Hindustan Unilever, Godrej join Indian Premier League bandwagon

FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and the Godrej Group have jumped on to the IPL (season 2) bandwagon, even as Bajaj Allianz and realty major HDIL are terminating their deals with IPL teams.

The Godrej Group has just signed up as one of the co-sponsors for IPL (Season 2). HUL has joined the list of sponsors of the much-hyped sports event, scheduled for April 2009.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola India has turned associate sponsor of yet another IPL team, Delhi Dare Devils, for its flagship brand Coke. Earlier, the company had signed up as the associate sponsor for Kolkata Knight Riders for its Sprite brand.

Incidentally, IPL had only seven sponsors in its first season; the number has risen to ten in this (second) season.

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G-20 countries will not be asked to reveal their spending plans: Britain

Britain and the United States are not planning to ask the leaders of G-20 nations to announce specific spending plans to help fix the worst economic crisis in decades when they meet in London next week, British foreign secretary David Miliband said on Sunday.

Speaking to BBC, he played down talk of a deep rift between countries that support further stimulus, such as Britain and the United States, and those that have urged caution, including Germany and France.

Countries will not be asked to reveal their public spending plans at the summit, but they should realise that boosting demand will play a key role in any recovery, he said.

“This G-20 summit was never about writing national budgets. It is about the international financial architecture.

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Sony back as Indian Premier League broadcaster in new Rs 8,200-crore agreement

The domestic telecast rights for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will remain with Multi Screen Media (earlier known as Sony Entertainment Television). In a press release issued late on Wednesday, IPL announced that MSM and World Sports Group (WSG), the global rights holder, were now the official broadcast partners for the league.

Wednesday’s deal, worth a staggering Rs 8,200 crore—almost double last year’s ten year agreement—is valid for the next nine years through 2017 and provides MSM with the exclusive audio-visual rights for all 59 matches of the upcoming season, which is scheduled to start on April 18 in South Africa, the release said.

Telecast rights for the hugely popular cricket tournament have been in the news ever since Sony sued the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), owners of IPL, over the sudden termination of its agreement on March 15.

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Congress talks disinvestment

The Congress party plans to list all public sector companies on the stock markets, replace indirect taxes with an omnibus goods & services tax and pass right-to-food legislation if returned to power after the general elections in April-May.

However, the party manifesto—released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday— does not outline any immediate expansion of public investment to follow the three stimulus packages already announced by the government. Instead, Singh said he expected those packages to deliver higher growth soon.

“I am confident that because of the stimulus our government has announced, in the next six to seven months the revival of the Indian economy should take place in a big way,” he said. The party expects to use the higher growth to spend on its list of priorities, which begins with education, and lists health, agriculture, social security and infrastructure—in that order.

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Tata launches the Nano

In a year where very few things are going right for Indian industry, Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata gave it something to feel pleased about. Six years after it was conceptualised, Tata’s dream car—the Nano—was commercially launched on Monday.

The booking window for the car will open on April 9 and close on April 25. At a time when unsold cars are piling up in the showrooms of several automakers, Tata Motors will make allotments through a lottery.

Within 60 days of bookings closing, the company will announce allotments for 1 lakh cars in the first phase of deliveries through a computerised random selection process. These allotments will be price protected (see price table on Page 2), but the booking amounts will not earn customers any interest.

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Nano buyers have to pay entire price on booking

Nano won’t come cheap and easy for the masses waiting for their first car. In an effort to limit the demand for the much-hyped people’s car, Tata Motors would insist on 100% (Rs 1 lakh) down payment for the Nano on booking. This, according to dealers, is an attempt to restrict the bookings since the company is severely constrained on the supply side of Nano. Typically, a customer pays 20%-30% of the on-road price of a car as down payment at the time of booking.

The Nano will be sold through a lottery system and the booking forms would be available over the week with all its dealers, select State Bank of India (SBI) branches and all Tata group retail ventures, including Croma, Westside, Trent and Star Bazaar. The form is expected to cost around Rs 200-300.

The booking will be open for 14 days, after that the draw of lots will be conducted. The first car would be delivered to the lucky customer in two-and-a half months, said a dealer.

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Obama faces growing ire over AIG bonus payouts

President Barack Obama is grappling with the AIG bonus furore by both accepting responsibility for the government’s failure to head off the payments and blaming it on the “big mess” he inherited.

He is working to protect treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, who began his tenure under a cloud over unpaid taxes and is now taking heat from Republican lawmakers for not heading off the bonuses before they were paid out.

The flap over AIG’s payment of $165 million in bonuses to executives after the insurance giant got up to $180 billion in government aid has inflamed Americans, already impatient with the government’s billion dollar bailouts of firms that helped pitch the US economy into crisis.

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President Rule in Meghalaya

History repeated itself in Meghalaya today as the Centre imposed President’s Rule, 18 years after a similar situation in the state.

