Archive for the ‘india’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Mittal bats for Mukesh Ambani on gas prices

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal on Wednesday backed fellow billionaire and Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, who is fighting opposition to get market determined price of gas to be produced by his firm, saying globally fuel prices were much higher than those proposed by Ambani.

During his meeting with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Mittal said his steel plants were getting gas at no less than $6 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), much lower than the $4.33 per mBtu price proposed by RIL.

Official sources said Mittal made the comments when Deora asked him about the gas price scenario.

The world’s fifth-richest person and chief executive officer of the world’s largest steel producer Arcelor-Mittal told Deora that new long term contracts for gas, be it piped or transported in its liquefied form, were not less than $6 per mBtu and spot prices ranged around $9 per mBtu.

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in india | 1 Comment »

Ginger to set up hotels in malls

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Ginger, the budget hotel arm of India Hotels that also owns the luxury hotel chain Taj, wants to set up a string of hotels on the top floors of malls.

Most malls find it difficult to find tenants for third, fourth or fifth floors since most retailers want to stick to lower levels.

Ginger Hotels now will be taking up these floors and set up their hotels here and being in a mall suits Ginger’s business model perfectly as well.

“Our guests can use the mall for dining and their entertainment needs,” said Prabhat Pani, CEO, Ginger.

Ginger has already tied up with Aerens for their mall in Ludhiana and is also tying up with Ansal API for their malls across the country.

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , ,
Posted in india | No Comments »

No cap on private sector salaries: FM

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

Setting at rest speculation that the government may put a cap on salaries for India Inc, Union Finance Minister P Chidamabaram has said there cannot be any legislation on pay packets nor was it desirable.

“The government does not legislate on salaries and government ought not,” he said here, replying to a question raised by a Mumbai University research student on whether low remuneration was acting as a disincentive to attract researchers.

Government salaries were no doubt poor as compared to market salaries. In fact, government salaries no where in the world match private sector except in Singapore, Chidambaram said during an interactive session with students on Friday.

“I do not think there is any comparison between government salary and salary of private sector. In fact, to come into the research field it calls for certain attitude. Are you inclined towards academics and research?” he asked.

“Nobel laureate and renowned physicist Sir C V Raman could not have been a great scientist if he had thought he should be paid like IT icons Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji.”

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , ,
Posted in india | No Comments »

It’s raining wine

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

Wine drinkers in India were cheered by the recent news that the government had (effective July 3) abolished the invidious ‘Countervailing Duty’ imposed on imported alcoholic beverages — and in turn increased the basic customs duty on wine from 100 per cent to 150 per cent, presumably to protect the fledgling domestic wine industry (and the consumer) from a flood of cheap wines.

No so bad, we thought: imported wines would become more affordable, particularly at the lower-end of the price spectrum where the earlier duties were 250 per cent, as well as in the mid-priced segments, which had been taxed at about 200 per cent.

And even though there were some mutterings questioning the government’s capitulation in advance of a complaint brought before the World Trade Organisation by France and the US in this regard, we thought the change was justified if the action led to giving consumers a wider choice — even if the drop in prices was only between Rs 50 to Rs 100 per bottle.

So why are the importers not jumping for joy?

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: ,
Posted in india | No Comments »

Unilever may up HUL stake

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is planning to increase its stake in Hindustan Unilever, its Indian subsidiary, through a proposed buy-back of shares.

The board of HUL, India’s largest consumer goods company, will meet on July 29 to consider the proposal.

At present, Unilever and its group companies own a 51.42 per cent stake in the Indian operations. Except for India and Indonesia, the company owns 100 per cent in all Asian countries where it operates.

Analysts said the proposed buyback will reward shareholders and give them an attractive exit option, as the share price of HUL has been stagnating at around Rs 190 in recent times.

In the last three years, the stock price of the company has been underperforming the Sensex. Since January 2005, the stock has grown 30.06 per cent, compared with Sensex’s 131.29 per cent rise.

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , ,
Posted in india | No Comments »

Call option: Bajaj to hold talks with Allianz

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Six years ago Rahul Bajaj along with his four cousins decided to take a plunge into insurance by joining hands with European insurance major Allianz.

A good business decision then, but now Rahul Bajaj is being haunted by his decision to allow Allianz to use the call option to hike stake in the life insurance joint venture to 74 per cent something which the markets have already punished his stock for and there is still no scope of a renegotiations.

“They didn’t agree, I am meeting them next month in Europe. In hindsight I feel we should not have agreed to let them hike stake in the life insurance business to 74 per cent. We should have instead given them the option to hike stake to 50 per cent in both the life and general insurance business,” said Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto.

So round one of persuasion has failed and Bajaj on his part is regretting for letting the foreign partner to hike stake in such a cheap way.

MORE…

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in india | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »