Business

Mumbai, July 20:Tata Steel, the world’s sixth-largest steel maker, on Monday was set to launch the sale of global depositary receipts worth $400 million, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal said.

“We hope to formally launch the issue in a while,” a person involved in the deal said, declining to be named.

Citigroup and JPMorgan are the arrangers for the deal, the sources said.

Earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said Tata Steel was looking to raise as much as $600 million through a GDR offering.

—-Agencies

Mumbai, July 20: Benchmark Prime Lending Rate has been reduced to 15.75 per cent per annum with effect from July 20, HDFC Bank said on its website.

The cut in lending rate follows the reduction in the fixed deposits rate effective from May 18.

In the past six months, the PLR has been reduced by 75 basis points. The bank last reduced its PLR in December 2008, when the rate was brought down by 50 basis points to 16 per cent.

Private sector lenders mostly give loans below PLR.

However, some of the corporate loans are linked to the benchmark rate.

New York, July 20: Key creditors have agreed to put up $3 billion in financing for CIT group, a top lender for small US businesses that last week tottered on the brink of bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The company wrung an agreement from creditors that will mean CIT can avoid bankruptcy and restructure outside of bankruptcy court, the Journal reported in a flash online.

A bankruptcy would have sent shudders down the chain of small businesses that rely on CIT, for example, retailers who are trying to get ready for Christmas sales.

New Delhi, July 20: After accusing government of partisanship in the RIL-RNRL gas dispute, ADAG chief Anil Ambani has now brought the matter in Prime Minister’s notice by writing a letter.

As per a newspaper report, Anil in his letter dated July 15 has accused the Petroleum Ministry of being partisan and biased towards his brother Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

Mumbai, July 20: Healthcare service provider Apollo Hospitals on Saturday reported a net profit of Rs 44.8 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2009.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 29.27 crore during the same period last year, Apollo Hospitals said in a filing to the BSE.

The total income of the Group also increased from Rs 329.07 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 to Rs 405.95 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.

Shares of the company were trading at Rs 551.60 up by 1.17 per cent over the previous close in the after noon BSE.

–Agencies–

Kolkata, July 20: The government would not go for privatisation of profit-making PSUs, Secretary with the Department of Public Enterprises, R Banerjee, has said.

Speaking at an interactive session organised here by the Indian Chamber of Commerce last night, he said, “Profit-making PSUs will not be privatised,” and clarified that privatisation means bringing down the government holding to below 51 per cent.

Banerjee said that the PSUs which will be categorised under the ‘Maharatna´ status, will be given full commercial and managerial autonomy.

West Bengal, July 19: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said that the government would continue with its reform programme, but ruled out any possibilities of the government diluting its stake below 51 per cent in the public sector banks (PSB).

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has been pursuing the banking reforms agenda for quite some time and it is the “solid government stakeholding in the PSU banks” that has actually enabled the Indian banks to tide over the global economic downturn, he said.

London, July 19: Indian-born steel tycoon Lord Swraj Paul, a high-profile supporter of Labour, says he will stop

bankrolling Britain’s ruling party if he is forced to give up his non-domicile tax status under a proposed legislation. He is supported by other high-profile Indian-origin businessmen like Sir Ghulam Noon.

Billionaire Paul, founder and chairman of the Caparo Group of industries, is a long-standing Labour backer, and had promised to bankroll the cash-starved party at the coming general elections due by June 3, 2010.

New Delhi, July 19: 26 Cr Penalty On Kingfisher by Govt, The Income Tax authorities have slapped Vijay Mallya held-Kingfisher Airlines with a Rs 26-crore penalty notice for delayed payment of tax deducted at source (TDS).

“In case of Kingfisher Airlines Pvt Ltd, a penalty of Rs 26.46 crore for the delayed remittance of deducted tax has been levied,” minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Spicejet and MDLR were the other two airlines that came under scrutiny of the tax authorities for not remitting the TDS on time.

New Delhi, July 19: India-Bangladesh bilateral trade can double by 2011, says the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which has suggested a multi-pronged action agenda for creating a favourable investment climate.

According to FICCI, India’s trade with Bangladesh increased from $1 billion in 2001-02 to $3.17 billion in 2007-08, more than three folds, mainly on the back of a 79.4 percent increase in India’s exports.

London, July 19: India’s Tata Motors has threatened to scrap its plan to launch Vista electric cars in the UK if it does not receive a 10 million pounds loan from the British government soon, The Observer reported on Sunday.

“The company is furious after being told by officials from (Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills) Lord Peter Mandelson’s business department that it needed more time to find out if the venture will be considered for the loan – taking the total wait to six months,” it said.

Mumbai, July 19: Targets Of TCS $3bn Recover From BPO In 5 Yrs, Tata Consultancy Services on Saturday said it is targeting business process outsourcing (BPO) revenues of 3 billion dollars in the next five years.

“There is a huge amount of opportunity through BPO. The global spend of BPO is estimated at $400 billion by 2013,” TCS COO N Chandrasekaran told reporters.

“We want to take our BPO revenues to $3 billion in the next five years from Rs 800 crore, which we registered in the first quarter of this year,” he said.

