Jet-Air Sahara deal crashlands
New Delhi: Jet Airways Rs2,200-crore acquisition of Air Sahara has virtually crashlanded and the deal has found its way to the courts. Both the companies are mum about the share purchase agreement which was due to expire by midnight of June 21, if certain "condition precedents" were not satisfied by either of the parties.

|Alok Sharma, Air Sahara president, said that if the deal did not go through, then from Thursday onwards the Air Sahara management would run the airline on its own.

The main reason for the deal being touted is that while the Government has given security clearance to four directors, the Jet Airways chairman, Naresh Goyal, is yet to receive clearance. Sharma said that though the company had made an offer on Tuesday to Jet Airways to extend the date for the closure of the deal by 15 days, it had not received any response.

Earlier in the day, Sahara India Commercial Co-operation alleged before the Lucknow District Court that Jet Airways had terminated the "contract" and sought a stay in the operation of the escrow account by Jet Airways and ICICI Bank. The monies for the deal have been placed in an escrow account with ICICI Bank in Mumbai.

The Lucknow District Court has consequently disallowed Jet Airways to withdraw the amount deposited in the escrow account. Moreover, ICICI Bank has also been restrained from making any payment to Jet Airways.

Meanwhile, Jet has approached the Mumbai High Court seeking a similar restraint on Air Sahara, saying that the conditions agreed on such as the transfer of infrastructure facilities by June 21 has not been met; hence, Air Sahara should not be allowed to operate the escrow account.
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Govt proposes 5 per cent divestment in Coal India
New Delhi: The Government has made the first move towards disinvestment of Coal India Ltd(CIL). The Finance Ministry asked the Ministry of Coal to provide detailed financial information from Coal India and an assessment of the probable valuation of five per cent stake in the company that can be garnered through the initial public offering route.

According to initial discussions with rating agencies it appears that five per cent sell-off could garner anywhere between Rs3,000 crore and Rs3,500 crore, sources said.

The Finance Ministry also asked the Coal Ministry to seek a third party opinion on probable valuation of the company. The Coal Ministry, on its part, has sounded CIL to furnish information on the rate of returns, tentative valuation of the share. It has also asked the company to seek the opinion of independent chartered accountants on the valuation of the company's shares.

Government sources said the plan is to sell off only five per cent of the company, which would in no way affect its functioning or the more than six lakh workforce. CIL has an equity base of Rs6,316 crore comprising 6.316 crore equity shares of Rs1,000 each. According to the plans, the shares of Rs1,000 face value would be split to 100 shares of Rs10 face value before the public offering.

After this the five per cent equity to be sold by the Government would have a face value of Rs315.8 crore though it is likely that the shares would command very high premium and may notch up anywhere between Rs3,000 and Rs3,500 crore for the Government.
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Hyundai to raise car prices from next month
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India is planning to raise its car prices by up to Rs15,000 from July mainly due to higher input and freight costs. Hyundai India vice-president (marketing and sales) Arvind Saxena said the hike would be imposed on all the models and would be up to Rs15,000.

The company sells the popular hatchback model 'Santro' the premium hatchback model 'Getz', the midsize 'Accent' and luxury sedan 'Sonata Embera' in India.
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ONGC to foray into petrochemicals sector
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's largest oil producer, will begin its foray into the petrochemicals sector when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone for its Rs4,900 crore aromatic complex at Mangalore.

The petrochemicals complex would be executed through a special purpose vehicle (spv) of ONGC. ONGC would hold 46 per cent stake in the spv while its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd will have 3 per cent. The balance 51 per cent would be with financial institutions and banks.

The project will be completed in 3 years after finalisation of process licensor and engineering, expected in a year's time.
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Burman family acquires stake in Vishal Mega Mart
New Delhi: The Burman family, promoters of Dabur India, has invested Rs4 crore to acquire a stake in North India-based retail chain Vishal Mega Mart.

Ram Chandra Agarwal, managing director of Vishal Mega Mart, said that the Burmans had picked up one per cent stake in the company for Rs200 per share. Earlier Vishal Mega Mart attracted investment from Bennett Coleman & Co which picked up a 12 per cent stake in the company, which has since been diluted to 10 per cent due to an expansion of its shareholding base.

Vishal Mega Mart, which is planning an IPO later this year, said it would offload 20-25 per cent stake through the public issue. At present, the promoters hold 80-85 per cent stake in the company. The company plans to raise about Rs125-150 crore from the IPO to fund its expansion plans, which includes opening around 40 stores by the next year. Burmans have said to have been in talks with a South-based retail chain, apart from scouting for other opportunities in this sector.
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GHCL to acquire soda ash unit in Romania for $24mn
Kolkata: GHCL will soon acquire another loss-making synthetic soda ash unit in Romania next month for around $24 million. Unlike the first acquisition — SC Bega Upsom SA — the new acquisition is not that of a privately held company. The company is planning to acquire a 3-lakh-tonne-plusper annum unit, currently being run by a Romanian Government agency, and would fund it through a deferred payment plan. The company hopes to complete the acquisition by July this year. It said the in-principle agreement struck with the government agency entails immediate change-over of management control in favour of GHCL, operational turnaround within one-year timeframe from the time of actual acquisition, no payment for the first year, a long-term staggered payment schedule and increase in capacity by another one lakh tpa in the first year after acquisition.

The acquisition would finally cost the company roughly 20 per cent more than the previous one. SC Bega Upsom was acquired in December 2005 at $19.5 million.

