News Special   News Roundup  People  Facts & Figures   

  Business - Corporate News

News Special

Tata's overtake Ambani on market wealth

With the market value of close to  Rs 4,40,000 crores, the Tata group has overtaken the combined figures of the two Ambani groups about Rs 3,67,000 crore. As per the latest market value of Individual groups, Tata's rank on the top, followed by Mukesh-led Reliance Group in second position.

India card Rupay to replace Visa, Master card

Mumbai, Mar 21 (PTI) After almost two years of planning, the national payments Corporation has at last finalised the proposed unique India Card which once commercially launched would be an domestic alternative to the global real-time payment processing firms like Visa and MasterCard.

"We have finalised name of the proposed card as Rupay at our board meeting today. We have also finalised the logo for the same', a senior official of the RBI- set up, National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) told PTI.

The official further said the leading financial consulting firm Ernst & Young (E & Y) will develop and roll out the entire architecture, including design and software for the Rupay card rollout.

A senior E & Y official confirmed development to this agency. He further said, the NCPI will initially launched a domestic ATM/debit cards to begin with and then would hit the credit card market later on. 

In 2009, RBI had asked the Indian Banks Association to launch a not-for-profit company and design a rival card, then tentatively called India Card, that meets the requirements of the domestic banks. 

And finally RBI plan is materialising and Rupay will be like the Union Pay of China, which is the domestic real-time payment processing firm for Chinese bank, and was planned to be launched last year.

News Roundup

Piramal L& T Q2 net up 4% at Rs 798 crore

Idea net drops 41% to Rs 106 crores

OCPL Q2 net at Rs 128 crore

JSW steel Q2 net dips 71%

Federal Bank eyes 5 growth states- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Gujarat and Punjab.

Piramal buys 5.5 % in Voda for Rs 2900cr

Billionaire entreprenure Ajay Piramal has bought 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar for Rs 2,900 crore or $640 million in the process allowing India's third largest mobile service provider to FDI norms. 

Li Danone to buy nutrition assets of Wockhardt

France's Danone has signed a deal with Wockhardt group to acquire its nutrition business for about $356.3 million.

Nippon Cognizant races past in Wipro in Revenues  

Cognizant said it earned revenues worth $1.48 billion as against Wipro's $1.407 billion for the quarter ended 2011, making it one of the top 3 software services exporters of the country, behind TCS and Infosys.

HDFC raises homeloan rates by 50 bps

Jet told to pay Rs1.4 lakhs for death of Pugs

Airtel ends Champions League Sponsorship deals

Wipro Q4 net up 14% at Rs 1,375 crore. 

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL) has posted a 2% in revenues to Rs 2,726 crore for the year ended 31st March'11. 

Dabur Q4 end up 8.5% at Rs 147 crore.

Castrol March Quarter net rises 17%.

Sangam India Quarter PAT up 174%.

Religare to raise to Rs 800 crore.

TVS profit doubles to Rs 42 crore in 4th Quarter. 

Titan net profit soars 72% to Rs 433 crore in FY 11.

Exim Bank's FY 11 net profit up 14%.

IDFC Quarter net up 24% at Rs 346 crore.

Corporation Bank FY 2011 net up 21%. 

Aditya Birla buys Swedish Pulp Company for $340 million. 

Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup's first quarter profit falls 32% to $3 billion. 

A M Naik led Larsen & Toubro is in talks to sell Electrical & Electronics unit for $3 billion.

Essar oil's net profit jumps 78% to Rs 321 crore on higher refining margins.

Tata chemicals is acquiring a 25% stake in Gabon Fertilisers company in west Central Africa for $290 million (approx Rs1300). 

IndusInd Bank has entered into an agreement with Dentshe Bank to buy its credit card business in India. 

Lending rates to remain steady.

Sugar mills hail egom decision to allow exports.

Tata Steel in talks to buy Canada coal mines.

IT dept sends Rs 616cr tax demand to Mahindra Satyam.

Nalco to st up pilot project on managing carbon.

Kotak property arm to raise up to $500mn for India buys.

Nippon Life to buy 26% in Rel Life  

Japan company will pay Rs 3,602 crore in single largest FDI deal in Insurance.

Inflation up in Feb RBI may hike rates.

