GAIL to set up 220 MW gas-based power plant at Raigad

GAIL India is planning to set up 220 MW gas-based power plant at Raigad in Maharashtra at a cost of Rs 1,028 crore. The company has received environmental clearance for the same and also appointed Tractebel Engineering as consultant for preparation of Detail Feasibility Report (DFR). The project is proposed to be located within the company’s existing LPG recovery plant at Raigad.

The state-owned firm plans to use 1 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas to generate 220 mega-watt of electricity at the proposed combined cycle power plant.

GAIL is India's flagship natural gas company integrating all aspects of the natural gas value chain including exploration and production, processing, transmission, distribution and marketing and related services.

FIPB approves Tesco’s $110 million investment proposal in Trent

Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved UK-based Tesco Plc’s proposal to invest $110 million to buy 50% stake in Tata Group’s Trent Hypermarket (THL). THL operates the Star Bazaar retail business and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trent.

Tesco will invest $110 million in the company and the amount could be scaled up later depending on how operations expand in the initial three to four years.

Trent is part of the Tata Group and is engaged in business of retailing. Trent acquired 76% stake in Landmark, one of the largest books and music retail chains in the India.

BHEL enhances output of Obra Thermal Power Station to 216 MW

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has achieved a major landmark in its after-market services business by successfully renovating, modernizing and up-rating a 200 MW thermal set at Obra Thermal Power Station in Uttar Pradesh. Following the renovating and modernization (R&M) of the unit by BHEL, the rated output of the machine has been enhanced to 216 MW and the unit has been synchronized with the grid. After successfully being in operation for its life span of 25 years, the working life of the machine has been further extended by another 15-20 years. R&M of Obra was initiated with the original technology provider but was subsequently executed successfully by BHEL’s own in-house engineering capabilities.

BHEL succeeded in loading the machine to 218 MW i.e 2 MW higher than design capacity with all parameters within the acceptable range. Significantly, this is also the first instance of a successful modernization and up-rating of any 200 MW class machine in India and the technical capability demonstrated by BHEL is a very significant credential for future R&M business in India.

BHEL has already executed R&M/ up-rating of sets up to 120 MW rating with completion of R&M of 4 sets of 120 MW and up-rating of 6 sets of 110 MW units. With the R&M and up-rating of Obra unit 9, BHEL has successfully entered into 200/ 210 MW segment. Presently, R&M of 5 sets of 110 MW units are at different stages of execution by BHEL besides the remaining 4 sets of 200 MW Unit at Obra.

Vijay Mallya buys additional stake in UB Holdings

UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya has bought additional 0.15% stake in United Breweries Holdings (UB Holdings), the principal holding company of the UB Group, for about Rs 26 lakh. Following the acquisition, stake of Mallya and his various affiliated companies stood at 51.10% in the company.

The shares were purchased by Pharma Trading Company, a Kolkata-based company, in which Mallya is one of the directors. The company now owns a 0.78% stake in UB Holdings.

AS on September 31, 2013, the promoters holding in the company stood at 50.96%, while institutions and non-institutions held 7.36% and 41.67% stake in the company, respectively.

Jain Irrigation Systems gains on bagging world’s largest integrated micro irrigation project

Jain Irrigation Systems, the country’s largest Micro Irrigation company and agriculture conglomerate has bagged an order for the prestigious Ramthal-Marol Integrated Micro Irrigation Project in Karnataka. Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam (KBJNL), a division of Water Resources Department of Karnataka, has selected the company through National Competitive Bidding.

The project is valued over Rs 385.70 crore and is one of its kind with water saving potential of up to 50%. More than 7000 farmers from 30,381 acre command area comprising of 35 villages of Bagalkot district, Karnataka will benefit from the project.

Jain Irrigation Systems is a manufacturer of a wide variety of PVC pipes, PE pipes, water and gas transportation pipes, ducts for optical fibre cables and drip irrigation pipes. It is also engaged in tissue culture of bananas and pomegranates and is the world’s largest processor of mangoes and is the world’s second largest processor of onions and vegetables.

Finance Minister favours continuation of curbs on gold imports

Regardless of the likelihood of the current account deficit (CAD) narrowing to less than $ 50 billion, Finance Minister P Chidambaram remains in the favour of continuation of some kind of restriction on gold imports. Some experts, including RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, have recently favoured removing the curbs on gold imports because they lead to smuggling.

According to Finance Minister, the country should attempt to discover gold by itself. Referring to a recent Supreme Court judgement on auction of all closed mines, he said that the Mines Ministry should sell the so-called closed mines because there are persons around the world who have met me and said, 'Give us the mines and we would be able to extract gold’. The minister also reiterated the government's commitment to restrict the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of GDP in the year ending March 2014.

No gold has been imported since July 22, after the Indian government hiked the import duty on the yellow metal. The high duty has further increased gold price in India. In order to contain the widening current account deficit, the government last hiked the duty on gold from 8% to 10%. Prior to this, the government had twice hiked import duty from 4% to 6% and then to 8%. The government in August, had also turned the screws on gold buying, banning imports of coins and medallions and making domestic buyers pay cash. Meanwhile, RBI also acted on multiple fronts for curbing gold imports.

