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SEBI modifies clause 49 of listing agreement

Mumbai, April 08: Tightening the corporate governance norms, market regulator SEBI on Tuesday raised the number of independent directors for listed companies to one-half of the board in case the chairman is non-executive but is also either a promoter or related to those in the management.

For this purpose, the SEBI modified the famous clause 49 of the listing agreement, which is in force since January 1, 2006.

At present, at least one-third of the board has to be filled with independent directors if the chairman is non-executive, but in case the chairman is executive the board has to have at least one half of it as independent directors.

Today's modification means that at least one-third of the board has to be independent directors in case the chairman is non-executive, but if this chairman is promoter or linked to promoter or those in the management positions, it should be at least one half.

The market regulator also made it mandatory for listed firms to make disclosures of relationships between directors.

SEBI has the power to delist companies if they do not comply with clause 49.

Bangladeshi consortium sign deal with Essar

Dhaka, April 09: A consortium of four Bangladeshi steel companies has signed a deal with India's Essar Group to set up the country's first hot-rolled steel plant, reports said here on Wednesday.

S Alam, PHP, KDS and Abul Khair signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian group for the joint venture where Essar would hold a majority 60 per cent stake, the Daily Star report said.

The JV, Essar Bangladesh Ltd, would invest about 550 million dollars in setting up the steel plant in south-eastern port city of Chittagong with an annual capacity of 2 million tons. The plant is likely to start production in 2010.

"We signed the MoU at Delhi in February this year and we expect the ground breaking ceremony after signing the final joint venture agreement with the group," S Alam group managing director Saiful Alam Masud said. The JV is awaiting a clearance from Bangladesh's Board of Investment.

Earlier, the consortium imported billets for their re-rolling steel mills in Bangladesh from Essar's plant in the Indian coastal state of Orissa.

With a steel plant in Chittagong, there would be no need for imports once Essar Bangladesh Ltd starts commercial production.

Masud said the company would not seek tax and other special incentives as many investors had sought earlier. "We have sought funds from Islamic Development Bank of Saudi Arabia for the project and negotiations are underway," Masud said. A good portion of the project expenditure would be funded by Islamic Development Bank (IDB), he added.

According to reports the government has been considering some of the private industrial groups' proposal to set up a basic iron industry in the country to cope with the burgeoning crisis of the steel industries in the long term.

Qatar to raise LNG output to 77mn tons in 2 yrs

Nicosia, April 09: Qatar has aimed to raise production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from 31 million tons a year to 77 million tons a year by 2010, the country's Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs, Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, told the 16th Annual Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in Doha.

Qatar is already the biggest LNG exporter in the world and with a number of huge projects that will cost billions of dollars, mainly the two LNG processing trains - where gas is liquefied - it will add by the end of the year another 8 million tons to its LNG output.

Recently, a four billion dollars deal to build natural gas processing facilities in Qatar was reached between Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. and Japan's Chiyoda.

The two companies agreed to build two LNG processing trains to the Qatargas-3 and Qatargas-4 projects in the Ras Laffan Industrial city. The United States will be a primary market for the gas produced by the new units.

America will cover 30 per cent of its total LNG needs from Qatar. As from next year, it will buy more than 15 million tons of LNG a year from Qatar. The country's first markets were Japan and Korea. India followed soon.

The country's Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah told journalists that Qatar's investment in the hydrocarbon sector would exceed 60 billion dollars.

No hostile takeover bid for Orchid`

New Delhi, April 09: Pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories, which has been linked to a hostile takeover bid of Chennai-based Orchid Chemicals, on Wednesday said the company does not believe in such practices.

"As a company, we do not believe in hostile takeovers," a company spokesperson said.

Solrex Pharma, reportedly a Ranbaxy promoter group firm, had acquired over 8 per cent stake in orchid chemicals through open market purchases.

The Ranbaxy official also declined to confirm or deny if Solrex Pharma is a part of the Ranbaxy Group. Yesterday, a top Orchid chemical official confirmed that Ranbaxy has acquired further stake in the company, but declined to give further details or on whether any meeting was held between the two companies.

