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Does RBI need more powers to discipline bank promoters?This week we saw Bank of Rajasthan getting into serious problems with the regulators. This comes at a time when RBI is being asked to issue more private bank licenses. Now while the RBI has enough powers to discipline banks. Does it need more powers to discipline bank promoters?Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 5:33 am Parliamentary panel recommends Air India split!A Parliamentary committee on Friday termed the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines as a "marriage of two incompatible individuals".Source: Zee News : Business | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:48 am EU/India trade pact could limit cheap drugs: MSFPoor people in India and other developing countries may lose access to affordable generic drugs as part of freetrade negotiations between India and the European Union, a medical advocacy group said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Tata Motors sees margin pressureTata Motors, India\'s largest vehicles maker plans to offset rising commodity prices through price hikes and cost cutting, a senior executive said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Indo Asian Fusegear on expansion mode; eyes Rs 4 bn revPower gears maker Indo Asian Fusegear is targetting revenue of Rs 4 billion in FY11 via the organic route, but is also open to inorganic growth opportunities, a senior official said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Mercator Lines buys tanker, unit to buy dry bulkerMercator Lines Ltd said on Friday it has acquired a 1993built tanker and has also deployed the vessel on contract.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am GAIL to resume LNG importsStaterun GAIL (India) Ltd plans to resume imports of liquefied natural gas through spot cargoes from mid2010, its head BC Tripathi told reporters on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Bharati Shipyard buys additional 3% stake in Great OffshoreIndia\'s Bharati Shipyard has bought a 3% stake in Great Offshore from ABG Shipyard for Rs 537 million (USD 12 milion), the Business Standard reported on Saturday, citing Bharati.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am ARSS Infra sees revenues doubling in FY10Orissabased construction firm ARSS Infrastructure Projects, which listed last week, expects to add Rs 710 billion in orders by Marchend, a top official said on Friday. The company expects revenues to nearly double to Rs 1112 billion in FY10.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Bosch withdraws lockout notice at plantAuto parts maker Bosch Ltd has withdrawn its notice of a lockout at its main plant in Bangalore, the Business Standard reported on Saturday, citing unnamed company sources.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 4:35 am Aim to keep 1:1 debt equity ratio post Parkway deal: FortisIn an exclusive interview with CNBCTV18, Chairman of Fortis Healthcare Malvinder Singh spoke about the company and its plans post the big acquisition.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 3:49 am Lehman report may point way for criminal chargesWASHINGTON (Reuters) - An explosive report by a court-appointed examiner on the collapse of Lehman BrothersSource: Reuters: Money News | 13 Mar 2010 | 1:21 am Frankfurt hub played crucial role in Air India's expansionNational carrier Air India's European operational hub in Frankfurt has helped the airline cope with losses and enabled it to expand its connectivity in the US and European routes.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 13 Mar 2010 | 1:11 am FCC to propose 10 year Internet expansion reportThe US Federal Communications Commission will submit a 10-year plan to Congress on Tuesday that would establish high-speed Internet as the country's dominant means of communication, The New York Times reported in Saturday editions.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:59 am Shanghai GM recalls 2,000 imported Captivas - gov'tSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai GM, a venture between General Motors Corp and China's SAIC Motor Corp, is recalling 2,065 Chevrolet Captivas imported from South Korea, China's quality supervision agency said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:57 am Two main Galleon defendants seek separate trialsNEW YORK (Reuters) - Accused Galleon fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and his main co-defendant want separate trials on charges they were involved in what prosecutors describe as the biggest hedge fund insider-trading case ever in the United States.Source: Reuters: Money News | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:50 am OMC committed 2 forest Act violations: panelNew Delhi: An environment ministry team reported that Orissa Mining Corp. Ltd (OMC) has committed two violations of the Forest Conservation Act and further diversion of forest land in the Niyamgiri ecosystem in the state should not be allowed. The case pertains to the controversial mining of bauxite in the tribal area to feed Sterlite Industries India Ltd’s aluminium refinery. The company did not respond to questions. The mining will be undertaken by OMC, which formed a joint venture with Sterlite in 2008, and holds the lease to extract bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills. The refinery was built by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd and is already operational. Both Sterlite and Vedanta Aluminium are wholly-owned subsidiaries of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:21 am Knight Riders outplay champ Deccan ChargersMumbai: From scare to smile. Indeed these are the words to describe Saurav Ganguly-led Kolkata Knight Riders’ victory over defending champion Deccan Chargers by 11 runs in the opening match of the third edition of Indian Premier League in the Maharashtra capital on Friday. KKR managed to have a worst possible start to their third IPL campaign when opener Manoj Tiwary was out to the first ball, clipping Chaminda Vaas to Rohit Sharma, while Ganguly lasted only three balls before edging a superb out-swinger off the left-arm bowler to first slip fielder Anirudh.  Trot, trot: Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist (L) and Gibbs running between the wickets during the first match playing between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening session of the IPL season 3 at the D Y Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Friday. Shashank Parade / PTI Vaas grabbed two wickets in his opening over without conceding a run to give Chargers a splendid start to their campaign. Cheteshwar Pujara (10) and Hodge (13), who watched departures of Tiwary and Ganguly from the non-striker’s end, repaired the damage to some extent by taking the score to 31 before being dismissed in the space of four balls. Pujara fell to the left-arm pacer by driving a fuller length ball straight to mid on fielder Pragyan Ojha. He faced 16 balls and hit two fours. Hodge was looking good when he fell to Jaskaran Singh as he was grabbed at backward point by Gibbs. Hodge struck a six and a four. Hodge’s departure pushed KKR firmly to back-foot before Shah and Mathews, who was lucky to see his attempted hook sail behind wicketkeeper for a six, prevented further damage. Mathews struck five fours and four sixes in his 46-ball innings, while Shah hit three fours and as many sixes during his 46-ball stay. Mathews reached his half-century off only 28 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes while Shah was slightly behind him, needing 43 balls to complete his half-ton that included three fours and two sixes.Mathews scored an unbeaten 65 while Owais Shah remained not out on 58. Besides Vaas, RP Singh and Jaskaran bagged a wicket each for Chargers. Batting second Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist made a breezy 35-ball 54 but the rest of the members who batted failed to match the captain’s pyrotechics. The defending champions lost wickets steadily and with that the match too. Chargers failed to surpass the KKR score of 161 for four as they were restricted to 150 for seven at the floodlit DY Patil Stadium. Gilchrist, who struck three fours and as many sixes, powered Chargers in the company of VVS Laxman (22 off 14) to 61 for the first wicket and then to 99 before pulling a long hop from counterpart Brad Hodge (1/14) to deep square leg to depart. Paceman Charl Langeveldt scalped two wickets for 26 runs, while the whole Kolkata bowling department, consisting of Ishant Sharma (1/31) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (1/30), fired in unison to help the Kolkata team open their campaign on a winning note. Brief score: Kolkata Knight Riders: 161 for 4 in 20 overs (Angelo Mathews 65 not out, Owais Shah 58 not out; Chaminda Vaas 2/22). Deccan Chargers: 150 for 7 in 20 overs (Adam Gilchrist 54, VVS Laxman 22; C Langeveldt 2/26). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:15 am What’s a nice girl doing in this hole?Into the dark you tumble in Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton’s garish and periodically amusing repo of the Lewis Carroll hallucination Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s a long fall turned long haul, despite the Burtonian flourishes—the pinch of cruelty, the mordant wit—that animate the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Played by Mia Wasikowska, Alice looks a touch dazed: She seems to have left her pulse above ground when she fell down the rabbit hole of Burton’s imagination.  