"The MoU between the (Ambani) brothers is in the private domain and has never been produced in the court. Agreements between the brothers were entered into on the basis of negotiation and decision on the case cannot be taken on this basis," Milind Sathe, senior counsel for Mukesh Ambani's RIL had told a division bench in July this year.
Apart from the increase in the number of players entering the sector -- there were just 25 entities two years ago -- the scale of operations has also increased substantially, with 30 companies planning large-scale operations, experts said. The capacity of biodiesel plants set up by these companies will range between 30 tonnes per day and 300 tonnes per day. Based on the capacity, it will cost between Rs 300 million and Rs 3 billion to set up these plants.
Reliance's Jamnagar units, including the existing refinery and the second one that will begin work by mid-November, will be the world's largest single-location refining facility. The entire refinery complex will have a total processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. The current production of the existing unit is 0.66 million barrels a day.
Real estate companies such as Unitech, Peninsula Land, HDIL and Future Capital, the financial services arm of Future Group, are in talks with investors including some leading private equity funds for raising investments for their projects, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose third party fund had promised investments in these property companies' projects, according to industry sources.
The company has already received an approval to spend Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) for commercialising two of its biggest gas discoveries in the D6 block located in the KG basin. "In a letter to oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the company has submitted one more development plan for Rs 10,000 crore as additional capex (capital expenditure) for the block.
With America's fourth largest investment bank Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch being bought over by the Bank of America, placements at the Indian Institutes of Management will be affected.
The hotel giant is looking at having an exclusive arrangement with Pune-based Mulshi Springs -- a company that bottles natural spring water. The brand will be called Oberoi Spring Water and a formal announcement is expected soon. The packaged spring water will be available in 200 ml, 500 ml, 1 litre and 1.5 litre pet bottles priced between Rs 50 and Rs 200 respectively. "Water will be sourced from a rain forest near the Sahara Amby Valley," added the official.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Resources has decided not to pursue a proposal to build a Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200 billion) five-million-tonne steel project in Orissa in view of its strategy to focus on non-ferrous and iron ore businesses, two highly-placed sources in the company said on Tuesday.
Fertiliser, power plants plan expansion in anticipation
Property developers are setting up their own mini-power plants to meet captive requirements of the malls or residential complexes they are building. Electricity generated from these power plants, which will use compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel, will be 40 per cent cheaper than state electricity board supplies, making it an attractive investment option rather than a perceived additional cost.
The negotiations were shelved following a difference of opinion on prices. "We intend to close both the deals by September," said a highly-placed source with MCorp, the holding company for B K Modi's group of companies.
HCL's founder and chairman Shiv Nadar is making a second foray into university education having sought 300 acres of land in Noida, near New Delhi, to set up a Rs 300-crore (Rs 3 billion) multi-disciplinary university.
Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), the third largest telecom operator in West Asia and a leading operator in Africa, has initiated talks with several Indian telecom service providers to buy stakes.
India Inc is seeing yet another family feud - this time between Gujarat NRE Coke founder Girdhari Lal Jagatramka and his son-law, Ratan Lal Tamakhuwala, who owns Austral Coke.
"Levi & Korsinsky usually investigates a deal when any of the clients complain about chances of fraud in the transaction. In Aegis's acquisition of PeopleSupport, we received a complaint from a client who is a shareholder of PeopleSupport. After our investigation, if we find any fraud, we will take up the issue before the court. At this point of time, we can not disclose the name of the client," said Juan E Monteverde, associate, Levi & Korsinsky.
Only one out of every 175 students who take the Common Admission Test will make it to the Indian Institutes of Management this year. The logic, note experts, is simple. Around 300,000 students are slated to appear for CAT this November. Despite such slim chances, industry players believe more students will try to crack CAT as the job situation is not at its best. The increase in the number of students taking the CAT exam this year will be around 20 per cent.
Lines up investments in steel, power sectors to profit from booming demand.
The premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) do not appear to be perturbed, but other prominent B-schools anticipate a 25-30 per cent drop in placements this academic year. They are concerned that several regular companies may drop out of the placements and others may recruit fewer numbers than usual.
Global crude oil prices have dropped 14 per cent in less than a fortnight, but the three public sector oil marketing companies could still end up borrowing more in the domestic market and put further pressure on liquidity. With the three OMCs still saddled with under-recoveries, estimated at Rs 820 crore (Rs 8.2 billion) a day, they have no option but to use bank credit lines in the coming days as they have run out of their stock of oil bonds.
Naresh Nayyar, MD & CEO, Essar Oil, tells Business Standard that a windfall profit tax on private oil companies will only worsen the situation.
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