"Ranbaxy has acquired around five per cent stake in the company (but) we are not going to comment on anything that has been speculated about the acquisition of the company," Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Kailasam Raghvendra Rao said.

Orchid`s shares traded at Rs 220.7 in the afternoon, down by 8 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, Ranbaxy shares also down by 8.6 per cent at Rs 462.15.

Cairn`s crude oil pipeline by June 2009: L&T

New Delhi, April 09: Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday said it would complete a 585 km pipeline for evacuation of crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan field by June 2009 in sink with the company's oil production plans.

"We are talking of project completion to merge evacuation of crude that is planned for second half of 2009," L&T's president (operations) K Venkataramanan told.

Cairn had awarded a Rs 600 crore contract to L&T in February for the laying of a heated pipeline for transporting crude oil from Barmer in Rajasthan to Salaya in Gujarat.

He said the pipeline would be commissioned by June 2009 and some balance work, including the laying of additional spur lines would be done by December 2009.

"There are restoration works of the land that would stretch to end 2009," he said, adding, the work would not impact transportation of crude oil.

Cairn India plans to start pumping crude oil from its Rajasthan field by third quarter of 2009 and a pipeline is needed before that to take the crude to refineries in Gujarat for processing.

L&T’s pipeline engineering centre would provide complete engineering services for the cross-country pipeline and the intermediate facilities for this project.

India sees Rs 1 trln investment in port, shipping

New Delhi, April 09: India expects to double port capacity to 1,500 million tonnes by 2011/12 and would require 1 trillion rupees investment in the port and shipping sectors, Shipping Secretary APVN Sarma said on Wednesday.

The port sector would require investment worth 550 billion rupees while shipping and inland waterways would need another 450 billion rupees by 2015, he told reporters after a business conference.

India's Planning Commission estimates that the infrastructure sector will require investment of $500 billion between 2007/08 and 2011/12, which is key for the economy to sustain an average 9 percent growth. "We will require one trillion rupees investment by 2015 (in ports, shipping and inland waterways," Sarma said.

But a cash-strapped government is looking for greater private role in infrastructure building and has been inviting foreign players to pour in more money and bring in their expertise in Asia's third largest economy.

Congested ports, surging trade

"There is tremendous room for private sector to participate. We have got a lot of response from foreign players for the port sector," Sarma said.

Sarma said cargo handling volume in 12 major ports in India was at 520 million tonnes, while smaller ports contributed another 260 million tonnes during 2007/08. "We are expecting a 12-15 percent growth in 2008/09."

The government aims to double capacity in major ports to 1,000 million tonnes by 2011/12, and raise it to 500 million tonnes for smaller ports, he said. Raising port capacity and speedy cargo handling is crucial for India to sustain high growth in exports and imports.

India's trade minister said last month exports are expected to grow by more than 20 percent to $155 billion. Imports grew at a faster pace of 30 percent and stood at $211 billion in the first eleven months of 2007/08.

India, UK SMEs eye tie-ups ahead of Commonwealth, Olympics

New Delhi, April 09: As India and Britain gear up to host major sporting events in the coming years, small and medium enterprises of both the countries are looking at tapping opportunities in infrastructure development.

The Commonwealth Games 2010 and Olympics 2012 to be held in Delhi and London respectively are being seen as major investment opportunities by the SMEs in both the cities.

"At a time when both London and Delhi are gearing up to host the Games, infrastructure development is an area that provides immense investment and business opportunities," Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Dinesh Rai said at a CII conference here today.

He said Indian and British small firms are looking at collaborating in areas of planning, construction and management of sports complexes, stadia, hotels, roads and flyovers. He further said branding, promotion and marketing of games also present immense opportunity for the SMEs

Cisco, EMC to collaborate to help customers strengthen data security

Mumbai, April 08: Cisco and EMC on Tuesday announced the intention to expand their strategic alliance to offer customers holistic data security solutions that span different layers of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, including storage, servers, networks and data center security.

