Breaking News & Stocks

Mahindra to buy 51% in China tractor co.: Report

Mumbai, Aug 18: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, top utility vehicle maker, is likely to acquire 51 percent in Chinese tractor firm Kianbsu Yueda Yancheng, a TV news channel reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

A spokesman for Mahindra, which is holding a news conference later on Monday, was not immediately available.

Mahindra, also the country's top tractor maker, now has a joint venture with Chinese tractor maker Jiangling Motors Co The venture, Mahindra China Tractors, began operations in July 2005.

Mahindra last month bought the assets of motorbike and scooter maker Kinetic Motor. Sources have also said General Motors Corp is in talks with the Indian firm about selling its Hummer brand.

Fortis Healthworld to acquire CRS Health

New Delhi, Aug 17: Fortis Healthworld, a Religare Group company, will acquire pharmacy retail chain CRS Health as part of expansion, while re-christening itself as Religare Wellness.

The company is also repositioning as a health and wellness company with wider range of services.

"This rebranding along with the acquisition is a significant move to take our interest in the wellness retail space to the next level," Religare Enterprises CEO and Managing Director Sunil Godhwani said.

As part of the Rs 15-crore-proposed deal, Fortis HealthWorld will acquire all 27 retail stores and four warehouses of CRS Health in India.

Acquisition and integration under the Religare Wellness brand is expected to be completed within next 30 days.

"We intend extending the brand values and brand equity to various services within our promoter group, wellness retail being one of them," Godhwani said.

Post integration, the total number of the stores under the Religare brand will exceed 100 and the geographical footprint of it would spread from North India to South and West, including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

"Idea is to position stores as holistic, wellness retail destinations operating through different formats," he said. CRS Health has significant presence in South and West India.

Can`t stand losing orders to Chinese firms: CMD BHEL

New Delhi, Aug 18: Competition from homegrown private sector companies isn't all that bad, but losing orders to Chinese firms is what makes state-run power equipment supplier BHEL feel miserable, admits its Chairman and Managing Director K Ravi Kumar.

"I don't mind competition from private domestic players, but I feel bad if the order is won by any Chinese company," he told media, alluding to the 18,000 MW worth equipment orders that the PSU has lost to Chinese companies.

BHEL also recently lost an order for supplying 800 MW super critical technology to Andhra Pradesh Generation Company (APGENCO) to domestic company L&T-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

In India, International Competitive Bidding (ICB) route is strictly adhered to by the companies who bid for supplying equipments to the power projects. Whereas, there is no such system in China.

Asked whether BHEL lost orders despite ICB, Ravi Kumar said: "We have expertise for supplying equipments for 250 and 500 MW but in between suddenly the norms were changed to 300 and 600 MW only to accomodate Chinese firms. But this norm has now been removed."

But in the process, BHEL lost orders worth 18,000 MW from private players.

BHEL, which has joined hands with French equipment maker Alstom for manufacturing 800 MW in the super-critical technology, is bidding aggressively and is hoping to get orders in this in the near future.

Union Bank ties up with Edelweiss, Wealth Advisors

Bangalore, Aug 18: Union Bank of India (UBI) has tied up with Edelweiss Securities Ltd, and Wealth Advisors India (P) Ltd to offer wealth management services (WMS) to its high net worth clients.

Edelweiss would take care of the bank's east and west zone clients, and Wealth Advisors its north and south zone ones, UBI's Executive Director T Y Prabhu said.

Initially, the WMS was being launched in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

UBI expects to cover 500 to 600 high networth individual (HNI) clients under this new initiative, which comes after the bank realised that it is losing market share in the high networth segment, by March next year.

"At present, the bank has more than 25,000 HNI clients and expect the number to grow multi-fold due to various transformation that have been initiated in its system", Prabhu told reporters.

"The growth of the economy and growth in the number of high net worth customers of the bank, has given great opportunities to the bank to offer WMS to its customers".

Mahadevan V, Director and CEO of Wealth Advisors, part of the J V Gokal Group, said: "With the emergence of diversified asset classes and significant growth in wealth information, we see a great potential demand for such specialised offerings in India going forward".

According to Bank officials, the target clients for WMS are those with the capability to maintain a total liability relationship with the bank in excess of Rs ten lakh and NRIs having good financial background and high liquidity generation capabilities, among others.

UBI eyes expansion overseas

Union Bank of India is exploring the possibility of opening representative office or branch in five to ten overseas locations, its Executive Director T Y Prabhu said on Monday.

UBI was eyeing Australia, New Zealand, Canada, a few countries in Africa and the far-east for such initiatives, he told reporters here.

The bank recently opened a branch in Hong Kong, he said, adding, it would convert its representative office in Shanghai into a branch next year. It also has a representative office in Abu Dhabi.

UBI planned to raise tier-II capital of Rs 500 crore "once the interest rate stabilises", Prabhu said. "We have a headroom for raising tier-II capital of Rs 3,000 crore".

He said the bank was tracking a credit growth of 20 percent in the second quarter (July-September 2008).