GMR to divest its 40% shareholding in Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport

GMR Infrastructures’ group company - GMR Group had signed a definitive agreement with Malaysian Airports Holding Berhard (MAHB) to divest its 40% equity stake in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (ISG) and LGM Tourism, for 225 million euros amounting Rs 1,910 crore, subject to certain adjustments. This definitive agreement has been signed subsequent to the exercise of Right of First Refusal by MAHB under the existing shareholders agreement of ISG, on December 23, 2013. Rothschild (India) and White & Case LLP acted as Financial Advisors and Legal Counsels respectively to GMR Group.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including the approval of the relevant government authorities and the project lenders to ISG. This is the second major divestment of overseas assets by the GMR Group in less than nine months. Earlier in March 2013, the Group had divested its stakes in GMR Energy (Singapore). The divestment of these two assets is estimated to release around Rs 3,500 crore of capital, simultaneously reducing an estimated Rs 5,000 crore of debt.

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is located on the Anatolian side of Istanbul and is one of the world’s fastest-growing airports. The airport currently hosts more than 58 different carriers covering over 125 destinations. The consortium of Limak Holding, GMR Group and MAHB was selected as the preferred bidder for upgrading and maintaining the airport in July 2007. 

IG Petrochemicals restarts production of PA-1 plant at Taloja

IG Petrochemicals has restarted production and has stabilized operations at one of its Phthalic Anhydride Plant (PA-1) situated at Taloja in state of Maharashtra. The company had taken a planned shutdown of PA-1 plant for change of Catalyst.

IG Petrochemicals is a dominant player in the domestic Phthalic Anhydride (PAN) industry. IGPL has its manufacturing facilities located at Taloja, Maharashtra.

Paper Products sells office property for Rs 7.23 crore

Paper Products has sold a small office property located at Nariman Point, Mumbai in state of Maharashtra for a consideration of Rs 7.23 crore.

Paper Products is a leading consumer packaging company in India. The company offers a wide portfolio of packaging solutions that includes flexible packaging, labeling technologies and specialized cartons.

Markets to get a cautious start of the last trading session of 2013

The mood across the region is cautious and the Indian markets after declining marginally in last session, are likely to get a similar start of the last trading day of the year. Traders will be concerned with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that the challenge of containing inflation is limiting the central bank’s ability to boost economic growth. The banking sector stocks are likely to remain under pressure, as the RBI has said that risks to the banking sector have increased during the past six months due to rising bad loans and has proposed tightening banks' exposure limit for single borrower and single groups. There will be some buzz among the retail stocks as the government cleared proposals by UK-based retail giant Tesco’s proposal to invest around Rs 680 crore. Tesco has sought permission to pick up 50% stake in Trent Hypermarket, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trent, a Tata Group company. Tesco becomes the first MNC to enter multi-brand retail in India. Meanwhile, the RBI has extended the time for issuance of inflation indexed bonds to March 31, 2014 from earlier date of Dec 31, 2013.

The US markets made a mixed closing after trading choppy throughout the day, as many traders remained away from their desks ahead of the upcoming New Year's Day holiday. Lots of the Asian markets are closed today, while some will be trading half day.

Back home, Indian equity markets snapped the lackluster day of trade, slightly in the red with frontline gauges ending below their crucial 21,150 (Sensex) and 6,300 (Nifty) levels in absence of any major trigger. Markets, after a positive opening, entered into red terrain as traders opted to unwind their position approaching the end of the turbulent year. Afterwards, both the bourses traded in tight band throughout the session as investors remained on sidelines ahead of April-November fiscal deficit reading, due on December 31, and the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for December, due on January 2, which will help them gain insights into the extent of the economic slowdown. However, losses remained capped with the CII Business Confidence Index (BCI) rising sharply to 54.9 during the October-December period of 2013-14 fiscal, from 45.7 in the previous quarter. Some support also came in after Reserve Bank of India (RBI), painting an optimistic picture on the external front, underscored that the country was ready for the US Federal Reserve’s tapering, while pegging the current account deficit at below 3% for this fiscal in its eighth Financial Stability Report. Global cues remained mixed with most of the European markets opening in the red terrain, while Asian markets shut shop mostly in the green. Back home, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) like BPCL, HPCL and IOC remained under pressure on talks of increasing the subsidized cylinder cap for households. Selling in banking counter too dampened the sentiments after RBI in its ‘Financial Stability Report-December 2013’, highlighted that risks to the banking sector have increased during the past half-year and that all the risks dimensions captured in the banking stability indicator show increase in vulnerabilities in the banking sector. Additionally, telecom stocks witnessed mixed trend after the government delayed the planned mobile phone spectrum auction in the 900 and 1800 megahertz frequency bands by 10 days from the original schedule, it will now start on February 3. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 50.57 points or 0.24%, to settle at 21143.01, while the CNX Nifty lost 22.70 points or 0.36% to settle at 6,291.10.