DLF's Rs 1,100 cr buyback likely to start next week

DLF's Rs 1,100 cr buyback likely to start next week -- September 30, 2008
Country's largest real estate firm DLF is likely to start its Rs 1,100-crore buyback offer next week.
At a meeting held here today, DLF's board of directors approved the public announcement for the buyback that entails start of the offer next week, company sources said.
The board approval is a statutory requirement after approval from market regulator Sebi that DLF had received earlier this month.
Shares of the company were trading at Rs 342.15, down 2.41 per cent on the BSE in morning trade.
Market regulator Sebi had given the go ahead for the buyback proposal of DLF, entailing the buyback of shares of the company worth Rs 1,110 crore from the capital market at a price not exceeding Rs 600 per share.
The company had earlier said that the actual buyback price would depend upon the market conditions at the time of announcement.
Earlier, in July this year DLF had announced a buyback of up to 2.2 crore equity shares at a price not exceeding Rs 600 per share. The shares would be repurchased from the BSE and NSE through open market deals.
DLF has appointed J M Financial and Merrill Lynch as merchant bankers for the buyback plan.

RBI says ICICI Bank has sufficient liquidity

RBI says ICICI Bank has sufficient liquidity -- September 30, 2008

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said ICICI Bank, India’s biggest private sector bank in terms of net profit, has sufficient liquidity. RBI further said that ICICI Bank and its subsidiary banks abroad are well capitalized.
The central bank said it was monitoring the developments and has arranged to provide adequate cash to ICICI Bank to meet the demands of its customers at its branches/ ATMs.

Parsvnath sees 2.10 billion Rupee revenue from Haryana project

Parsvnath sees 2.10 billion Rupee revenue from Haryana project --September 30, 2008 :

Real-estate firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd said it expects revenue of 2.10 billion rupees from a new housing project it launched at Dharuh era in the northern state of Haryana on Tuesday. The project, spread over 13 acres, is likely to be completed by 2011, the company said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Parsvnath said it expects revenue of 400 million rupees from its just-launched housing project in Pune.

US Bailout plan rejected - supporters scramble

US Bailout plan rejected - supporters scramble The fate of the government's $700 billion financial bailout plan was thrown into doubt Monday as the House rejected the controversial measure. The next steps were unclear. The abrupt defeat left the Bush administration and congressional leaders scrambling to figure out whether to renegotiate the bill and introduce it again as soon as Thursday or to try other options. Stock markets reacted violently. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan's passage sent the Dow Jones industrial average down well over 700 points. The stock gauge closed 778 points lower - nearly 7%. The measure, which is designed to get battered lending markets working normally again, needed 218 votes for passage. But it came up 13 votes short of that target, with a final vote of 228 to 205 against. Two-thirds of Democrats and one-third of Republicans voted for the measure. President Bush, who earlier in the day said he was confident the bill would pass, said he was "very disappointed" by the House vote. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaking at the White House, said he will continue to "use all the tools available to protect" the economy. Republican leaders, who had pushed their reluctant members to vote for the bill, pointed the finger for the failure at a speech given Monday by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pelosi, speaking on the House floor, had blamed the nation's economic problems on "failed Bush economic policies." House minority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the vote that passage would have been possible if it had not been for Pelosi's "partisan speech." Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of the main congressional negotiators, dismissed the GOP claim that Pelosi's speech was responsible for Republicans voting against the bill. "Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to hurt the country," Frank said. "That's not plausible."

