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By subscription, Rel Power IPO did not appear overpriced: Govt

New Delhi, April 15: The government on Tuesday said Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power IPO did not appear to be overpriced, if the over-subscription to the public issue is taken into consideration.

"Going by the level of the over-subscription to the IPO of Reliance Power, it appears that the Reliance Power was not overpriced," Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

To another query, Bansal said 6,567 grievances pertaining to refund of orders relating Reliance Power IPO were pending with SEBI as on March 15, 2008.

Reliance Power, which raised close to USD three billion through an Initial Public Offer (IPO) earlier this year, was oversubscribed by about 73 times.

However, despite an impressive response to the IPO, the stock made a disastrous debut on bourses and dipped below the issue price on the first day itself.

On the day of listing the closing price was Rs 372.30 against an issue price of Rs 450, Bansal said.

He was responding to a query whether the government is aware of manipulated higher price band of Reliance Power Ltd, which was listed 20 percent lower the price band fixed by merchant banker of RPL.

SC asks Tata Motors to file reply on Singur Project

New Delhi, April 15: Tata Motors, which was on Tuesday allowed to become a party to a dispute over its small-car factory in Singur, asked the Supreme Court not to pass any orders on a petition seeking halt of the project without hearing its views.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, while allowing Tatas to implead itself in the case, asked the car maker to file its reply within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing on May 13.

Tata Motors, which proposes to roll out the world's cheapest car Nano from the Singur facility, submitted before the court that it had spent more than Rs 700 crore on the small-car project.

The petition filed by Kedar Nath Yadav, a practising lawyer, while seeking immediate halt of the Nano car project challenged the High Court's decision that held as legal, the acquisition of land by West Bengal government for the project.

The acquisition of fertile multi-crop agricultural land by the government in various parts of the state for Tata Motors' upcoming project, for Indonesia's Salim Group in Haldia and the Reliance Group, was violative of farmers' rights guaranteed by the constitution, Yadav's petition filed through Sarla Chandra stated.

It also goes against the provisions of land acquisition act, 1894, the petition said.

SEBI has sought clarification on Reliance Infratel IPO: Bansal

New Delhi, April 15: Market regulator SEBI has sought certain clarifications on the proposed initial public offer of Reliance Infratel, the telecom tower business arm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Clarifications were sought regarding business operations, promoters and promoters group, scheme of arrangement and board of directors of Reliance Infratel, Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal said Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

SEBI seeks clarification from merchant bankers who file the offer documents, he said.

Reliance Infratel proposes to raise Rs 6,000 crore through the offer with an issue of 8.91 crore shares, representing about 10.05 percent equity in Reliance Infratel.

The issue proceeds are proposed to be utilised toward funding development of passive infrastructure and general corporate purposes.

The company made a profit of Rs 154 crore for the nine-month period ending December 31, 2007, a year after it posted a small profit of Rs 3.27 Lakh and losses during the four preceding years.

In reply to another question, Bansal said on the Bombay Stock Exchange, out of 3,179 active companies, 485 companies have price earning ratio more than 30.

At the National Stock Exchange, 175 companies have price earning ratio more than 30 of the 1,212 listed entities, he said.

Reliance Power to complete $2 bn ECB issue next month

New Delhi, April 15: Anil Ambani group's Reliance Power has identified HSBC, Standard Chartered and ABN Amro among other foreign banks for raising USD two billion of debt to help fund its ultra mega power project in Sasan.

The company has received the Reserve Bank of India approval for this External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) proposal to finance the foreign exchange portion of debt for Sasan UMPP and is looking to complete the process next month, sources close to the development said.

Besides, the company is also in the process of finalising the names of local financial institutions for a domestic debt of about Rs 6,600 crore in the next few months, they added.

When asked about the financing plan to raise Rs 14,600 crore of debt, a company spokesperson said that "the process is on," but declined to give further details.

However, the sources said that the one-time approval from RBI would enable the company to raise low-cost funds for the project and would also facilitate a timely financial closure.

Sources said that talks are on with leading foreign banks and the company has also appointed SBI Caps as arranger for the domestic debt. The due-diligence and appraisal process commenced last month and is expected to be completed by the next month.

Out of the total capital outlay of about Rs 18,000 crore, the company is looking to raise Rs 14,600 crore through debt.

Sasan UMPP is the country's largest domestic coal based power project at a single location in Madhya Pradesh.

Shares of Reliance Power today surged 6.4 percent at the BSE to close at Rs 384.35 in a firm market. The stock had plummeted to an all-time low of Rs 303.45 on March 24, marking a plunge of nearly 50 percent from its all-time high of Rs 599.90 scaled in its debut trading session on February 11.

Merrill Lynch to write down $ 6-8 bn: Report

Tokyo, April 16: Merrill Lynch will announce a further USD 6 billion to USD 8 billion of asset writedowns in its quarterly results this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Journal said in its online edition that the writedowns would take the total since October to more than USd30 billion and lead to a third straight quarterly net loss at Merrill, the longest such losing streak in its 94-year history.

Investors have been bracing for more bad news from big US banks reporting their first-quarter results this week as the housing market collapse and credit market turmoil has taken a big toll on their balance sheets.

Merrill is also preparing a cost-saving plan that will include job cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent in some struggling business areas, such as bond financing, the Journal reported.

Currency traders in Asia said the article on Merrill caused a slight dip in the dollar against the yen but that the reaction was muted because investors had been expecting more such writedowns.

JPMorgan Chase, which took over hard-hit investment bank Bear Stearns last month, and Wells Fargo both report their quarterly results later in the day. Merrill issues its results on Thursday.

Earlier in the week Wachovia, the No. 4 US bank, posted a surprising first-quarter loss as losses from its mortgage portfolio worsened. It has also cut its dividend and raised USd7 billion of capital.

HCL tech Q3 net up 10 % at Rs 263 cr

Mumbai, April 15: Software services company HCL technologies has announced over 10 percent growth in stand-alone net profit at Rs 263.08 crore for the third quarter ended March 31, 2007.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said its third quarter stand-alone profit is Rs 263.08 crore, a growth of 10.26 percent over Rs 238.59 crore posted in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

The stand-alone total income rose to Rs 1,311.83 crore in the latest quarter from Rs 1,023.37 crore in the year-ago period.

The company has declared third interim dividend of Rs 2 on shares of Rs 2 each (100 percent).

As per US GAAP, the group posted a net income of USD 85.4 million for the quarter ended March 31 compared to USD 76.2 million for the corresponding quarter in the period under review last year.

Total revenues rose to USD 484.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 from USD 362.4 million for the same quarter last year.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 245.80, up 6.78 percent on BSE.

Oil hits new record as investors flee the falling dollar
Wednesday April 16, 6:57 am ET
Weaker dollar sends oil prices to record high above $114 a barrel and inflation rises

Oil prices are surging to record highs as the weakening U.S. dollar drives investors to dump money into commodities.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 67 cents Wednesday to $114.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. On Tuesday, the contract had risen to $114.08.

In London, Brent crude contracts are up 69 cents to $112.27 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The oil increases are being influenced by severe weakness in the dollar. The dollar hit a new record low of $1.5966 versus the euro in early Wednesday trading.

The dollar is plumbing new depths as wholesale inflation came in triple what was expected and ahead of new consumer data to be released Wednesday.

Analysts said growing investor demand for commodities -- which have performed better than other financial instruments -- also helped prop up prices.

"This is really driven by investors purchasing oil because returns have simply outpaced those of stocks and bonds," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. Shum said he didn't think supply and demand fundamentals were that strong, but added that "oil's price rise seems unstoppable."

Traders were awaiting the release of U.S. government data later Wednesday on the state of America's petroleum supplies. Last week's EIA report showed an unexpected drop in crude inventories, which started oil on its way to several records.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration was expected to report later in the day that crude inventories grew 1.5 million barrels last week, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories were expected to decline 2 million barrels, to post their fifth consecutive weekly drop amid increasing demand for the fuel, the survey showed.

"Implied gasoline demand typically starts to increase at this time of year, but high prices at the pump and a slowing U.S. economy appear to have dented the pace of demand growth," the Platts report said.

Analysts also projected a 1.7 million barrel drop in distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, while refinery utilization rates were expected to jump 0.9 percentage points to 83.9 percent.

"The market may choose to focus on the expected product drawdowns and interpret the report as bullish," Shum said. "But product inventories in the U.S. are at healthy levels. The declines would simply be because refinery utilization operating rates have not been strong, and that's because refiners are responding to weak demand."

Crude prices were also supported by reports of a number of supply disruptions.

Attracting the most attention was the closure of Mexico's three main oil-exporting ports on the Gulf Coast because of bad weather that started Sunday. Only one of the ports remained closed Tuesday, according to Mexico's Communications and Transportation Department.

