Havells India to raise $150mn for overseas buys
Mumbai: Switchgear maker Havells India plans to raise $150 million through the issue of FCCB/ADRs/GDRs or the QIP route and use the funds raised to fund its overseas acquisition plans.

The board of the company has also approved increasing the borrowing limits of the company to Rs2500 crore, raising authorised share capital to Rs40 crore, and has called for an extraordinary general meeting on January 20, 2007.
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Carzonrent makes nationwide expansion plans
New Delhi: Carzonrent India, the car rental service provider, plans to invest about Rs700-800 crore to operate nearly 25,000 radio cabs across the country by 2010. The company is planning to operate 10,000 cars in Mumbai and around 5,000 cars in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR).

The company will also start its radio cab service with a fleet of 250 cabs next week and plans to double the number of the vehicle within three months of operations, a release from the company said.

The company will charge Rs15 per km for its services and has made a provision for credit card payment in the cabs, the release added.
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KG basin gas may be priced at $4.50/mBtu
New Delhi: Natural gas from the D6 block of Reliance Industries and the adjoining field of ONGC in Krishna Godavari basin may get a minimum price of $4.50 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) as the committee for formulation of transparent guidelines for natural gas pricing has recommended that "valuation of natural gas be done based on most recent competitively determined price in the region.

The $4.50 per mBtu price is 92 pc higher than the $2.34 per mBtu price proposed by Reliance to sell gas to state-run NTPC and an Anil Ambani Group firm through separate contracts. The price for Reliance Natural Resources, an Anil Ambani Group firm, was rejected by the ministry for lack of transparency while the NTPC price is yet to reach the ministry for approval.
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Bharti to invest $7bn in retail
New Delhi: The Bharti group plans to set up 200 hypermarkets and large format stores across the country and invest around $7 billion in retail by 2010.

Bharti's joint venture with Wal-Mart will operate through the cash and carry business, and the front end business of running the stores will be undertaken by Bharti.

The group expects to earn revenue of over $1-2 billion from its retail business, which would constitute over 10-20 per cent of the group's targeted turnover of $10 billion by 2010.

The group will also launch a programme in which it hopes to rope in existing small retailers to join in as franchisees of Bharti's retail chain.

The Bharti group has applied to the government for a licence to operate direct-to-home television (DTH) services.
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Indian Airlines to hedge fuel costs
Mumbai: Indian Airlines is planning to start hedging its international fuel purchase in the face of zooming costs of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Currently, the annual fuel bill of the airline is around Rs1,500 crore.

Senior airline executives said the airline is in the process of securing approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for hedging.

Fuel cost constitutes 35 per cent of an airline's operating cost.

Currently, fuel hedging is allowed only for international fuel uplifts. Air-India, Indian Airlines, Air Sahara and Jet Airways are the domestic carriers operating on international routes.

Air-India, which had started fuel hedging, has recently extended its hedging limits from 10 per cent of its international uplifts to 25 per cent that would give flexibility to the airline to hedge up to 75,000 barrels per day, up from the current limit of 30,000 barrels.
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Balrampur Chini to increase borrowing
Kolkata: Balrampur Chini Mills is doubling its borrowing limit from Rs1,000 crore to Rs2,000 crore to finance future expansion and diversification plans.

This expansion will make Balrampur the second largest sugar company in the country after Bajaj Hindusthan. Its expansion plans include two greenfield sugar complexes in Kumbhi and Gularia in Uttar Pradesh and one state-of-the-art distillery in Kumbhi. The total project cost will be around Rs700 crore.

Company officials said that after completion of the the two proposed greenfield units in UP, the company would have a capacity of 75,000 tonne crushing per day. The new projects would have bagasse-based power plant of 51 mw.

The official said both the projects would have a crushing capacity of 8,000 TCD each.

The company wants to to complete the Kumbhi project by March 2007 and the Gularia by November 2007. According to the officials, the company would invest Rs600 crore in these two projects. Besides, the company is planning to set up an ethanol plant in Kumbli, which will take the ethanol capacity of the group to 320 kilolitre per day (KLPD).
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L&T may be awarded civil contract for Bangalore airport
New Delhi: The Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) consortium, which won the bid to handle cargo at the greenfield airport in Bangalore, is planning to award the civil contract for the project to Larsen & Toubro (L&T). A final decision on this will be taken shortly.

An official of the consortium said L&T already has manpower, expertise and equipment in place at the existing site. So, awarding the contract L&T would prove a win-win situation.

While the total cost of the cargo-handling project is of the order of Rs81 crore, the civil construction works project that L&T will get is estimated at Rs50 crore.

The successful bidder will be required to complete the project within 12 months of it being awarded.
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Videocon seeks 13 pc discount on agreed price for Daewoo buy
Mumbai: Videocon Industries has put certain conditions in the form of a 13 pc discount on the price set at Rs3,200 crore negotiated in October for acquiring South Korea's sick Daewoo Electronics.

Foreign agency reports said the creditors of Daewoo, who are selling their 97.6 per cent stake in the Korean electronics firm, are likely to put on hold the planned sale and may even snap further price talks.

Videocon Industries, with its consortium partner Belgium-based holding company RHJ International, signed an MoU on October 20 with the creditors of Daewoo, including Woori Bank and Korea Asset Management Corp. The proposed aggregate consideration for the purchase of the creditors' share in Daewoo was about Korean won 700 billion (about $730 million).

Creditors hold 97.6 per cent stake in Daewoo, after the Korean company came under a debt-restructuring programme, following its insolvent parent, Daewoo Group, being kept under a workout. The creditors have been seeking to sell their controlling stake in the Korean outfit since November 2005.
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Essar makes surprise offer for Hutch
Mumbai: The Essar group has made a surprise offer to buy the Hutchison group's 67 pc stake in Hutchison-Essar at an estimated enterprise value of $17-18 billion. The Essar group is believed to have received funding from Morgan Stanley and Citibank who are said to have given a line of credit to Essar of about $10 billion.

This raises the stakes in the battle for Hutch-Essar and other prospective bidders will have to raise their offers or withdraw from the bidding. It also means that Hutchison cannot sell its stake to an Indian bidder (read Reliance Communications) without giving Essar the right to match it. Vodafone said last week that it is interested in pursuing the acquisition of Hutch-Essar.

The Essar group already owns 33 pc stake in Hutch. At a valuation of about $18 billion, the group will have to cough up $11 billion (Hutch-Essar is believed to have a debt of about $1.4 billion) for its 67 pc stake.

The Essar group has been trying to raise money from various banks, private equity funds for the transaction for quite some time. It had held talks with Telenor of Norway, Qatar Telecom, Kuwait Telecom and other strategic players.
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