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Tata, ArcelorMittal in race to buy Krakatau

New Delhi, May 03: World's fifth largest steel maker Tata is in the race to acquire Indonesia's state-run steel mill P T Krakatau, for which ArcelorMittal and Australia's Bluescope have also expressed their interest.

"We have a significant presence in Southeast Asia and we want to increase our footprint in the region. Indonesia has been a strategic destination for us from a long-term perspective. Hence we are evaluating potential investments there, like we are doing with other companies in the region," a Tata steel spokesman told on Saturday.

Leading Indonesian daily The Jakarta Post quoted the country's director general for metal, machinery and textiles Ansari Bukhari as saying that Tata had sent a letter to the ministry inquiring how it could take part in the privatisation process.

"Tata Steel's chief executive Indranil Sengupta, plans to meet with Minister of Industry Fahmi Idris sometime on May 5 or 6. He has some questions on the government's plan to privatise Krakatau Steel," the daily quoted Bukhari as saying.

Another report quoted Bukhari as saying that Essar has also evinced interest in acquiring Krakatau.

Bluescope has also expressed its desire to meet the country's industry minister on may 8 or 9 to discuss the privatisation, it said and added that Tata would have to compete with these companies, especially ArcelorMittal that has already offered to acquire 40 per cent stake in Krakatau.

The Indonesian government has been considering to privatise Krakatau through an IPO or by conducting a strategic sale.

Reserve Bank of India to launch credit cards

Kolkata, May 04: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will launch an IndiaPay credit card - an Indian version of the China UnionPay card - by the end of next year.

'Inspired by the success of the China UnionPay card, we will be launching a similar one in our country to promote the use of plastic money among Indians. The credit card will be especially designed for the common people with low interest rates and risk reduction facilities,' RBI Executive Director RB Barman said reporters on the sidelines of a press conference Saturday evening.

Barman said the National Payment Council of India (NPCI) is working on the registration process of the card. The NPCI authorities would decide on the type of the card - whether it would be a smart card or something else.

'If all our plans and government procedures gel well then we can hope to release this card in the market by the end of 2009,' he said further.

The China UnionPay card was introduced in 2002. The card gives access to over 85,000 ATM counters of 14 major and other minor banks across the world. Besides, the card can function as regular MasterCard or Visa credit cards abroad.

SAIL pulls out of Indian Steel Alliance

New Delhi, May 04: In its bid to distance itself from the controversy over price hike, government-owned steel giant SAIL on Sunday pulled out from the Indian Steel Alliance stating it has "outlived its utility".

The Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) is an umbrella body of leading steel-makers, including JSW, ESSAR and ISPAT, offering them a common platform for policy decisions.

Recently, the leading steel makers have been blamed by the government of forming cartels to jack up prices taking advantage of the rising demand.

"We felt that ISA needed to do more on promoting steel use and sharing of data between the utilities, a function which is being now performed efficiently by Insdag," a SAIL spokesman told agencies.

However, ISA president Moosa Raza could not be contacted for his comments on the issue.

Tata Steel had also withdrawn from the alliance some time back. The ISA has been spearheading the campaign against government`s move to set up a regulator in the steel sector to monitor prices and imposing export duty on steel.

The ISA had been instrumental in launching a sustained campaign against the move to disincentives steel exports as well as demanding export levy on iron ore.

Its campaign on export duty received a set back recently with the Finance Minister proposing up to 15 percent export duty on steel in a bid to curb the metal prices which have risen by 49 percent in the last one year.

Raza had written to the Prime Minister saying that any move to appoint a regulator in the steel sector would be like putting the steel makers between the prongs of a pincer.

***** to stay focused on alternatives: Report
4 May, 2008, 2015 hrs IST,

SAN FRANCISCO: ***** Inc will stay focused on evaluating strategic alternatives after Microsoft Corp walked away from a $44.6 billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

***** is not looking for offers, the source said, but added that the board is open to considering options that maximize shareholder value.

***** has discussed tie-ups with both Time Warner Inc's AOL division and Google Inc, different sources earlier told reporters.

