Even with a clear mandate, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is unlikely to allow foreign direct investment in sensitive sectors such as retail and may like to revisit the recently issued norms that give companies elbow room in dealing with the FDI norms.
The head of India's largest realtor is known as a businessman who likes to cut his losses.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher shift flights to low-cost platforms; experts expect a fare war. "Every year, airlines come up with cheap fares in the summer season, but not like this year. I had never seen airlines offering 50 per cent cash-back offers. Now with Jet Konnect and Kingfisher Red, there are more flights to the routes where LCCs used to dominate," says Bhawna Agarwal, co-founder and head of air business, Yatra.com.
The group also plans to nearly halve DLF's debt from Rs 13,958 crore to Rs 7,000 crore by the end of the current financial year by selling around Rs 5,500 crore worth of assets and raising Rs 2,000 crore from the DAL listing, said Singh. Wednesday's divestment will also help reduce DLF's debt by around Rs 1,500 crore since this amount will be given to DAL to repay part of the Rs 4,900 crore it owes the realtor, he added.
Strong response from institutional buyers has prompted the promoter family of India's largest real estate company DLF to raise the shareholding it had put up for sale from 100 million shares or 6 per cent to 168 million shares or nearly 10 per cent to raise Rs 3,850 crore from qualified institutional investors, including foreign investors.
The press notes, issued in February this year, simplified the method for calculating FDI and broadly stated that as long as Indian promoters hold a majority stake (that is, more than 51 per cent) in an operating-cum-investment company, they can bring in investments up to 49.9 per cent through FDI.
K P Singh and family, promoters of DLF, are in advanced stages of discussions with leading foreign institutional investors to sell 6 to 7 per cent in India's largest realtor to raise Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 2,500 crore.
Maytas Infrastructure Ltd, the listed company floated by the promoters of Satyam Computer Services, plans to raise Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore through asset sales plus loan and guarantees from banks to complete various projects, including the prestigious Hyderabad Metro, and to bid for some new projects that are coming up for auction.
The government has decided to raise the viability gap funding (VGF) for certain projects under the fifth phase of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP V), owing to poor response to the first few projects put up for bids in December last year.
Delhi International Airport Ltd, the five-company consortium led by Bangalore-based infrastructure conglomerate GMR Group that is upgrading Delhi airport, has managed to raise over Rs 1,000 crore (10 billion) to meet its financial obligations for the Rs 8,890-crore (80 billion) project.
To expand its services in the five-player private direct-to-home market, Reliance Big TV Ltd, the promoter of Big TV DTH services of the Reliance ADA Group, plans to sell up to 49 per cent to foreign private equity companies and global DTH players.
A two-day board meeting of Maytas Infrastructure's six-member new board, which comprises four government-nominees, is likely to divest some projects nearing completion in a bid to raise funds to complete other assignments.
Jet Airways, India's largest privately-owned airline, has approached the US Exim Bank and European export credit agencies to reschedule a $2 billion loan (Rs 10,000-crore) loan that was raised to buy 27 Boeing and eight Airbus aircraft.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
Though the family controls and runs DLF, CFO Ramesh Sanka is said to be playing a key role in mapping the group's future strategy -- including the move to, now, construct lower-cost housing.
State Bank of India has agreed to lend Vodafone-Essar, the joint venture between United Kingdom's Vodafone and Essar, Rs 10,000 crore to finance the company's entry into 3G (third generation) telecom services and expansion of its broadband operations.
The agreement with the new owners of Satyam Computer Services will incorporate restrictions to prevent mass retrenchment of employees, according to a top functionary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
You can make millions, if you are a celebrity and are willing to license your name to other people's business ventures.
Mumbai is a distant number two with 90 per cent, followed by Delhi at 83 per cent. The fourth metro, Kolkata, is way behind with 67 per cent. The four metros account for 16 per cent of the country's mobile subscriber base, but 25 per cent of the total revenue. That means their residents use their phones more and pay fatter bills than subscribers elsewhere in the country. This is the user profile that rings a bell for mobile phone marketers.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car company by sales, is working on an ambitious plan to launch electric cars and compressed natural gas variants for three or four models in the domestic market.
