Govt. rejects RIL gas pricing formula for RNRL
New Delhi: The Government says that it does not agree with the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries (RIL's) proposed valuation formula for gas sales to Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) belonging to Anil Ambani Group. This is on the ground that it has not been derived on the basis of competitive arms length sale pricing for similar sales under similar conditions in the region from where the gas is procured.

The government said that the transaction between RIL and RNRL is part of their de-merger agreement and therefore does not meet the production sharing contract (PSC) criteria of arms length sales.

The prevailing domestic gas price from fields operated by joint venture/private companies commands a significantly higher price than the proposal of RIL. This move may affect the proposed 7,480 MW Dadri power project of Anil Ambani Group. The proposal of RIL regarding the gas price formula for sale of gas to RNRL for D-6 block in KG Basin had been submitted to the Government as per the requirement under the production sharing contract. RIL is selling gas from its Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields at $4.75 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). The proposed price of $2.34 per mBtu by RIL for sale to RNRL was significantly lower than the prevailing market price, the Petroleum Ministry said.

The Government says in the light of Article 21.6 of the PSC, which provides the principles for valuation of natural gas for the purposes of the contract. As a party to the contract the government is concerned with the formula or basis on which the gas under the PSC is to be valued for the purposes of computing cost recovery linked to the valuation of cost petroleum, the profit share of the parties including the Government and the royalty.

The Petroleum Ministry says any price discovery should be the result of an open and transparent competitive bidding process that allows fair and equal opportunity to all gas consumers to participate in the price discovery. The same procedure has already been followed by companies including RIL in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti product sharing contracts, it said.

The Ministry says it has not received any proposal for approval of the formula or basis for valuation of gas for sale to NTPC from the same fields. Hence the question of a Government decision on this does not arise at this stage, the statement clarified.
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Sasken acquires Finnish firm for $45 million
Bangalore: Leading software services and products company Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd, has acquired Botnia Highteh Oy, a Finland-based leading provider of wireless services, for $45 million (Euro 35.5 million) in an all cash deal.

The 17-year-old, privately held Botnia based in Kaustinen in Finland, supplies hardware, software, mechanical design and testing services to leading mobile handset vendors, with additional operations in Denmark and Germany. This is Sasken's first overseas acquisition.

For the fiscal year 2005-06 ending April, the Finnish company reported revenues of $22 million with a net profit of $3.7 million. It employs 230 people.

Botnia will provide the Bangalore-based firm a window of opportunity to offer its slew of services and products to European vendors, including tier-one customers in the wireless communications space, especially in RF (radio frequency) technology, design and testing services.

The deal, to be completed by August, will be funded through the $50-million equity issue Sasken plans to raise soon and partly through debt financing. Post-acquisition, Botnia will become a wholly owned subsidiary with its revenues consolidated in the parent company.

With 11 big-ticket customers in Europe, including major OEMs such as Alcatel, Nokia, Ericsson and Siemens, Botnia is a household name in Finland.
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Indian, Air Deccan claim No 2 position in marketshare
New Delhi: The state owned Indian (erstwhile Indian Airlines) and budget airline Air Deccan claim to be the second largest airline in the country behind Jet Airways.

Air Deccan says it is the second largest airline in the country with a market share of 21.2 per cent in June while the market share of Indian dipped to 20.8 per cent in the month. Indian on its part said it continued to be the second largest domestic airline in the country.

According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation pertaining to the June month, the market share of Indian stood at 21.8 per cent, while Air Deccan's was at 20.3 per cent.

Jet Airways is the largest domestic carrier with a market share of 30 per cent.

As per the DGCA data, the capacity and seat deployed by Air Deccan has gone upto 11.7 per cent in January this year to 17.6 per cent in June. However, the capacity of Indian has declined to 24.1 per cent in June from 28.4 per cent in January.

Out of the total fleet of 48 aircraft, Indian should ideally be flying 42 aircraft. But, it has been able to deploy only 36 aircraft at present on domestic routes.