Dark and grim: Burlon’s ‘Wonderland’ isn’t inviting or attractive Dark and sometimes grim, this isn’t your great grandmother’s Alice. Here she mostly serves as a foil for the top biller Johnny Depp, who (yes, yes) plays the Mad Hatter, and Burton’s bright and leaden whimsies. First thought up by Carroll in a rowboat in which one of the passengers was the 10-year-old Alice Liddell, the object of his much-debated love, Wonderland (1865) is, among many other things, a testament to glorious nonsense as well as an inspiration for dark thoughts. It’s a total (head) trip, one that starts and stops and doesn’t fit easily into the mainstream narrative mould, which could explain why the screenwriter Linda Woolverton has given Alice a backstory. Since narrative momentum isn’t Burton’s strength, Alice in Wonderland probably seemed a good fit for him, and there are moments when his transparent delight in the material lifts the movie and even carries it forward. His Wonderland (here, Underland) isn’t inviting or attractive. The colours are often bilious, though the palette also turns gunmetal grey, bringing to mind Sweeney Todd. There’s a suggestively nightmarish aspect to Alice’s journey, as when she steps on some severed heads in the Red Queen’s moat as if they were stones. Bonham Carter makes you hear the petulant child in her barbarism and the wounded woman too. She rocks the house and the movie. Depp’s strenuously flamboyant turn embodies the best and worst of Burton’s film-making tendencies even as the actor brings his own brand of cinematic crazy to the tea party. With his Kabuki-white face, the character seems to have been calculated to invoke Heath Ledger’s Joker. But Depp doesn’t have much to do, which he proves as he flirts wildly with the camera. The only time the character hooks you is in the shivery moment when his gaze turns predatory as he looks at Alice, who, every inch a Tim Burton Goth Girl, from her corpse-like pallor to her enervated presence, presents a more convincing vision of death than of sex. Burton’s heroine is a wan figure to hang an entire world on, and Wasikowska, who’s a livelier, truer presence in the forthcoming The Kids Are All Right, barely registers among Burton’s clanging and the computer-generated galumphing. This isn’t an impossible story to translate to the screen, as the Czech film-m-aker Jan Svankmajer showed with Alice (1988), where the divide between reality and fantasy blurs as it does in dreams. It’s just hard to know why Burton, who doesn’t seem much interested in Alice, bothered. ©2010/The New York Times Alice in Wonderland released in theatres on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:08 am Disney to close Zemeckis studio, lay off 450Disney will shut down IMD and lay off those workers as it wraps up production on 'Mars Needs Moms', an animated film that will hit theatres a year from now.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:07 am Ready for the Final Leap? IIMs GD PI Essay Round kicks off this weekend! - MBAUniverse.com
Source: Business - Google News | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:03 am Copper consumption in India set to growThe energy efficiency initiatives of the Government coupled with a rebound in the construction sector are expected to boost copper consumption in India, according to the International Copper AssociationSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Texas Pacific set to take over Vishal Retail assetsA deal involving the takeover of the assets of Vishal Retail Ltd by US private equity fund Texas Pacific Group has been clinched, sources close to the dealSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am No rollback of petro price hike, says PranabThe Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today rejected Opposition demands for rollback of the post-Budget price hike in petroleum products, stating that the Centre's financial condition does not permit withdrawal of the duty hikes proposed forSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am India, Russia sign atomic energy dealIndia and Russia have signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement on Cooperation in Atomic Energy and agreed to a roadmap for construction of nuclear power plants, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said on Friday night after detailed talks withSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am IPL off to a slow start on Net, multiplexesIt has been touted as cricket's biggest carnival but the Indian Premier League has not exactly begun with a bang, at least for the new generation ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Investors seek more out of NMDC follow-on offerWith retail investors developing cold feet, domestic institutional investors (DIIs), led by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, saved the day for NMDC's follow-on publicSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am NMDC makes it on institutional investor supportNMDC's follow-on public offering managed to scrape through with the support of institutional investors led by LIC, while retail investors virtually shied away as they did in the previous two PSU follow-onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Capital goods, consumer durables lift Jan industrial growth 16.7%Indian industry has posted a robust 16.7 per cent growth in January on the back of spectacular increases in the output of capital goods and consumerSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Dumping probe order on telecom equipment set asideThe Andhra Pradesh High Court has set aside the anti-dumping investigation initiation order by the Union Government on import of SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) equipment by the telecom industry. The equipment also finds use in IT andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Searing heat could wither plantation sector hopesThe early onset of summer and soaring temperatures could herald bad tidings for the South Indian plantationSource: Business Line - Home Page | 13 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Euro zone agrees bailout for Greece: ReportThe 16 euro zone members have agreed on "coordinated bilateral contributions" in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens is unable to refinance its debts and asks the European Union for help.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:45 pm Apple COO gets $22 million reward as Steve Jobs stand-inMany analysts and investors believe Tim Cook could one day succeed Jobs as CEO at Apple, although the company has never disclosed any succession plan.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:33 pm Six imperatives for financial regulation - SummersPALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The United States should rethink domestic and global financial regulation, Lawrence Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council, said on Friday, outlining six "imperatives."Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:31 pm Ranbaxy to play key role for Daiichi in emerging marketsNew Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India’s largest drug maker by revenue, will play a key role in taking Japanese parent Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd into emerging markets and others outside Japan, Europe and the US. Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Daiichi since November 2008, is also likely to contribute to 23.4% of Daiichi’s total revenue by 2012 from the current contribution of 15% to the revenue. Under the revenue guidance for 2012, Ranbaxy is likely to contribute almost $3 billion (Rs13,650 crore). Ranbaxy will also contribute significantly to Daiichi’s projected sales revenue of almost $1.7 billion from outside Japan, Europe and the US.  Extending stronghold: Daiichi<br></br>president Takashi Shoda. Harikrishna Katragadda/Mint Daiichi, which on Friday announced its second mid-term business management plan (fiscal 2010-12), said one of the biggest challenges in achieving the planned synergies with Ranbaxy is the US import ban on two of its plants in India. “Because of the US import bans we have been unable to achieve the synergies we had planned. This will be our key challenge in the next three years,” Daiichi Sankyo president Takashi Shoda told a news conference. Daiichi will also establish a new generics business by April—Daiichi Sankyo Espha Co. Ltd. This will start operations by October and will provide high-quality, affordable drugs in collaboration with Ranbaxy. In India, Daiichi hopes to establish Ranbaxy as the top firm in the market by 2012. Daiichi and Ranbaxy began leveraging their synergies through the hybrid business model in March, when the Indian company began marketing Daiichi’s anti-hypertensive drug Olvance locally. Later, the two companies launched another Daiichi product in Romania through Ranbaxy’s subsidiary there. More recently, in February 2010, Daiichi and Ranbaxy announced that the parent’s innovator products would be sold in Mexico through a marketing division created last year within Ranbaxy’s Mexican subsidiary. Under its business management plan for global product strategy, Daiichi will continue to generate further growth by collaborating with Ranbaxy. (‘Reuters’ contributed to this story.) radhieka.p@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:27 pm Hold Bank of Rajasthan: Dhawan - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:25 pm Changing balance: South will have to produce for the South The paper says that while consumption in the developed countries has been artificially held up by the governments running big deficits, this is not a sustainable solution and private spending will, sooner or later, have to be reduced. By contrast, consumption is rising in key southern markets such as India and China.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint The chart shows how Asia’s share of spending by the global “middle class”, defined as those consumers with annual incomes of between $10 (around Rs45 today) and $100 a day in 2009 (in 2005 purchasing power parity dollars), will rise between 2009 and 2030. Of course, there are plenty of caveats to this growth story but the fact remains that, if present trends continue, the economies of China and India may well become the dominant markets by 2030. The structure of these markets, however, will be very different from today’s main northern markets. First, China and India have low per capita incomes and that means they will consume more food as their incomes rise. Second, they will continue to require heavy investments in infrastructure and in manufacturing. The result will be a growing demand for commodities, both agricultural and industrial, and also energy.  