IIFL: Corporate and Economic news update: Oct 11th

Corporate Front Page:

- M&M plans to convert bonds worth US$141.2mn to help pare its debt-to-equity ratio. (ET)

- HPCL is in talks with Jindal Petroleum to buy the latter’s 25% stake in an oil and gas block in Rajasthan. (ET)

- L&T bagged Rs15.85bn orders in July-September period from the construction segment. (ET)

- Punj Lloyd bagged Rs5.39bn contract from Gail India for laying a natural gas pipeline from Dabhol to Bangalore. (ET)

- Government is likely to offer a significant stake in its proposed refinery project in Rajasthan to Vedanta Resources, which is looking to enter the crude oil business by acquiring majority stake in Cairn India. (FE)

- Jindal Steel and Power has started to build a US$2.1bn iron ore mine and steel project in eastern Bolivia after a series of delay. (DNA)

- Fortis Global Healthcare plans to acquire Hong Kong’s Quality Healthcare Asia for ~Rs8.82bn. (ET)

- Bharat Forge-Alstom is the lowest bidder for Rs72bn NTPC-DVC contract. (FE)

- Essar Energy may buy a refinery or storage facilities overseas. (ET)

- Russia disqualified ONGC from bidding for the giant Trebs and Titov fields in northwest Russia. (ET)

- Procter & Gamble plans to consider a stock split in its upcoming board meet. (ET)

- Hindustan Copper invites bids to map the reserves for its copper mine in Rajasthan. (BL)

- Ambuja Cement signs agreement with the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation to set up a 2.2mn ton cement plant in Nagaur district with a capital outlay of Rs22bn. (BL)

- JSW Steel’s production in the July-September quarter grew by 8% to 3.14mn tons. (BS)

- Hindustan Motors board proposed to entirely write off the securities’ premium account of the company and also plans to halve the paid-up value of each equity share from Rs10 to Rs5. (BS)

- Government may infuse additional Rs20bn into Air India to improve its debt-equity ratio (ET)

- GM to enter the rapidly growing LCV market in India with both cargo and passenger versions by early 2012 (ET)

Economy Front Page:

- Foreign exchange reserves rose US$2.6bn during the week ended October 1 to US$294.1bn (ET)

- The finance ministry is looking into a proposal that would allow overseas retail investors to invest directly in Indian equity markets. (BS)

- SIAM expects growth of domestic automotive sales to close at 18-20% for the entire year. (BS)

- Banks withdrew ~Rs482bn from mutual funds during the fortnight ended September 24 to meet credit demand.  (BS)

- The GoM on the draft mining Bill is set to approve the proposed 26% profit sharing regime for the sector. (BS)

- Planning Commission will support the demand for infrastructure status to the tourism industry, which comes with a 10-year tax holiday, if a formal proposal comes from the ministry. (FE)