PAN No to be sole ID from July 2
Mumbai: The permanent account number (PAN) will be the sole identification number for all stock market transactions from July 2, 2007.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said it has advised all the capital market intermediaries to put in place the necessary systems and infrastructure and to also collect the copies of PAN cards from their existing and new clients to equip themselves for the transition.
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AIG to invest $10 m in maiden fund
New Delhi: The American International Group (AIG) plans to invest $10 million in its own maiden fund offering of the AIG Global Investment Group in India - AIG India Equity Fund. The company said it plans to raise the funds from its own balance sheet. AIG India Equity Fund is an open-ended diversified equity fund, which would be open for purchase from May 3 to May 31.

AIG is also keen to foray into mortgage guarantee and asset reconstruction (capital recovery) businesses in the coming months. It also wants to expand its role in infrastructure financing.

AIG will expand its headcount in India from 4,500 professionals across eight businesses to 6,600 by the end of the current calendar year.
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GSS America to float public issue
Hyderabad: GSS America Infotech, the enterprise application integration (EAI) and infrastructure management services provider has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Securities and Exchange Board of India to float a public issue to raise Rs120 crore. The company plans to issue 34.97 lakh equity shares of Rs10 each. Of this, 1.57 lakh shares would be reserved for eligible employees. Part of the proceeds would be used to set up a 1,000-seater offshore facility at a cost of Rs61 crore near Gachibowli in Hyderabad, which would be begin operations by the year-end.
The company, which owns a wholly owned subsidiary in the US, registered a turnover of Rs116 crore for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2006, against Rs63 crore for the financial year 2005-06. IL&FS and a few other private investors placed pre-IPO investments to the tune of Rs35 crore.
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Binani Cements plans public issue
Mumbai: Binani Cement, a subsidiary of Binani Industries, will float a public issue of 2.05 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each through an offer for sale by JP Morgan Special Situations (Mauritius) Ltd. The offer is through a 100 per cent book building process and the price band has been fixed between Rs 75 and Rs 85 per share.

The offer opens on May 7 and closes on May 10 and constitutes 10.09 per cent of the post-offer paid-up capital of the company. JP Morgan, which earlier held 25 per cent of the equity in the company, will now hold 15 per cent.

At least 60 per cent of the offer will be allocated on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) of which 5 per cent will be available for mutual funds. Up to 30 per cent will be given to retail individual bidders and up to 10 per cent will be allocated to non-institutional bidders.

The company will not raise any money from the issue, as it is an offer for sale. The company reported a total income of Rs496.4 crore for the nine months ended December 2006 and profit after tax of Rs 70.1 crore.

ICICI Securities Ltd is the book running lead manager to the issue and JP Morgan India Pvt. Ltd is the co-book running lead manager to the issue.
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Brokers may get tax relief
New Delhi: With the finance ministry veering around to the view that transaction and other charges collected by stock exchanges would not attract service tax, stock exchange members, may heave a sigh of relief.

Stock exchanges collect a transaction charge, securities transaction tax (STT) and stamp duty from its members. The transaction charge is collected from a member as a percentage of his business turnover. This is in addition to the annual membership fee that the exchange charges from its members.

STT and stamp duty (which is not levied on demat shares) are paid by the client but collected by the government from stockbrokers for administrative convenience. These charges are essentially passed on to clients by the brokers.

Brokers had opposed the idea of levying a service tax on the transaction charge, STT and stamp duty. They argued that these are costs and there is no service rendered to clients. There is a separate service tax on the brokerage fee that a client pays to a broker.

A local court in Indore has also ruled against the levy of service tax on these charges. The finance ministry, which had asked the industry to give its financial data, has carried out a detailed analysis. A clarification in this regard is expected to be issued soon by the Central Board of Excise and Customs.
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