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint The fact that the new consumers of the South will be poorer means that “product differentiation” (variety and quality) gives way to product “commodification” (standardization in order to achieve low prices). The authors say that standards, too, are likely to be lower. And thirdly, while the northern markets prefer much of the labour-intensive processing industries to be located in the exporting countries, that will change as importers such as India and China, too, have low labour costs and are not as sensitive to pollution costs. That China and India are now seen as lucrative markets is very obvious. In December, for the first time, more cars were sold in China than in the US. The shift in the kind of cars sold is also evident—you only have to look at the many small car models that are planned for India. The paper’s strength lies not just in pointing out the growing importance of the South, but also the kind of changes that this shift in consumption will entail. From India’s point of view, however, it is the rise in food and energy costs that need to be planned for without any delay. Write to simplyeconomics@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:15 pm In the short term, crude prices will continue to remain weak Mumbai: As in the case of many other industrial commodities, crude oil prices have been increasing over the last couple of months, spurred by investors flush with easy money. However, a sustained rise in oil prices will only take place when economic recovery in developed countries gains strength, says Kuljeet Kataria, vice-president of commodities at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. Edited excerpts:  Graphic: Paras Jain / Mint The spread between the future and spot prices of crude oil, or contango, is shortening. What is driving this? In recent sessions, we have seen crude prices trading broadly in the band of $70-80 a barrel on the Nymex (New York Mercantile Exchange). The rally towards $84 was not justified fundamentally as inventories are still at higher levels of above the five-year average and demand is still bleak in major consuming countries. It’s the strong steps taken by economies worldwide to infuse liquidity that have created hopes of a global economic recovery and also a rise in (the) demand for oil. The hope, rather than real demand, was the major driver in the rally. (The) demand from non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) or developing, countries like China is continuing to pick up. Recently released February trade data said that China imported at the second highest rate on record on a daily basis. However, OECD (developed countries) demand remains subdued, which can be seen from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) monthly report that stated (that) demand would decline by around 150,000 barrels per day. In the short term, we expect prices will be weak and the contango can further shorten. Do you see a situation where futures prices dip below spot prices (or backwardation)? We don’t expect prices to move into sustained backwardation. Even though the rally in crude is slightly overdone, economic data worldwide is indicative of the fact that the major economies are on the recovery path. The US, the major consumer of oil, has witnessed a good recovery in the manufacturing sector. Unemployment remains the concern which will keep demand subdued for some time. We expect OECD demand will pick up slowly and steadily, which will put a floor on falling oil prices and eventually prices can move up to $88-95 a barrel. A dip towards the $75-68 band would be a good value zone. The storage capacity for oil has also started coming down, say, some reports. Is that another signal that the oil market is tightening? In recent times, storage capacity has come down mainly due to the maintenance season. Oil consumption is still weak. As explained earlier, the recovery in OECD demand is necessary for oil prices to sustain at higher levels. There is plenty of oil as consumption is weak in OECD economies. Opec compliance rates have also come down near 50% levels, which again is a signal that the markets are oversupplied. Global inventories are still above the five-year average, which won’t allow crude prices to sustain at higher levels. What are the main factors that will determine crude oil price movement this year? In what way will the crude price movement different from that of other major industrial commodities? The important driver that will determine crude oil prices this year will be the pace of global economic recovery. The price movement in crude oil will be (the) same as other industrial commodities in a way that real demand will be the important swing factor. ravi.k@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:11 pm Making the right moves after Ranbaxy exitI have always been a great admirer of the late Parvinder Singh. He transformed Ranbaxy Laboratories from a boring India-focused copycat drug maker into a discovery-driven pharma company (well, almost).  Illustration: Jayachandran/Mint Since his departure, however, things haven’t really gone well for Ranbaxy. To be fair, things didn’t go well for almost all Indian pharma companies for several years between 2004 and 2008 (2009 was better, at least in relative terms). Maybe they grew too much too fast without doing what was needed to sustain this growth structurally. So, suffice it to say that Malvinder Singh, Parvinder Singh’s son who stepped into Brar’s shoes, hasn’t really covered himself in glory as a manager. Malvinder, or Malav as a lot of people call him, is sincere and intelligent, both ingredients that contribute to the making of a good leader. He didn’t have much luck though, until he managed to sell for a handsome price the Singh family’s stake in Ranbaxy to Daiichi Sankyo. Since then, however, he hasn’t put a foot wrong. To be sure, that seems to be something that happens to good managers who suddenly find that they have a lot of money at their disposal. Malvinder Singh’s uncle Analjit Singh found himself in a similar situation in the late 1990s when he exited a telecom operation in Mumbai (which eventually became Vodafone Essar’s Mumbai operation) at a price. He invested this money in several new businesses, and while his success in IT had been limited, he has managed to make significant progress in healthcare and, even more so, in insurance. Malvinder Singh has followed suit. His family’s Fortis Healthcare has been on a shopping spree since the Daiichi deal. First, it acquired several hospitals from the beleaguered Wockhardt. Then it went out and acquired a significant stake in Singapore’s Parkway Holdings (it controls 16 hospitals in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, India and China). More than one person has told me in the past two days that Fortis is the company to watch in the Indian healthcare space. The Singhs have similar plans for their other business, finance, as well. Religare Enterprises could well seek a banking licence if and when the Reserve Bank of India decides to go ahead and issue some more. Clearly, Malvinder Singh is doing the right thing by both his new businesses. Which raises an interesting question: Does it sometimes make sense for promoters to cash out of a company—a good one, but also one where they face significant challenges—and use the money to good effect to enter new areas or grow businesses in areas they have already entered? Write to acuteangle@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:01 pm NMDC gets poor response; Ex-Disinvestment Secy defends govt - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:40 pm Aim to keep 1:1 debt equity ratio post Parkway deal: Fortis - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:35 pm Canadian currency nears parity with US dollar markets hit new highCanadian markets Friday crossed the 12,000-mark and the Canadian dollar reached record levels against the US for the first time since mid-2008.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:26 pm Could Lehman be Ernst & Young's Enron?NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ever since the fraud at U.S. energy trader Enron Corp brought down accounting firm Arthur Andersen eight years ago, global auditing firms have worried that a major misstep could be fatal.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:22 pm Eveready hikes battery prices by 5 10 per centEveready Industries India has hiked the prices of its range of dry cell batteries by 5 to 10 per cent, a senior company official said in Kolkata.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:03 pm Fliers to soon be rid of transaction fee burden - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 9:56 pm Wall St Week Ahead: Data, Fed to test if rally has legsNEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors will try to tack another leg on to the year-long U.S. stock rally, looking to next week's economic data and statement from the central bank for evidence the recovery is still on track.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 9:40 pm Return of inflation in food business?CHICAGO (Reuters) - An improving global economy could help food, restaurant and beverage companies start to sell more sodas, sandwiches and suds.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 9:29 pm Toyota may keep discounts after strong March salesDETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp may keep aggressive discounts available for U.S. consumers beyond this month after unprecedented incentives sent its U.S. sales sharply higher in early March, an executive said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 9:25 pm U.S. retail sales rise as shoppers fight winter bluesWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales rose unexpectedly last month despite heavy snow storms that were thought to have kept shoppers at home and bolstered hopes of a sustainable economic recovery.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 9:21 pm Excuse me, I can't roll back oil hike: Pranab Mukherjee - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:21 pm PDS push to help rein in prices: Ranga - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:21 pm Air ticket transaction fee to go soonThe transaction fee that air passengers had to pay to travel agents while booking flights on certain airlines, mostly foreign carriers, will soon be done away with.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:16 pm Rate hike looms as industry grows - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 3:29 pm Toyota slapped with Orange County, Calif., lawsuitSANTA ANA, Calif. (Reuters) - Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp on Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 3:15 pm AI-IA merger only helped pvt airlines: Panel - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 2:21 pm AI-IA merger only helped pvt airlines: PanelFaulting the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, the committee on public undertakings described it as a marriage between "incompatible individuals" that helped neither.