Daily News Roundup - Apr 26 2010

DLF arm buys out PE stake in group firm for Rs31bn. (BL)

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and IBM vie for Bharti Airtel outsourcing operations worth over a US$1bn. (ET)

NTPC may raise US$500mn through external commercial borrowings this financial year. (BS)

EID Parry (India) says it has entered into an agreement with the promoters of GMR Industries, the agri business arm of GMR Group, to buy 51% of their stake in the company. (TOI)

ICICI Bank has brought back its special home loan offer following rival and mortgage major HDFC’s move to relaunch a similar product last week. (TOI)

Pantaloon Retail says the company will demerge three of its businesses, including that of food, into two of its subsidiaries. (TOI)

NTPC has missed its capacity addition target by almost 50% in 2009-10 by adding only 1560MW, as against a target of 3,330MW. (DNA)

ArcelorMittal has proposed a JV with SAIL to build a US$2.7bn steel plant in eastern India. (DNA)

Reliance Industries has zeroed in on Singapore based infrastructure firm InfraCo to offload 45% stake in its 25,000 acre-Jhajjar (Haryana) SEZ. (FE)

Tata motors may roll out 800cc small car by 2012. (BS)

Reliance Communications is close to signing an agreement with US-based GetJar to launch its own application store. (BS)

TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro get eliminated from the selection process for the Unique Identification Authority of India project. (BS)

Areva T&D to tie up with Bharat Forge, L&T on solar energy. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki plans to scale up production by at least 70,000 units this year. (BS)

MindTree is understood to have emerged as the winner for the application development services segment of the Unique Identification project. (BS)

International Finance Corporation will invest US$60mn in Apollo Tyres' greenfield manufacturing project coming up on the outskirts of Chennai. (FE)

Cairn India begins second crude oil processing plant at its Mangala oilfield in Thar desert of Rajasthan. (BS)

Tata Power offers to take over the distribution business of Reliance Infrastructure. (BS)

Government is mulling to more than doubling the price of natural gas produced by ONGC to US$4.20 per mmBtu. (BS)

Jaypee Infratech fixes the price band of its IPO at Rs 102-117 per share. (BS)

Escorts plans to launch up to three new tractor models in the next six months. (BS)

Coal India expects to seal strategic partnership deals with three listed companies abroad within six months, including Peabody Energy of the US. (BS)

Jet Airways is recasting itself as a network carrier by fortifying its international and domestic connectivity. (ET)

Religare Enterprises plans to go ahead with its health insurance business alone after talks of tie-ups hit a wall over support issue. (ET)

EID-Parry has entered into an agreement with GMR Holding to acquire a majority stake in GMR Industries. (ET)

Foreign exchange reserves rose by US$61mn to US$280bn for the week ended April 16. (BL)

Centre has fixed the ‘fair and remunerative price' of sugarcane for the ensuing 2010-11 sugar season at Rs 139/quintal. (BL)

Value of 3G spectrum moved up by over Rs6bn to close at Rs76bn. (BL)

Cabinet gave its nod to infuse Rs150bn in public sector banks during 2010-11 to help them maintain capital requirements and boost their credit growth. (BL)

Government is likely to increase tax on all forms of iron ore to 20%. (FE)

IMD forecasts a normal monsoon across the country this year. (BS)

RBI plans to free interest rates on certain segments of export finance. (BS)

Government is considering a proposal to ease foreign direct investment rules in the retail sector. (BS)