New Delhi, July 19: A comprehensive restructuring plan to retrieve Air India from the current financial mess is expected to be submitted to the Government this week. By July 25th,the airline’s management is scheduled to put before the Committee of Secretaries (headed by Cabinet Secretary K Chandrashekhar) a business plan to turn around the nationalcarrier.

This plan would mention specific steps AI would take over the next 24 months to cut costs and boost revenues, in a bid to elicit Government support in the form of equity.

Kolkata, July 18: Public sector Allahabad Bank has reported a 3-fold rise in first quarter net profit at Rs 303 crore.

The bank had a net profit of Rs 93 crore in the June quarter of the last fiscal.

The jump in net profit had been due to improved treasury operations, Bank Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath said.

Net interest margin (NIM) of the bank in the first quarter stood at three per cent compared to 2.60 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal.

New Delhi, July 18: The government on Saturday filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to declare as “null and void” the private family agreement of the Ambanis that provides for gas supply by RIL to RNRL.

The government petition has named as respondents RIL led by Mukesh Ambani and RNRL headed by Anil Ambani which have separately filed cross-petitions against the Bombay High Court June 15 judgement.

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New Delhi, July 18: A divergent trend developed in the bullion market in the national capital today as silver prices surged by Rs 180 to Rs 22,200 per kg on emergence of buying by stockists while gold lost Rs 10 to end at Rs 14,990 per 10 grams due to selling by stockists.

Buying in silver picked up as stockists and jewellery makers indulged in enlarging their positions ahead of festival season and a firming global trend.

Reduced offtake at existing higher levels caused gold to trade in the negative zone.

New Delhi, July 18: India’s central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to pay account holders a compensation of Rs.100 per day if they delay in re-crediting the amount of a failed ATM transaction beyond 12 days.

“It is mandatory for the banks to reimburse the customers, the amount wrongfully debited on account of failed ATM transactions within a maximum period of 12 working days,” the RBI said in a notification.

Mumbai, July 18: Top energy firm, Reliance Industries Ltd, is expected to post a dip in quarterly profit on tighter refining margins, while leading oil producer ONGC is forecast to say profit fell on lower crude prices.

Reliance, the country’s largest listed company with a market value of USD 60 billion, began pumping gas from its vast, newly developed field off India’s east coast in April, which should help it offset shrinking refining margins in coming quarters.

Mumbai, July 18: Tata Consultancy Services, India’s top software services firm by sales, on Saturday said it was aiming to grow its back office services revenue to $3 billion in five years.

The company’s revenue from the segment, also known as business process outsourcing, was $615 million in the last fiscal year that ended March 31.

“We have an ambitious goal … the market opportunity is clearly there,” N. Chandrasekaran, chief operating officer, told reporters. Back office services contributed about 11 percent to TCS’s total revenue in the June quarter.

New Delhi, July 18: The public sector telecommunication company BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) has tied up with leading mobile & digital entertainment company Hungama Digital Media Entertainment to launch BSNL.Hungama.com.

BSNL.Hungama.com, the digital entertainment store, is exclusively available for four million BSNL broadband subscribers. The service allows BSNL subscribers to download unlimited music and videos for Rs. 149. The service also offers unlimited game downloads for additional Rs 49 a month.

Mumbai, July 18: Stronger global cues and optimism about encouraging corporate earnings, in addition to revival of the monsoon helped the markets recover their post-budget losses with over 9 per cent jump in key indices.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended the week up 1,240.70 points or 9.19 per cent at a two-week high of 14,744.92 points from its previous week’s close.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) 50-share Nifty also rebounded by 371.05 points or 9.27 per cent to close the week ended July 18 at 4,374.95 points.

Johannesburg, July 18: Diamond Trading Co (DTC) Botswana, the sales arm of global diamond major De Beers, has appointed an Indian diamond producer as its sightholder to ensure the sustainability of its diamond manufacturing capacity in the African country.

Shrenuj Botswana, which is part of the Mumbai-headquartered Shrenuj India group, will now be authorised to buy rough diamonds.

A sightholder is a company on DTC’s list of authorised bulk purchasers of rough diamonds. The De Beers group is the single largest producer and purveyor of rough diamonds in the world.

Toronto, July 18: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) will pay $267.5 million to California-based Visto Corp to settle a patent infringement lawsuit.

Visto, which is a wireless e-mail company, had slapped the lawsuit on RIM in a Texas court for patent infringements in 2006.

In its lawsuit, the US company had said that RIM was using its technology without authorisation. Visto’s software is used Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel Corp.

New Delhi, July 18: The Reserve Bank of India today asked banks to reimburse customers the amount wrongfully debited from their accounts in failed ATM transactions within 12 days of the customer complaint.

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‘RBI to ensure benign, stable interest rates’Failure to re-credit within 12 working days will require the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 100 per day and this will be credited on the same day when the bank pays back the debited amount for the failed ATM transaction, it said.

Satyam fraud case: HC allows U.S. court to secure documents
New Delhi, July 18: The Delhi High Court on Fridayallowed a request of U.S. district court to examine witnesses and secure documents related to accounting fraud in Satyam Computer (now Mahindra Satyam) from IT industry body NASSCOM.

Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt allowed the plea of UPAID Systems, a British mobile solutions company which had claimed $1 billion compensation from Satyam alleging that fraudulent activities by the IT firm caused huge losses.