Tata Steel raises Corus bid to 4.7 billion pounds
London: Tata Steel has raised its bid for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus to an agreed 4.7 billion pounds ($9.2 billion) seeking to head off a potential counterbid from Brazil's CSN.

The new offer comes to 500 pence per Corus share, up from a previous cash bid of 455 pence, and beats an indicative approach by Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) of 475 pence per share.
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Tatas to acquire less than 10 pc stake in SpiceJet
Mumbai: The Tata group has picked up less than 10 pc stake in the Delhi-based budget carrier SpiceJet for less than Rs100 crore. A Tata group financial investment arm will pick up the stake.

The Tata group said the investment was not a strategic one but a financial one and there would not be any board-level representation in SpiceJet. The Tatas are likely to acquire the minority stake through preferential allotment.

At the current rate, the market capitalisation of the company is Rs985 crore. After the preferential issue, the valuation will be Rs1,300 crore and the promoter holding of SpiceJet will come down to 15.69 per cent from 16.86 per cent.

The director of Spicejet Ajay Singh who till now held the largest stake of 5.42 per cent would now hold 5.04 per cent. The paid-up equity capital of the company is Rs184.3 crore with 18.43 crore equity shares. The London-based Kansagra family holds the second highest stake.

The SpiceJet stock closed at Rs53.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, 4.9 per cent higher than the previous day's close of Rs50.95.
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DoT to issue big tender for broadband infrastructure
New Delhi: Hoping to net 9 million broadband subscribers by next year, the department of telecom (DoT) is readying a draft tender for equipment to provide broadband connectivity in rural India. This will be in addition to the tender already announced for mobile towers in rural areas that will be shared by telecom operators.

The official said the ministry was also looking at increasing the speed to at least 1 mbps, introducing new tariffs, and increasing the size of downloads.

The ministry wants to give a thrust to the broadband segment in 2007 to take the number of broadband subscribers to 9 million from the current 2 million.

The broadband scheme will require installation of additional equipment in blocks in some of the proposed mobile towers. However, the size and the details of the scheme have not been decided, the official added.
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ONGC to begin large scale exploratory work in Tripura
Agartala: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will undertake massive exploration works in the northeastern state of Tripura to tap the around 40 billion cubic metres of gas reserves.

The gas would be supplied to a proposed 740 MW capacity giant thermal power plant and cater to other industrial projects across the state. ONGC would start drilling 60 exploratory and 14 developmental wells to enhance its existing gas handling facility from 1.6 million cubic metre (mcm) gas per day to 7.5 mcm in a phased manner.

The 740 MW power plants is being set up at a cost of Rs400 billion at Palatana in the logistically difficult state of south Tripura.

Officials said the company first-ever commercial power project, for which a Special Purpose Vehicle has been formed, would be commissioned by 2009 and would supply gas to other northeastern and northern states of India.
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ESPN-Star wins ICC global rights for $1.1billion
New Delhi: In what will give its business a big boost in India. ESPN-Star Sports has won the International Cricket Council's (ICC) global cricket telecast and marketing rights for eight years, starting 2007, for $ 1.1 billion. The rights encompasses two World Cups (in 2011 and 2015) and major tournaments such as the Champions Trophy in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, two Twenty-20 World Cups and the Women's World Cup among others.

ESPN edged out Nimbus, which had reportedly bid $900 million. Zee and Ten Sports were also in the fray with bids of $850 million and $825 million, respectively.

The existing telecast rights for ICC, being held by Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), will expire after the 2007 World Cup. GCC had bagged the rights for $532 million. Currently, ESPN makes Rs250-300 crore annually from its distribution revenue and Rs50-80 crore from advertising revenue.

In the last two months, ESPN has bagged the rights for French Open, English Premiere League and 2008 UEFA European Football Championship across India and the sub-continent.
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