According to sources close to the deal, the staggered payment would stretch for five years.

The company is also in talks with two US-based natural soda ash companies for an early acquisition.

After the acquisition, the company would become the only manufacturer of synthetic soda ash in Romania and gain access to the eastern and central European markets.
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HMT goes to Zimbabwe
Bangalore: HMT (International), the wholly owned subsidiary of HMT, would set up the Indo-Zimbabwe Technology Centre (IZTC) in Harare and India Technology Centre (ITC) in Bulawayo. The project valued at Rs22.5 crore would be implemented under a grant from the Indian Government to the Government of Zimbabwe. The project would help in the development of small and medium enterprises in Zimbabwe.
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RIL plans Rs4,000-cr investment in Bengal
Kolkata: Reliance Industries has announced plans to invest Rs4,000 crore in West Bengal. While the company would invest Rs1,500-2,000 crore in agro-retail initiatives, a similar amount would be invested in a natural gas pipeline to be laid from the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa to the industrial township of Haldia in West Bengal.

After meeting the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Wednesday and discussing the projects in detail Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani later told reporters that Reliance's retail plans were aimed at "transforming the agro retail sector in West Bengal. The project, which will be rolled out in all the districts of West Bengal, was also aimed at linking farmers to consumers and facilitating the transformation of the agro-industry in India to agro-processing.

The entire project would be implemented within the next three years. He said that a decision was pending on the total land required for the project across the State.

Ambani said an additional Rs1,500-2,000 crore would be invested in a gas pipeline project to bring natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh and the Mahanadi basin in Orissa to Haldia in West Bengal. The natural gas would then be used to meet the energy requirements of industries in West Bengal.
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Reliance Comm signs pact with Intel to offer Net connectivity
Chennai: Reliance Communications plans to tie up with Intel India to offer Internet connectivity at a reduced rate for Intel customers in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in Tamil Nadu.

According to officials in Reliance Communications that those purchasing PCs from 79 Intel dealers in 25 towns in the State would be able to purchase Reliance wireless products, which include mobile phone devices, wireless telephones with Internet capability and data cards for laptop connectivity. A security deposit of Rs500 would be waived for these customers and the initial payment of Rs1,200 would be returned in the form of 40 Internet hours per month for the first three months at a rate of Rs10 per hour of Internet usage.

Reliance has a subscriber base of 2.05 lakh for its wireless products in Tamil Nadu, of which fixed wireless telephones account for about 26,650 units.
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Posco warns it would withdraw from Orissa
Bhubaneswar: Korean steel giant Posco has said it might not pursue its proposed 12 million tonne steel plant near the state's Paradip port if it was denied captive iron ore mines.

Chairman and managing director of Posco-India Soung-Sik Cho said the project had no meaning without captive mines while addressing a press conference on the eve of the first anniversary of the company's signing of the MoU here.

"We believe the Orissa government as well as the Centre has committed 600 million tonnes of iron ore for the 12 million tonne steel plant. We have no doubt that mining leases will be accorded to us."

The controversy over captive mines has come up after a media report was released which said the Hoda committee, preparing guidelines for India's new mining policy, could recommend scrapping the captive mining lease policy adopted by some states including Orissa.

Posco had identified three separate iron ore blocks in Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts and applied for prospective licence for mining in September last. The chairman said the company would produce 20 million tonnes iron ore per annum for 30 years and ruled out possibility of procuring iron ore at market price.
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Ranbaxy to pick up 10 per cent stake in Zenotech for Rs20-cr
Mumbai: India's biggest pharma company Ranbaxy Laboratories, will soon acquire a 10 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based Zenotech Laboratories for Rs20 crore. Zenotech Labs specialises in developing and manufacturing generic biopharmaceuticals, an area where Ranbaxy does not have a significant presence.

Zenotech's product portfolios target niche therapy areas like oncology, anesthesiology, gynaecology and neurology. Zenotech also has a research programme focusing on new biological entities in oncology and neurology.

Hence, the investment would enable Ranbaxy to have access to a product portfolio that would be complementary to its existing portfolio.

Ranbaxy recently signed a marketing licensing agreement with Zenotech to market generic formulations of 11 oncology products in the US and Canadian markets under its own label. The drugs will be marketed by Ranbaxy's wholly-owned subsidiary in the US, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc.

A Ranbaxy spokesperson while not confirming the development said inorganic growth has been part of our stated strategy and we continue to look at opportunities in the US, Europe and India.

Ranbaxy's board of directors is likely to meet sometime next week to approve the investment. Ranbaxy shares rose 0.47 per cent to Rs375.1 on Wednesday while shares of Zenotech Labs gained 3.6 per cent to Rs57.
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DRL launches generic Proscar in US
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories has informed the BSE that after Teva Pharmaceutical was awarded a 180-day marketing exclusivity rights for Finasteride 5 mg, Ranbaxy launched the authorised generic version of Proscar in the US on June 20, 2006, post patent expiry. The company says it is under confidentiality not to disclose the terms of the agreement.

Earlier Dr Reddy's entered into an agreement with Merck & Co, which allowed it to distribute and sell generic versions of Proscar (finasteride 5 mg) and Zocor (simvastatin), upon the expiry of Merck's patents covered by these products, provided there's a 180-day exclusivity after the patents expiration for either product.

Proscar is indicated for treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in men with an enlarged prostate.
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