Government moves to divest stake in Oil India Ltd
Mumbai: The government plans to divest its stake in Oil India Ltd and might move a Cabinet note next month, a top official said.

The petroleum ministry is preparing a proposal in consultation with other ministries, including the finance ministry, and would move a cabinet note by end of next month, petroleum secretary MS Srinivasan said on the sidelines of a function.

Srinivasan, however, did not provide details about quantum of stake the government was planning to offload of the company. He did not say how much stake the government planned to offload in the company.

The government holds a near-full stake of 98.13 per cent in the company.

Oil India is the only major state-run company under the Petroleum Ministry that has not been listed on the bourses. Other companies such as ONGC, IOC, BPCL, HPCL and Engineers India Ltd are already listed on the stock exchanges.

The company is anticipating to raise around Rs1,500 crore via an initial public offer (IPO), the proceeds of which could be utilised to fund the expansion plans. The government has budgeted to raise Rs1,651 crore through stake sales in state-run companies in the fiscal year ending in March 2008.

The government is looking forward to invest Rs15,000 crore over the next five years on explorations and acquisitions of state-run as well as overseas prospects.
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Ford to launch diesel Fusion by year-end
Mumbai: Ford India will launch a diesel variant of its mid-size vehicle Ford Fusion by the year-end, and the company is betting on the new vehicle, powered by a 2.5 litre diesel engine, to enhance its share in the premium SUV market, where it commands a 38 per cent share.

"The diesel variant, to be launched by the third quarter of this year, will enable us to have a robust diesel portfolio," Ford India president and managing director Arvind Mathew said.

The company also launched a new version of its sports utility vehicle, Ford Endeavour, priced between Rs14.7 lakh and Rs15.62 lakh (ex showroom Delhi).

Ford India , the wholly owned subsidiary, sold 41,797 units in the year to March 2007, an increase of 45 per cent from the previous year, and aims to maintain its share of the market that is expected to nearly double to 2 million units by 2010.

Ford has sold about 7,000 units of the Endeavour since its launch in 2003 and has 38 percent of the about 15,000 units a year market for premium SUVs.

Ford makes 60,000 vehicles a year at its Chennai plant and has said it is studying various "localisation opportunities" to cut costs to compete more aggressively in the price-sensitive market.
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Autoline Industries steps out of deal with Belgian company
Pune: Auto component manufacturer, Autoline Industries Ltd (AIL), has called off an Rs68-crore deal to acquire 51 per cent stake in Belgian company Stokota NV, terminating a MoU signed earlier this year in February.

According to Gopal Patwardhan, director of AIL, the financials were to be provided by Stokota were within a prescribed timeframe to make a second trans-payment. "Since the information was not given, the MoU automatically lapses," he added.

According to company officials, AIL was looking at alternative proposals for contract manufacturing and technical collaboration locally. Several foreign companies like GM, Volkswagen and Daimler Chrysler are setting up manufacturing facilities in the Chakan -Talegaon area and the coampny has had many enquiries.

Last month, AIL acquired 51 per cent stake in engineering design company Detroit Engineered Products Inc (DEP) of the US, for a total consideration of $7.65 million.
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Tata Motors may raise $450mn in global markets
Mumbai: Tata Motors said on Wednesday it would be raising $450 million (about Rs1,800 crore) in the international market.

In a notice to stock exchanges, the company said that a committee of directors, at its meeting held on Wednesday, approved in principle the raising of additional long-term resources of $450 million.

The funds raised would go towards meeting the capital and product development expenditure related to company's growth projects in its commercial vehicle business unit and passenger car business unit, the company said.

The company did not, however, specify the nature of the instrument (debt/equity/hybrid of equity and debt) that would be issued but confined itself to merely saying that it would issue "appropriate securities" to raise the amount.

At the National Stock Exchange, the Tata Motors scrip closed at Rs686.40.
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PSL bags orders worth Rs380-cr from Sharjah, Malaysia, mulls China venture
Mumbai: Mumbai-based PSL Ltd, a Rs1,500-crore pipe manufacturing company, has bagged orders worth Rs380 crore in Sharjah and Malaysia. On Saturday, the company also rolled out the first pipe from its newly inaugurated $16-million Sharjah facility.

While the company has contracts worth $43 million from Petronas Malaysia, it has received three orders worth $50 million in Sharjah. The pipes for Petronas will be supplied from the Kandla unit in Gujarat while the Sharjah supply will be partially met from the new unit there, company officials said.

The Sharjah facility has an installed capacity of 75,000 tonnes per annum of spiral pipes with facilities for three-layered polyethylene (3LPE) coating, internal liquid epoxy coating, and concrete weight-coating.

The company is also planning a China venture and is in discussion with two separate companies there. The investment here will be to the order of $50-60 million.
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Yahoo! in distribution pact with Idea
Bangalore: Yahoo! has entered into a strategic a partnership with Idea Cellular for distribution of its mobile search service, Yahoo! OneSearch. Idea has a subscriber base of over 15 million.

The distribution of Yahoo! OneSearch by Idea Cellular will make it easier for people to search for, and find better results and instant answers on their mobile devices.

They will get access to news, Web images, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr and Web and mobile Web sites, said a Yahoo! release.
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Temptation Foods may acquire HLL's marine business
Mumbai: Small cap firm, Temptation Foods, may acquire Hindustan Lever Ltd's marine product business for Rs120 to Rs150 crore.

"We have diclosed that we have bid for that business, but at this point, we are under a non-disclosure agreement. And I can't comment anything beyond that," said Vinit Kumar, head, Temptation Foods.

He added that the company had the shareholders approval to raise the money. Kumar said, "Our shareholders have approved Rs150 crore that we are raising for a number of acquisitions that we are planning."

As to the impact that the marine business acquisition would do to their business via synergies, Kumar said, "We are a frozen food company. If and when a marine acquisition does happen, obviously we are looking to synergise the frozen expertise that we have."
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Two BSNL contracts for Ericsson
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has awarded Ericsson two contracts for deploying technology that will enable downloads and ringback tones for BSNL's mobile users.

Under one contract, Ericsson is responsible for providing a content service that allows BSNL to offer next-generation portal that includes a variety of mobile content and applications, giving subscribers the chance to order any type of mobile content ringtones, games, pictures, video clips and software applications via Web, WAP or SMS.

The second agreement is for hosted ringback tones, one of the most popular and highest revenue generating mobile data services available today.
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