Bureau Report //////////////// BSNL to start 3G services by Dec New Delhi, Aug 18: State-owned BSNL has set an ambitious target of starting next generation 3G mobile services in December to take a lead over private operators and has placed the purchase orders for the northern, eastern and western zones. In a communication to all Chief General Managers of telecom circles or districts, BSNL has asked them to take further necessary actions at their end so that 3G services are launched by December, 2008.

While announcing the 3G policy, Communication and IT Minister A Raja had given the advantage to telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL of allocating 3G spectrum ahead of others with a condition that both will pay the price equivalent to the highest bid.

This was done keeping in mind the cumbersome process to procure equipments by the PSUs vis--vis by the private players.

"The 3G Purchase Orders (POs) issued earlier by the circles of north and east zones were kept in abeyance because of non availability of 3G spectrum. As the 3G spectrum has now been allocated to BSNL, the 3G POs will become effective from the date of issuance of this letter (August 11, 2008)," BSNL said in the letter.

Whereas for the western and southern zones, the POs for 3G equipments has been placed with the ITI under reserve quota.

While releasing the radio frequency for the PSU, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has said that one time spectrum fee at a price equal to highest bid as determined in respective areas is payable by BSNL.

"Further, BSNL is also to pay annual spectrum usage charge of one percent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) after a period of one year from the date of earmarking of frequencies that is August 8, 2008," BSNL said.

Adhunik Metaliks plans Rs 3 bn IPO for mining unit

Mumbai, Aug 19: Speciality steel maker Adhunik Metaliks Ltd will raise 2.5 to 3 billion rupees through an initial public offering of shares in its mining subsidiary, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The subsidiary, Orissa Manganese & Minerals Ltd, clocked a turnover of 250 million rupees in the April-June quarter. The firm also plans to set up a pellet plant and two ferro alloy plants with an investment of 11 billion rupees.

"We have been able to get resources necessary for the growth of our business, this will give us long-term benefits," chief financial officer Alok Kumar Shardha said on the sidelines of a press conference.

The plants will convert iron ore fines into pellets and process low grade manganese ore waste for use in the ferroalloy unit.

“The pellet and ferro-alloy plants will be operational in two years,” managing director Manoj Kumar Agarwal said.

Shares of the company were up 1.55 percent at 120.95 rupees in a weak Mumbai market.

TCS may buy Citi`s India BPO arm

Mumbai, Aug 19: Tata Consultancy Services is close to acquiring Citigroup's captive back office unit in India for about USD 500-550 million, a leading business daily reported.

The announcement of a deal for Citigroup Global Services is likely to be made "within three weeks", according to sources close to the development.

TCS, India's top software services exporter, has edged IBM in the race for the Citi unit and the deal would guarantee TCS business for the unit from Citigroup for five years.

A spokesman for Citi in India declined comment on the report. A spokesman for TCS also declined comment, calling the report speculative.

The paper had reported in June that Citigroup was restructuring its India back office operations and that it may sell or outsource most of these assets.

Citigroup unveiled a reorganisation of its Asia-Pacific business on Monday, giving its regional heads increased authority.

Sensex down 78 pts, closes at 14,646

Mumbai, Aug 18: Resuming trade after a three-day long weekend, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex closed the day lower by over 78 points with metal, refinery and auto stocks ending in the red amid a weakening trend in Asian stock markets.

The 30-share BSE barometer moved between 14,824.92 and 14,600.65 points before closing with a loss of 78.52 points at 14,645.66.

National Stock Exchange index Nifty also fell by 37.65 points at 4,393.05, after touching the day's low of 4,379.85 and a high of 4,447.40 points.

Marketmen said inflation touching a new high of 12.44 percent for the week ended August 2 impacted the trading sentiment and investors turned their attention to alternate options like gold.

A melting trend in other Asian stock markets, led by Hong Kong, taking cues from a weak trend in the US markets on Friday, also cast a shadow on domestic stock markets.

Hong Kong stocks fell, dragging the benchmark index to a one-year low, on concerns over the city's slowest economic growth in five years. The Hang Seng Index lost 229.91 points to 20,930.67, a lowest close since Aug 17, 2007.

On BSE, metal index suffered the most by losing 229.73 points at 12,364.17 as sector majors Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Saw, Jindal Steel. SAIL and Sesa Goa fell sharply.

Among 15 index constituents, Gujrat NRE Coke ended in positive direction.

Oil and gas index was second worst performer by losing 200.44 points at 9,996.61. Sector major and Sensex-heavy Reliance Industries record heavy losses by falling Rs 50.35 at Rs 2224.95 after reports of a rise in crude oil prices. In the refinery sector, barring ONGC, other 11 stocks fell.

Day of triumphs for India as Sushil, Vijender bring Olympics glory

Beijing, Aug 20: Wednesday, the 20th of August turned out to be a golden letter day for India, as unheralded grappler Sushil Kumar clinched a bronze medal while boxer Vijender Singh assured himself of at least a bronze to give the country a record three medals for the first time ever.

