ONGC, Coal India and Jet Airways to see some action today

Upstream oil regulator DGH has approved commerciality of the oil and gas discoveries in the northern area of state-owned ONGC’s prolific KG-D5 block in Bay of Bengal. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has so far made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 which sits next to Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 area. The discoveries in KG-D5 are divided into northern and southern areas, with the former having a total of 10 finds and the later the ultra-deep UD-1 discovery. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the technical advisory arm of the Oil Ministry on upstream oil and gas exploration and production issues, has approved the Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) of Cluster-II. The board of Coal India (CIL) has cleared a long-pending proposal of the national miner to set up a 1,600 MW pithead power plant in Odisha. The board has approved the detailed project report for the (2X 800) facility entailing an investment of Rs 11,000 crore. Nearly 800 acres at the coal-rich Sundergarh district has been earmarked for the project. The land was originally acquired for coal mining. Once the detailed project report (DPR) is cleared, the company will ask the Centre’s permission for land-use change. The company’s board has also approved five new mining projects. However, two large projects such as Garjanbahal (13 mt) in Odisha and Pelnma (15 mt) in Chhattishgarh will take years to start production. Garjanbahal is linked to the 52-km Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega rail link that will take at least two years to become operational. Pelnma is linked to the Bhupdeopur-Raigarh-Mand (180 km) line. Construction of the project is yet to begin. Clearing last of its regulatory hurdles, Jet Airways’ commercial alliance with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, including a Rs 2,060-crore stake sale, has received approval from the Competition Commission of Singapore. While giving its long-pending clearance, Singapore’s fair trade watchdog has ruled that the alliance by its nature has potential to adversely impact competition in the country, but on the balance the efficiencies from the deal outweighs the anti-competitive effect. The deal, which involved purchase of a 24 percent stake in Naresh Goyal-led Jet for about Rs 2,060 crore by Etihad along with other tie-ups, went through turbulent times for months after being announced. TVS Motor Company is planning to set up an engine manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh on an investment of Rs 150 crore. The additional proposed investment will take company’s total investments in the state to around Rs 270 crore. The company has applied to the Himachal Pradesh government for 50 acres of land in the state. TVS current turnover from its existing plant in Himachal Pradesh is Rs 900 crore and it manufactures TVS Star City, TVS Sport, TVS Jupiter and Moped. Though the plant has a production capacity of six lakh units, it produces three lakh units and caters to north and central India markets. Ashok Leyland has appointed a merchant banker to look for buyers for its two foreign subsidiaries - Albonair GmbH, the German arm which works on reducing vehicle emissions, and Czech Republic-based Avia. This is part of company’s plans to sell its non-core assets. The company for the first time in the last six quarters has made an operating profit and is targeting one-third of its revenue from exports in the next three years. The company’s debt level was down to Rs 4,323 crore in September from Rs 4,700 crore in March 2014. Major portion of proceedings from the QIP was used to repay the debt and also the non-core assets proceeds were also used for the same purpose. Having sold off its stake in MCX and IEX, the software company Financial Technologies India (FTIL) will exit from the exchange-related business completely once it finds a suitor for Odin. The company has decided to spin off its automated trading software Odin (Open Dealer Integrated Network) into a separate business unit before eventually selling it. FTIL plans to appoint an investment banker to scout for a majority strategic partner in the new business unit. The software, believed to be used by 70 percent of dealers across trading platforms, facilitates auto-execution of trades based on a particular strategy. With close to one million licencees, Odin is used in over 600 cities and villages. The delay in getting the Centre’s assistance has not deterred FACT in forging ahead with new projects for revenue generation. With an emphasis on agro-related product exports, the fertilizer company is on the verge of establishing a container freight station with assistance from Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda). The project investment will be to the tune of Rs 38 crore, of which 90 percent will be funded by Apeda. FACT’s stake will be only 10 percent plus the land, for which it has earmarked 25 acres in Udyogamandal at Kochi. The proposal, which has been cleared by the board, is now under the consideration of the Union Agriculture Ministry. Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has launched ‘One Touch Internet’, to allow first-time users to discover the power of Internet on phone. ‘One Touch Internet’ is a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) portal designed with a simple, secure and intuitive interface that is aimed to simplify Internet services for non-data users. With this, the company plans to increase its mobile data business from the prepaid segment. As of now, around 90% of the customers are on pre-paid plans and only a small per cent of the overall pre-paid base uses mobile data services. The C K Birla owned Hindustan Motors, which was put under suspension of work since May 24 this year, has offered VRS to all its employees. The VRS notice was pasted on the gates of the company’s Uttarpara unit by the management, which said all workers would be paid their statutory dues plus and additional amount of Rs 1 lakh each. The VRS scheme would be applicable from November 9 till November 20, both days inclusive. The Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors (HM) employed about 2,300 odd workers. HM, which shot to limelight by manufacturing the iconic Ambassador car at its Uttarpara unit, faced troubled fortunes with declining sales of the vehicle over the years owing to onset of competition from Japanese and Korean auto makers.