Daily News Roundup - Aug 24 2010

M&M has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in beleaguered South Korean auto manufacturer Ssangyong Motor Company (SYMC). (BS)

State-owned ONGC, OIL and Gail may make a joint bid to counter Vedanta Resources’ US$8.48bn offer for majority stake in Cairn India, and have already got US$10bn in loan commitments from international banks for the move. (BS)



Cairn India Ltd has struck oil and gas in an onshore block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, in Andhra Pradesh. (BS)

NTPC will be duly compensated for the cancellation of its 600MW hydro power project at Loharinag Pala in Uttarakhand. (BL)

L&T has bagged two orders worth Rs12bn from ONGC for setting up additional processing units at the corporation's gas complexes in Hazira and Uran. (BL)

Oil India achieved a record production level of 10,000 tons a day, daily since mid-August. (BS)

IOB has raised its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 50bps to 12.50% effective 23rd August. (ET)

PTC India Financial Services has been given infrastructure financial company status by the Reserve Bank of India. (ET)

Tata Global Beverages, formerly Tata Tea, is considering restructuring the company’s operations at various levels and aiming to launch a new nutrition-based beverage. (BS)

Elecon Engineering’s material handling equipment division had received orders to the tune of Rs0.4bn for various design, engineering, manufacturing and installation works. (BS)

Orient Group Power Company Ltd, set up by Shriram EPC, is planning to raise around Rs9bn through an IPO. (BS)

Monnet Ispat and Energy's subsidiary, Monnet Power Company, has achieved financial closure for its Rs50bn 1,050MW power project at Angul, Orissa. (BL)

Jubilant Organosys has signed a long-term contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) deal with a US life sciences company. (BL)

Cairn's unexplored oil fields in Barmer could turn major attractions for bidders in the next auction of oil exploration blocks. (ET)

Greaves Cotton is setting up a state-of-the-art greenfield plant in Shendra, an industrial area of Aurangabad in Maharashtra. (ET)

Zydus Cadila is in talks with Bayer Schering Pharma AG to market the German firm’s products in Indian retail market and expand an existing alliance. (ET)

The commerce ministry has imposed value addition norms on export of petroleum and petrochemical products. (BS)

Crucial changes to the FDI policy announced on March 31 have been stalled, with the RBI asking the ministry to furnish a "rationale" for the amendments before they are notified under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. (BS)

The Prime Minister has assured the Orissa Chief Minister that the Centre will expedite various projects in the State. (BL)

The government extended sops worth Rs10bn to exporters, particularly for the labour-intensive textile, handicrafts and leather sectors, to help them see through the fragile economic recovery globally. (FE)

The RBI plans to have access to banking data online from the industry is being stymied by state-owned banks’ reluctance to use technology that they have already deployed. (ET)