After Abhinav Bindra's gold-winning feat during the first week of the sporting extravaganza, the 25-year-old Sushil Kumar shot into fame by winning a bronze medal in the wrestling arena while Vijender has put himself on course for a silver or gold medal on a historic day for Indian sports.

Sushil and Vijender's heroics not only provided the late sparks to what was otherwise turning out to be a dismal campaign but also created a record of sorts as India had never returned with three medals from a single Olympics.

India had won two Olympic medals in the 1952 Helsinki Games when the hockey team won gold medal and wrestler KD Jadhav won a bronze medal, a record which stood untouched for 56 long years.

While Sushil and Vijender did the country proud, there was some heartbreak with another medal contender, pugilist Jitender Kumar, losing his quarter-final bout despite a valiant effort in the ring.

After days of disappointments, it turned out to be a day to cherish for the Indians as Sushil found his way to the record books by becoming only the second wrestler in India's Olympic history to win a bronze medal in the men's 66 kg freestyle category.

Vijender then brought more cheers for the contingent by beating Ecuador's Carlos Gongora in the quarter finals of the 75 kg category with a 9-4 verdict.

Sushil's campaign seemed nearly over when he lost his first round battle against eventual silver medallist Andriy Stadnik but repechage provided him a ray of hope and the Indian proved simply irresistible as he beat three grapplers on the trot to win the bronze.

Down in the dumps after his opening round defeat, Sushil came up with an incredible show, beating Doug Schwab (USA), Albert Batyrov (Belarus) and finally the losing semi finalist Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan) in the repechage rounds to earn his slice of history.

Incidentally, in the 2006 Doha Asian Games also, Sushil had beaten Leonid to win bronze.

"Probably you may say that there was no expectation from the people back home and the media too. But I and my coach (Satpal) always knew I had a fair chance of winning a medal and I'm happy I could achieve that," a beaming Sushil said after winning the medal at the China Agricultural University here.

"While it is good not to have that burden of expectation on your shoulder, I think we can give even more provided we get better facilities," said the wrestler.

Against Leonid, Sushil grabbed early initiative by scoring two technical points that proved decisive in the end.

Though the Kazakh grappler scored one in the second period and managed to thwart Sushil, the Indian proved his superiority again in the third period and eventually prevailed 3-2 to trigger frenzied celebration among the Indians present at the venue.

"I thought I'll do whatever it takes and the end result is the medal is mine. It's an unforgettable moment in my life and it seems I'm living in a dream," Sushil said.

Meanwhile, Vijender Singh made up for the disappointment of Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar not making it to the medal round by ensuring at least the bronze by becoming the first Indian boxer to enter the Olympic semi-finals at the Beijing Games here on Wednesday.

A little over an hour after Jitender Kumar had fought valiantly but lost his flyweight quarter-final bout, his Bhiwani stable-mate Vijender pummelled Ecuadorian Carlos Gongora 9-4 to enter the semi-finals.

Vijender made sure India got its first-ever boxing medal and also made it the first occasion that an Indian contingent will return home from an Olympic Games with more than two medals.

In the semi-finals, Vijender will clash with Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux, who edged out Uzbek Elshod Rasulov 9-7 on points and may well fancy his chances against the 23-year-old Cuban.

Sensex falls 0.8% early, Tata Motors up

Mumbai, Aug 21: Indian shares fell as much as 0.8 percent early on Thursday, led by Reliance Industries and Housing Development Finance Corp as higher oil prices kept the focus on inflation and tight policy.

Tata Motors bucked the trend, rallying 3 percent to Rs 436.90 after the top vehicle maker said late on Wednesday said it was scrapping a USD 686 million convertible preference issue due to weak markets and instead sell some investments to raise money.

By 9:57 a.m the 30-share BSE index was down 0.61 percent, or 89.65 points at 14,589.09 after touching a low of 14,561.56.

The 50-issue NSE index was down 0.6 percent at 4,389.05 points.

Maruti plans 2 lakh exports annually

New Delhi, Aug 20: Set to play a much bigger role in Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corp's global operations, Maruti Suzuki India plans to export two lakh cars annually by 2010-11 to be led by international model A-Star.

The company, which had announced that it aimed to sell one million cars in the domestic market by the same time frame, is also planning to introduce more fuel efficient next generation engines in three to five years time.

"When we exported about 53,000 cars in 2007-08, that was the highest ever in our history. But we now want to take it to 200,000 cars annually by 2010-11," Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said in his address to shareholders in the company's annual report.

He said the company's effort would be led by Suzuki's fifth World Strategic model A-Star, which will be manufactured exclusively by Maruti Suzuki.

"It will be exported mainly to Europe but also to other markets in the world," he added.

"While Europe is important, we need not be confined to it. Suzuki operations in South Asia, South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa can also gain from the experience and expertise of Maruti Suzuki," Nakanishi said.

He said by focussing on India alone, MSI had become a major contributor to Suzuki's global turnover and profit and it was time for the company to strive for the next level.

"Let us now channalise it to the next level, where we become the exclusive base to manufacture small cars for Europe. The A-Star model will become a reality," he said.