Indian executives are of the view that the airline's market share will go up considerably with the induction of new aircraft, which are expected to join its fleet from October 2006 as a part of its aircraft acquisition plan.
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EDS to merge Indian business with MphasiS
Bangalore: Global giant Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) has decided to merge its Indian services subsidiary with MphasiS BFL., a listed Indian outsourcer in which EDS acquired a majority share in June. The swap ratio of the merger works out to five shares of MphasiS for every four shares of Electronic Data Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd (EDS India), the companies said.

EDS currently holds 51.4 percent of MphasiS and will hike its stake to 61.8 percent after the merger.

Rather than operating as a wholly owned subsidiary in India, which operates as a cost center, EDS sees benefits in operating through MphasiS, which has operated in a competitive environment. EDS employs more than 3,000 people in India and operates applications and business process outsourcing (BPO) delivery centers in four locations. After the completion of the merger, the combined entity will have more than 15,000 employees.

Earlier this year, EDS and MphasiS announced plans to increase their total staff to about 20,000 employees by the end of 2006.
The proposal is subject to approval of the stock exchanges, shareholders of both companies and the High Courts at Mumbai and Karnataka.
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Sun Pharma Q1 consolidated net up 30 per cent
Mumbai: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has posted a 30 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 at Rs176.73 crore as against Rs136.06 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005.

The total income of the company has increased to Rs539.03 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 from Rs418.54 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005.
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Bharti Q1 net up 77 pc
Mumbai: Bharti Airtel has reported a 77 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs831.39 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2006 as compared with Rs470.47 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The total income of the company increased to Rs3,842.11 crore from Rs2,527.39 crore in Q1FY06.

The company posted a net profit of Rs814.38 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 as against Rs461.72 crore in Q1FY06. Total revenue increased from Rs2,424.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 to Rs3,700.56 crore in Q1FY07.

Bharti Airtel added 36.51 lakh customers in a single quarter for the three months ended June 30, 2006 taking the total subscriber base to over 2.45 crore customers - an increase of 86 per cent over the corresponding period last year. It also improved its market share of all India mobile subscribers to 22.5 per cent as on June 30, 2006.
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Bharti, RCL vie for Sri Lanka mobile licence
New Delhi: Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel are in the race for Sri Lanka's fifth mobile operator licence among other global telecom majors.

Both the companies are seeking opportunities across the globe in grabbing telecom licenses.

Reliance recently lost out in the race for Egypt's third mobile licence race. Bharti has been operating telecom services in Seychelles and British Isles - Jersey.

Maxis Communications, Malaysia's biggest mobile phone company by subscriber numbers, is also believed to be in the race.

Singapore company SingTel has also bid. The four operators offering GSM services in Sri Lanka are Mobitel owned by Sri Lankan government, Celltel Lanka, Telekom Malaysia-owned by Dialog Telecom and Hutchison.

Currently the Lankan Government is examining the bids. Sri Lanka has a telecom penetration rate of 17.3 per cent. There is also a lack of landline service in the country, which makes mobile services more attractive.
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Unity Infra bags Rs50-cr order from MEA
Mumbai: Unity Infraprojects the engineering and construction company has bagged Rs50.64 crore contract from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for construction of an Emergency and Trauma Centre in Nepal.

The project entails construction of 200 bed emergency and trauma centre - Nepal Bharat Maitri for Bir Hospital at Kathmandu. The time of completion would be 18 months from the date of commencement of work, the release said.
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Crompton Greaves acquires companies in Hungary
Mumbai: Electrical equipment maker Crompton Greaves has acquired the businesses of two Hungary-based companies for about €35 million.

Crompton Greaves acquired Hungarian company Ganz Transelektro Villamossagi Zrt's business of transformers, gas insulated switchgear, rotating machines and contracting businesses. It also acquired the business of Transverticum kft engaged in design, commissioning and commercial activity. The shares of the company were trading at Rs925.05, up 3.79 per cent at the BSE.
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RIL says its losing money on petrol, diesel
New Delhi: Reliance Industries said it is losing Rs3.37 a litre on petrol and Rs5.77 per litre on diesel and without Government support provided to public sector retailers, private retailers would be forced to quit the petroleum retailing business.

