Corus board recommends Tata offer
London: The board of UK based steel company Corus Group is said to have recommended Tata Steel's $8.6 billion takeover offer at 455 pence a share of the company. An announcement is likely tomorrow.

Corus shares have been trading at levels higher than Tatas' proposed bid price of 455 pence a share since the offer was announced based on expectations that another bidder will attempt to trounce Tata Steel's deal. However analysts said such a move seemed unlikely since Corus has been looking for a buyer for most of this year and has previously talked to nearly all potential candidates.

If the deal is signed Tata Steel would become the world's sixth largest steelmaking company with a capacity to make 23 million tonnes a year from just 5 million tonnes at present.
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Reliance Ind Q2 net up 9.18 pc at Rs2,709-cr
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has registered a net profit of Rs2,709 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to Rs2,481 crore shown during the same quarter in 2005. Total income for the quarter has increased by 36.09 per cent to Rs28,496 crore from Rs20,939 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The company's refining business remained an under-performer during the second quarter and the growth was provided by the petrochemicals business, which had its fair share of challenges during the quarter in terms of a flat market for polymers and lower margins on fibres. Half of the earnings before interest and tax during the quarter came from the petrochemicals business with the refining business accounting for 41 per cent. The picture was the opposite during the second quarter of the previous year when the refining business accounted for half of the earnings before interest and tax while the petrochemicals business contributed 42 per cent. Despite a 24 per cent rise in turnover from the refining business, profits before interest and tax fell by 3 per cent.

The petrochemicals business grew by 38 per cent to compensate for the fall in refining earnings. As Reliance kept retail prices of petrol and diesel higher than that of the Government oil companies, to mitigate its losses it lost market share to the latter and it was forced to export almost its entire production of diesel and petrol at prices that were not remunerative.
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23 Indian cos included in Forbes Asia list of `best under a billion'
Chennai: 23 Indian companies have been included in the Forbes Asia 2006 list of 200 leading publicly quoted companies in the region with sales of less than $1 billion.

The list includes Asian Paints, Bharat Forge, Cipla, Carborundum Universal, Dabur India, Pantaloon Retail and Punjab Tractors.

The companies made it to the list on the back of not just having sales of less than $1 billion but also because of "solid top and bottomline gains and potential for more success" said a press release from Forbes.

Among Asian countries Taiwan had the highest entries at 31 while 29 small and midsize enterprises from China, 27 from Australia and 19 each from Singapore and Japan made it to the list.
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Ranbaxy net rises 651 per cent
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has announced a 651 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended September 30 at Rs140.4 crore compared with Rs18.7 crore during the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The company's consolidated sales during the quarter were up 26 per cent at Rs1,640.4 crore against Rs1,303.9 crore during the corresponding three-month period last fiscal.

CEO and managing director Ranbaxy laboratories, Malvinder Mohan Singh, said: "This can be attributed in large measures to the growth being driven in some key geographies and efficiencies gained from sustained cost containment measures."

The board approved the payment of an interim dividend of 50 per cent at Rs2.50 per share of par value Rs5 each for the year ending December 2006.
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Reliance Energy net rises 16.80 pc at Rs186.35-cr
Mumbai: Reliance Energy has posted a profit after tax of Rs186.39 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to Rs159.57 crore for the same quarter in 2005. Total revenue for the quarter has increased to Rs1,583.70 crore from Rs1,161.36 crore in the year-ago period.
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L&T net up 40 pc at Rs201.20-cr in Q2
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has registered a net profit (after extraordinary items) of Rs201.22 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to Rs143.05 crore made during the corresponding quarter last year. Total income during the quarter has increased to Rs3,847.80 crore from Rs3,511.79 crore reported in the year-ago period.
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ACC net up at Rs225.30-cr
Mumbai: Cement major ACC's net profit increased by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter on higher sales. Net profit for the quarter rose to Rs225.30 crore from Rs224.70 crore in the year-ago period. Sales surged 30 per cent to Rs1,392 crore in September quarter, from Rs1,067 crore during the same period last fiscal.
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Reliance, Hutch, Idea plans sharing of cell site infrastructure
Mumbai: ADAG controlled Reliance Communications has entered into an agreement with Hutchison-Essar and Idea Cellular to share passive infrastructure for cell sites which will help the companies to roll out services faster and also in significant cost reduction. Sources said, a model guideline for infrastructure sharing had been worked out, which incorporates the areas of co-operation between RCL-Hutch and RCL-IDEA Cellular. Under this model, the sharing of costs for existing as well as future pas sive infrastructure has been factored in. Under the agreement, both companies will have access to each other's cell sites across the country.
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ONGC board approves capex of 16,522-crore for 2006-07
New Delhi: The ONGC board has approved the revised capex outlay of Rs16,522 crore for 2006-07 against the approved budget estimate of Rs14,354 crore. The capital outlay in the budget estimate for the next year (2007-08) has been increased to Rs18,359 crore. The increase is mainly due to expected increase in expenditure on exploration and also larger number of schemes.
The board of the company also gave its nod for a capex outlay of Rs82,670 crore for the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012). ONGC has proposed production of over 140 mt of crude oil during the Eleventh Plan.

The board of the company has appointed a sub-committee of directors to finalise the allotment of `bonus shares' and has fixed October 30 as the `Record Date' for reckoning the entitlement for bonus shares.

The board also gave its approval nod for incorporation of ONGC Petro-additions (OPaL) to implement a petrochemical complex within Dahej SEZ through a SPV company.

The SPV OPaL will have 26 per cent equity participation of ONGC, 5 per cent by GSPC and balance by strategic investors and financial institutions.
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Taj Group sets up business hotel in Goa
The Taj Group of Hotels plans to set up its first business hotel in Goa. The hotel will come up in the state capital of Panjim. The company has entered into a management contract with Kamat Construction and Resorts for construction of the resort, which will ready by '07. The cost is estimated at Rs70 crore. This is Taj's first venture into a business hotel in Goa.

Currently, the company has two luxury hotels in north and south Goa.

The company is targeting the corporate segment which frequents Goa for meetings and conferences and expect 65 per cent occupancy on a regular basis.

The company has plans for similar expansion into other smaller cities like Vijaywada, Ranchi, Trivandrum, Amritsar and Coimbatore besides further expanding in metros like Mumbai and Bangalore.
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