Japanese cars and electronics makers shut plants.  

Auto companies may face spare parts shortage.

GE to invest $200 million in India unit. 

BoJ pumps $183 million into Japanese economy.

Warren Buffet's Berkshire  will acquire Lubrizol for $9 billion.  

Shriram, TPG to take over Vishal Retail.  

Continental to acquire Modi tyre business

German tyre major Continental signed an agreement with the V K Modi group to acquire their tyre, for an undisclosed amount.  

India among top 10 pharma markets by 2020 

India will join league of top 10 global pharmaceuticals markets in terms of sales by 2020 with the total value reaching $50bn by then, according to a report.

Air India expressed HQ to be shifted to Kochhi 

The last leg of the formalities for shifting Air India Express headquarters has been completed. A circular to this effect has been issued by the office of the managing director in Mumbai.

Aditya Birla group buys American co  for 875 million  

To become the largest carbon black producer

Posco, biggest FDI projects finally cleared

CCEA okays Rs1200 crore equity infusion into Air India. 

Inflation, crude price may derail markets in 2010. 

High rate of price rise a new risk factor-RBI.

Patni, iGate-Apax in exclusive talks. Deal likely to be valued at a little over Rs 500 per share. 

Global IT spending to grow 5.3 per cent in 2010; Gartner

Pune bond Ajay Banga is new CEO of MasterCard

Infy bags 3-year outsourcing deal by Microsoft

Nokia to role out mobile banking in many Indian cities 

56 Indian Cos among Forbes Global 2000 list

As many as 56 Indian Companies, including Reliance Industries and State Bank of India, have been named among the world's 2000 most powerful listed companies, according to US magazine Forbes. 'The Global 2000' list of the biggest and most powerful companies worldwide has been topped by US banking giant J P Morgan Chase. Among Indians Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries leads the pack and has been ranked at the 126th place in the global list.

NTPC ties up $300m credit from Japan.

Dewan buys Postbank arm for Rs 1079cr.

Sunil Mittal- led Bharati Airtel has started Tariff war in Nigeria.

IOC issue may rake Rs 20k cr at 450 a share.

Government clears Rs 6k cr capital infusion for PSU.

PSUs lineup RS 2.78 lakh-cr for expansion

Major Central Public Enterprises have year marked a whopping capital expenditure of Rs 2.78 lakh-cr in the next fiscal with petroleum and power companies lining up Rs 1.20 lakh-cr investment. The PSUs in telecom and road transport sector would also be among the major spenders in the next financial year. The other areas where the PSUs will be aggressively investing include steel, shipping and urban development. ONGC has chocked out plans to spend the maximum with an allocation of Rs 26,523 cr, followed by Rs 12,823 cr by Indian Oil Corp and Rs 8,662 cr by ONGC Videsh. NTPC has lined up Rs 22,350 cr spend, up over 50% from the revised estimates of the current fiscal.

IMF predicts 8.8 per cent growth for India this year. 

Predicting an 8.8 per cent growth for India this year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says strong domestic demand will support the recovery in India and China as the world output goes up by 4.2 per cent. 

Interest rates may not go up: banks 

Industrial output grows fastest in two years.

India's industrial output expanded 11.7% in November year-on-year, the fastest growth in two years, rekindling the debut in whether the centre must begin withdrawing the stimulus. While it exceeds South Korea's 1.4%, It is way behind China's 19.2% growth. The robust growth could see the RBI hiking the cash reserve ratio.

DB reality FY10 net up 78%  

Real Estate Developer DB reality said it has reported a  jump of 78% in its consolidated net profit at Rs 252 crores for the year ended March 31, 2010.

ICICI Bank has been ranked 45 in the 2010 Brand Z Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand's report

  .................................................................  

Tata Steel, Riversdale to hold 100% in African plant

Mukesh's RIL acquires 14.12 per cent stake in EIH

Mukesh Ambani's RIL acquired a 14.12 per cent stake in EIH - the company that owns and runs Oberoi Hotels and Resorts - for Rs 1,021 crore staving of a potential takeover threat by ITC.

KEC's  Rs 437 crore US buy

KEC International, the flagship company of RPG enterprises will acquire US-based SAE Towers for 437 crore to move to the top slot of Lattice-tower manufacturing  in the world.

