Month: August 2007

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has won a repeat order valued at over US $ 70 million for construction of two ship from RollDock BV of the Netherlands, (erstwhile Zadeko shipmanagement CV).

The order re-establishes the customer’s confidence in L&T’s progress into shipbuilding which was commenced last year. The vessels will be built at the existing shipyard which is a part of the company’s state-of-the-art engineering complex at Hazira, Surat.

RollDock, the Rotterdam-based shipping company, caters to special purpose cargo movements. Its management has expressed their desire to continue the company’s association with L&T for its future vessel acquisition programme. They have also signed an agreement that includes options for more vessels of the same series to be built later this year. The vessels will be delivered by May 2010.

In technical terminology RO-RO/LO-LO are semi-submersible, heavy lift container cargo ships. These highly specialized vessels are among the only ones of their kind to be built in India. The vessels have a deadweight capacity of over 8250 tonnes, cargo volume of 17000 cubic metres and can carry 830 TEU of containers.

Switzerland’s Holcim today said it had acquired 3.9% additional stake in Ambuja Cements from the founding families at Rs 154 shares, in a deal worth $220 million.

Holcim also said it would launch a public takeover offer for another 20% of the share capital of Ambuja Cements in a bid worth around $1.12 billion. “Provided that the public offer is accepted in full, Holcim’s stake in (Ambuja) will rise to more than 56%,” Holcim said in a statement. The open offer will be made at Rs 154 per share, representing a 20% premium over the average price of the shares for the last two weeks, Holcim said.

The current price of Asian Granito is Rs 86 which is below the issue price of Rs 97.

Asian Granito India’s IPO had ended on 31 July 2007 with 4.51 times subscription. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 3.06 times, the non institutional investors category was subscribed 10.01 times, the retail individual investors category was subscribed 4.64 times and the employees category was subscribed 1.37 times.

The board of Birla Kennametal has recommended sub-division of each of 1 (one) existing fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each into 5 (five) fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 2 each.

Bank of India announced that the board of directors of the company has decided to revalue some of its properties taking into account the appreciation in their value. The bank’s Tier II capital will stand increased once the process of revaluation is completed, it said.

Net profit of Bank of India rose 51.01% to Rs 315.20 crore on 34.94% rise in total operating income to Rs 2727.26 crore in Q1 June 2007 over Q1 June 2006.