DLF ties up with Prudential Financial for life insurance JV
New Delhi: Real estate giant DLF plans to tie-up with US-based financial player Prudential Financial, Inc (PFI) to float a life insurance JV. The Indian company said the two partners will invest about Rs1,000 crore over the next ten years in the venture.

Under the terms of agreement, Prudential will have 26 pc stake while the remaining 74 pc will be held by DLF Group in the JV - DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Company (DLF Pramerica).

Pramerica is a brand name used in select countries by Prudential Financial. The company will initially have a paid up capital of Rs100 crore, including Rs26 crore by Prudential. The two partners plan to scale up investment to $250 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) over the next 10 years.

The company is applying for a licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), and hopes to start operations by early 2008.
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Tata reveals details of small car project
Geneva: Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata has said that competitors are coming in the way of the Tata group launching a car priced below Rs 1-lakh even if the government offered special incentives.

Tata said that even if the government gives special incentives for small cars, competitors will make sure that it will not benefit the Tatas.

After months of speculation about its form and feasibility, some details about the specifications of the proposed Rs 1-lakh car from Tata Motors is finally out.

According to Ratan Tata, the car, expected to be the world's cheapest, will be a four-door, four to five seater car that will sport a modern, monoform design. It will feature a 600cc petrol engine, a first for India, and will also be rear mounted for improved practicality and easy driveability.

Instead of the much speculated plastic body panels and curtained windows, the car will feature metal body panels and glass windows that can be cranked up as in regular small cars.

The Rs1-lakh car will be launched by mid-2008 and while it will debut with a stripped down, base variant, it will also be launched later with higher trim variants that could sport features such as power steering, power windows and air-conditioning.

According to Tata the car will have no import content and will meet international safety (in terms of crash safety) and emission standards. Tata said that the car's price was dependent on many factors, including the possibility of incentives from the Government.
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Three companies bid for Punjab Tractors stake
New Delhi: While four players comprising Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, TAFE and Tata-CNH, had earlier shown interest for picking up a 43 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors, the Tata-CNH combine seemed to have pulled out as it had not submitted a bid by the deadline. Ashok Leyland had bid the highest for acquiring private equity firm Actis' 29.3 per cent stake and the Burman family's 14.2 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland are the main contenders for the stake as the bids of both are competitive sources said.
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L&T may set up JV with Toshiba in power sector
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro is in talks with Japan's Toshiba Corporation for setting up a joint venture in India to manufacture power plant equipment. L&T officials said the discussions with the Japanese company were at a preliminary stage and the proposal is to set up a facility for making turbines for power plants.

Reports indicated that L&T would hold majority stake in the joint venture, which will invest about $173 million to build plants for steam turbines and power generators. A report quoting the Nikkei business daily said the joint venture aims to have an annual turnover of 20 billion yen in five years.

Toshiba, which has been expanding its power business, acquired the US nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse for $5.4 billion last year.

L&T's entry into the power sector follows its recent tie-up with Mitsubshi Heavy Industries, another Japanese major, for manufacture of boilers for power projects. The joint venture - L&T Boilers Ltd - plans to invest Rs450 crore.
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ONGC to commission coal bed methane project soon
Kolkata: ONGC may soon start commissioning its Rs950 crore project for production and exploration of coal bed methane in six blocks in Jharkhand and West Bengal, in April this year. The project, which includes drilling of 14 development wells and 22 pilot wells in the discovered fields of Jharkhand and Bokaro, respectively, was delayed inordinately due to problems in land acquisition and parallel permissions granted for captive coal mining in at least three CBM blocks under ONGC.

ONGC has awarded a turnkey contract to Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL)-led consortium for development and exploration of CBM in the six blocks in May 2006.

The company has recently acquired land for four development wells in Jharia block and four pilot core-wells in Bokaro and is looking forward to acquire the necessary land for a group gathering station (GGS) and approach roads to begin commissioning.

He, however, added that commissioning would not begin unless ONGC could acquire the required land for GGS. This is as per the agreement between ONGC and the project contractor.
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HLL exit from marine products biz due to falling revenues
Chennai: A need to focus on core FMCG business as well as falling revenues from the marine products business has prompted Hindustan Lever (HLL)'s recent decision to exit the latter. The company recently sent a notice to shareholders seeking their approval for the move.

The marine products business, which manufactures and distributes products such as Surimi and crab sticks catering to the export markets, has notched up losses of Rs15 crore, Rs14.4 crore and Rs9.1 crore respectively over the three years to 2006 while revenues from the business showed a declining trend, falling down from Rs259.3 crore to Rs189.6 crore over the same period. The move is also in line with Unilever's decision to exit the marine business in most European markets.
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RIL to transfer offshore oil assets into new company
New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL), is transferring all its overseas oil assets to a new company - Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC.

The subsidiary will be headquartered in Dubai and will first take over the assets RIL has secured in the West Asian countries.

Much like OVL, the investment arm for ONGC's overseas oil assets, the new RIL subsidiary will be the holding company for all overseas upstream assets in oil and gas. This restructuring is being done to reduce the risks on RIL's balance sheet as many of these oil assets are in politically risk-prone areas.

RIL, which had confined itself mainly to exploration and production within India, has now taken up overseas expansion in a major way.
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Cement makers agree to cut prices
New Delhi: A day after defying the government over cutting prices, the cement industry today assured finance minister P Chidambaram that it will look into the issue of lowering its price tags.

To rein in rising cement prices - in Delhi, the price of a 50-kg bag of cement has risen from Rs190 a year ago to Rs230 now - Chidambaram, in his budget speech on 28 February, had announced a reduction in the excise duty on cement, from Rs400 per tonne to Rs350 per tonne, for those selling at Rs190 per bag or below and a duty of Rs 600 per tonne for those selling above Rs190 per bag.

Defiant cement producers raised prices by Rs10-12 per bag the very next day, upon which Chidambaram said cement prices have gone beyond "reasonable limits".

In a meeting with industry secretary Ajay Dua on Monday, the CMAI had refused to cut prices on the ground that cement companies would not be able to absorb the new excise duty and also bring down prices.

Cement producers have said the new excise rates will impair their profit margins by as much as 25 per cent.

In January, the finance minister had alleged price manipulation by the cement manufacturers. The same month, the government had brought import duty on cement down to zero.

In recent times cement has had a weightage of 1.73 per cent in the wholesale price index.
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Nimbus warns BCCI of telecast deal pull out
New Delhi: Nimbus, which Entered into a telecast deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for $612 million a year ago, has issued a notice to the cricket board threatening to pull out of the deal.

Nimbus' decision to withdraw from the deal, covering matches in India till 2010 March, comes after the government issued on an ordinance making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share with Prasar Bharti the live feed of sports events of national importance.
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