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 2:07 pm Panacea eyes generics, US operationsMay offer products in hypertension, type 2 diabetes and gastrointestinal disease space.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pm Punj Llyod plans big offshore pushEyes annual revenues of $400-500 m from offshore business.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:58 pm Who gains from service tax on cashless claims?Move merely shifts liability from insurers to hospitals; govt gains nothing; patients suffer as the tax eats up their claim limit.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:54 pm The reality is business models run their course, sooner or laterA lot of companies that come up with new technologies do not go ahead and commercialise it, primarily because the new technology does not fit into their existing business model, says Mark Johnson, cofounder and chairman of Innosight.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:50 pm Developing fx derivatives imperativeUnless the issues are addressed, the instruments cannot serve their intended purpose.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:21 pm Ahluwalia backs PPP model for MaharashtraAhluwalia added that Maharashtra and Mumbai are extremely well placed to leverage adequate private resources to build world class infrastructure.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:19 pm Vodafone moves DoT over Quippo serviceSays firm misrepresented licence terms to gain exclusive infra deployment rights.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:18 pm Settle issues in one go: Panel on highwaysIn its bid to improve the dispute resolution mechanism and to unlock Rs 10,000 crore caught in conflicts between the NHAI and highway builders, the PM appointed B K Chaturvedi Committee has recommended one-time settlement of pending cases with claimed amount of less than Rs 10 crore or 5% of the contract price.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:03 pm 4 sponsors for Mumbai IndiansThe four sponsors now take the overall sponsorship money pouring in for MI close to Rs 50 crore, as the four newcomers bring in close to Rs 10 crore almost a 30-35% increase.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 1:00 pm 'Futures trading won't fuel prices'Futures trading in commodities will not fuel inflation, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry Kaushik Basu said on Friday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:59 pm MFs maintain good inflows on redemption fallThough sales from diversified equity schemes have come down sharply in February, a huge fall in redemptions helped the mutual fund (MF) industry to maintain healthy net inflows for the month.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:51 pm Uninor taking cautious step towards 3G biddingUninor a joint venture between Telenor of Norway and Unitech Wireless in India is taking a conservative stand on the upcoming 3G auctions.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:50 pm Fortis to fund deal via loan, internal fundsFortis Healthcare will take short-term loan to part finance its acquisition of 23.9% stake in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:48 pm SC won't interfere in 2G ruling of HCThe HC had held that the cut-off date for 2G spectrum was irrationally & arbitrarily advanced non suiting S Tel for 16 telecom circles and Raja had faced a lot of flak for this.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:48 pm SP MPs deny reports of apologizing to AnsariNew Delhi: Rajya Sabha members of the Samajwadi Party (SP), who were suspended from the House on Tuesday, denied reports of having apologized for their “unruly behaviour” during the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill. “It is a completely motivated report that I along with other SP MPs (members of Parliament) Nand Kishore Yadav, Veer Pal Singh Yadav and Amir Alam Khan have expressed apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari on Friday,” said party MP Kamal Akhtar. The four MPs, along with three others, were first suspended and then forcibly removed by marshals on Tuesday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:40 pm RBI to buy IMF notes worth $10 bnMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday agreed to purchase up to $10 billion (Rs45,500 crore) of International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes as a part of an international effort to support the fund’s lending capacity. The Group of Twenty (G-20) nations has pledged to triple the resources available to IMF to $750 billion. To increase its lending capacity, IMF also sold 200 tonnes of its gold to RBI in November last year. RBI said the latest purchase is a temporary bilateral arrangement for an initial period of one year, which may be extended by a period of upto two years. Permanent increases in the resources of IMF are expected to take place through an increase in quotas and standing borrowing arrangements which are currently under negotiation,” RBI said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:39 pm Government converts Rs5,000 cr MSS bondsMumbai: The government of India has decided to convert Rs5,000 crore of its market stabilization scheme (MSS) bonds into regular bonds. This means Rs5,000 will be transferred from a special account kept with the Reserve Bank of India to the government and will become part of its market borrowing programme. The MSS bonds were issued to soak excess liquidity from the banking system but the money thus raised was not used to bridge the fiscal deficit. With this, the government has converted Rs33,000 worth of MSS into regular bonds this fiscal year. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:39 pm Bharati buys another 3% stake in Great OffshoreBangalore: Bharati Shipyard Ltd has purchased an additional 3% stake in Great Offshore Ltd, taking its holding in the offshore oilfields services firm to 48.89%. India’s second biggest private shipbuilder paid Rs480 a share to buy the stake in an off-market transaction worth Rs53.76 crore, Bharati Shipyard said in a statement without disclosing the identity of the seller. A person familiar with the matter said the stake was purchased from ABG Shipyard Ltd. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:38 pm Cisco signs MoU with CSC on e-governanceBangalore:Cisco Systems Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding with a private company CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd on Friday to execute various e-governance initiatives in the country. CSC has been established to accelerate the delivery of services such as healthcare and education through the common service centres, or CSCs, that are planned under the national e-governance plan. Under this plan, 250,000 CSCs will be set up in 600,000 villages across India. They will have the potential to offer Web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas as well as to provide high-quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services in areas such as education, health and entertainment. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:38 pm Crisil upgrades credit rating of Tata MotorsMumbai: Following the impproved performance by Tata Motors Ltd in Jaguar and Land Rover, credit rating agency Crisil on Friday upgraded its ratings on the auto maker’s bank facilities and short-term debt programme to “A+/Stable/P1+” from “A/Stable/P1”. Pawan Agrawal, director, Crisil Ratings, said the upgrade in the rating will lower the cost of funds for Tata Motors. “It will help the company in getting short- and long-term debt at a competitive rate of interest,” he said. The ratings firm said it believes new model launches and cost cutting initiatives will help Tata Motors sustain the improvement. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:36 pm Quick Edit | Accounting jugglery, reduxEnron was felled by its accounting gimmicks. Now it appears such gimmicks are part of how Lehman Brothers fell and dragged the global financial system with it. On Thursday, a US court released a report showing how clever accounting proved too clever for Lehman’s own good. Just as Enron used special purpose vehicles to hide debt, Lehman moved debt off its balance sheet. Exploiting an accounting loophole, it showed a repurchase transaction—a short-term deal where it temporarily transfers an asset as loan collateral—as the actual sale of the asset. As of now, this appears legal. Then again, we imagine clever accounting usually involves someone proving that a questionable transaction is legal. That may mean regulators can’t intervene, but that only shifts the burden onto the firms. One, it means a firm’s board and managers should manage risk through, say, more thorough internal audits. Two, it means executives shouldn’t have incentives—say, skewed compensation—to hide that risk. Most of all, it means a good company won’t rely on regulators to do its own job. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:31 pm FIIs snub, LIC bails out NMDC Mumbai: State-owned insurer and India’s largest institutional investor Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) came to the rescue of the follow-on public offer (FPO) of NMDC Ltd. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), mutual funds, banks and retail investors mostly stayed away from the government’s largest divestment issue this year, which closed on Friday.  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Almost two-thirds of the issue was subscribed by LIC, which has been bailing out the government’s recent divestments. Overall, the issue was 1.25 times subscribed. “We have not seen as many FIIs in NMDC as in the REC (Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd) issue,” Sumit Bose, secretary, divestment ministry, told Mint. While at least 50 institutional investors participated in the issue, LIC alone placed bids for shares worth Rs8,000 crore. Market intermediaries are not excited by the idea of LIC coming to the rescue of the divestment of a public sector unit. “Ultimately government is moving money from one pocket to another,” said V.R. Srinivasan, director at Brics Securities Ltd. “They cannot allow it to fail as it may be a loss of face.” He blamed poor marketing and the high price for the lukewarm investor response. “They could have priced it cheap like Maruti (Suzuki India Ltd) and won over investors’ confidence,” Srinivasan added.  