KKR, TPG vie for Honda's stake in JV

KKR, TPG Capital, Carlyle Group & Bain Capital LLC are competiting to acquire a part of Honda Motor company's stake in Hero Honda Motors according to people with the direct knowledge of the situation.

HPCL eyes oil blocks in Africa

J & J in talks to buy rest of Crucell for $2.3 billion Petrobas share issue $79 billion.

Wipro rejig

Wipro Technologies announced restructuring of its team with the appointment of Ayan Mukerji has the global head of product Engineering service group, effective April 2010. A company has also announced the appointment of Jeffrey Heenan Jalil has the head of Europe Operations.

Glad for not being in IPL says Mittal

NRI billionaire Lakshmi Mittal said he does not  want a cricket team in the Indian Premier League, and was glad for not having bought one already, given the recent controversy shrouding the game.

Vedanta, world's top zinc producer

Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources announced the acquisition of UK-based global mining firm Anglo-America's Zinc assets for a total consideration of $1.3 Billion (6,500 crore), catapulting it has the largest integrated zinc and lead producer in the world.

10k-cr techpark likely in Roha

The contract for the Rs 10,000-crore innovation park planned by the state govt is likely to be awarded to Mahindra & Mahindra, which is planning to set it up on its land at Roha near Panvel. 

Slim is richest in world, Mukesh Ambani in India

Maxican billionaire Carlos Slim has emerged as the richest person in the world with US $53.5 billion in assets, while Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani ranks fourth with $29 billion in US magazine Forbes' annual list of worlds top billionaires Slim is followed by Bill Gates with $53 billion and Warren Buffet with $47 billion. NRI billionaire Laxmi Mittal with the net worth of $28.7 billion, ranks fifth while Anil Ambani is at the thirty sixth spot with $13.7 billion. There are 1,011 billionaires in the world now up from 793 a year ago. Gates held the top spot for fourteen of the past fifteen years.             

RIL in $2-bn bid to buy Canadian company 

Two months after it made an offer to acquire a controlling stake in the bankrupt Lyondell Basek, Indian energy major Reliance Industries (RIL) is now set to be eyeing privately-held Canadian firm, Value Creations. According to media reports, RIL has submitted an expression of interest of $2-bn for Value Creation, which deals in oil sands resources.

Big talk

"The economy would grow between 7 and 7.5% in 2009-2010. It would grow by 8% in 2010-11 and the year after, growth would be 9%"

                                                    .........C Rangarajan (PMEAC, Chairmen)

Business Capsule...........by Shirley Pinto

LIC plans to enter reverse mortgage space  

Cognizant buys UK Consultancy  

Congnizant Technology Solution announced that it has acquired the PIPC Group, a global programme management consulting firm based in London.

Fortis to raise up to dollar 185m

Fortis Healthcare plans to raise up to dollar 185 million through a preferential allotment of shares and foreign currencies convertible bonds issuance to fund acquisitions.

Bin Laden group to buy stake in Maytas 

The saudi Bin Laden group founded by terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden's father, will pick a 20% stake in Maytas Infra, a firm earlier promoted by Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju's son.

Pantaloon to demerge 3 of its business  

The Kishor Biyani-promoted Pantaloon Retail said that the company will demerge three of its businesses, including that of food, into two of its subsidies.

Bajaj enters Hero Honda's 100cc turf 

Hero Honda's grip on the domestic motor cycle market is now facing a challenge from rival Bajaj Auto on the entry-level bike segment. Rival Bajaj has been going strong in over 125cc segment, with around 50 per cent market share with its Pulsar brand of motor cycles.

Vijay Mallya-headed United Spirits posts 35 per cent rise in profit at Rs 401 crore for 2009-10.

HCL Tech net profit surges 78 per cent to Rs 344 crore.

TVS Motor Company said its net profit rose 38.78 per cent to Rs 20.29 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2010 over the same period last year.

Polaris Q4 net jumps 42 per cent 

Polaris Software reported a 42 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended March, on the back of a significant drop in forex losses.