The companies plan to build on their existing collaboration to develop integrated products, services and best practices by taking advantage of resources and technology from Cisco, EMC, and RSA, the Security Division of EMC.

These will be designed to provide customers with the ability to discover, secure, track and enforce the usage of sensitive data stored in the data center and at desktop and server endpoints, as well as while sensitive data is transmitted across enterprise networks.

"The data security market is very fragmented with add-on point tools at every layer of the IT stack which leads to management complexity for customers," said Robert Gleichauf, chief technology officer of Enterprise, Services and Security at Cisco.

"Cisco, along with EMC and RSA, its security division are strongly positioned to provide a holistic approach to addressing businesses` data security needs encompassing products, services, and best practice processes across the network and the other layers of the IT infrastructure," Gleichauf added.

Cisco and RSA intend to collaborate in various areas of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and provide a rich set of DLP professional service offerings to enterprise customers.

Cisco and RSA also intend to continue to collaborate in the area of data center security, data encryption and key management.

Cisco and RSA also plan to expand on their PCI reference architecture which helps enable customers to audit and run reports on their systems to ensure compliance with PCI regulations.

"Data security is very challenging. Due to regulatory and non-regulatory drivers, customers need to secure sensitive data and gain stronger visibility into where that data resides. The answer lies in coordinated product innovation, strategic partnership and professional services," said Dennis Hoffman, Vice President and General Manager for Data Security and Chief Strategy Officer at RSA, the Security Division of EMC.

"By working with industry leaders, like Cisco, we are helping our customers solve these challenges. By developing solutions with Cisco, customers can discover, monitor, and enforce the use of sensitive data directly into the infrastructure - no matter where it moves, how it moves or where it is stored."

Finance Ministry approves new Rs 50,000 Cr APDRP scheme

New Delhi, April 08: The Finance Ministry has cleared a restructured Rs 50,000-crore accelerated power development and reforms programme (APDRP), which would soon be sent to the Cabinet for approval. The scheme envisages to bring the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to less than 15 percent by the end of 11th Five Year Plan in the urban and high population density areas.

"APDRP in its new avtaar is going to be sanctioned very soon. In May last year, we promised a new APDRP scheme. That scheme has been approved by the Finance Ministry and is going to get Cabinet approval. It is a Rs 50,000-crore scheme linked with power sector reforms and for the purpose of reducing AT&C losses," Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said to media persons here.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has earmarked an annual budgetary support of Rs 800 crore under the APDRP scheme in the Union Budget 2008-09.

According to the Power Ministry, the overall AT&C losses are hovering around 35 per cent against about 39 per cent in 2001-02.

Ramesh, who took charge as MoS Power on Monday, said meeting capacity addition targets for the year 2008-09 would be on top of the priority list, followed by implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, and promotion of PSUs.

"The managerial and technological capacity in PSUs has to be the priority item as far as the government is concerned even as we pursue reforms in distribution and privatisation," he said.

Mittal sees investment potential in Thailand
9 Apr, 2008, 1859 hrs IST...........................

BANGKOK: Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of steel giant ArcelorMittal, said on Wednesday that Thailand has good investment potential but needs to work to boost productivity.

Speaking at an economic conference organised by former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Mittal said he was willing to consider possible investments in Thailand by the world's largest steelmaker.

"Thailand has lots of potential in investment and opportunities to participate in world business," Mittal said.

But he also urged the country to lower the costs of doing business here, and finding ways of boosting productivity to make Thailand more competitive globally.

Mittal said that Thaksin, who is also a billionaire businessman, has tried to encourage him and his son to invest in Thailand.

"Since we arrived yesterday, we have been kept busy with him talking about Thailand and its growth, his vision. So, we are very excited that we should invest in this country," Mittal said.

Thaksin, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006, said Thailand needs to show the world that the nation has mended its political wounds in order to draw more investments.

"We need to help draw cash from abroad into the country. What we should do is signal that Thailand is at peace," Thaksin said. "Thai people have potential, but we need to be better united in constructive ways."