An investment banker involved in the divestment process said the NMDC offer should have been cheaper. “The NMDC issue would have attracted many retail investors if it were priced below Rs260 a share. In the coming days, the government has to price the issues cheaper to attract retail investors,” he said. According to him, after the listing of the new shares, retail shareholders will dump them, dragging the share price down. NMDC shares rose marginally by 0.65% to close at Rs362.70 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. The price band for the issue was Rs300-350 and LIC bid at the lower end. The cut-off price and allotment of shares will be decided on Sunday at a meeting of the empowered group of ministers. Retail investors will be offered shares at a 5% discount to the cut-off price. As against 115.6 million shares reserved for retail investors, bids were received for just 25.25 million, recording a bare 0.22 times subscription. Against nearly 165.2 million shares reserved for qualified institutional buyers, including domestic institutions and FIIs, bids were received for 377.5 million shares—a 2.28 times subscription. Most of the bids came at the lower end of the price band. At least 412.5 million shares received bids at Rs300, while around 58.36 million bids came in at Rs301, according to data posted by the stock exchanges. NMDC is the third public sector company to sell shares under the government’s divestment programme since January. While the first two public issues of NTPC Ltd and REC followed the newly introduced French auction route to raise around Rs12,000 crore, the government opted for the traditional book-building route for NMDC. The issue offered nearly 332.2 million shares to pare the government stake from 98.38% to 90%. The book-building process, typically used during initial public offerings (IPOs), is one of the most commonly used methods of price discovery. In this, investors are allowed to bid in a price band with a 20% variation and the final price is determined only after the closure of the bidding. Bids are collected during the issue period at various prices within the band. The final issue price is determined based on the price that receives maximum investor support. Apart from LIC, some of the mutual funds and public sector banks, including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, participated in the issue. FIIs, including Wellington Financial Lp, Mathews Asia Funds, and Norges Bank, bid for small quantities of shares, said a person familiar with the development. Assuming that the NMDC issue is priced at the lower end of the band, the government will miss its Rs25,958 crore target for divestment in the current fiscal by about Rs2,000 crore. The government plans to raise Rs40,000 crore in next fiscal and this is expected to partially help it reduce the fiscal deficit from 6.9% this year to 5.5% next year. Retail investors haven’t been drawn to the divestments thus far. In the NTPC issue, the retail subscription was merely 0.16 times and in the REC issue it was 0.3 times. With the NMDC issue, the ongoing divestment programme for the current fiscal year has been completed. Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd is expected to hit the market with its IPO in April, kicking off the government’s disinvestment programme for the next year during which it plans to raise nearly Rs1,200 crore. Investment bankers and brokers said the government must price the forthcoming issues cheaper if it wants to attract investors. Otherwise, LIC will have to repeat its rescue act. anirudh.l@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pm NMDC FPO sails through; FIIs, retail stay awayDomestic financial institutions helped mining firm NMDCs follow-on public offer (FPO) sail through on the final day with a marginal over-subscription despite poor response from foreign institutional investors (FIIs), retail and high net worth individuals.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:54 am Manufacturing leads industrial output growth to 16.7%Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data showed a marginal deceleration from the previous month but continued to post a robust growth rate of 16.7 per cent in January. The growth was primarily led by the manufacturing sector, especially for capital goods and consumer durables.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:51 am Backdated revisions in direct taxes come to haunt India IncEven as the stock markets cheered Budget 2010, it has left a sour taste with companies on some proposed amendments in the Finance Bill, many with retrospective effect.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:48 am S Tel not to pursue case against DoT New Delhi: Mobile phone company S Tel Pvt. Ltd told the Supreme Court (SC) it wouldn’t pursue its case against a decision by the department of telecommunications (DoT) to advance a deadline for new licence applications for radio spectrum in 2007 by a week. S Tel said in its affidavit before the apex court on Friday that since its rivals had already got a headstart of two-and-a-half years, it was no longer interested in competing with them as the business scenario had changed. SC, while disposing of the case, said that it would not interfere with the high court order of November 2009, which had gone in favour of S Tel. “The appellant (DoT) has been unable to show that its decision to revise the cut-off date after receiving the application of the respondent (S Tel) was based on some rational criteria,” the high court had said, upholding an earlier decision by its single bench to quash DoT’s move to advance the cut-off date. “It is vulnerable to being labelled arbitrary and irrational.” DoT, which filed an appeal in SC against that ruling, was represented by attorney general of India G.E. Vahanvati. “As on today, S Tel is not pressing its application and we have consistently maintained that we are willing to consider the application of S Tel when we have sufficient spectrum,” Vahanvati told the court on Friday. Meanwhile, in response to a query on whether DoT would challenge the high court’s ruling about the decision to advance the deadline, Vahanvati said the “high court judgement has become infructuous since S Tel has itself asked for a compromise”. S Tel told the court that it would revisit its business strategy for the 16 telecom service areas it had sought to apply for and “decide on partaking in the business of providing services in all or a chosen few of the said circles”. The company, which currently operates in five circles, said average revenue has dropped from Rs275 in 2007 to Rs164 and the business has become overcrowded DoT’s move to advance the deadline in 2007 (from 1 October to 25 September) caught more than 20 applicants—including S Tel, AT&T and the Hinduja Group, who had applied for a total of more than 110 licences—by surprise as they had applied after the revised cut-off date. S Tel officials declined to comment saying that they were yet to receive a copy of the order. manish.r@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:27 am Fortis to issue warrants, FCCBs to fund Parkway acquisition New Delhi: Asia’s largest hospital network Fortis Healthcare Ltd will raise money through warrants and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) for its newly acquired 23.9% stake valued at Rs3,118 crore in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings Ltd. Having now gained a strong foothold in Asia, the company’s next phase of growth will come from beyond the continent; it will also continue to scout for acquisitions in India. Parkway has a network of 16 hospitals having 3,400 beds spread across Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, China and the United Arab Emirates. Two of the Fortis nominees on Parkway’s board will relocate to Singapore, including Malvinder Mohan Singh, currently the group chairman of Fortis, who will take on the additional role of the chairman of the board of directors of Parkway, the firm announced at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. In what analysts view as an expensive deal, Fortis will pay $685.3 million (Rs3,118 crore) to acquire the 23.9% stake from investment firm TPG Capital and will get four seats on the Parkway board. “We will pay for the deal through the already approved warrants issue, FCCBs, internal accruals as well as the money left from our rights issue,” Singh said. “We have a nine crore shares warrant issue outstanding, through which we can raise almost Rs1,700 crore at the current market price.” Fortis raised Rs1,000 crore from a rights issue to fund its acquisition of 10 hospitals from Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd. It also has approval to raise up to Rs1,250 crore by selling FCCBs. While the process to raise this money can be completed within the next two months, for now the company will take a bridge loan to pay for the acquisition. “This is a very expensive deal. While it may be good in terms of business expansion, financially it is over-valued,” said a Mumbai-based analyst. “Plus, Parkway is already a very well-run business, so where will the synergy be? What will Fortis bring to Parkway that is not already there?” The analyst declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media. Fortis is, however, optimistic about leveraging capabilities to grow further and establish a global presence. “The potential synergy benefits from the integration includes multi-specialty access to cutting-edge technology in stem cell therapy, exchange of human talent and high brand equity,” said Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Fortis. The deal enables Fortis to establish a presence across Asia, increasing its network to 62 hospitals that could host 10,000 beds. radhieka.p@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:26 am Ticket sales boom as tournament kicks off New Delhi: Ticket sales for the third season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which began on Friday, are expected to boom as the cricket tournament returns to home soil after last year’s South African diversion.  