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Old Fuel prices: Feb 27, 2010 new prices will be updated soon
Suzuki raises Maruti stake, fuels talks of full control
8 March 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Gaurie Mishra & Nandini Sen Gupta:NEW DELHI: Suzuki Motor Corp has raised its stake in Maruti Suzuki to 55%, triggering speculation about the Japanese firm’s intentions for its Indian subsidiary and whether the move is part of a larger plan to take full control of the country’s top carmaker. Suzuki raised its stake in Maruti by 0.8% through secondary market purchases “very recently”, two persons familiar with the matter told ET. One of them, an investment banker, said Suzuki was set to increase its stake further. Indian rules allow companies to make creeping acquisitions of up to 5% a year and any increase beyond 55% will require Suzuki to make an open offer for another 20%. A spokesman for Maruti, whose website is still to reflect Suzuki’s revised holding in it, declined to comment, while several emails set to Suzuki remained unanswered. However, a person close to the company said “any change in the stakeholding will only come up before the board at the statutory board meeting scheduled for the third week of April”. Maruti, which sells every second car in India, has established itself as the crown jewel in Suzuki’s global operations and is a rare bright spot for sales across the world. It already contributes nearly 80% of Suzuki’s profits, and in volumes too, it has eclipsed its parent’s tally. Auto analysts and former Maruti officials say the increase in the stake at this juncture could well be part of a larger strategy to gain full control of Maruti, especially in the light of Suzuki’s latest alliance with Volkswagen that saw the German group pick up a 20% stake in the Japanese group. “It would be interesting to see what plans Suzuki and VW have for Maruti because their alliance has a significant focus on the Indian market,” noted an analyst at a Mumbai-based brokerage. Despite a flourish of global carmakers gnawing at its market share, India continues to be a lucrative market for Suzuki. Indeed, Maruti sold 96,650 cars in February, the 22% leap from a year ago its best monthly performance yet. “There’s no reason why Suzuki would want (it) ... unless it has a ... larger game-plan lined up,” one former Maruti official said. “Suzuki gets nothing by upping its stake unless it has a longer term strategy of which this is a part,” added the analyst. After Suzuki, FIIs and LIC are the biggest stakeholders in Maruti, owning 22.21% and 11.22%, respectively. Maruti’s current market value is around $10 billion, and if Suzuki were to fully delist the company, it would have to shell out nearly $5 billion at current prices. Shares in Maruti ended 0.16% lower at Rs 1,457 on the BSE on Friday. Maruti is looking to increase its capacity from 1 million units a year by up to 75% in the next five years. “Depending on how the car market performs, we would like to reach 1.5–1.75 million units a year by 2015.” Maruti Suzuki MD Shinzo Nakanishi told ET in an earlier interview.
05 March 2010;business-standard.com:Swaraj Baggonkar:Mumbai: Nissan will continue to source the Pixo, a small car from Maruti Suzuki, until the contract expires in 2012, thus laying to rest any speculation that the Japanese company was reconsidering the deal following Volkswagen’s purchase of a stake in Suzuki. Nissan currently does not have a small car in its line-up for the European market, which is fast moving towards compact and fuel-efficient hatchbacks. It currently sources the A-Star model from Maruti Suzuki and sells this as the Nissan Pixo in Europe. German car maker Volkswagen bought a stake of nearly 20 per cent in Suzuki for $2.5 billion in December last year, in an attempt to strengthen its plans for the compact car segment in burgeoning automotive markets such as India and China. Experts stated that since the Pixo competed with Volkswagen’s Lupo (a compact car) in the European market, the Japanese company would have to reconsider the sourcing agreement with Suzuki. Recently, Nissan’s Executive Vice-President Colin Dodge stated: “We do not know yet whether that strategy is still good, with Suzuki joining Volkswagen. A lot of people believe not, and we are thinking about it.” No replacement for Pixo But, according to Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava, Nissan will have to continue the sourcing agreement as the Japanese company still does not have a replacement model for the Pixo, which is doing quite well in Europe. “Nissan will be left without a small car if they terminate the agreement. We have had no formal dialogue with the company so far on the issue and our understanding is that the deal will continue for the entire duration, which extends till 2012,” stated Bhargava. “Even if in future VW was to source a small car from us, it would not be similar to the A-Star,” he added. Replying to a questionnaire, Nissan stated: “Nissan has confirmed that both companies will continue to comply with the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement.” A successful model Nissan’s manufacturing agreement with Suzuki, signed in 2006, has given it a ready car that is an all-new compact car developed by Suzuki from scratch. The A-Star, in the news recently for being recalled by Maruti for rectifying a fuel leakage problem, has been very successful in the overseas market. This prompted Nissan to nearly double its sourcing target to 54,000 units this financial year, up from the 30,000 units planned earlier. With VW planning an aggressive foray into the small car market over the next few years with expansive aid from Suzuki, the future prospects of Nissan’s deal with Suzuki look bleak, as VW may not want to share its small car details, which will entail huge investments with a third company. Nissan will start selling its all-new compact car in the international and in the Indian market from this year. This four-door, compact hatchback will be made at its Chennai facility and will be launched by May. The car will also be exported to Europe.
