British energy firm Cairn Energy on Wednesday said its oil and gas operations in offshore Andhra Pradesh have not been affected by the Tsunami tidal waves caused by a massive earthquake.
Cairn Energy of UK has said its Rajasthan oilfield can produce up to 150,000 barrels per day by 2007-end, 50 per cent more than the previously estimated 100,000 barrels per day.
Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc - a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country's revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax. Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Cabinet on Thursday approved ONGC's proposal to acquire Cairn Energy's stake in two gas blocks for $135 million.
Firm to continue to press ahead with arbitration challenging new law on the tax, will seek $1 bn in damages
Cairn Energy has sought equity participation from ONGC to develop its latest find of about 20 million tonne oil and gas reserves in Rajasthan.
There is considerable speculation as to whether this award would have any bearing on another Vodafone-type case, namely, the ongoing tax-related arbitration proceedings with Cairn Energy.
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Moving quickly towards ending a retrospective tax dispute with a firm that gave India its largest oilfield, the government has accepted Cairn Energy PLC's undertakings which would allow for the refund of taxes, sources said. Meeting the requirements of the new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company had earlier this month given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government has now accepted this and issued Cairn a so-called Form-II, committing to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.
UK oil explorer Cairn Energy is facing a tax demand of Rs 10,247 crore and Vodafone over acquisition of 67% stake in the mobile business owned by Hutchison Whampoa in 2007
The government is likely to file an appeal against the Cairn arbitration award contesting its sovereign rights to tax, sources said.
The Indian government has paid Cairn Energy Plc Rs 7,900 crore to refund taxes it had collected to enforce a retrospective tax demand, ending a seven-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's image as an investment destination. The company, which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC, in a statement said it has received "net proceeds of $1.06 billion", of which nearly 70 per cent will be returned to the shareholders. The tax department had used a 2012 legislation, which gave it powers to go back 50 years and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India, to seek Rs 10,247 crore in taxes from Cairn.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Sunday won the race to acquire Swiss cement major Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC for $10.5 bn (around Rs 81,361 crore), including the open offers. The Adani family, through an offshore special-purpose vehicle, announced that it had entered into definitive agreements for the acquisition of Holcim Ltd's entire stake in two of India's leading cement companies -- Ambuja Cements and ACC -- the Adani group said in a statement. The group outbid Ultratech and JSW group to enter the cement industry and also emerge as the country's second-largest cement manufacturer, with 70 million tonnes of capacity annually.
A reception often reserved for rockstars came the way of mining mogul Anil Agarwal when he started revealing nuggets of his ascent from a scrap-metal dealer to one of India's most prominent self-made industrialists on social media. And now he has been flooded with booking writing proposals and has even been offered money for a biopic. In February this year, Agarwal, 68, started tweeting his journey from Bihar to Mumbai first and then to London to head a globally diversified natural resources company with interests in zinc-lead-silver, iron ore, steel, copper, aluminium, power, oil and gas.
Cairn Energy and Air India have jointly asked a New York federal court to stay further proceedings in the British firm's US lawsuit targeting the airline for enforcement of a $1.2-billion arbitral award. The move follows the government enacting a law to scrap retrospective taxation in the country, which in effect will result in withdrawal of the Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on Cairn, according to court documents reviewed by PTI. The British company had won an international arbitration award against levy of such taxes and sought to take over Air India assets when the government refused to honour the award and pay it $1.2 billion-plus interest and penalty.
RIL had got the block in an intensely fought auction by submitting better commercial and technical bids than other bidders including ONGC-GAIL and Cairn Energy.
All in all, Cairn India shareholders are getting a 9.1 per cent premium based on closing prices of July 22
Net profit in 2012 was $72.6 million, compared with $4.56 billion profit in 2011, Cairn said in a statement.