Infosys workforce to cross 100,000 mark this year
16 Apr, 2008, 1400 hrs IST,

BANGALORE: Headcount of Infosys Technologies Ltd is set to cross 100,000 this fiscal (2008-09), with a gross addition of over 20,000-25,000 people to its present strength of 91,187, a top company official said here on Tuesday.

"We have already made campus offerings of 18,000 for this fiscal (FY 2009)," T.V. Mohandas Pai, Infosys head for HRD and education and research, told media.

"We assume about 80 percent (14,400) of them will join us. In addition, we will hire about 6,000 laterals and 3,500 freshers from the local market to meet our annual human resource requirements," Pai said.

As global software major with development centres in the US, Europe, Australia, China and Mexico, the company plans to hire as many locals in these countries for near-shore advantage.

"Our global workforce is set to increase this fiscal too and will account for about five percent of the total workforce," Pai said. "Wage increase will be 11-13 percent this fiscal as against 12-15 percent in the last fiscal (FY 2008) for Indian employees and four-five percent for overseas employees.

"The hike will be slightly higher (16 percent) than last fiscal because of tax concessions given to salaried employees in the union budget for this fiscal by the finance minister," he said.

For fiscal 2007-08, the IT bellwether hired 33,177 people as against its projected in-take of 25,000 in the beginning and 72,241 employees at the end of previous fiscal (FY 2007).

With 14,231 employees leaving during the fiscal (FY 2008), the net addition was 18,946 people. Of the total workforce, 85,013 are software professionals and 79,494 are billable employees. The bench strength was 3466. Attrition rate remained flat at 13.4 percent as in the previous fiscal (FY 2007).

"Hiring 33,177 people during fiscal 2008 was the highest employee addition in any year," he said. "We have invested substantially in capability building and in the HR (human resource) system during the year."

"Our ability to train and invest in people gives us a unique competitive advantage. Our investment in people enable us to go up the value chain in a significant manner," Pai asserted.

During the fourth quarter (January-March) of the fiscal under review (FY 2008), gross addition was 5,947 people and net addition 2,586 employees.

RPL to complete Jamnagar refinery project ahead of Dec
16 Apr, 2008, 1620 hrs IST...................

MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani Group's Reliance Petroleum today said its 5,80,000 barrel per day export- oriented refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat will be completed ahead of the December 2008 schedule.

RPL is building the refinery adjacent to the existing 6,60,000 barrel per day refinery at Jamnagar.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the firm said that based on the progress made till date, the project is expected to be completed ahead of December 2008.

As on March 31, the firm has utilised Rs 23,319 crore for the project as against a projected Rs 22,130 crore.

"The variation is mainly due to payments in advance under project contracts for continued efficient and speedy implementation of the project," the filing added.

These disclosures were approved by the Board of Directors during their meeting held today.

US-based Chevron Corp has a five per cent stake in the company. It also has the right to raise its interest to 29 per cent before the plant is commissioned.

Shares of Reliance Petroleum closed at Rs 184.85, down 2.61 per cent, on the BSE.

Nicholas Piramal buys two brand groups from Khandelwal Labs
15 Apr, 2008, 2126 hrs IST...................

MUMBAI: Drug major Nicholas Piramal on Tuesday said it has signed a definitive agreement with Khandelwal Laboratories for purchase of Anafortan and CEFI Brand Groups of the latter for Rs 116 crore.

"CEFI and Anafortan offer unique therapeutic value to patients, which we hope to offer to patients across India with our national sales and distribution network," Nicholas Piramal Chairman Ajay Piramal said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Khandelwal Laboratories has agreed to provide Nicholas Piramal with certain patents' use and non-compete assurances for Cefixime and Camylofic based drugs.

Anafortan and CEFI Groups revenues for March 31 were Rs 49 crore.

CEFI Group consists of third-generation, wide-application, Cefixime-based formulations in pure and combination forms. CEFI offers therapeutic value to patients. It is marketed in nine dosage forms, which are based on extended release and once-a-day drug delivery systems.

CEFI Group had revenues of Rs 26 crore for March 31. Anafortan is an anti-spasmodic drug. Anafortan consists of six Camylofin-based formulations in pure and combination forms.

"Khandelwal Laboratories has filed more than 200 patents. CEFI Group is growing at 70 per cent per annum. Certain companies, which breached the CEFI patent have now withdrawn the product.

Anafortan has a great potential to grow," Khandelwal Laboratories MD Sanjeev Khandelwal said.