Videocon may sell 26 per cent stake in telco unit to foreign players

IndiaFirst has Rs 200cr Premium

IndiaFirst Insurance announced that the company has achieved Rs 200 cr mark in new business premium. The announcement was made by Dr P Nandgopal, MD and CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance.

Godrej to buy Indonesian Co

FMCG player Godrej Consumer Products Ltd will acquire Indonesia-based insecticide maker PT Magasan Makmur group and its distribution companies. The cost of the acquisition a business channel reported it as 1,200cr.

United India hits Rs 5k crore Premium

United India Insurance Co has crossed Rs 5,000cr premium income in the financial year 2009-2010 and emerged as the second largest non-life insurance company in India. The company has grown at 20 per cent as against the market growth of 12 per cent.

Vodafone hits 100mn subscriber mark

Vodafone Essar has crossed the 100-mn subscriber mark in  India, becoming the third mobile operator in the country to do so after rivals Bharati Airtel and Reliance communication.

Essar plans $2.5bn London listing

Ruia's -owned Essar Energy announced its plans to raised about $2.5bn through an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in the UK.

Infosys announces Q4 results, profit jumps 1.14 per cent

IT major Infosys Technologies announced its fourth quarter results of financial year 2010 and it reported a 1.14 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 1,600 crore as against Rs 1,582 crore, on quarter-on-quarter basis.

Rolta announces acquisition of OneGIS

Rolta, a global solutions provider of information technology solutions announced the strategic acquisition of Atlanta based OneGIS, a consulting, development and system integration firm.

Axis eyes 5% stake in Max New York Life

Private sector lender Axis bank said it is in talks with Max New York Life to acquire up to 5% stake in the latter. The bank has tied up with Max New York Life to distribute the latters life insurance products beginning April 1st after ending its relationship with MetLife.

CIL sell off may fetch Rs 10k crore

Government is likely to raise about Rs 10,000 crore from the proposed divestment of its 11% stake in Coal India. The government at present holds 100% equity in the country's largest coal producer. It is planning to sell 10% of its stake through an IPO.

Indian Cement Co's eye Lanka

Stung by massive capacity expansion and poor utilisation of their plants, cement companies are looking at war-ravaged Sri Lanka, which is rebuilding its infrastructure. Industry sources said Madras Cement is shipping cement to Sri Lanka while Indian Cements and Dalmia Cements have got the approval from the island nation's quality certification body - a precursor for shipping cement.

Future Group launches 'Sach' toothpaste

Biyani-promoted Future Group has forayed into a toothpaste category under the 'Sach' brand - co-created with Sachin Tendulkar and will launch more products under the same label by the end of 2010.

Renuka concludes Brazilian firm acquisition 

Shree Renuka Sugars has completed the acquisition of Vale Do Ivai (VDI), Brazil-based Sugar and Ethanol production company.

Lupins Insomnia drug gets nod in US 

Drug maker Lupin said its US-based arm Lupin Pharmaceuticals has received attentative approval from the US health regulator FDA for Eszopiclone tablets used in the treatment of sleep disorder.

Welspun makes open offer for MSK

Pipe manufacturer Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohran along with its group company Welspun Infratech made an open offer for 20% stake in MSK projects. Days after it announced buying a controlling stake in the latter. The Rs 104.40 crore offer will open on May 6th and close on May 25th.

UB group sells its 10% stake in Aventis for Rs 414

Vijay Mallya's UB group exited from Aventis Pharma by selling its 10.27% stake for over Rs 414 crore to Hoechst GmbH, one of the promoter entities of the drug maker. Proceeds from Aventis share sell will go to pay down depth at United Breweries holding.

US healthcare reform to boost BPO's

The US president Barack Obama's $871-billion healthcare reform bill has cheer to Indian healthcare BPO and IT service providers.

Crisil completes 10k SME ratings

Ratings major Crisil completed its 10,000thratings on an SME, and initiative that has saved about Rs 100 crore for these companies since it was launched.

Rcom rings in 100mn users

Reliance communication has become India's second telecom operator to cross the 100 million mobile subscriber mark. This also makes the company the world's fourth largest single country mobile services operator. The company targets to reach the 200 million subscriber milestone within 1000 days.

"Finance is the art of passing currency from hand to hand until it finally disappears".........Robert W Sarnoff.

TOP