Modis may announce open offer for FI stake in Modi Rubber
New Delhi: After a protracted fight with the financial institutions, who have been unsuccessful in selling of their 44 per cent holding in Modi Rubber through international bidding, the Modi family is set to strike back.

It is understood that the family is preparing to make an open offer to buy out the institution stake in Modi Rubber.

While Modi Rubber has paid off substantial amount of the outstanding loans from institutions, the Modi family is understood to be negotiating with HSBC for the latter to take over the balance of the FI loans on their books. Incidentally, HSBC is also being appointed as the advisor to the family on the open offer.
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Bharti Group and SingTel form new company for long distance
New Delhi: The Bharti group and their partner, Singapore Telecom have formed a new company, Bharti Telesonic Ltd, to look after the company’s long distance operations. The new company would be applying the for the long distance operators license, once the company’s infrastructure for the STD service is in place.

It is expected that Singapore Telecom will have a 10 per cent stake in the company while Bharti will have the remaining 90 per cent. The new company proposes to invest up to Rs 1,800 crore for entering the long distance communication along with Singtel.
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Maruti strike over, resumes full production
New Delhi: After more than three weeks of work stoppage due to labour unrest, Maruti Udyog, the country’s largest auto manufacturer, commenced operations.

More than 3,800 employees have since rejoined after giving the good conduct undertaking to produce 1,200 cars in the first day after the strike.

The government has categorically stated that it has no plan to intervene in the ongoing agitation in Maruti. The heavy industries ministry cancelled a meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, with employees' representatives and others concerned on the strike. - UNI
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Even as VW may be looking at Tatas for tie-up, Telco denies spin off
New Delhi: With its entry into India through its subsidiary, Skoda, being temporarily frozen due to confusion over the tariff guidelines for CBU and kit imports, Volkswagen is said to be initiating talks with the Tata Group.

It is understood that senior Volkswagen officials are to visit India early next month for his purpose.

Earlier another Volkwagon group company, Audi AG, decided to freeze its plans for a production facility in India when the government refused to relax the indigenisation levels in its MoU policy which rendered the project unviable for Audi.

Meanwhile, Tata Engineering issued a statement to the NSE confirming that the company is not currently considering spinning off its car project into a separate company.

The statements were in response to the NSE's query following newspaper reports about the group buying shares in the firms. It was not immediately clear how much the Tata Group owned in these companies.
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UK-based National Power to quit India
Mumbai: Following a long list of international energy players, the UK-based National Power has decided to pull out of its projects in India.

These projects include the 1,040 MW Rs 5,400-crore, Visakhapatnam project in Andhra Pradesh and the 1,000 mw North Madras power project, both being jointly setting up with the Hinduja group.

The decision of National Power is in line with its global restructuring strategy, wherein the power company will slowly reduce its presence in India and Asia. The company has stated that outside of the UK, National Power would now focus on the US as the rates of return there have gone up.

In the last 12 months Cogentrix and EDF too pulled out of the 1000 mw Mangalore power project and the 1082 Bhadravati project, respectively. The two companies had cited inordinate delays as the reason for pulling out of the projects.
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Wockhardt to concentrate on super-generics
Mumbai: Indian pharma major, Wockhardt Limited, is refocusing its businesses to exit from low-margin generic drugs and shift to high-volume specialised super-generic drugs market.

Wockhardt acquired the generics drugs business from the Tatas-controlled Merind in 1998. The company will focus on products with high technological benefits and will give more thrust to new drug delivery systems and biotechnology-based products.

The company’s decision also comes from the fact that the generic business was not an attractive area, with the generics turnover going declining every year, especially in the US and the UK generics market. In the domestic generics market, seasonal factors have led to the slowdown but may pick up within 3-4 months.
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