The Centre had imposed President’s Rule on October 11, 1991, after the then Speaker, PR Kyndiah, suspended five MLAs, mostly independents, on grounds of defection.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, which was presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday morning, took a decision to bring the state under central rule and to keep the assembly under suspended animation.

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Court binds BCCI until final order: NDTV emerges rights frontrunner

Even as the Bombay High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a petition filed by Sony Entertainment challenging the termination of its contract to broadcast IPL matches by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the home ministry has said it had sent a revised tournament schedule to states for their comments. New Delhi, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam have been dropped as venues in the revised schedule submitted to the ministry on Tuesday.

In court, Sony lawyer Iqbal Chhagla stated that legal rights were yet to be established, as the notice given to Sony was not a termination letter. “The notice of termination, given on Saturday, a non-working day, would have come into effect only on March 16 (Monday),” he said. BCCI lawyer V Tulzapurkar countered this, saying that a termination letter had indeed been served. He also added that the contract with Sony was terminated because the “quality of broadcasting” was “bad”.

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Life Insurance Corporation goes shopping, doubles stake in State Bank of India

The 'big bull' of the Indian equity market, state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), has gone on a value hunt in the rock-bottom stocks market, lending support to blue chip banking stocks. LIC, India’s largest institutional investor, has raised its stake in most Indian banks over the last four months.

On Monday, LIC informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has raised its stake in the country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, to 9.16%, from 4.58% in December 2008—nearly doubling the stake in a space of less than three months.

LIC said it acquired 1.34 crore shares, representing 2.11% equity of the State Bank, for Rs 1,484.12 crore on Monday. It said the remaining shares were bought through open market transactions between November 2008 and March 2, 2009.

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Delhi 2010 may be scrapped if security in doubt:official

The 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi could be cancelled if a security assessment one month from the start deemed them unsafe to proceed, said a leading Australian official.

Security around the Games, due to be held from October 3-14, has come under scrutiny after an attack in Mumbai in November that killed at least 171 people and a recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.

“At one month (out), if for whatever reason it’s determined it is not secure, the Commonwealth Games Federation has got to determine whether the Games go on,” Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) chief executive Perry Crosswhite said on Sunday.

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Larsen and Toubro, Mahindra, Spice in race for Satyam

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Tech Mahindra and the Spice group on Thursday submitted expressions of interest (EoI) to participate in the bidding process to acquire a 51% stake in Satyam Computer Services. Another major contender, the Hinduja group, backed out from the bidding process for reasons it did not disclose. Capgemini, Europe’s largest computer consultancy, also said it has no interest in buying a stake in the troubled IT company. The deadline for submitting an EoI ended at 5 pm on Thursday.

Satyam’s government-appointed board is keen to bring in a majority investor to restore the confidence in the company of its 50,000-strong staff and more than 600 customers, which include General Electric and Qantas Airways. Though the company was hit by India’s biggest corporate scandal, its top clientele and staff talent are seen as attractive to potential bidders. However, the class action suits in the US still hang like a Damocles’ sword over the company, with estimated liabilities of $400 to $800 million, according to Spice group legal advisors.

The Satyam board is meeting on Friday in Hyderabad to scrutinise the EoIs.

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Fake! how Italian surrealist sold copies of his own paintings

Giorgio de Chirico was an eccentric if ever there was one. He faked his own art.

Late in life, the Italian surrealist artist would paint exact copies of much earlier works, backdate them, and put them on the market. More than one collector sued after discovering that their De Chirico was not an original from his pre-World War-I hey day,but a subsequent copy by the artist himself.

Most exhibitions treat De Chirico—who died in 1978 at age 90— as if his painting career stopped shortly after 1920.They touch only gingerly on the later work,which is generally dismissed as an embarrassing aberration. The retrospective at Paris’s Musee d’Art Moderne is the first show outside Italy to break the taboo, and to give you the full picture, wartsandall.

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Satyam sets no floor price for bids

Satyam Computer Services has announced the bidding modalities for acquiring a majority stake in the company, on a day when CBI got custody of its former chairman and suspected partners in the 7,800crore fraud.

Many interested parties are gearing up to take part in the ‘transparent’ bidding process after the Satyam management issued an expression of interest (EoI) on Monday. The earlier issue of knowing the financial position of Satyam has also been taken care of.

The EoI, issued after getting permission from the Securities & Exchange Board of India, sets no floor price for the bidders, though they will have to furnish proof of fund availability of at least Rs 1,500 crore.

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Kotak Mahindra likely to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland Indian assets

Kotak Mahindra Bank may be the first Indian bank to join the race along with the other international suitors to buy out the Indian operations of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has put some of its Asia Pacific operations on the block after being badly hit by the global financial crisis.

Uday Kotak, vice-chairman & managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, did not rule out a possible bidding for the takeover of RBS-India operations. Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai last Friday, he said, “Although nothing has been decided on this issue as on date, we will certainly evaluate such an opportunity if the need arises in the future.’’