Cashing in: Deccan Chargers’ players celebrate the wicket of Sourav Ganguly during the first match of IPL 3 in Navi Mumbai on Friday. PTI Ticket sales took a while to pick up in the inaugural season in 2008, while the relocation to South Africa meant few Indian could attend the matches. “In season 1, most ticket sales for home matches happened two days before the match; but now we are all sold out for the first two matches and 60% for the third home game,” said Rakesh Singh, marketing head of Chennai Super Kings, which is looking at a 66% jump in revenue from 2008. The team is scheduled to play its first home match on Sunday, its second on 21 March and the third on 31 March. Rajasthan Royals chief marketing officer Raghu Iyer is expecting a 300% increase in ticket sales this year compared with season 1, with “tickets for most of our seven home games already maxed out”. The team’s decision to add Ahmedabad as one of the host venues apart from Jaipur could help boost stadium attendance. The story is no different for the Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils, all of whom reported an overwhelming demand for tickets, with revenue expectations exceeding those of previous seasons by 25-100%. “There is no doubt that IPL is a bigger product today, but what has really helped sell tickets this year is that all the the teams have set up a strong distribution network through partners, big and small, that are eager to ride on the IPL brand,” said Amrit Mathur, chief operating officer of GMR Sports Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of GMR Holdings Ltd that owns the Delhi team. The Daredevils have ticketing partners such as ING Vysya Bank, bill payment service provider Easy Bill and Bookmyshow.com, besides sales through IPL’s website. On Bookmyshow.com, for instance, ticket sales had crossed Rs10 crore for Mumbai Indians and over Rs8 crore for Kings XI Punjab as of 12 March. Deccan Chargers chairman V. Shankar was worried that the matches moving out of Hyderabad would dampen interest in the team. “But the response has been better than expected, with the first few matches almost sold out,” he said. The Hyderabad matches were moved to Mumbai, Cuttack and Nagpur owing to security concerns over the ongoing pro-Telangana state movement. But the team is upbeat about revenue through ticket sales and hopes to see a 40% jump to Rs14 crore this year compared with season 1. The IPL management had compensated teams for loss in ticket sales last year due to the move to South Africa. Team owners, however, say that the amount they made was still significantly lower than season 1 sales. Apart from the box-office, teams are getting another Rs3 crore from the IPL management, which has struck a deal with them to reserve the best seats in the house for their own club-membership initiative. Under this scheme, tickets are being sold at a premium of Rs45,000 each, confirmed an executive from one of the above mentioned teams, who did not want to be identified in this context. Revenue from the elite club membership will benefit IPL directly. The boost in ticket sales stems from a coordinated effort not just from individual team franchisees, but from the IPL management as well. In a meeting with Mint last month, Sundar Raman, chief executive of IPL, had said that while the first two seasons of the tournament were dedicated to building the IPL brand and creating a fan base, the focus this year is to push ticket sales. The recent marketing campaigns have focused on building excitement around the in-stadium experience. While cinema halls will be showing matches for the first time, they won’t be able to show games being played locally. “You won’t get the feed for those home matches,” said Jayendra Banerji, vice-president (operations) for Satyam Cineplexes, which is showing the championship in four locations in New Delhi and Indore. Theatre owners say watching IPL in movie halls would be an improvement on television. “What you are seeing on a (movie) screen will be bigger than you see on the television. I am not only talking about the size, but also the scope,” says Amitabh Vardhan, chief executive of PVR Cinemas, which is showing IPL matches in 19 theatre complexes. “You will be seeing 33% more.” Ahead of the tournament opening, television news channels settled their dispute with the IPL board and the official broadcaster over showing footage, according to Lalit Modi, IPL chairman and commissioner. “We’re going to review (the agreement) in June. The idea was to go forward. Both parties had a long dialogue before coming to an understanding last night,” Modi said. priyanka.m@livemint.com Gouri Shah in Mumbai contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:24 am Putin helps resolve 5-year dispute over TPE contract New Delhi: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has helped hammer out a deal with the Indian government to resolve the five-year-long dispute over Technopromexport’s (TPE) contract to supply equipment to power utility NTPC Ltd. The Russian firm had won a contract in February 2005 to supply boilers to NTPC’s 1,980MW Barh project in Bihar. But work on the project stalled after TPE demanded more money for the equipment, citing higher steel prices. TPE had sought an extension and the lifting of the price variation ceiling of 20%, owing to delays in engineering, issues involving amendments about legal status and site-related issues. “We have taken a decision. Price escalation dispute between NTPC and TPE has been settled and an agreement has been signed to that effect,” said power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde after a meeting during Putin’s two-day visit, which ended on Friday. The dispute had become a test of India’s ability to balance commercial and diplomatic interests, while ensuring that ties with Russia weren’t jeopardized. The row was holding up the country’s quest for a stake in the Sakhalin-3 crude oil fields, apart from which India didn’t want to rock ties with Russia as it’s seeking access to nuclear reprocessing technology, the fixing of a price for the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, besides other defence deals. Putin had spelt out Russia’s stand during Indian petroleum minister Murli Deora’s visit to the country in November 2008. According to the terms of the agreement being worked out after a nearly two-hour meeting that included TPE, NTPC and Indian power ministry officials, it was agreed that work on the project will begin in 45 days and both firms would jointly agree on an escalation amount over and above the contract value of Rs2,066 crore. While TPE was demanding an additional Rs1,700 crore, NTPC and the government were in favour of paying an additional Rs537.16 crore. TPE has scaled down its demand to around Rs971 crore. “Certain parameters were discussed according to which the new milestones for the projects will be jointly finalized by NTPC and TPE,” said a top power ministry official, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the issue. “The cost escalation is to be worked out as per the existing contract. Once it has been worked out, the companies will come back to us. Even TPE has come down half-way from their earlier demand of around 83% increase.” Mint had reported on 19 December 2008 about India relenting on the dispute under pressure from Russia following the visit of President Dmitry Medvedev. India had been dithering over the cancellation of the contract and TPE’s blacklisting, even as a cabinet note on this was ready. While repeated phone calls and a text message sent to TPE’s Indian representative’s cellphone remained unanswered, a senior NTPC executive said on condition of anonymity: “The Indian government has to give us a direction. There are government compulsions and they are not able to circumvent that. There is also a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case.” TPE had allegedly violated the terms of the contract by engaging an agent—Raveena Associates. Besides, Mint had reported on 17 June 2008 that Interpol had informed CBI of an offshore transaction that had involved the transfer of around Rs97 crore to the agent. “While we have been against any abnormal additional payment to TPE, if the government wants this, what can we do?” said another NTPC executive, who also did not want to be identified. utpal.b@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:23 am Factory output surge may turn heat on ratesNew Delhi: A surge in capital goods and consumer durables boosted by last year’s low base catapulted India’s factory output to the second highest growth rate since 1994.  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint The Index of Industrial Production rose 16.7% in the first month of 2010, compared with the meagre 1% growth a year earlier. The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which released the data on Friday, also revised the December industrial growth rate upwards to 17.6%, compared with 16.8% estimated earlier. This is for the fourth consecutive month that industrial output has grown at a double-digit rate. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said the signals were clear and encouraging. “I do hope it will be possible for us to achieve the growth (rate) which has been projected by the advance estimate of CSO,” he said. “For the two consecutive months, there has been high growth. Perhaps it indicates that the manufacturing sector is going to make its substantial contribution to growth and it (growth) is on the path of fast recovery.” CSO has estimated the economy will grow at 7.2% in the current fiscal ending 31 March, faster than last year’s 6.7%. Replying to the discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said this indicates that growth is not just being driven by government expenditure, but by manufacturing and industrial production as well. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters that the economy has weathered an extraordinary crisis. “Now we are well set to get back to 8.5% (GDP growth) in 2010-11 and hope to see 9% growth after that,” Ahluwalia said. Nikhilesh Bhattacharyya, associate economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said in an advisory that strong domestic demand, inventory adjustment, a low base effect and rising external demand have led to rapid growth in Indian manufacturing in recent months. In January, while capital goods growth shot up 56.2%, led by machinery and transport equipment, consumer durables expanded at 31.6%. Bhattacharyya said the surge in capital goods points towards a rebound in investment spending due to rising business sentiment and high loan demand. Rohini Malkani, economist with Citigroup India, said in a report released on Friday that the economy is now showing clear signs of a demand revival with double-digit growth seen across most sectors. As many as 14 out of 17 industry groups have shown positive growth in January compared with the year ago. Pronab Sen, chief statistician of India, said the optimism should be tempered by caution over factors that could impact growth. “One does not want to take away the investment growth story, but one should not get carried away by the high growth in capital goods as it is bound to be volatile by its nature,” he said. Sen added that high growth in consumer durables could be because consumers anticipated a hike in excise duty in the February Budget and advanced purchases. Consumer non-durables continued their laggard performance, contracting 3.1% in January because of a slump in the output of sectors such as food products and beverages, tobacco-related products, jute, vegetable fibre, and textiles. “We are still not certain about the effect of drought on rural India. The consumer non-durables data seem to back up the conjecture that the drought has impacted rural income,” Sen said. Analysts expect the central bank to hike policy rates next month, given that the government rolled back some stimulus measures in the Union Budget and with inflation remaining stubbornly high. Sen said he’s unsure of the timing of the central bank’s policy intervention as inflation remains a supply side phenomenon. Headline inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) surged to a 15-month high at 8.56% in January, more than the Reserve Bank of India’s year-end target and is expected to cross the double-digit mark within a few months. Food inflation for the week ended 27 February stood at 17.81%. Ahluwalia said he expects food price inflation to come down in the next couple of months on the back of an expected good rabi crop. He also downplayed fears of inflation touching double digits. “I don’t think this will happen. I expect WPI inflation to gradually come down...you will see that,” Ahluwalia said. However, the interest rate cycle has already started changing. Private sector lenders such as ICICI Bank Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd as well as the largest mortgage lender, Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, withdrew special home loan schemes on 4 March. PTI contributed to this story. asit.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:06 am Industry sizzles again with 16 7 growthThe country’s industrial output grew by 16.7 per cent year-on-year in January, brightening prospects of a return to the heady days of high overall growth with companies expected to expand factory capacities to meet higher demand, reports HT Correspondent.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:05 am Parkway deal a long term boost Fortis shares up on optimismWho said shares fall when an acquisition is made by a company? Fortis Healthcare bucked the trend on Friday after its purchase of a significant minority stake in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings because of its perceived positive effect on the hospital chain company. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 11:03 am Screen amp stadia IPL walks wedgeWith plenty of money riding on the tournament, the Indian Premier League’s third season kicked off on Friday with the organisers walking a wedge between getting the stadia full on the one hand, while trying to make the most out of large-screen live shows of the Twenty20 cricket matches in movie halls. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:58 am SingTel likely to help fund Bharti Zain dealSingTel (Singapore Telecommunications) may help with the funding for Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of Zain’s African assets, a senior SingTel executive said on Friday. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:55 am Walt Disney goes to Bollywood with ambitious planThe Walt Disney Company is stepping up its production initiatives in India. The company is betting big on localisation and charting a roadmap to create 14 new family-oriented films in India. Five of these projects are in advanced stages of planning, reports Rachit Vats. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:52 am Report details how Lehman Brothers hid its woes as it collapsedIt is the Wall Street equivalent of a coroner’s report — a 2,200-page document that lays out, in new and startling detail, how Lehman Brothers used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:50 am Toyota says mystifiedA Toyota executive said the company is “mystified” by a report that a California man’s Prius gas pedal became stuck and caused the car to speed out of control on a California freeway. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 12 Mar 2010 | 10:38 am Toyota discounts boost sales, US mulls ‘black box’Detroit/Washington: Unprecedented discounts after a series of damaging recalls boosted Toyota Motor Corp’s US sales in early March, as US regulators weighed new auto safety measures. Toyota’s US sales surged by nearly 50% in the first eight days of March compared with the year-ago period due to zero-percent financing offers and other incentives, industry tracking service Edmunds.com and dealers said on Thursday. Edmunds, which analyzes US auto sales trends, also estimated that Toyota’s US retail market share in early March had jumped to 16.8%, up sharply from 12.8% a month earlier when safety problems had sent sales tumbling. “What they’re doing right now is they are picking low-hanging fruit,” said Chester Schriesheim, professor at the University of Miami School of Business Administration. “These are the people who are undecided about the brand but given the lower price, now that provides incentives to go ahead and purchase,” he said. “But they’re going to exhaust that pool of individuals and then they’ll find it harder in the longer term to raise the prices backward.” The early sales estimate comes a week after Toyota launched the most aggressive discounts in its history to win over US consumers and recover from an embarrassing slew of product safety problems that have tarnished its reputation and cut into sales and financial results. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief David Strickland told a congressional hearing on Thursday that the regulator is considering whether to make “black boxes” mandatory for all new vehicles. The devices can capture data on speed, braking effort and other details which can be vital in reconstructing accidents. Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles globally to address the risk that accelerator pedals on a range of its vehicles could become stuck because of a loose floor mat or a glitch in the pedal assembly. Unintended acceleration in the company’s Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been linked to at least five US crash deaths since 2007. Authorities are investigating 47 other Toyota crash deaths over the past decade. Toyota, GM Boost March Industry Sales Edmunds.com said that industrywide US auto sales are tracking to hit a rate of 12.5 million vehicles in March because of the steep discounts on Toyota vehicles and a competitive campaign launched by General Motors Co. GM is offering car shoppers rebates of up to $3,000 on vehicles including the Malibu mid-size sedan, or zero-percent financing. Toyota, which has traditionally spurned such discount programs in order to protect resale values, has offered up to $3,000 in rebates and dealer incentives on a range of vehicles, including its top-selling Camry, or cut-rate financing. Both manufacturers are offering steeper discounts on their competing full-size pickup trucks, GM’s Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra and the Toyota Tundra. Edmunds said GM’s sales incentives lifted Chevy’s retail market share to 12.9%, up from 11.4% a month earlier. Several major Toyota dealers said their own sales were running slightly higher than the Edmunds estimate through Tuesday. That would mark a sharp reversal from sales declines in January and February tied to the automaker’s recall crisis. Paul Atkinson, president of the Toyota national dealers’ council and a Toyota dealer in Texas, said he expected that the March sales boost from incentives would mirror what the automaker saw during the 2009 “cash for clunkers” program. Toyota was the big winner from that US government-funded scrappage program, which offered tax credits of up to $4,500 to swap out of older and less fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota had a 19.4% share of vehicles sold under the “clunkers” program which ran from late July through the third week of August 2009. Toyota’s share was the highest in the industry. “I truly believe that March could rival cash for clunkers,” Atkinson said. Sales at his own dealership in early March were running at three times the level of January and February, he said. Customers shopping for the bargains do not appear concerned by Toyota’s recalls, he said. “Honestly, I think the public has had enough,” he said. Just this week, as Toyota sought to shift attention away from the safety problems, at least three US drivers reported new cases of driving Prius or Lexus vehicles that appeared to surge out of control. Atkinson has encouraged Toyota dealers to protest GM’s incentives in March, saying they amounted to a taxpayer-funded program of discounts because the US government funded GM’s restructuring in bankruptcy with $50 billion in aid. “We just want a level playing field,” he told Reuters. “These GM incentives are kind of like using tax dollars to encourage my fellow citizens to not do business with me.” GM has defended its use of incentives, saying such discounts are a well-established part of the way cars are sold in the US market. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 5:24 am Lehman insolvent weeks before bankruptcy: examinerNew York: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc used accounting gimmicks and had been insolvent for weeks before it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, a court-appointed examiner said, but he did not find extensive wrongdoing. In a 2,200-page report made public on Thursday, examiner Anton Valukas, chairman of law firm Jenner & Block, reported the results of his more than year-long investigation into the firm’s collapse, which worsened the global financial crisis. The examiner said that while some of Lehman’s management’s decisions “can be questioned in retrospect” and the firm’s valuation procedures for its assets “may have been wanting,” those responsible for the firm had used their business judgment and were largely not liable for the firm’s collapse. He did not find that Lehman’s directors had explicitly violated their fiduciary duty. However, in the report the examiner also revealed explosive allegations about a gimmick, known as “Repo 105,” that was used for the sole purpose of manipulating Lehman’s books. The examiner concluded that the gimmick, which dated back to 2001 and was used without telling investors or regulators, gave the appearance that Lehman was reducing its overall leverage levels in 2008 when in reality it was not, partially leading to its collapse. He also said Lehman could have potential claims against JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citibank in connection with demands for collateral and certain changes made to guaranty agreements in Lehman’s final days. And Barclays Plc may have received some assets improperly when it took control of Lehman’s core US brokerage, he said in the report. The examiner said there was also sufficient evidence to support a possible claim that the firm’s auditor Ernst & Young had been “negligent.” Barclays and JPMorgan declined to comment and a Citi representative had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Ernst & Young did not comment, saying the firm had not yet had time to review the findings. The report was completed in February and was allowed to be unsealed by the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case earlier on Thursday. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:43 am Citigroup sees return to sustained profitabilityNew York: Citigroup Inc chief executive Vikram Pandit told investors on Thursday the bank is on track to return to sustained profitability and losses from some of its worst assets should be manageable if the economy does not deteriorate. The comments were uncharacteristically optimistic for Pandit. The bank’s improving performance is easing pressure on the CEO, who has been criticized for being slow to recognize the seriousness of the financial crisis. Citigroup shares rose 5.6% on Pandit’s comments, bringing their gains since the end of last week to 19%. “Citi today is a fundamentally different company than it was two years ago,” Pandit said at the presentation, distancing himself from the bank’s prior missteps. Citigroup has posted more than $100 billion of writedowns and credit losses since late 2007. The bank’s shares have lost 90% of their value since late 2006 and Citigroup required three different government rescues in 2008 and 2009. But investors are increasingly hopeful the tide has turned for Citigroup. It is one of the best capitalized major bank in the US by many measures and has one of the lowest valuations. A number of high profile portfolio managers — including George Soros, John Paulson, Edward Lampert — have been accumulating shares recently. “Pandit is looking better and better,” said Marshall Front, chairman of Front Barnett Associates, which manages more than $500 million of assets and owns Citi shares. Front estimates Citigroup could earn 80 cents a share or more with a few years, which could translate to a share price of more than $8.00. “I don’t know many investments where you can double your money in a few years,” he said. Analysts on average estimate that Citigroup will earn 4 cents in 2010, according to Thomson Reuters. On Thursday, Pandit said Citigroup’s main businesses are aiming to generate annual profit equal to between 1.25% and 1.50% of their assets, up from 1.15% last year, excluding some items. If Citi boosts assets in its main businesses by about 5% a year, the company could be earning about $20 billion a year by the end of 2012, equaling its earnings before the credit crunch, when Citigroup had a much larger asset base. The projections apply to Citigroup assets in its corporate segment and its Citicorp unit, where the company houses businesses it expects to hold onto. Motivated Seller Meanwhile, the company’s Citi Holdings unit, which holds businesses and assets that Citi is looking to shed, has set aside enough money to cover expected losses on its local consumer loans, assuming the economy does not deteriorate, Pandit said in the presentation. Local consumer loans make up about two thirds of Citi Holdings’ assets. Many investors expect Citigroup to take several years to return to normal profitability, but one investor may be reluctant to wait that long. The US government acquired about 7.7 billion Citigroup shares at $3.25 apiece last year in exchange for preferred Citi shares. That shareholding amounts to about 27% of outstanding shares. Government officials said in December that they planned to shed their shares over the course of 2010, but also agreed not to sell any shares until next week, at the earliest. The US still has more than $5 billion of Citi trust preferred securities, as well. Concerns of a large sale weighed on the bank’s shares for much of the first quarter, but in the last week, market sentiment has improved dramatically. Citigroup on Wednesday sold $2 billion of 30-year trust preferred securities. The success of that deal signaled to many investors that the outlook for the bank was improving. In remarks at an analyst conference, Pandit emphasized that the bank intends to try to take advantage of its global footprint, predicting that in Citicorp, its emerging markets revenue pool would grow over twice as fast as the developed markets one. Pandit took over as chief executive of Citigroup in late 2007. His tenure at the bank has been rocky, with some employees complaining about Pandit working with a small coterie of colleagues he worked with at Morgan Stanley earlier in his career. Reports said regulators pressed for the bank to add more executives with a commercial or consumer banking background to the management team. Pandit has received only nominal pay for most of his tenure at Citigroup. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:37 am Citi eyes Asia expansion, Indonesia brokerageSingapore: Citigroup aims to win a larger share of Asia’s equity capital markets and to expand in Indonesia by getting a stockbroking licence, its Asia Pacific head said on Friday. Citi has been extending its reach and hiring people across Asia even as it streamlines its North American operations and sheds businesses that it no longer considers as core. “Asia stands out as the region with the best growth and has the best potential for growth... At this stage, we are just looking at organic investments, organic growth,” Citi’s Asia Pacific joint CEO Shirish Apte told Reuters in an interview. “We have got aggressive hiring plans,” he added, saying this included about 200 people in Singapore this year. Most of the new hires across Asia will be for the consumer bank, which has plans to open new branches in most Asian cities. Citi recently started retail banking in Vietnam, and it has announced plans to set up an Islamic subsidiary in Malaysia as well as venture into rural areas of China. Apte said Citi intended to put a greater emphasis on equity capital markets, where it lags its rivals in Asia, although he added the bank will not pursue growth at the expense of profits. Citi is stronger in debt and forex markets. Apte is one of Citi’s two CEOs for the Asia Pacific region. Based in Singapore, he focuses on Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Guam. Stephen Bird, Citi’s other Asia Pacific CEO, is based in Hong Kong and pays more attention to Greater China, Japan and Korea. Turning to Indonesia, Apte said Citi’s focus will be on growing its business in the large cities to tap rich Indonesians and cater to corporate clients that are showing an increasing interest in Asia’s third most-populous country. “There are a lot of our international clients who are investing in these markets. We have their custody business, so to have a brokerage business will be very positive,” he said. Asia accounted for 30%, or $4.5 billion, of Citigroup’s net income last year. The region accounts for about a quarter of revenues. Citi ranked third in the league tables for Asia Pacific emerging market bonds last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. But for equity-related issuances in emerging Asia excluding China A shares, Citi fell to number six in 2009 from second place in 2008. “The league tables are important because it gives a message to clients about your capabilities, but at the same time I think what is important is that you do the right deals as well,” he said. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:31 am Nifty slips in red; realty, capital goods decline - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Mar 2010 | 4:26 am Lyondell arranges $3.2 bn debt, nears bankruptcy exitNew York: Having rejected Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries’ takeover bid, global petrochemicals giant LyondellBasell on Friday announced tying up $3.25 billion worth of funds and securing court approval for its bankruptcy-exit restructuring plan. The company said the court has approved its $450 million pact with the creditors, under which they were to support the company’s reorganization plan. Following the court’s approval for Lyondell’s reorganization plan, it would be sent to the company’s creditors for their nod. Last month, Lyondell said its unsecured creditors had approved the $450 million settlement, which increases the amount they can recover from $300 million planned earlier. Earlier this week, Lyondell rejected a $14.5-billion takeover bid from Reliance Industries, saying its own reorganization plan was superior to the offer made by the Indian firm. Weighed down by massive debts, LyondellBasell’s US operations and one of its European holding companies had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. The bankrupt petrochemical firm plans to sell senior secured bonds on a private placement basis and borrow through a senior term loan. It also plans to raise $2.8 billion in a rights offering. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 12 Mar 2010 | 3:04 am
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