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News Roundup: Ford India’s former Chief to Join Suzlon

By TEAM VCC

  • 04 May 2009

Suzlon ups stake in REpower to 76 pct : Suzlon Energy Ltd has raised its stake in Germany's REpower Systems to 76 percent, after paying Martifer 30 million euros ($40 million) on April 30, the company said in a statement on Monday. In December, Suzlon, the world's fifth-largest wind turbine maker, and Portugal's Martifer entered into an agreement on a revised payment schedule for the latter's 22.4 percent stake in REpower. Under these terms, the first tranche was acquired in December by payment of 65 million euros, the second in April by payment of 30 million euros. 

Spanco May Buyout Spice in Bharat BPO - Spanco BPO, whose planned merger with Spice Group’s BPO arm fell through earlier, is now looking at buying out Spice form their joint venture, Bharat BPO. Soanco and Spice Group had announced in October last year that they would merge their BPO arms- Spanco BPO and OMnia BPO services, top form a new entity, which was expected to be among the top 5 domestic BPO firms in the country. (The Economic Times)

Tata Steel May Re-Bid for Liberian Mine - Tata Steel may accept a Liberian government’s invitation and re-bid for a $1.6-billion iron ore mine from which it was initially barred, and will undertake a fresh exploration process. The company is keen on the Western Cluster project, which has estimated reserves of 3.4-billion tonne, and wants to pre-empt global majors such as ArcelorMittal and Russia’s Severstal. Last year, Tata Steel was barred from bidding for the Western Cluster on the ground of allegedly violating norms. The Liberian government later retracted its allegations and allowed Tata Steel to re-bid for the project. (The Economic Times)

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J&K Bank's MetLife Plan Hits Block - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refused to relax the ceiling it has imposed on banks looking to invest in their insurance joint ventures by disallowing the Jammu & Kashmir Bank from putting more money in MetLifeIndia. Insurance is a cash guzzler, and the RBI move is intended to discourage banks from spending more capital on the insurance JVs they have promoted. According to existing guidelines, banks can invest only up to 10% of their net worth in such insurance JVs. The RBI decision will have implications on life insurers such as ING Vysya Life, ICICI Prudential Life and Kotak Mahindra Life, which have banks as their promoters. (The Economic Times)

Orient Express to Issue Fresh Shares, Sell Assets - New York-listed Orient Express Hotels (OEH), which owns several luxury resorts, tourist trains and cruises, is issuing fresh shares and looking to sell off properties to tide over gathering financial woes, in a move putting the spotlight back on Indian Hotels Corporation (IHCL) that holds 11.5% stake in the troubled global leisure giant. Sources said bankers have approached IHCL to re-look at options with OEH, either buying the latter’s standalone hotels that are on block, or to participate in the just announced common share offering. It is believed that Tatas are not looking at acquiring individual hotels, as that would only bailout the current OEH management increasingly under fire from shareholders. (The Economic Times)

PNB Housing Finance in Talks to Dilute 49% Stake - PNB Housing Finance, the housing finance arm of state-owned Punjab National Bank, is learnt to be in talks with several investors for diluting 49% stake. Sources close to the development say GE Capital and Tata Capital are the front-runners and have submitted termsheets for the transaction. PNB is evaluating the term sheet and the transaction is expected to close in the current quarter. According to sources, PNB Housing Finance has a loan portfolio of close to Rs 4,000 crore and is being valued at Rs 300-350 crore. (The Economic Times)

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Siemens, BHEL to Form JV for Turbines - German engineering major Siemens and state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals plan to form a joint venture for making critical and super critical steam turbines in India, The Economic Times said on Monday. Bharat Heavy Electricals has a technology transfer agreement with Siemens and may convert it into a joint venture agreement. The two companies have initiated talks to float a special purpose vehicle and Siemens confirmed that its executives had met Bharat Heavy officials last week. (Reuters)

GCPL Earmarks Up to $1 Billion for Acquisitions in Emerging Markets - FMCG major, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), is eyeing acquisitions in emerging markets and has earmarked up to $1 billion for the purpose in the current fiscal.  The ideal range (acquisition price) for the company would be around $ 50-100 million. It is open to acquisitions that are synergistic and accretive to our growth. The acquisitions would be funded largely through internal accruals. The soap and hair colour-maker has been monitoring international market conditions closely and is understood to be scouting for opportunities in China, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, South Africa and Mexico. (LiveMint.com)

DLF Plans to Raise Rs 5,500 Crore Through Sale Assets - DLF Ltd, country’s largest real estate developer, plans to raise Rs 5,500 crore through the sale of non-core assets such as power units and hotels to help it reduce its debt. In addition, it is banking on another Rs 2,000 crore of additional inflows from group company DLF Assets (DAL). The plan to sell parts of the non-core business was aimed at lowering the company’s net debt burden by 53.73% to Rs 6,458 crore by March 2010, as against Rs 13,958 at the end of March this year. Out of Rs 5,500 crore, the sale of its wind power business and three land parcels are expected to generate around Rs 2,100 crore, and the remaining amount is expected to come from the sale of other assets such as hotels.

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Max New York Life plans to infuse Rs 800 cr this fiscal : The company plans to infuse fresh apital of Rs 800 crore this fiscal.ure It plans to break even in 2011-12. It is also looking forward to report profit om 2011-12. ( Hindu Business Line

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Ford India’s former Chief to Join Suzlon: Ford India’s former managing director and president, Arvind Mathew is now joining Suzlon Energy, country’s largest wind turbine maker, reports, Hindu Business Line. He is learnt to be joining Suzlon at its headquarters at Pune and would look after its manufacturing operations. Mathew is an engineering graduate from BITS Pilani and also has a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and MBA from the University of Michigan. Mathew has worked with Ford for almost 19 years. He joined the Ford Motor Company in the US in 1990 as its business planning analyst. He joined Ford India in 2003 and worked as its vice-president for manufacturing and supply till 2005 when he became the Managing director of the company. In June last year, he moved back to the company’s headquarters in the US to join the Ford Motor Company as its director of business and strategy. He resigned from the post in January, 200

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