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Indonesia mulls OPEC pull out

Jakarta, May 06: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday that Indonesia was considering quitting the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) because it was no longer a net oil exporter.

"Our wells are drying," he said in a nationally televised speech, adding that the country needed to concentrate on increasing domestic production, which has dropped to less than a million barrels a day. "That could take one to three years."

The government opened talks yesterday on "whether we should continue to stay with OPEC or withdraw our membership... Until we reach a point where we deserve to rejoin that organisation," he told Governors and heads of regencies from all over Indonesia.

The country of 235 million people is Southeast Asia`s only OPEC member. But it has to import oil because of decades of declining investment in exploration and extraction due to corruption and a weak legal system that makes oil companies wary of doing business here.

The country`s oil output has declined steadily from oil production of 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels a day in the mid-1990s.

It is not the first time the country has re-evaluated its OPEC membership, but in past years teams commissioned by the government have recommended staying in the grouping to maintain good relations with other oil producers, especially the heavyweights in the Middle East.

OPEC is an intergovernmental organisation made up of 13 oil-producing countries. It was formed in 1960 by founding members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Bharti offers USD 19 bn for controlling stake in MTN: Report

London, May 07: India's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel has made a 19-billion-dollar bid for acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Johannesburg-listed telecom firm MTN, according to report.

Bharti Airtel has tabled an indicative bid for 51 per cent of equity in MTN at about 165 Rand a share, which would value the South African company's entire equity at around 37 billion dollars, the report stated.

Bharti Airtel has secured 12 billion dollars of financing from Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered, it said. "The two investment banks have each pledged to underwrite six billion dollars of the amount that Bharti will need to purchase the controlling stake, people close to the situation said," the report said.

Bharti is expected to fund the balance by issuing equity, either directly to MTN shareholders or institutions, it added.

The report also quoted Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal as saying that the company was delighted that MTN had chosen to talk to them.

"It confirms Airtel's standing in global telecoms, but whether it will lead to anything, I don't know," Mittal said.

However, Mittal denied that Bharti Airtel could face any difficulty in raising the funds required for a bid on this scale in choppy capital markets.

"I have been overwhelmed by the kind of response we have had from the banks," Mittal was quoted.

***** was open to sell itself to MS”

New York, May 06: Internet`s second most popular search engine ***** has said it was open to selling itself to Microsoft, but the software giant`s Chief Executive Steven A Ballmer and his deal makers were not keen to negotiate and ultimately withdrew their proposal.

"They (Ballmer and his aides) chose to walk away after we put a price on the table, and they didn`t want to negotiate," *****`s co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang said in an interview published in The New York Times on Monday.

Microsoft had offered to buy *****, second only to Google, for USD 31 a share, or USD 44.6 billion, in February, but the search engine felt it was worth more.

"From my perspective, we were open all along to selling to Microsoft. We just feel *****, either stand-alone or with Microsoft, is worth more than what they put on the table," Yang told NYT.

But the paper says Yang`s account conflicts with that of Microsoft`s advisers and executives who have said that they received no counter offer from ***** for three months, after Microsoft`s deadline to consummate the deal had expired. They also say that Yang and his board settled on a price of USD 37 a share and ultimately refused to budge.

Microsoft had raised its initial bid to USD 33 a share when Yang and his co-founder, David Filo, met with Ballmer and other Microsoft executives at the Seattle Airport on Saturday.

After that meeting, Ballmer made public a letter to Yang withdrawing the offer.

In the interview, Yang and Roy Bostock, *****`s chairman, said that throughout the process they were open and receptive to a merger with Microsoft.

BCCI to set Bhajji example, slap 10 match ban: Sources

Mumbai, May 07: Harbhajan Singh might be in for a 10 match ban from international cricket by the BCCI as well, sources reported here on Wednesday. It is learnt that BCCI wants to make an example out of the Harbhajan-Sreesanth slap row and the punishment will serve as a deterrent for other players from doing something similar in the future.

It was also learnt that the umpire’s report did not have any mention of Sreesanth provoking the tweaker for slapping him. The slap seemed pre-meditated and Harbhajan might also be meted out a fine of 10-20% of his annual contract with the board.

