centre.

The Union Ministry of Steel now is keen to merge some of the smaller entities. As a first, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has sent a notice to the stock exchanges stating that it is contemplating merging its subsidiary, Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Ltd with itself. The public sector steel giant has also notified that it is considering acquiring the Orissa-based Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) and the ailing West Bengal public sector unit, National Iron & Steel Co Ltd (NISCO).

NISCO is a re-rolling mill and it would be fed by semi-finished steel, in all likelihood, from Durgapur and Rourkela steel plants. This acquisition has no political ramifications at all. The West Bengal Government has also agreed to extend some tax waivers for the proposed acquisition of NISCO by SAIL.
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OP Jindal to set up aluminium smelter in Gujarat
Chennai: The O P Jindal group is planning to put up a alumina refinery-cum-aluminium smelter plant in Gujarat, at a cost of Rs5,000 crore, said Jindal South West Steel vice-chairman and managing director, Sajjan Jindal.

The group had earlier announced an alumina-aluminium project in Andhra Pradesh that is estimated to cost Rs10,000 crore. Jindal said that the group was pursuing both the projects simultaneously. The Gujarat project is coming up in Kutch area. It will produce 7,00,000 tonnes of alumina and 2,50,000 tonnes of aluminium. (The AP project, coming up at Visakhapatnam, will produce 14,00,000 tonnes of alumina and 5,00,000 tonnes of aluminium.)

He said that the Jindal group was looking at opportunities to invest in the steel sector in Iran and Mozambique. (The group recently acquired rights for the development of 20 billion tonnes of iron ore in Bolivia and intends to invest $2.3 billion (Rs10,000 crore) in the venture.)
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Lanco Infratech to bid for two ultra mega projects
Kondapalli: Lanco Infratech, the holding company of the diversified Lanco Group, plans to bid for two ultra-mega projects offered for independent developers. The group has roped in Globaleq for the project.

The chairman of the company L. Madhusudhan Rao, said the company would take the consortium route to bid for the Sasan 4,000 MW project to be fired by domestic coal. It is also bidding for Mundra 4000 MW plant in Gujarat, which would be based on imported coal, with the strategic partner potentially being SNC Lavelin. The company is in the process of developing the first imported coal-based plant (Nagarjuna Power) at Mangalore.

Each of these projects would potentially mean an investment outlay of Rs 15,000-16,000 crore. The Lanco chairman said the company is aiming to be the largest private independent power producer. With a project pipeline of about 4,500 MW, it is targeting a generating capacity of about 10,000 MW by 2015.
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Mobile roaming may become dearer
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is looking at the option of giving a share of the revenue earned from a roaming subscriber to the operator on whose network the call terminates. At present the revenue earned from a roaming call is divided between two operators and if TRAI decides to go through with the proposal, the revenue will be shared between three operators. This may force the operators to jack up the tariff to accommodate the revenue share with the third operator.

Operators said that a three way split of revenues from roaming would be a retrograde move, as it would benefit only state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Cellular operators fear that since BSNL has control over more than 50 per cent of the country's telecom subscriber base, the net out go in the event of a revenue share would be in favour of the public sector company.
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Qualcomm says its charges are very low
New Delhi: Qualcomm India has rejected allegations that it is overcharging Indian operators. It said on Friday that the royalty on CDMA handsets in the Indian market was already the lowest in the world and a further reduction will not have any impact on the price of the handset.

The company, which promotes CDMA technology, said that instead it was working towards bringing down the cost of handsets by focussing on the components and electronics.

Kanwalinder Singh, president, Qualcomm India & SAARC, said Qualcomm royalties, which are in low single-digits are a function of the wholesale net selling price of the handset. As India has the lowest device prices in the world, royalties on devices sold in India are the lowest in the world. Qualcomm is also working aggressively to enable even lower-cost devices. That work is focused on the true cost drivers - the device display and the device electronics he said.

Qualcomm's clarification comes in the wake of recent demands from the industry and the Communications Ministry for reduction in the royalty charges. Singh said the challenge for CDMA operators in India was lack of spectrum.

He said the current Indian regulatory policy favours GSM by making significantly more spectrum available for GSM operators. The current spectrum policy in India limits the ability of CDMA operators - Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices - to pursue aggressive subscriber growth plans and to introduce next-generation wireless broadband services.
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ONGC to set up wind farms
Kolkata: ONGC is planning to get into wind power generation by setting up windmills. ONGC will install two windpower projects in Gujarat and Karnataka. The company has already identified the land for these projects and work on these projects will start soon according to company officials. The combined capacity of the two projects would be 50MW and ONGC would invest around Rs40 crore in these two projects.

ONGC has already entered into an agreement with Power Trading Corporation for selling power generated from these two projects.
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Hutchison to acquire Hinduja stake in Essar JV
New Delhi: Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL) will acquire Hindujas' 5.1 per cent stake in mobile company Hutch-Essar for $ 450 million (Rs2025 crore). The agreement would be announced next week.

The Hong Kong based firm has beaten Indian partner Essar in the mobile company for the strategic acquisition of Hinduja TMT stake. The deal is being given final touches based on a valuation of the unlisted Indian JV - Hutchison Essar - between $ 8-9 billion, done by some national and international investment bankers, including IndusInd investment banking.

The acquisition would take HTIL's direct holding to about 48 per cent in Hutchison Essar. HTIL is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa. The Ruias of Essar Group hold 33.6 per cent in the company.
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Glenmark's S African unit acquires seven products
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' South African subsidiary Bouwer-Bartlett has acquired 7 products and 11 presentations from P D Pharmaceuticals. The acquisition amount was not revealed. The brands collectively are expected to garner sales of $ 2-3 mn in FY07.

Bouwer-Bartlett obtained global intellectual property (IP) rights for the products and will initially market the products within South Africa and will gradually begin selling them in other countries. The acquired basket includes anti-diarrhoeal, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, expectorant, anti-protozoal, anti-acid and multi-vitamin products.

Glenmark acquired a majority stake in Bouwer-Bartlett, a sales and marketing company in South Africa last year. "This move supports our strategy of emerging as a speciality/brand company marketing novel drugs in the African continent. Glenmark is already present in over 30 of the 54 markets in Africa and this pipeline will help strengthen our presence in the region," Glenn Saldanha, MD & CEO of Glenmark, said.
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Mallya considering buying $15mn winery in France
New Delhi: The UB Group is considering buying a wine company owned by French brewer Taittinger for $ 15 million (Rs68 crore). Mallya chairman of UB group said on the sidelines of CII-organised India Innovation Summit 2006 that the reason for the acquisition is that it will enable United Spirits entry into high quality wines.

Mallya said the proposed acquisition of Taittinger's wine assets in France would also give UB access to wine technology of the highest order, which it will use to develop in its own vineyards and wineries in India in a proper and sustainable form.

The acquisition costing approximately $ 15 million would be funded out of the company cash flows.
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