Market Update

[insight]

MARKET UPDATE

* BANKING : bank credit increases by Rs 226bn for fortnight ended Feb 12 for
2nd fortnight in a row

* L&T : CFO says its units plan to borrow atleast $2.2bn this yr via SPVs to
fund road-building & power projects

* KOTAK BANK : to replace Grasim in S&P CNX Nifty effective 8th April

* TATA STEEL : EU unit Corus raises forging steel prices by £60/ton from 5th Apr

* ITC : rpts co may enter food mkt of UAE thru a partnership with Al Seer grp

* CIPLA : Bayer drags co to SC seeking protection for its drug Nexavar.. Cipla
plea for mkting approval of Sorafenib, kidney cancer drug is still pending
before regulatory authorities

* KINGFISHER AIRLINES : mgt says will not add new planes to its fleet this
year.. To raise money thru GDRs & a rights issue over next 8-10 weeks

* RANBAXY : plan to supply key ingredient to Astra Zeneca for its ulcer drug
Nexium already late by a year may get further delayed

* MARUTI : recall of over 100k A-Stars to cost a total of Rs 300mn of which 40% to be borne by co

* POWER GRID :signs long term transmission pact with 37 pvt devlopers entailing a gross generation capacity of 42k mw

* SBI : plans to raise Rs 100-200bn in next fiscal thru rights issue

* GAMMON INDIA : wins Rs 1.37bn contract to build temple, education centre in WB

* PANTALOON : to merge the consumer durables and home improvements units of its subsidiary, Home Solutions Retail, with itself

Corporate News – Industry trends

– Banks are discussing a US$7bn, five-year, offshore loan to back Bharti Airtel’s US$9billion offer to buy Zain’s African cellular assets. (BS)

– American Tower Company (ATC) announced an agreement to acquire the
entire issued share capital of Essar Telecom Infrastructure (ETIPL), through its Singaporean subsidiary, Transcend Infrastructure, for Rs20bn. (BS)

– Thermax will pay $38mn to Philadelphia-based Purolite in an out-of-court
settlement over a five-year-old intellectual property dispute. (DNA)

– Mahindra Forgings said it will raise Rs1.75bn by way of private placement of
shares with qualified institutional buyers. (ET)

– HeidelbergCement India, which had acquired Indorama Cement and Mysore
Cement, is all set to double its capacity from present 3.07 mn tonne per annum
(mtpa) to 6 mtpa by March 2012. (DNA)

– Aircel plans to invest $1.4bn this year to expand its operations and become a pan-India GSM operator by June. (ET)

– SBI to raise up to Rs200bn through a rights equity issue in 2010-11, about
half the amount it needs to sustain growth over the next five years. (Mint)

– Follow-on offer in state-run miner NMDC Ltd to raise about US$3bn will open
on March 10 and follow the standard book-building system for Indian
offerings. (BS)

– Aurobindo Pharma Ltd allotted 133,491 equity shares of Rs5 each at a
premium of Rs517 by conversion of foreign currency convertible bonds
(FCCBs) worth US$1.6mn. (BS)

– ITC is planning to enter the food market of the UAE and the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) through a partnership with the Al Seer Group. (BS)

– Mid-tier IT services company MindTree said the company was planning to
raise a debt of up to US$100mn to ensure enough funds to steer the company in the next phase of growth. (BS)

– Vedanta Aluminium, a subsidiary of the billionaire Anil Agarwal-promoted
Vedanta Resources, has raised a Rs170bn debt for its ongoing project in
Orissa to increase its fully-integrated aluminium smelting capacity. (BS)

– A multi-million dollar deal with Ashok Leyland will see South African defence
systems manufacturer Paramount Group developing its second joint assembly
plant outside the country; Paramount already has a joint assembly plant in
Azerbaijan. (BS)

– Pantaloon Retail said its board had approved the merger of the consumer
durables and home improvement units of its subsidiary, Home Solutions
Retail, with itself. (BS)

– Wipro said it had won a 10-year contract from state-run Punjab and Sind Bank for outsourcing services. (BS)

– Maruti's total cost of A-Star recall is estimated to be around Rs300mn;
company to pay 40%, says chairman. (BL)

– A consortium of banks led by Canara Bank is believed to have provided
Rs10bn as working capital to Air India. (BL)

– In a big push to private power generation capacity, Power Grid Corporation of
India Ltd signed long-term transmission pacts with 37 private developers,
entailing a gross generation capacity of over 42,000 MW. (BL)

– Bayer AG approached the Supreme Court seeking protection for its drug
Nexavar even as Cipla’s plea for marketing approval for Sorafenib, the generic
version of its kidney cancer drug, is pending with the regulatory authorities. (FE)

Economic/Regulatory development

– The Centre will start the long delayed auction of the third generation or 3G
spectrum on 9th April 2010. This is the fourth time it has rescheduled the sale
of high-speed mobile licences in two years. (Mint)

– In a move that could add to the broadband uptake in the country, Indian
Railways is planning to roll out 15,000 route km of optical fibre cable through
the Public Private Partnership route. This cable infrastructure will be utilized to offer broadband services across the country. (BL)

International trends

– New York based SkyBridge Capital is in advanced talks to purchase Citigroup’s $4bn hedge fund business. (ET)

– The Senate passed a modest jobs-creation bill and laid the groundwork for a larger package that would advance Democrats’ goal of bringing down the
stubbornly high US unemployment rate. (BS)