Earlier on Tuesday, BCCI-appointed Commissioner Sudhir Nanavati, inquiring into the slapping row after an IPL match, saw the footage of the incident and found the video shocking. He will submit his report on Friday to the apex body of cricket in India. He told reporters, “IPL-BCCI have different guidelines, Harbhajan will be tried on both, that is the rule of the land.”

Harbhajan Singh was banned from playing 11 Indian Premier League matches and 100% of his match fees. Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput too was found guilty of Level 2 charge and consequently docked 50% of his match fees. Rajput was found guilty of ‘not defusing’ the situation as he was standing just behind Harbhajan when the incident occurred.

The judgment came after he had pleaded guilty for slapping Sreesanth, before an IPL disciplinary hearing conducted by match referee Farokh Engineer here. Harbhajan, had carried a letter, which he presented before the commission. He also expressed regret for his actions which hurt Sreesanth’s feelings.

The temperamental off spinner had already admitted to the media persons of getting physical with Sreesanth. Slapping a fellow player constitutes a Level 4 offence as per the ICC Code of Conduct and carries a maximum punishment of a life ban or a minimum of five Tests or 10 ODIs for India’s premier off-spinner.

"After looking into the video footage in the presence of Sreesanth, complainant Neil Maxwell (Kings XI Punjab CEO), Harbhajan and Lalchand Rajput, (Mumbai Indians coach), and managers of both sides and considering the submissions from both sides and in view of Harbhajan`s admission match referee Farokh Engineer found him guilty of level 4.2 offence," IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said at a press conference. "Accordingly, Harbhajan Singh has been banned for the rest of the IPL matches besides 100 per cent fine on his match fees," said Modi in the presence of Engineer, Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth.

BEML plans foray into Indonesian, Australian markets

Shanghai, May 07: Earth moving equipment major BEML is planning to foray into Indonesian and Australian markets while it expects rail and metro business to be its next engine of growth, propelled by massive spending by Indian Railways.

"In addition to Brazil, Malaysia and Shanghai, we have plans to look at Indonesia," Bangalore-based BEML chairman and managing director V R S Natarajan, who was here for the opening of the company's full fledged office in China's economic hub last week, told reporters in an interview.

Natarajan said BEML was mulling opening a marketing office and repair shop in Indonesia that "if everything goes well, could become an assembly shop" and added Indonesia was an excellent market for development in Australia also.

As for Australia, he said the company had sent a 100 tonne dumper to a customer on a trial basis and if it succeeds, "we will roll out equipment there also. Once the equipment population goes beyond 10, 20 50...Then naturally, we have to have our own set up to address the service needs as well as supply spare parts".

Asked how BEML planned to seize the opportunity offered by the cash-rich Indian Railways, which plans massive spending in the coming years, he said, "we are bullish about rail and metro business".

During the 11th five-year plan and beyond, the railways is going in for diversification and modernisation of its existing fleet. In modernisation, the Railways is planning additional seat capacity and that is an opportunity we are trying to seize. BEML already has orders worth Rs 100 crore in this regard for the current year.

Upgradation of electric multiple units used intra-city and large size emus to inter-connect cities with higher speed of 120 to 130 km an hour also offered opportunities, he said.

The Railways has also decided to replace with stainless steel cars the existing fleet of EMU cars running in Chennai and Mumbai, where high corrosion rate spoils them with cities being in seashore.

"We are going to get the first fleet of pilot order for 36 coaches which will be used in Mumbai. Once that happens, that will be the beginning of a big order for replacement of over 2,000 plus trains," Natarajan said.

He also said, with railways pushing for high-speed corridor, Beml had tied up with National Aluminum Company (NALCO) to develop, for the first time in India, 100 tonne aluminum wagons with four axles of 25 tonne each.

"We are very optimistic that in the next three to five years, we would get at least a minimum of five blocks which means this is 30 years business for BEML. It is growth for JV, growth for India and growth for BEML," he said.

The mine blocs are in coal deposit areas such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa. "We are already operating there with our regional office, district office".

Natarajan said BEML was also expanding its product range in defence, including those relating to tanks, entire bridge family, heavy duty equipment support for launchers and wagons related to transportation of tanks and ammunition.

producers offer to lower prices by Rs 4,000 a tonne

New Delhi, May 07: Leading steel producers on Wednesday offered to reduce prices of hot rolled coils by Rs 4,000 a tonne, as part of efforts to ease inflation.

