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News Round Up : Aviation Bail Out, Jet Airways Lays Off 1900

By TEAM VCC

  • 16 Oct 2008

Aviation Bailout : Air India set to get Rs 2500 Cr; Airline tax may be cut

Owing to the funds' crunch, Air India is set to get Rs 1000-1500 crore to meet its requirements, plus about Rs 1000 crore for working capital, from government, announced Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel in Hyderabad.  The central government is mulling lowering tax rates and operating charges to help airlines hurt by rising ATF costs and huge losses. According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), India is one the most expensive places to buy jet fuel.

Jet Retrenches 1900, Kingfisher To Emulate

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Jet Airways announced sacking of total of 1900 staff. Both Kingfisher and Jet, India's biggest private carriers, are contemplating to lay off more employees as part of their strategy to

synergize resources and cut costs. Besides, both of them are also sending back 15 narrow bodied aircrafts to the leasing companies after the end of the leasing period later this year and in 2009.

PNB Cuts Interest Rate : Punjab National bank has taken the lead and slashed the interest rate

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on various loans by half a percentage point for all existing and new customers, freeing the customers from worrying about rising interest rates. The announcement came before RBI had announced its 100 bps cut in CRR. This initiative by PNB is going to prompt more banks to reduce back interest rates which had increased in last few months.

Telecom

Bharti Ties Up With Infosys & IBM for DTH & CRM : Bharti Airtel has entered into a technology tie-up with Infosys Technologies for rolling out its Direct to Home (DTH) television

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venture.For Airtel's DTH services, Infosys will offer a suite of products like devices, application servers and interactive applications, using its digital convergence platform. On Thursday,

Bharti launched the DTH service in 62 cities. In a separate contract, Bharti entered into an outsourcing agreement with IBM Corp.'s IBM Managed Business Process Services to enhance its customer service experience for its top end platinum customers, but did not disclose any figures.

 

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TRAI contemplating licence fee on tower infra firms A number of mobile operators that have hived off their tower infrastructure into separate companies, which includes Bharti, Reliance Communications may have to shell out more for the additional licence fee that TRAI is mulling to impose on them as taxes on tower business revenues. Telcos have to pay about 6-10 per cent of their annual revenues as licence fee to the government, which is not so in case of their tower businesses as of now.

Policy

FM announces first instalment of farm debt waiver for Banks & Nabard : India's Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram announced  that RBI shall provide commercial banks and NABARD with temporary liquidity support of Rs 25000 cr on Nov 1 for the farm debt waiver's first instalment reimbursement amount due to them from government.

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M&As

BHEL mulls buying Czech firm Skoda Power : Czech power utility company Skoda Power, a subsidiary of Skoda Holdings has one more acquirer in race, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL). Skoda Power is a leading European manufacturer and supplier of technological equipment and provides customer services in the field of power generation. Already there are about 15 global firms that are competing to buy Skoda Power in online bidding. BHEL is soon to appoint a consultant for its overseas acquisition unit and has invited PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG for advising it.

 

AP aerospace SEZ to be led by Tatas : India's first special economic zone (SEZ) dedicated to aerospace and precision engineering is going to be developed by Tatas in Andhra Pradesh. Located near the international airport on the outskirts of Hyderabad, spread over 300 acres, Tata Advance Systems, which would set up the project with an outlay of Rs 500 crore, have been allotted 50 acres by APIIC for the same.

Tatas to shell out Rs 400 cr to Gujarat for Sanand land : The State government has allotted 1100 acres of land to the Tatas for rolling out the Nano at the current market price of Rs 900 a sq. metre, valuing it at Rs 400.65 cr. At a meeting presided by Gujarat's Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, the State Cabinet took this decision as part of its weekly meeting. The land had been allotted at Northcotepura, near Sanand last week.

Sterlite Wants Asacrco To Lower Price  : Sterlite said that it will only buy the bankrupt copper producer Asarco if it lowers its valuation. The current bid is at $2.6 billion. Worldwide the

prices of metals have plunged and Sterlite wants to renegotiate price in this environment, reports Business Standard. The companies will attend a court-ordered mediation session on October 30 with Asarco's parent, Grupo Mexico SAB, which has proposed a competing, $2.7 billion

reorganisation plan, Kinzie said.

 

Calsoft Closes In On Acquisitions - Chennai-based California Software Company has closed in on two companies as potential acquisition targets and plans to acquire at least one of them. While one of the targets is into networking, the other deals in embedded space. The

companies have a combined valuation of $10 million and acquisitions are expected to be done by next year.

 

Japan's NTT DoCoMo Eyes Stake In Tata Tele - Japanese telecom giant may invest $2.5 billion in Tata Teleservices Ltd for a 26% stake. The deal values the CDMA player at about $9.61 billion. Tata was also in talks with European telecom giant France Telecom.

Tata Tele will use the money to expand its services across India on GSM standard.

 

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