A partnership with Google, in which ***** search results would carry advertising from Google, may be announced as early a next week, another source told a news agency.

Analysts say ***** has overplayed its hand and they expect the Web pioneer's shares to fall as much as 30 percent to $20 levels when Nasdaq trading resumes on Monday. The stock rose nearly 7 percent to $28.67 on Friday on hopes of an agreement between Microsoft and *****.

***** Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement the company believed from the beginning that Microsoft's offer undervalued it, and the board was "pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view."

He said ***** was pursuing "strategic opportunities" but gave no details.

Ballmer cited *****'s Google plans as one reason Microsoft was walking away rather than mounting a hostile offer.

Technology analysts say Microsoft may not really walk away from *****, and Saturday's move could parallel Oracle Corp's strategy in winning over BEA Systems Inc. Oracle pulled its offer in October 2007, leading BEA shares to fall 6 percent. Despite the tough talk, the companies reached an agreement in January this year.

On Saturday, Yang and ***** co-founder David Filo met Ballmer and Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division President Kevin Johnson in Seattle, where they communicated that *****'s board was willing to cut a deal at $37 a share, although the two co-founders remained committed to a dollar more per share, the source said.

Infosys HR head takes fattest salary among company directors

Bangalore, May 04: IT giant Infosys`s human resources head T V Mohandas Pai takes home the highest salary and bonus among all the board of directors of the company, including chairperson Nandan M Nilekani and Chief Executive Oficer S Gopalakrishnan.

According to Infosys`s recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Pai receives a salary of USD 82,033 and a bonus of USD 3,08,625 in a year, the highest among the 15 members of the board.

The board is chaired by the firm`s chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy while one of the co-founders and Director Nandan M Nilekani is the co-chairperson.

While Nilekani receives USD 51,414 salary and USD 1,22,841 as bonus, Narayana Murthy does not take home any of them but USD 1,25,000 in annual compensation.

Other members of the board include Chief Executive Officer S Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer S D Shibulal, lead independent director Deepak M Satwalekar, head of communication design group, information systems and quality and productivity, K Dinesh and head of delivery excellence Srinath Batni.

Pai, who is also the head of administration, education and research, finance and Infosys Leadership Institute, happens to be the youngest among board of directors.

Further, Gopalakrishnan and Dinesh gets salary and bonus as same as that of Nilekani whereas Shibulal receives a salary of USD 50,061 and USD 1,17,220 as bonus.

However, Marti G Subrahmanyam, Omkar Goswami, Rama Bijapurkar, Claude Smadja, Sridar A Iyengar, David L Boyles and Jeffrey Sean Lehman, who are also directors, do not take home any salary or bonus.

The Bangalore-based IT major pays Pai USD 31,916 under `other annual compensation` and the amount accrued for long term benefits stands at USD 20,805.

However, senior vice president, banking and capital markets, Ashok Vemuri, and senior vice president, manufacturing, B G Srinivas, get more salary and bonus than Pai in the company`s top brass. Vemuri is paid a salary of USD 3,93,380 and a bonus of USD 292,789.

Srinivas receives USD 412,334 as salary and USD 258,523 as bonus.

Microsoft may seek other deals to fight Google
5 May, 2008, 0651 hrs IST,

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp could seek a variety of deals after walking away from ***** Inc, but few would be comprehensive enough to let it challenge Google Inc's domination of online advertising.

When Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer called off talks with ***** on Saturday after the Web company rejected his $47.5 billion offer, he gave up what he and investors saw as the fastest way to grow quickly in advertising and online services to take on market leader Google.

"Ultimately, our goal is to build the industry-leading business in search, online advertising, media, and social networking," Ballmer wrote in a Saturday letter to employees. "Although the acquisition of ***** would have accelerated our ability to deliver on our strategy in advertising and online services, I remain confident that we can achieve our goals without *****," Ballmer wrote.

Ballmer said Microsoft could go it alone, but a likelier scenario would be to use some of the cash it dangled in front of ***** to make smaller acquisitions or strike up partnerships. It could form a tie-up with Time Warner Inc's AOL unit or News Corp's Fox Interactive Media unit, which includes MySpace, to draw advertising to its own Web properties.

AOL executives contacted Microsoft about a possible tie-up last month after Ballmer set a three-week deadline for ***** to agree to a deal or face a hostile battle, a person briefed on those discussions said on Sunday. News Corp has also reached out to Microsoft in recent weeks to explore possibilities, including bidding for ***** jointly, sources previously said.

An AOL official was not immediately available for comment. "A partnership with or acquisition of News Corp's Internet activities or AOL would be a start" in leapfrogging Google, said Peter Misek, an analyst who follows Microsoft for Canaccord Adams. Google sites had about 590 million unique visitors in December, while Microsoft sites had 540 million and *****'s had 485 million, comScore data show.

By comparison, Time Warner properties, including AOL, had only 274 million visitors, and Fox Interactive Media sites had 158 million visitors. Arguably, a Microsoft partnership with AOL or FIM would not bring the same numbers as a Microsoft-***** combine would.

LOTS OF LITTLE BUYS

Microsoft could also go on a shopping spree, buying start-ups that build sophisticated search and online advertising platforms to cobble together a challenge to Google, said Peter Falvey, a banker at Revolution Partners, a technology-focused investment bank. "They could buy a lot of interesting start-ups and use their marketing muscle," Falvey said.

But none of these options would provide Microsoft the scale it needs to compete effectively against Google. "Little things like buying Digg would not move the needle for Microsoft," said Todd Greenwald, an analyst at Nollenberger Capital Partners, referring to a Web site that lets people submit and share news stories, videos and other files online.


Greenwald said Microsoft could afford to buy Facebook, in which it invested $240 million last year, and use the social network's popularity to drive traffic to its Web properties. But it would still not bring the global benefits and brand awareness that a merger with ***** would, analysts said.

"Scale and speed to market are what Ballmer needs, and he can't get it by building it organically," said one person involved in the negotiations between Microsoft and *****, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record because the negotiations were confidential.

STILL A CHANCE FOR MICROHOO?

But Microsoft is under less pressure to come up with an alternative deal than ***** is, analysts said. Microsoft could choose to sit it out and wait for an opportune time to make another ***** bid, since that makes the most strategic sense.

Analysts expect Microsoft's stock to rise modestly when the market opens on Monday, indicating that investors are willing to be patient with Ballmer. Some might hope he has the sense to keep on walking, even if ***** tries to call him back.

"There are enough skeptics out in Wall Street land that were really questioning Microsoft's strategy, and they will applaud Microsoft for holding firm to the fact that they had a price in mind and they're not going to overpay," said Fred Dickson, a market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co.

PSUS` IPR row blocking green power generation

New Delhi, May 04: Intellectual property rights FEUD between two major Navratna PSUS is stopping India to join a select group of nations who generate green power using the coal gasification know-how.

The Bharat Heavy Electrical Equipment Ltd (BHEL) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) are embroiled in a row over sharing an IPR of Coal Gasification Technology (CGT), which has been developed by the former but is to be used by latter.

The NTPC is willing to pay about Rs 508 crore for setting up a GGT based 100 MW plant, provided the BHEL proves its success. Alternatively, it is willing to share 50 percent of the cost along with sharing of the IPR, which the BHEL oppose.

"Bhel has developed this technology over the last 25 years and has a number of IPRS. Therefore, this was not agreed to by BHEL and the department of heavy industry," an official informed the Parliamentary standing committee on industry.

The problem is compounded by the fact that while BHEL is administered by the department of heavy industry, NTPC is under the charge of power ministry.

"It (CGT) is an extremely important project for us, because it is the technology of future. Sooner or later, we are going to have some kind of environmental convention in which we will be a party and we cannot use coal the way we are doing by having high pollutants," the official said before the committee.

Only four to five players in the world have developed this technology. India cannot even import this technology since it is not suitable for the domestic coal with high Sulphur content.