"We have offered to reduce prices by Rs 4,000 per tonne on hot rolled coils," a senior steel industry official said after a meeting with steel secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey here.

The producers would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later today to discuss, among other issues, the pricing situation.

Steel prices have risen by a whopping 49 per cent during the past one year triggering concerns that soaring prices of the metal was augmenting inflationary pressures on the economy.

The government had recently decided to impose export duty on steel products following a sharp in rise in prices of the metal and its increasing demand-supply mismatch.

Earlier, the government had charged the steel industry with cartelisation and raising prices of the metal in tandem.

Leading steel makers who formed the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) as their umbrella organisation dissolved it amid fears that the industry was indulging in cartelisation.

Incidentally, ISA had been on the forefront of a campaign against imposing export duty and setting up a regulator for the industry.

Among those who met the steel secretary included Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman, JSW steel vice chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal, SAIL chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta, Ispat Industries managing director Vinod Kumar Mittal and Essar Steel chief Shashi Ruia.

Doha ball in court of India, China, Brazil, says US

New Delhi, May 07: Ahead of her meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, US trade representative Susan Schwab has said the big question facing Doha round of trade talks is whether emerging markets like India, China and Brazil are ready to make commitments on opening their markets.

"The big question for the round is whether the emerging markets like China, India and Brazil are willing to make contributions to global market opening commensurate with their growth rates and levels of development," a statement quoted Schwab as saying.

Nath and Schwab are scheduled to meet today and tomorrow at New York and review the progress of official level talks at Geneva, headquarters of the World Trade Organisation.

The USTR also said President George W Bush was committed to the success of the multilateral negotiations, which have been in progress for the last seven years.

"The President's commitment to the round is unequivocal, the process in Geneva rolls on and my schedule continues to take me wherever there are trade ministers interested in finding that elusive breakthrough," she said.

Meanwhile, chairperson of the WTO negotiating group on agriculture Crawford Falconer has agreed to give more time to member countries to give inputs before releasing fresh draft modalities for the final deal. He is also scheduled to have more meetings with member nations tomorrow and the day after.

India is pushing for a wider list of special products in agriculture on which it would not be required to make commitments for duty reduction. However, the proposal is meeting resistance from the US, which is seeking a bigger market for its farm products in emerging economies like India.

How serious was Microsoft in raising ***** bid
7 May, 2008, 2219 hrs

SAN FRANCISCO: Just how serious was Microsoft Corp. about raising its bid to $47.5 billion for slumping Internet pioneer ***** Inc.? The answer is taking on greater importance as more outraged ***** shareholders threaten to sue the company's board — or try to replace the 10 directors — for the way they responded to Microsoft's sweetened offer. With shareholders up in arms, Sunnyvale-based ***** has been trying to raise doubts about the legitimacy of Microsoft's last bid of $33 a share by pointing out that it wasn't submitted in writing.

There is even a theory circulating that Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer dangled the new offer before his ***** counterpart, Jerry Yang, fully knowing that it would be spurned and open a window for him to flee a deal that was starting to look like a potential albatross. ***** shares fell 37 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $25.35 as trading opened Monday, while Microsoft shares rose 6 cents to $29.76.

In Tokyo, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday the company isn't pursuing other deals. He said the company put "a lot of effort" in the talks with ***** and has decided the two should pursue "independent paths." Since the talks unraveled, The Associated Press contacted people familiar with the deal to piece together how the final days of negotiations unfolded. These people asked not to be identified because the talks were confidential. While they differed on some details, the people agreed Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft didn't spell out the $47.5 billion offer in writing. Instead, it was orally presented by both Ballmer and Brad Smith, the software maker's general counsel.

In contrast, Microsoft's initial bid of $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, was sent to *****'s board in a Jan. 31 letter that contained specific financing terms. Although raising a takeover bid orally isn't ideal, it's acceptable when two sides like Microsoft and ***** already have been engaged a lengthy dialogue, said Morton Pierce, a New York lawyer specializing in corporate acquisitions. "You would always prefer to have (an offer) in writing to see if there are any conditions attached, but it's not necessary when people have been negotiating in good faith," Pierce said.


