Govt to exit Maruti
New Delhi: The Government has decided to sell its residual 10.27 per cent stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd, which at the current price is worth Rs2,800 crore. The 29.68 million shares will be sold to Indian public sector financial institutions, domestic public sector and private sector banks and mutual funds through a competitive bidding process.

Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, told presspersons after a Cabinet meeting that the sale will be in the same pattern and terms as done in January this year.

Earlier this year, the Government sold 8 per cent stake in Maruti to eight Indian financial institutions for Rs1,567 crore through the French auction method and had invited bids from only domestic public financial institutions and public sector banks. This time the Government has decided to throw open the bidding process to private sector banks and domestic mutual funds also, a move analysts state will help to achieve higher price realisations.

Maruti's shares closed at Rs926 on Thursday, up 0.33 per cent.
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Volvo to shift Europe truck manufacturing to India
Bangalore: Volvo plans to shift part of its truck manufacturing work from plants in Sweden and Belgium to India during the course of the year and the company would also build its bus manufacturing plant near Bangalore.

Due to capacity constraints in Asian plants, some of the demand is met from the plants in Europe. Over a period of time, the Indian plant would double the production capacity to around 2,400 units per year to meet the demand from Asian countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. Exports to China, where Volvo already has a joint venture, will be undertaken at later. The Indian plant exports trucks to South Korea and Bangladesh. The company said no additional investment was required for doubling the capacity of the existing plant. Currently, nearly 4,000 Volvo trucks are sold in Asia.
During this calendar year, Volvo is expected to sell over 600 trucks.
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Essar Oilfields acquires rig for $220mn
Mumbai: Essar Oilfields Services (EOSL), a subsidiary of Essar Shipping & Logistics, Cyprus, has acquired a semi-submersible rig for $220 million. According to the company the acquisition is in line with the company's plans to gain a significant presence in the contract drilling sector. EOSL has also drawn up plans to invest over $400 million for acquisition of a diversified fleet of on-land and offshore drilling rigs.
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BHEL gets Rs165-cr order from IOC
New Delhi: BHEL has bagged a Rs165-crore order from IOC for setting up a power plant at the oil major's Haldia refinery in West Bengal.

IOC has placed an order worth over Rs165 crore for a gas-based co-generation power plant. The project is scheduled for commissioning in 22 months. BHEL's scope of work includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of gas turbines, generators, auxiliaries, civil works and spares. The equipment would be manufactured at BHEL's Hyderabad, Tiruchi and Bangalore-based Electronics Division, it said. BHEL had earlier installed co-generation power plants of various capacities on turnkey basis at IOC's Panipat, Digboi, Barauni, Haldia and Mathura refineries.
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ABB to acquire Raman Boards
Bangalore: ABB has acquired the Mysore-based Raman Boards Ltd (RBL) to strengthen its insulation products' business. ABB said the acquisition will complement its global insulation components' capacity, which includes making insulation material for transformers, as well as electrical and mechanical components. RBL's products will be seamlessly integrated to ABB's existing product offerings, which include insulation kit components made in Halol and other parts of the world. RBL's operations will serve both domestic and export markets.

RBL is a closely held company established in 1979 in technical collaboration with Rogers Corporation of the US.

The company is a leading manufacturer of press boards and insulation components for the transformer industry. RBL employs around 300 people across four manufacturing facilities at Nanjangud (Mysore), Thandavapura (near Mysore), Sonepat (near Delhi) and Navi Mumbai (New Mumbai).
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Vodafone to decide on Hutch buyout soon
New Delhi: UK-based telecom major Vodafone says it will soon decide on the proposed Hutch acquisition as the Vodafone board is expected to meet and decide on its bid. Sources close to the development, said the valuation is now being pegged close to $17 billion by the prospective bidders for the acquisition of Hutchison Essar.

Reliance Communication was earlier said to be putting together a corpus of $14 billion to acquire the GSM cellular business from Hutch but is waiting for a bid from Vodafone before making a counter-offer. The other firms in the fray include Malaysia-based Maxis, which has 74 per cent stake in Indian mobile company Aircel. Maxis plans to roll out pan-Indian mobile services and the acquisition of Hutchison Essar could hasten its business plans. Though Maxis has new licences its rollout is dependant on availability of spectrum, which could take some more time. Industry observers said the Essar Group, which has 33 per cent stake in the joint venture cellular company, holds the key to the deal and may seek a premium for giving controlling stake to the buyer.
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Reliance Life to spend $63.2mn to acquire stake in GeneMedix
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Life Sciences is planning to acquire a stake in UK bio-pharmaceutical company GeneMedix Plc for £32.2 million ($63.2 million).

Reliance's initial investment will be made through subscription for 1,16,82,54,570 shares at 1.25 pence to raise £14.6 million, representing a controlling interest of 74 pc of the enlarged share capital of GeneMedix.

Reliance may also make a further investment up to £17.5 million in the company. The investment proposal is yet to be approved by the shareholders of GeneMedix.
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Arcelor-Mittal signs 12MT plant deal with Orissa government
Bhubaneshwar: The world's biggest steel company Arcelor-Mittal has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for a 12 million tonne steel plant. The company will invest $9 billion to build the plant in the Patna tehsil of tribal-dominated Keonjhar district.

The project, of the same size as South Korean steel major Posco's proposed plant near Paradip, would be located in the Patna tehsil of tribal-dominated Keonjhar district.

In the first phase, the company would invest Rs22,000 crore for a 6 million tonne capacity and a 750 MW captive power plant.

The company had asked for 8,000 acres of land for the project of which 1000 acres each would be earmarked for the power project and the township.

The project would draw water from the Baitarani river and the raw material linkage had been assured, the sources said.
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Moser Baer forays into home entertainment
Mumbai: Optical storage and devices maker Moser Baer is entering the entertainment space through the Indian home video market. According to a release issued by the company to the BSE, the company will release video content on DVD and Video CD formats using its proprietary and patented technology and its division is in final negotiations to acquire copyrights of more than 7,000 titles in all major Indian languages. Company officials said the initiative will enable the company to offer high quality titles at Rs28-34 for VCDs and DVDs.
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Ansals to set up Greater Noida II township
New Delhi: Ansal Properties & Infrastructure has been allotted 2,504 acre land adjoining Greater Noida for setting up a Rs20,000 crore integrated township, housing an IT park and a bio-technology park and likely to be named Greater Noida II.

A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed two days ago between the Uttar Pradesh government and a consortium in which Ansal Properties is the majority stake holder.

Ansal will tie up funds for the project from the recently concluded qualified institutional placement of Rs681.75 crore, debt, revenues and internal accruals.

The projected population of the township is 30,000.

One fifth of the dwelling units have been reserved for the economically weaker section and for low income housing and one half of the area has been earmarked for open space and roads. The open space includes an 18-hole golf course that is likely to be designed by Martin Hawtree, who has designed over 750 courses worldwide. High-end villas and apartments are also proposed around the golf course.

A Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy and a polo and equestrian clubs have also been planned.

To promote tourism and cater to the companies within and near the township, Ansal Properties is planning five-star hotels and serviced apartments. Ansal Plaza, the company's mall brand, will also be developed in the township. The exact number is still not known.
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Telecom firms can employ expat CEOs
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has extended the date for compliance with Press Note 5 (2005 series) by three months to March 31, 2007. This is the third extension granted to telecom operators that have foreign direct investment to comply with security restrictions.

The Cabinet had also approved telecom service providers hiring foreign nationals as chief executives and chief financial officers, subject to security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In the earlier Press Note 5, these posts could not be occupied by foreigners. However, the chief technology officer will have to be an Indian resident.
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