ICICI securities` IPO to come in due course: Kamath

New Delhi, May 05: ICICI securities, the Investment Banking Arm of ICICI Bank, will come out with Initial Public Offer in due course, said CEO of the country's largest private sector bank KV Kamath.

"The IPO will come in due course. We are not in a hurry," Kamath told reporters here.

He said the bank has not decided on the size of the IPO and when the market conditions are favourable, the bank will consider the IPO.

In January, the board of ICICI securities had approved the Initial Public Offer and private placement of shares to one or more institutional investors.

Soon after the decision, ICICI Bank joint managing director and CFO Chanda Kochhar had said, the shares of ICICI securities will be listed on the bourses in about six months.

The board had decided to offload 15 percent of its shares to retail or institutional investors.

ICICI securities, having an equity capital of Rs 61 crore, is a major player in retail broking and has posted revenues of Rs 527 crore during the first nine months of the current fiscal while profits were at Rs 108 crore in the same period.

Bigflicks bets big on home video market

New Delhi, May 05: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, having major presence in the entertainment genre, on Monday said it is planning to expand across the country by opening more DVD rental stores to complement its online and offline movie rental service - bigflicks.Com.

The company is also planning to open 500 DVD rental stores by the end of this financial year, Bigflicks.Com Chief Operating Officer Kamal Gianchandani said.

0 Currently, the company has about 100 stores.

"With the concept of 'living room multiplex' catching on in India, the home video market is all set to see a boom with more players entering this market segment to woo its consumers by making cinema accessible like never before," he said.

Besides opening new stores, the company would invest substantially in promoting the brand, he said.

ADAG would be investing about 100 million dollars in the next three years for expanding and promoting the brand.

Bigflicks offer access to over 15,000 titles in its rental division and close to 100 titles in its broadband division. It offers Indian entertainment made across 12 languages in India.

The company is also going the whole hog to tap the estimated 25 million strong Non-Resident Indian population.

"We seek to connect our NRI users especially in North America, the UK, Canada, West Asia, Europe and Australia, with our vast and expanding libraries of quality video entertainment content," he said.

The company has three modes of distribution. The online movie download service for the NRI market enabling users to download or stream Indian entertainment content via the internet.

The online mail order service for the Indian market and through physical presence of the brand in the form of its retail stores to enable users to experience and access movie entertainment of their choice.

In India, the online venture would gain steam once the broadband penetration increases, he added.

The titles on Bigflicks would be a mix of TV serials, music videos, Hollywood and other international movies, Bollywood and regional films

GMR to modernise Istanbul airport

Turkey, May 05: The Government of Turkey has handed over a second airport in Istanbul to a consortium of led by Hyderabad-based GMR Infrastructure Limited for modernising and operating it for a 20-year period. The handing over of the license to operate the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport on Saturday paves the way for the consortium, which also includes Turkey`s state-owned Limak Holdings and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad Ltd, to start upgradation work.

The consortium will invest Rs 1,575 crore rupees or 250 million euros in the project. It consortium won the bid last July by committing to the highest operating rental of 1.

93 billion Euors or about Rs 11,978 crores for a 15-year period. Its revenue stream will comprise duty free shops, ground handling and cargo handling, besides money from levy of a passenger fee of 12 Euro for every international passenger and 3 euros per domestic passenger.

The GMR-led consortium was earlier asked to complete the project in 30 months including construction of new terminal buildings, shopping complexes, car parking and other additional infrastructure. But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday asked the developers to expedite work and complete the upgrade in 18 months.

After the upgrade the airport will be able to handle 15 million passengers by 2010, up from 8.5 million passengers now.

Traffic in Turkey is expected to grow by 500 per cent by 2028, or the end of concession period. "We expect the traffic to grow to 45 million passengers in the next 20 years,".

M Rao, group chairman, GMR Group said. Rao said the consortium will raise funds from Turkish banks and the ABN Amro Bank through a combination of debt and equity of 75:25.

He added the consortium will achieve financial closure after one year in operation.