Earlier, speaking with FE when announcing bank’s Q3 FY09 results Kotak Bank’s executive director Deepak Gupta had said that the bank is currently cutting down its business expansion plans and conserving capital to avail of mergers & acquisitions opportunities.

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A-Star, i20 win over European markets

Despite slowdown in the global markets, the recently launched made in India compact cars, the A-Star from Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and the i20 from Hyundai Motor India (HMI), are fast catching up the fancy of the Europeans.

In February, while MSI registered a jump of 89.9% in exports at 8,565 units against 4,511 units in the same month last year, HMI posted a growth of 18.3% in exports at 17,039 units last month vis-à-vis 14,401 units in February last year. In fact, Hyundai has already exported 25,000 units of i20 in the last three months. This is 44.6% of the 56,039 units that the company exported in December, January and February. Even the A-Star, launched in India in November and the shipment of which to Europe started in January, has so far contributed 56.8% or around 10,000 units of the total 17,603 cars exported by Maruti in the last three months.

“With a huge surge in oil prices last year, people in developed countries have now started moving towards fuel efficient or small cars and this has led to an increase in demand for smaller cars,” said Vaishali Jajoo, senior auto analyst, Angel Broking.

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Sensex slips 248 points, ends at 8,198

Despite a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and a further dip in India’s headline inflation, the domestic equity bourses continued with their loosing streak as the deteriorating fiscal deficit situation and a falling rupee dampened investors sentiment forcing foreign institutional investors (FII) to pull out from the Indian market. The key benchmark indices ended the day on a very weak note registering its lowest close in more than three years, after witnessing huge volatility and selling pressure throughout the trading session.

The 30-share Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed at 8,197.92 points down by 248.57 or 2.94%. On the other hand, the broader S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 68.50 points or 2.59% to end the day at 2,576.70 points.

Though the RBI had slashed repo rate and reverse repo rate by 50 bps on Wednesday, to stimulate demand in the economy, according to market participants deteriorating macro economic situations is weighing heavily on investors sentiments.

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Reserve Bank of India cuts repo, reverse repo rates by 50 basis points

The Reserve Bank of India reduced the repo and reverse repo rates by 50 basis points each on Wednesday, but industry said its effectiveness would depend on how well banks use the cheaper money to provide more credit to an economy rapidly losing steam. While Bank of India said it could take weeks to decide on lowering prime lending rates, UCO Bank announced a reduction in its benchmark by 50 basis points to 12.50%.

The money and stock markets had factored in the rate cuts for some time, but they are not expected to sustain a rally. A CII statement said another 50-bps cut would have been more appropriate. Nevertheless, industry captains are hopeful. Said Binani Cement MD Vinod Juneja, “The cut will boost demand for cement as housing loans are now expected to become cheaper and affordable. This will boost housing demand, in turn improving demand for steel and cement.”

General Motors India vice president P Balendran echoed that sentiment. “Interest rates on auto loans will come down further. This will improve liquidity in the system and consequently volumes are expected to go up further,” he said.

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Priyanka gives tips to cadres at Raebareli

Priyanka Vadra on Tuesday gave ‘winning tips’ to party workers during a day-long tour of Amethi.

‘‘I do not have any political ambitions... I am here to strengthen the party and campaign for my brother (Rahul) and mother (Sonia) in Amethi and Raebareli constituencies as they will be busy in campaigning for party candidates across the country,’’ Priyanka told reporters here.

When asked whether she would consider demand of the electorate for contesting elections, Priyanka said that it was an old demand and she would not contest elections.

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Rupee touches a record low of 51.90, could slip further

India’s largest bank,State Bank of India, on Monday made it more attractive for non-residents to park their dollars in India as the rupee fell to an all-time low of 51.90/92 against the dollar.

The rupee fell as a slump in key economic data, including a five-year low third quarter growth rate, and an arbitrage with offshore derivatives pressured the currency. The rupee had closed at 51.10/12 on Friday. Dealers said despite the Reserve Bank’s intervention, the rupee saw a massive fall against the dollar.

Foreign institutional investors have sold $1.7 billion of Indian shares in the first two months of the year, after selling more than $13 billion last year when the rupee fell more than 19%.

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Satyam door opened to foreign bids: IBM, Oracle make queries

The government is keen to get a foreign suitor for Satyam. Minister for corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta said in Hyderabad on Sunday the company’s government-appointed board has formally asked foreign companies to also bid.

While the minister did not disclose names, it is learnt that officials from IBM have met Satyam’s management team this month, to ascertain how long the restatement of accounts would take for the Indian firm. Oracle is also learnt to have sent some questionnaires to the Hyderabad-based IT company that imploded after its erstwhile chairman B Ramalinga Raju said he had engineered a Rs 7,800-crore accounting fraud in the firm.

The minister’s statement means the government is keen to get a very strong valuation for Satyam than was thought so far, with domestic engineering company L&T seen as the front runner. It already has a 12% stake in the IT company.

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