Microsoft and ***** executives had already held several rounds of meetings by the time Ballmer came to California April 30 to meet with ***** CEO Jerry Yang in hopes of settling on a mutually acceptable sale price. To help steer them, Microsoft and ***** had hired a high-priced team of investment bankers and lawyers. Microsoft's team included Bear Stearns Cos., Blackstone Group LP and Morgan Stanley, while *****'s group was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The advice didn't come cheaply. *****, for instance, said it had already spent $14 million through March on help hired to grapple with the Microsoft bid.

One person familiar with the deal said Yang told Ballmer at the April 30 meeting that he thought ***** was worth $38 per share. Another person denied Yang threw out a specific figure at that meeting. But these two people agreed Ballmer told Yang he thought he could come up with "a couple more dollars." Microsoft's board also met April 30 to consider raising the bid. Ballmer contacted Yang May 1 to let him know he was "formally offering a couple dollars more," one person said. On May 2, Smith called Ronald Olson, an outside lawyer for *****, to make it clear Microsoft would pay $33 per share and the offer could be presented to *****'s board.

The next day, Yang and fellow ***** founder David Filo flew on a private jet to meet with Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's head of online operations, at a Seattle airport. Ballmer reiterated Microsoft's new offer of $33 per share, a 12 percent increase from the value of the original bid, which had fallen to $29.40 per share because half the purchase was to have been financed with Microsoft's declining stock. The shares had dropped 10 percent since the original bid was made. Yang and Filo said they personally believed ***** was worth $38 per share but could go along with the board's desire for $37 per share.

Filo's presence at this pivotal meeting has puzzled some investors and analysts because he isn't on the company's board. Filo is a major shareholder, though, with a 5.8 percent stake in the company, exceeding Yang's 3.9 percent stake. Activist shareholder Eric Jackson thinks it was a bad idea to entrust a pivotal round of negotiations to two people with deep emotional ties to *****. Yang, 39, and Filo, 41, started ***** in 1994 while graduate students at Stanford University.

The board's decision to let Yang and Filo handle the May 3 talks made them look like "a couple of kids who had been sent along with bad advice from their parents," said Jackson, who is trying to organize an effort to oust *****'s board. The topic of how Microsoft would finance its sweetened bid didn't come up at that Saturday meeting, and it soon became a moot point. Around 4 p.m. that day, Ballmer called Yang to tell him Microsoft was withdrawing its bid.

India among most attractive markets: Merrill Lynch

Mumbai, May 07: India is one of the most attractive markets in the world now because of its high domestic demand and economic growth, Merrill Lynch Chairman and CEO John A Thain said on Thursday.

"If you consider opportunity vis-a-vis risk, India is one of the most attractive markets in the world," Thain said in Mumbai.

Because of its high demand, growth in economy, strength of corporates to go global and huge spending on infrastructure, India would be less affected to the US slowdown, he said.

Thain, however, said that a combination of falling home prices, rising food and energy prices and higher unemployment would result in a pull back of the US economy in the next six to 12 months.

Stating that Merrill Lynch believed that "genuine opportunity would come from outside the US," Thain said he was bullish about China, Russia and Brazil as well.

"China is also a very attractive market for us. But, China is more coupled with the US and that will have much more impact on the Chinese economy," he said.

"The degree of impact (of US slowdown) is different from different countries," Thain added. Merrill Lynch, which recorded about four times top-line growth in India in the last two years and doubles its headcount in half the time, would continue to increase the number of employees in the country, Thain said.

Thain believed India would offer huge opportunity in the coming days for the company as on the wealth management side, Merrill Lynch anticipated huge opportunity emanating from the huge amount of wealth being created and on the investment banking side, India Inc is becoming more global with the outbound M&A activity on the rise.

Merrill Lynch, he said, has global footprint to provide advisory services to the aspiring Indian companies going for outbound merger and acquisitions. But on the wealth management side, the company would continue to target High Net-worth Individuals and not the masses.

"We are focused on HNIs. Our business is selected and not for masses. HNI is a rapidly increasing market in India, Brazil, China and Russia," he said.

Thain said Merrill Lynch, which raised $2.5 billion realty private equity funds for the Asia-pacific region in a week back, would also launch a mutual fund targeting at the sector.