Britain's Cairn Energy Plc has dropped lawsuits against the Indian government and its entities in the US and other places and is in the final stages of withdrawing cases in Paris and the Netherlands to get back about Rs 7,900 crore that were collected from it to enforce a retrospective tax demand. As part of the settlement reached with the government to the seven-year old dispute over levy of back taxes, the company - which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC - has initiated proceedings to withdraw lawsuits it had filed in several jurisdictions to enforce an international arbitration award which had overturned levy of Rs 10,247 crore retrospective taxes and ordered India to refund the money already collected. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Cairn on November 26 withdrew the lawsuit it had brought in Mauritius for recognition of the arbitration award and took similar measures in courts in Singapore, the UK and Canada.
There are no guesses on how many times the group of ministers will meet before any clarity emerges on the $9.6-billion deal.
ONGC, which partners Cairn India in its crown jewel oilfields in Rajasthan and seven other properties in India, has waived its preemption rights over the deal and given a no-objection certificate, sources privy to the development said.
The board of Cairn India has on two occasions rejected oil ministry conditions that royalties paid by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on its all important Rajasthan oilfields, be cost recoverable from oil sales saying this was against contractual provisions and not in the interest of the company and its shareholders.
Government wants Cairn India to agree to pay royalty and cess on its all important Rajasthan block.
The government will reserve the right to decide on the cost recoverability of royalty from Cairn India's block in Barmer while clearing Cairn Energy's sale of its Indian subsidiary to Vedanta Resources.
The way the government treated miner Vedanta Resources' proposal to buy majority of UK's Cairn Energy in Cairn India and RIL selling 30 per cent of its stake in 23 properties, including the prolific KG-D6 gas block to BP, goes to the heart of the mistrust between India Inc and United Progressive Alliance-2 in 2011.
Cairn Energy Plc chief executive Bill Gammell described the 30-minute meeting as 'positive and constructive'.
The levy of retrospective tax on the UK's Cairn Energy Plc is a tale of bizarre twists and turns that saw its attached shares being sold in May 2018 amid the passing of the baton from a full-time finance minister to interim one and the talks at the highest level to resolve the dispute, to claims that levy of back taxes was a result of an investigation into Panama Papers leak. The government late last month refunded about Rs 7,900 crore it had collected from selling residual shares of the British firm in its erstwhile India unit, seizing dividend and withholding tax refunds, to settle an eight-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's reputation as an investment destination. But, this did not come about easily. For seven years, the establishment vehemently justified in courts and outside seeking of Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes plus interest and penalty from a firm that gave India its biggest onshore oil discovery.
International investment in the domestic energy sector could get affected if the government unduly delays the deal between Cairn Energy and Vedanta Resources, says Bill Gammell, Cairn India Chairman and CEO of its British parent.
The Petroleum Ministry may have watered down its preconditions for approving mining group Vedanta Resources' acquisition of Cairn India, but the $9.6 billion deal will still hinges on no-objection from partner ONGC.
More than three weeks after it announced the sale of a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources, UK's Cairn Energy Plc has formally applied to the government for approvals, saying it will meet all contractual requirements needed to fructify the deal.
The government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Cairn India's partner in the Barmer block in Rajasthan, is closely scrutinising the stake sale in Cairn India by Cairn Energy.
The Edinburgh-based firm's current application seeking the nod for sale of 40 to 51 per cent in Cairn India, for up to $8.48 billion, has left out three producing properties, including the giant Rajasthan oilfields.
The $9.6-billion deal is contingent upon government nod as the deal involves change of ownership of strategic assets like the giant Rajasthan oilfields.
Whereas, the group is offering Cairn India's parent Cairn Energy Rs 405 a share, which includes a fee for not competing with it in India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan for the next three years.
With Cairn Energy Plc voluntarily offering to meet government conditions, the Oil Ministry may find it difficult to nix its deal to sell majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources.
London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources is running against time to close a USD 9.6 billion deal to acquire majority stake in Cairn India as government approval for the transaction is held up due to issues raised by state-owned ONGC.
British telecom giant Vodafone Group plc on Friday won an arbitration against the Indian government over a demand for Rs 22,100 crore in taxes using retrospective legislation.
ONGC, which is 30 per cent partner in Cairn India- operated Rajasthan oilfields, is obliged to pay royalty on entire crude oil produce from the blocks, even though its share is just 30 per cent.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
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