Global Economy
Japan PM Announces $ 277 Bn Stimulus Package: Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced a $ 277 bn (26.9 tn yen) stimulus package for the country to help it bear the global economic crisis. Facing pressure from the opposition to call snap elections, Aso has pressed parliament for quick approval of the plan, including five trillion yen in new spending. The package includes sending back a total of two trillion yen ($20.3 bn) to all households.
IMF Comes Up With Loan Programme For Developing Countries: The International Monetary Fund is creating a new program to speed up funding to developing countries that have strong economies but are facing cash crunches due to global financial crisis. A maximum of around $100 billion would be available under the emergency loan program. The IMF’s executive board approved the short-term loan program, termed as a liquidity facility, to speed funds to the 24 poorer countries that includes nations from Latin America, Asia and Africa.
M&As
Karur Vysya Bank Ties Up With SME Rating Agency: Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) has signed a MoU with SME Rating Agency of India Ltd (Smera) proposing co-operation between the two organizations in SME financing by leveraging their strengths. Smera will provide external credit rating on parameters of financial position and qualitative factors that have a bearing on the credit worthiness of the SME.
Godrej To Sell Stake In Hicare: Godrej Industries plans to sell part or whole of its stake in Godrej Hicare. For the same, Godrej Hicare is in the process of hiring an investment banker. Godrej Industries has plans to invest up to Rs 1 bn in Godrej Properties, up to Rs 400 mn in Godrej Hershey and up to Rs 500 mn in Ensemble Holdings & Finance Ltd.
NDTV Enters Into Tie-Up For Distribution With UK's ITV: NDTV has tied up with UK-based ITV for telecast rights of the general entertainment channel of the latter, Granada TV, across India and other South Asian nations. NDTV would offer Indian viewers Granada TV's contemporary dramas, like Prime Suspect, The Jeremy Kyle Show, The Friday Night Project, Ballroom Bootcamp, Airline and Vroom Vroom.
Yahoo, Google May Break Away From Search Deal: Google Inc and Yahoo Inc are likely to announce a decision to walk away from their search deal by the middle of next week. A month back the two had decided to delay implementing the controversial deal, struck in June, due to ongoing discussions with regulators. The deal allows Google to sell advertising for some of Yahoo's online, advertising space and has drawn fierce criticism from advertisers, who fear ad prices will be hiked.
Turkcell In Talks To Buy 51% Stake In Datacom: Turkcell, a Turkish telecom company is in talks to buy 51% stake in Dhoots promoted Datacom Solutions, which received pan-India telecom licence last year. The deal will put the enterprise value of the company at nearly $2.2 bn. The two sides – Dhoots and Mahendra Nahata of HFCL have differences over management of the company, which Turkcell wants to get resolved before buying into the company.
M&M – PTL Merger Approved By Shareholders: The shareholders of tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra have approved the merger of Punjab Tractors (PTL) with itself. Mahindra Group had last year bought 64.64% stake in PTL for over Rs 1,400 cr. The equity shareholders of the company, at its meeting held on October 29 approved the scheme of amalgamation.
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Sterlite Lowers Asarco Offer To $2.1 Bn
: Sterlite Industries has shown renewed interest in buying Asarco for $2.1 bn, which is $500 mn lower than the original offer. Vedanta Group firm Sterlite Industries' had called off its earlier bid to buy out Asarco last week, saying its original offer of $2.6 bn was over-valued given the global financial meltdown and falling copper prices.
People
Amex To Cut 7,000 Jobs, Saves $1.8 Bn: American Express is going to lay off 7,000 employees, reduce compensations, lower operating costs and scale back investments in order to save $1.8 billion in 2009 to beef up its struggle with the ongoing global financial crisis.
Motorola Lays Off 3,000 People, Defers Spinoff Of Cell Phone Unit: Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola Inc is cutting its global workforce by 3,000 employees (4.5% of total), and delaying the spinoff of its troubled cell phone unit. Motorola announced the job cuts just hours after reporting a quarterly net loss of $ 397 mn and cleared that majority of the layoffs would be in the handset division. It had 66,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2007.
Lehman To Rehire 480 Former Employees: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc about 480 ex-employees to assist in winding down its business. Lehman said that during the first few weeks of its bankruptcy case it has been inundated with inquiries from traders, prime brokers, hedge funds, and others for information on their transactions, but its "current workforce is too small to manage this process without incurring unnecessary expenses and delay." Barclays PLC, which had bought the company's core US assets last month, has continued the employment of more than 9,000 Lehman workers.
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Eicher Motors Approves Share Buy-Back:
The board of Eicher Motors has approved the proposal to buy-back its equity shares following a request to this effect from promoters and principal shareholders - Eicher Goodearth Investments Ltd (EGIL), Eicher Motors.
Chinese Firm To Set Up Manufacturing Facility In India: Chinese power equipment maker Dongfang Electric Corp is planning to build a production facility in India, inspite of a statement by a parliamentary committee that said that no Chinese firm is manufacturing here, but only supplying equipment. The company is scouting an Indian partner for setting up the facility and has shortlisted a few locations.
Tata Capital Private Equity Head Shailendra Bhandari Quits - Before the closure of its maiden fund, Private Equity head of Tata Capital Shailendra Bhandari has resigned. Bhandari will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities by the end of July 09. Bhadari earlier headed Centurion Bank of Punjab which got merged with the HDFC Bank in 2007. (The Economic Times)
Godrej Industries Acquires 100% Stake in Subsidiary NBL - FMCG major Godrej Industries has acquired the entire stake in its step down subsidiary Natures Basket Ltd (NBL) for an undisclosed amount. The company has acquired the entire shareholding in NBL from Godrej Agrovet Ltd (GAVL), which itself is a subsidiary of Godrej Industries, it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. According to the FMCG major, shareholders of the company had approved investment in NBL. NBL focuses on specialty food including fresh produce and is positioned as a premium food chain. (The Economic Times)
DLF Raises Rs 1,000 Crore Through Land Sales - DLF has raised around Rs 1,000 crore through sale of land parcels across four cities in the past 4-5 weeks and is on course to close more such deals worth another Rs 500 crore in the coming weeks. This is in keeping with the country’s largest real estate developer’s announced objective of raising Rs 5,500 crore through asset sale and use these funds to halve its Rs 14,000 crore debt by the end of this fiscal. DLF has sold off land parcels in Mumbai, Baroda, Gangtok and NCR. (The Economic Times)
SBI Offers Bharti $1 Billion Loan for MTN - State Bank of India has offered a loan of up to $1 billion to Bharti Airtel to partly fund the Indian telecoms firm's planned stake buy in South Africa's MTN. The government-run bank, which along with its associates controls a quarter of Indian bank loans and deposits, will join a clutch of foreign lenders interested in funding the deal that aims to create the world's third-biggest wireless group with more than 200 million subscribers and combined revenue of $20 billion. ()
Emaar to Try IPO Route Again - Emaar MGF has taken the first step towards return to the stock markets by opening talks with an investment banker, apparently enthused by the success of its peers in raising cash by privately placing shares to institutional investors. The property developer has started preliminary discussions to appoint Kotak Mahindra Capital to handle its initial public offering (IPO), 18 months after its first attempt failed. (The Economic Times)