RIL President (refinery business), P Raghavendran, told the press in an energy seminar that the private sector was being denied a level playing field as government subsidies were only available to public sector firms and their ambit has been extended beyond the promised LPG and kerosene to include even petrol and diesel.

RIL is losing Rs3.37 per litre on petrol and Rs5.77 a litre on diesel despite pricing the auto fuels about Rs2.50 a litre higher than the price charged by PSU firms.

Reliance as asked for the same level of Government support - upstream assistance and oil bonds - to make up for the losses. Alternatively, the government could reduce excise duty, levy specific duty and reduce sales tax. The government subsidy, he said, was meant only for LPG and kerosene but is now being extended even on petrol and diesel.

Reliance which has more than 1,250 petrol pumps on ground and another 900 more awaiting commissioning, lost 12 per cent market share in diesel sales after it priced its product higher than PSU.
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SRL Ranbaxy makes plans for expansion
New Delhi: Pathology laboratory network company SRL Ranbaxy has embarked on an expansion drive, including adding about 50 labs in India and having physical presence in the key markets of the US and UK. The company is eyeing almost a five-fold increase in turnover in the next four years.

By 2010 the target is to achieve a turnover of about Rs500 crore from the current levels of about Rs100-plus crore. To achieve this we have charted out expansion plans for India as well as overseas markets," SRL Ranbaxy (SRLR) chief executive officer, J S Puri, said.

Puri said the company would establish about 50 laboratories in the next 12 months through acquisitions, franchising and development of greenfield facilities. The company would also set up its second Central Reference Lab in Delhi. He did not comment on the investments the company would be making. The company is in an advanced stage of talks with hospitals from the West and East coast of the US and Canada for outsourcing clinical pathology tests. In Europe the company is already doing pathological tests for hospitals in the UK under National Health Services (NHS), is likely to enter Holland in the near future.
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Bayer CropScience to integrate seed and crop protection units
Mumbai: Bayer CropScience is integrating its seed business with the existing crop protection business. The Proagro Group, a part of the Bayer Group, currently carries out the seed business and the company would seek necessary approvals for the integration, the company said. Bayer CropScience has production facilities at the Bayer sites in Thane, Himatnagar and Ankleshwar.
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Tata Tele (Maharashtra) reports Q1 net loss of Rs113-cr
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) has posted a net loss of Rs113 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, as compared to a net loss of Rs128 crore in the same quarter in 2005-06.

During the June quarter the finance and treasury charges increased on account of foreign exchange fluctuation and higher interest rates. The first quarter Earnings Before Interest, Tax and Amortisation (EBIT) grew over five fold at Rs58 crore as compared to Rs10 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The shares of the company closed at Rs19, down 2.06 per cent at the NSE.
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M&M Q1 net up 40.55 pc at Rs204-cr
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has posted a profit after tax of Rs204.17 crore for the first quarter ended June 2006 as compared to Rs145.26 crore shown during the same quarter last year. Total income has increased to Rs2,281.69 crore from Rs1,832.23 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
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Bharti to launch life insurance biz in August
New Delhi: Bharti planning to 'soft' launch of its life insurance venture, in partnership with Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, in August this year.

The company says it has received a licence for its insurance venture from the IRDA and is readying for a soft launch in August. After the soft launch, the company would see when to launch the new business in a full-fledged manner.

Bharti-Axa aims to be among the top three private players in the life insurance sector in the next two years according to Sunil Mittal, chairman and MD, Bharti group.
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BOC plans Rs4-bn investment in plant in K'taka
Kolkata: Industrial gas equipment maker BOC India is investing up to Rs400 crore to set up an air separation plant at Bellary in state of Karnataka, according to senior officials. The new plant would commence operations in 2008 and would cater to steel plants in the region. BOC would fund the project through internal accrual and debt. The company has reported a sharp jump in net profit to Rs28.5 crore from Rs11.3 for the quarter to June.
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