COMPANIES
LIC's
market share at 74.18 per cent; plans Rs11,700,000
crore investment
Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd
(LIC) reported a healthy market share of 74.18 per
cent in the last financial year with a premium collection
of Rs55,934.6 crore while nearly a dozen private insurers
accounted for the rest 25.82 per cent.
The
state-owned insurer enjoyed a much better market share of 82.83 per cent in terms
of number of new policies,with 3.82 crore new policies, LIC cairman T S Vijayan
said.
"In
total LIC planned to invest around Rs11,700,000 crore this financial year of which
Rs52,000 crore had been already invested," he said while presenting LIC's
financial performance for 2006-07.
LIC's
investment in the capital market as of 31 March 2007 stood at Rs124,643 crore
and it intended to invest between Rs10,000 to 12,000 crore in equities and preference
shares in the current fiscal, he said.
Till
31 March 2007 LIC's total investment was Rs613,266.58 crore of which 272,497.82
crore was invested in central government securities, Rs64,284.80 crore in sate
government and other approved securities, Rs73,746 crore in infrastructure and
social investments and Rs44,217 crore in bond and debentures.
The
unit-linked insurance plans (ULIP) contributed 80 per cent to LIC's new business
premium of Rs39,541 crore, he said.
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Government
wants RIL to prioritise gas sales
Mumbai: Close on the heels of approving a price
of $4.20 per mBtu for natural gas to be produced from
Reliance Industries' eastern offshore fields, the
government has said it will ask the Mukesh Ambani
company to prioritise fuel sales to fertiliser plants,
city gas and existing power plants.
"The
government is well within its right to fix sectoral priorities keeping in mind
the overall national interest. The empowered group of ministers will in future
meetings decide on which sectors should be given priority in allocation,"
said petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan.
The
EGOM had on September 12 approved a price of Rs172.20 per million British thermal
unit for RIL'S kg-D6 gas. This was 8.32 per cent lower than Rs187.84 ($4.33 dollars)
per mBtu price proposed by RIL.
Srinivasan
said the price approved by the EGOM will apply uniformly to all the sectors. "It
should not matter to the producer (RIL) as to who uses the gas, as a uniform price
will be charged from all."
He,
however, said that the government will not allow trading in gas. "The policy
clearly states that the gas should be sold to end users and so there is no scope
for traders."
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PNB
consortium bids for 26 per cent stake in IFCI
Mumbai: Punjab National Bank (PNB) has formed
a consortium with other foreign players to bid for
the proposed 26 per cent stake sale of domestic financial
institution IFCI Ltd.
Reports
suggested that global private equity firm Blackstone, domestic financial institution
IDFC as well as foreign players like WL Ross & Co and Cargill also submitted
their bids.
Today
was the last date for submitting the EoIs, which will be opened tomorrow. This
will be followed by shortlisting of 'serious and compatible player' within 10
days, an IFCI official said.
The
Reserve Bank of India, meanwhile, permitted fresh buying in the company's shares
by the foreign institutional investors in the secondary market after the FII holding
in the company dropped below the prescribed limit.
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Tata
Sons to make open offer to TICL shareholders
Mumbai: Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of
all key companies of the group, will make an open
offer to the shareholders of Tata Investment Corporation
Ltd (TICL) to increase its stake ahead of delisting
the company from bourses.
The
offer would be made at a price of Rs600 per share - a premium of 33.33 per cent
over the latest closing price of TICL's share of Rs450 on the BSE.
Tata
Sons alone would make the offer to acquire additional equity shares representing
up to 29.29 per cent from public shareholders, who currently hold 39.39 per cent,
the company said in a filing with the Bonmbay Stock Exchange.
Tata
Sons and other Tata companies currently hold 60.61 per cent of TICL's equity capital.
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GENERAL
Cement
companies trebled profits as consumers suffered: RBI
Mumbai: Cement companies made a killing during
the construction boom in fiscal 2006-07 - a year that
saw their net profit rise almost three-fold - despite
accusations by the government of burdening consumers
with high prices.
Net sales of
cement companies went up by 50.5 per cent during the year while profits zoomed
by 183.4 per cent, RBI said in an analysis - 'Performance of private corporate
business sector: 2006-07'. RBI attributed the impressive increase sale of cement
to "higher output as also higher prices received during the year."
A
dual excise duty regime announced in this year's budget to persuade companies
to roll back the cost failed to check rising cement prices, finance minister P
Chidambaram later admitted.
The net profit margin for the cement and cement
products industry, the RBI said, improved from 9.2 per cent to 17.3 per cent in
2006-07, indicating higher profit realisation on sale.
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New
TRAI regulations to make bandwidth cheaper
Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) has issued fresh guidelines in a bid to boost
competition and reduce bandwidth price for the end-customer.
The new regulations will
make domestic bandwidth cheaper for internet service providers and other users
such as BPOs and IT companies, TRAI said.
For service providers, this regulation
opens up the possibility of meeting customers' demand for end-to-end bandwidth
from other service providers if such a need arises, TRAI said.
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