RIL offers to sell diesel to state retailers but with riders

RIL offers to sell diesel to state retailers but with riders -- September 29, 2008 Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries has offered to sell diesel from its refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat to state retailers provided the Government removes double taxation, Oil Secretary R S Pandey said today. Reliance has converted Jamnagar into an only-for-exports unit, thereby getting tax incentives like exemption from payment of income tax and duty free import of raw material. An Export Oriented Unit (EOU) is discouraged from selling products in domestic market through levy of double taxation. "They have offered to sell whatever quantity of diesel the oil marketing companies (OMCs) need but want the taxation issue to be resolved. We are looking into it," Pandey, who met Mukesh Ambani at his office this morning, said. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum will have to pay Rs 9.51 a litre more in taxes on petrol and Rs 2.85 per litre on diesel if they buy fuel from Jamnagar. Sales from an EOU or a unit in Special Economic Zone are treated as imports and are first levied customs duty, then additional customs duty and then CVD. A three per cent cess is levied on the aggregate of these. On top of this, additional excise duty in charged and a three per cent cess is levied on aggregate of these. Multiple cess is not levied on direct imports. Pandey said the ministry was looking into the issue and will at appropriate time take up the issue with the ministries of commerce and finance. The three state-run retailers are faced with a whopping 16.9 per cent demand growth in diesel and would need to import about five million tons in 2008-09. Buying from Jamnagar would give them the freight advantage provided the double taxation is removed. Taxes are to be paid by buyers and so the state-run firms find it unattractive to buy fuel from Reliance.

Anil investing heavily in US economy

Anil investing heavily in US economy -- September 29, 2008 Amid the worsening financial crisis in the US, business publication Forbes has named legendary investor Warren Buffett and Indian billionaire Anil Ambani among the world's richest business people who are investing heavily in the American economy. The US publication Forbes has drawn up a list of the wealthiest people investing huge sums of money even as the American President feels the country's economy is in danger. "The world's wealthiest business people are still wheeling and dealing even as President Bush warns 'our entire economy is in danger'," the magazine said. Other names in the list are Hollywood director Steven Spielberg (networth USD 3.1 billion), American fund manager John Paulson (USD 4.5 billion), Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing (USD 26.5 billion), Russia's Alexander Mamut (USD 1.2 billion) and Mikhail Prokhorov (USD 19.5 billion), Thailand's beverage tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi (USD 3.5 billion) and Mexican magnate Carlos Slim Helu (USD 60 billion). Last week, Buffett (networth USD 50 billion) surprised the Wall Street after deciding to invest five billion dollars into Goldman Sachs at a time when the country saw the fall of Lehman Brothers and distressed sale of Merrill Lynch, among others, deepening the financial turmoil. Ambani, who has a networth of USD 42 billion is named along with Spielberg for their American film venture. The Indian billionaire's Reliance Entertainment is pumping in about USD 500 million into the venture. Noting that there is more billionaire deal-making happening outside the banking industry, Forbes said that Ambani and Spielberg are "putting money on America's love of movies". The Hollywood director is leaving his employer Viacom to start an independent film studio. Writing on Spielberg, the magazine said, "He will get more freedom with the help of Anil Ambani, one of the richest men in India. Ambani's entertainment business is chipping about USD 500 million into the venture." "Ambani, who also owns telecom and power ventures, has been looking for ways to break into American movie business." On Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investing in Goldman Sachs, the report said the firm is paying five billion dollars for the investment bank's preferred shares that pay a "lush 10 per cent dividend". According to the magazine, networths for Americans are taken from the Forbes 400 list, which was published in September. While for others, networths are from the list of the world's billionaires, published in March. Li Ka-Shing had bought shares in Bank of East Asia even as there were rumours about bank's financial footing because the "company is exposed to risky collateralised debt obligations and recently revised its first half profits lower". Meanwhile, Prokhorov has announced that he would buy half of Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital and a smaller financial player APR-Bank, and Mamut would be buying Evroset, Russia's major retailer in the mobile phone market. Pointing out that "only thing more surprising than the purchase of a Wall Street bank might be an American newspaper," Forbes said that earlier this month, Carlos Slim bought a 6.4 percent stake in The New York Times. "Like many of the other billionaires on this list, the world's second richest man is purchasing a depressed asset. Shares of The New York Times are down over 67 percent over the past five years," the report said further.

Oil falls below $104 on bailout concerns

Oil falls below $104 on bailout concerns --September 29, 2008 Oil prices fell Monday in Asia to below $106 a barrel on concern that economic growth will slow across the globe despite a tentative agreement in Washington on a $700 billion bailout package to stabilize the U.S. financial system. Light sweet crude for November delivery was down $1.67 to $105.22 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid afternoon in Singapore. The contract fell Friday $1.13 to settle at $106.89. In other NYMEX trading, heating oil futures fell 2.59 cents to $2.969 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 2.14 cents to $2.6437 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 8.1 cents to $7.547 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, November Brent crude fell $1.52 to $102.02 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange