Category: Breaking Corporate India Earnings News

Gati is planning to acquire Kausar, a Delhi-based firm with a presence in the cold chain segment.

Kausar, which reported a turnover of Rs 19 crore in FY 2007, is listed on the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) but has not witnessed any trading activity in the past few months, reports suggest.

Kausar has a strong presence in the cold chain segment in northern India and specialises in the transportation of meat, pedigree products, dairy products and pharmaceuticals. Kausar has a strong customer base with clients like Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Nestle, Dabur and Amul among others.

At present, Gati does not have any presence in the movement of perishable cargo and this acquisition will mark Gati’s entry into the cold chain space. The move by Gati to enter into the cold chain space comes on the eve of the increased requirements of cold chain facilities by retail giants like Reliance Retail, Bharti Wal-Mart and the Aditya Birla Group.

Ahluwalia Contracts India received construction contract for the Commonwealth Games 2010 Village Residential project from Emaar MGF Construction. The estimated project value is Rs 688 crore and expected to be completed by December 2009. The current order book value of the company including the above mentioned project stands at Rs 2748 crore.

The current price of Rs 561.70 discounts its Q1 June 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 26.93 by a PE multiple of 20.85.

As per reports, bankers underwriting loan to Tata Steel to acquire Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus have cut the price of one tranche of debt to be floated in the market to 99.25% of face value from 100%. Tata steel will now have to pay 50 basis points more on this tranche of $1 billion with a seven-year tenure. Tata Steel is mopping up $7.3 billion to fund its $13 billion-acquisition of Corus. The loan’s underwriters are ABN Amro, Citigroup and Standard Chartered.

The move came after institutional investors, the loan’s original target market, have been reluctant to join amid current credit market volatility arising from US sub-prime mortgage woes.

The board of Anant Raj Industries has approved for the split of equity shares of the company from 1 equity share of Rs 10 each to 5 equity shares of Rs 2 each. Further the effect of split will be extended to the shares which will be allotted pursuant to the merger of the company with it’s group companies and to any other earlier resolution passed for allotment of equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each.

Further, the board has decided to convene extra ordinary general meeting on 10 September 2007.

Aban Offshore has announced that letter of award has been received from a leading E&P Company in South Asia for deployment of the new built jack up rig deep driller 4, for a firm period of 12 months with two options to the operator for a period of 6 months each.

The estimated revenues for the firm period of deployment would be approximately US $ 80 million, including mobilization and demobilization. The rig is likely to commence operations by 4th quarter of year 2007.

Reportedly, the ministry of mines had proposed a financial restructuring package worth Rs 637 crore for Hindustan Copper Limited [HCL] revival. The package includes waiver of loan, interest, preference share capital, guarantee fee and reduction of capital.

The combined measures are expected to substantially reduce HCL’s accumulated losses of Rs 723 crore that has eroded its capital base by about 50%, reports suggest.

The financial restructuring package is aimed at helping HCL to mobilise funds from the market for estimated outlay of Rs 1800 crore for modernisation, expansion and development of new mines.

Meanwhile, the state-run copper firm was recently in news for exploring avenues to hedge its risk on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). If successful, HCL would be the first metal producer in the country to hedge on a local commodity exchange

Biocon has announced that the company and Abraxis BioScience, an integrated, global biopharmaceutical company has announced a licensing agreement for the commercialization of ABRAXANE in India.

Under the terms of the agreement, the company will also have the right to market ABRAXANE in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and certain other persian gulf countries. As part of this agreement, Abraxis will receive royalties from the company based on net sales of ABRAXANE in these countries.

In July 2007, Abraxis submitted to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare an application to market ABRAXANE for the treatment of breast cancer.