Bid for Bombay High, Neelam
New Delhi: Bids will be invited for two of India’s biggest oilfields, Bombay High and Neelam, to foreign oil companies. This is being done to enhance recovery.

Other discovered fields such as D1 and D12 are also likely to be opened for bidding. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission has appointed consultants to study the declining level of output from these oil fields. The Union petroleum ministry will take a final decision in the matter on the basis of the consultants’ findings.

Bombay High's oil output, which had peaked at 3,90,000 barrels per day, is now a lowly 2,30,000 bpd. Neelam’s peak production has declined from its peak of 90,000 bpd to 38,000. Each barrel of increased output would result in a gross foreign exchange saving of $23.
Back to News Review index page

Inflation rises
New Delhi: The inflation rate, measured as per the wholesale price index, has risen for the third consecutive week, and was 1.94 per cent for the week ended 4 September 1999. It was1.81 per cent for the previous week. The rise is attributed to a sharp increase in food and fuel prices. Primary food articles are given a weight of 20 per cent in the wholesale price index.
Back to News Review index page

Dena Bank to retail gold
Mumbai: Dena Bank will retail gold in India. It has signed an agreement with UBS and CommerzBank International, for supplying gold consignments.

The bank has designated six of its branches – Karol Bagh branch (New Delhi), Soni Bazar (Rajkot), Ashram Road (Ahmedabad), T Nagar (Chennai), Zaveri Bazar (Mumbai) – for retailing gold.
Back to News Review index page

Banks see fall in deposits
Mumbai: Banks’ reluctance to aggressively push for increased deposit mobilisation has resulted in a fall in the growth rate of deposits during the first half of the financial year 1999-2000. Deposit growth during the period April to August 1999 was Rs.26,692 crore compared to Rs.30,139 crore during the same period in 1998. These figures are as per a J P Morgan research report.

The report states that the reason for the fall in growth rates of deposits is the emergence of mutual funds as strong competitors to banks. Not only have the capital markets been booming, the 1999-2000 budget had also given various benefits to investors in mutual funds. Mutual funds raised Rs.7,376 crore during the period April to August 1999.
Back to News Review index page

Exim Bank to raise Rs.500 crore
Pune: The Export Import Bank of India is planning to raise Rs.500 crore through a private placement during the financial year 1999-2000.

The bank may also revive its hitherto dormant agreement with Templeton for providing venture capital assistance to the software sector. The agreement was for financing venture capital projects to the tune of $10 million, which Templeton had put on hold earlier.

In the meantime, the bank has sanctioned advances worth Rs.800 crore during the first six months of fiscal 1999-2000. Exim Bank has also disbursed Rs.400 crore during the same period compared to the Rs.500 crore disbursed during the first half of 1998-99.
Back to News Review index page

Newbridge acquires Korea First Bank
Seoul: US-based Newbridge Capital has acquired over a 51 per cent stake in Korea First Bank for $415 million.  Korea First Bank is a nationalised bank. According to the deal, the government has the option to buy back 5 per cent of Korea First Bank after three years, which would mean a return of government control over the bank.

The agreeement is also significant because only recently the government failed in its plans to sell another nationalised bank -- Seoulbank -- to HSBC Holdings of the UK.

Negotiations for the deal have been on between the two banks since December 1998. But the government and Newbridge disagreed on the valuation of the bank’s assets.
Back to News Review index page