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News Roundup: Monnet Joins Race to Acquire Orissa Sponge

By TEAM VCC

  • 25 Feb 2009

Sun to Offer 22% More for Taro - Pharmaceuticals is learnt to have decided to offer a revised bid to acquire Israel-based Taro Pharmaceuticals. Priced at $9.5 a share, which is 22% higher than the existing offer of $7.75 a share, Sun’s revised bid is a part of the settlement which also proposes that the foreign company will withdraw legal suits it had filed against Mumbai-based firm with the Israeli Supreme Court. The revised offer is far lower than the $15 a share demanded by Taro chairman Barrie Levitt. (The Economic Times)

Monnet Joins Race to Acquire Orissa Sponge - Delhi-based Monnet Ispat and Power has joined the race to acquire Orissa Sponge. Monnet Ispat has already acquired a 27% stake in the company. Sanjay Singhal and Neeraj Singhal, the promoters of Bhushan power and Bhushan steel respectively, have already been fighting over the control of the company. After buying a total of 54 million shares, Monnet Ispat has now become the Frontrunner for acquiring the company. According to sources, Monnet has also acquired 7 million warrants from P.K Mohanty, executive vice-chairman and managing director, Orissa Sponge. Mohanty holds around 41% stake in Orissa Sponge. (Business Standard)

SEBI Paves Way for Preferential Share Issue at Satyam - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has paved the way for fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services to issue preferential shares to a strategic investor at a price which can be lower than what rules allowed till now. At present, the pricing of a preferential issue is based on the average price of the stock for two weeks or six months, whichever is higher, from the relevant date (which is 30 days prior to shareholders’ approval). This can now be relaxed, possibly to two weeks average price. On Tuesday, SEBI followed up with a communication to allow a relaxation in the pricing of the preferential allotment. Any company, which plans to acquire Satyam, will have to invest in preferential shares and subsequently make an open offer. (The Economic Times)

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LIC Hikes Stake in ICICI Bank by 2.04% - State run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has raised its stake in ICICI Bank by 2.04% to 9.38% through market purchases. LIC bought 22.80 million shares for Rs 14.56 billion  ($290 million) over the last four months. ICICI shares tumbled 63.6% in 2008, compared to a 52% fall in the benchmark index. ICICI has fallen 27.9% so far in 2009. (Reuters)

Unitech Sells Gurgaon Hotel for Rs 230 Crore to HNI - Unitech, the beleaguered real estate firm, has sold its 200 room budget hotel Courtyard by Marriott in Gurgaon to Delh based Roop Madan, a high net worth individual (HNI), for around Rs 230 crore. According to sources, the agreement has already been signed and a formal announcement is expected in the next couple of days. This would be the first asset sale by Unitech, which has decided to mop up funds by selling assets such as hotel, commercial real estate and institutional land. Sources said that Unitech was also in discussion with a group of HNIs to divest 225,000 sq ft of office space in South Delhi for around Rs 500 crore. The company is planning to sell the office space on a floor basis to HNIs. Unitech has also withdrawn its proposal to raise Rs 5,000 crore through issues in overseas markets. (Business Standard)

Harsh Mariwala Quits Mirc Board - Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala has resigned from the board of consumer electronics company Mirc Electronics. Mariwala follows a policy of not staying on board of any company as an independent director for more than four years. According to sources, Mariwala had told Gulu Mirchandani, chairman, Mirc about his plans to quit from the company board a few months back. (The Economic Times)

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J S Shin Appointed as President for Samsung’s South-West Asia Operations - South Korean electronics giant Samsung on Tuesday said it has appointed Mr Jung Soo Shin as President and CEO for its south-west Asia operations. In his new role, Mr Shin will oversee the operations of all existing Samsung subsidiaries in India, namely Samsung India Electronics, Samsung India Software Operations (SISO), its research and development centre in Bangalore and head SAARC region. Prior to this appointment, Mr Shin was Head of Marketing for Samsung's Digital Appliances Business.  ()

TTSL to Invest Rs 35 Crore in Gujarat to Set Up 100 Cell Sites - Telecom service provider, Tata Teleservices Limited, has announced that the company will be investing additional Rs 35 crore in Gujarat to set up 100 cell sites by August 2009. The company had earlier made an announcement of investing Rs 125 crore in the state till March 2009. On the VAS side, the company has tied up with product development and engineering services provide, Impetus Technologies to launch services for rural VAS market in India. (Business Standard)

Max New York May Evaluate Stakes in Satyam - Max New York Life Insurance Company Limited (MNYL), a joint venture between Max India and US-based New York Life, will evaluate whether to hike its stake in the beleaguered Satyam Computer Services once a credible strategic investor comes into the company. MNYL had sold most of its holding in Satyam immediately after the IT major made an aborted bid to acquire Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties for $1.6 billion on December 16, 2008. MNYL still holds 6,000 equity shares of Satyam. (Business Standard)

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S&P Outlook Turns Negative on 12 Indian Banks - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised the outlook on the counterparty credit ratings for the Indian banks to negative from stable. The banks rated include Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., IDBI Bank Ltd., Indian Overseas Bank,  Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India. The negative outlook on the 12 banks reflects that on the sovereign ratings, after factoring in implicit support from the Indian government. However, sharp deterioration in a bank's stand-alone financial performance may lead to a rating downgrade independent of the sovereign ratings' direction. (The Economic Times)

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