Essar Oil plans Rs 4,000-cr investment for CBM blocks
05 March 2010;business-standard.com:Nevin John:Mumbai: The Ruias-controlled Essar Oil plans to invest about Rs 4,000 crore in the next three years for developing its three coal bed methane (CBM) blocks in Jharkhand, Gujarat and West Bengal, having recoverable gas reserve of close to seven trillion cubic feet (tcf). “The existing recoverable gas would be valued about $4 billion at the current contract prices. With the commencement of CBM production in three blocks, Essar’s exploration and production (E&P) will be poised for a significant growth and the additional cash flow will help the company pay off the debts,” said an industry source. According to sources, the company has already spent Rs 150 crore for exploration at these CBM blocks. According to the latest Competent Person Report (CPR) of two US-based consultant firms, Netherlands Sewell & Associates Inc and Advanced Resources Inc, Essar’s recoverable resource at Rajmahal block in Jharkhand stood at 4.7 tcf, against the earlier estimate of 1.3 tcf. Also, the company has found 0.75 tcf CBM gas reserve at its Mehsana block in Gujarat. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had earlier approved recoverable reserves of 1 tcf at the company’s Raniganj block in West Bengal. “As certified by internationally recognised reserve consultants in the latest CPR, the estimate for recoverable resources and reserves at our CBM blocks has more than doubled to seven tcf,” said Shishir Agrawal, chief executive officer — Exploration & Production, Essar Oil. “Essar Oil’s E&P business owns rights in some strategic oil and gas blocks across the world, with significant production potential. In India particularly, we are emerging as a dominant player in gas. We have a highly skilled and competent project execution team that has employed several cost-effective technologies, to keep our risks and operating expenditure low.” Gas flow from Raniganj has already started, and sales are likely to commence by early April. In the CBM IV Round, Essar was announced as the provisional winner of Block Rajmahal in Jharkhand. As per CPR, the recoverable resource is estimated at 4.7 tcf, compared to the earlier estimate of 1.30 tcf. Earlier, DGH estimate indicated Rajmahal to be a very good CBM potential with 3.2 tcf of gas, which is now estimated at 9.50 tcf in the CPRs.
05 March 2010;hindustantimes.com:Kamayani Singh:Last month Maruti Suzuki decided to recall one hundred thousand units of its A-Star cars to fix faulty fuel tanks. It turned out to be one of the biggest recalls in Indian history. Earlier, Toyota recalled more than 8.5 million cars mostly in the US to fix gas pedals that allegedly resulted in 34 deaths in the US. Honda, too, decided to recall more than 400,000 cars from all over the world – including 8,500 from India – to mend faulty airbags. While product recalls is a common occurrence in the US, it’s somewhat unique in India. Indians became part of a large-scale product recall, perhaps for the first time in 2007, when Nokia decided to take back 46 million of its cell phone batteries globally. Although the reasons behind every recall are different, if a company decides to recall products even before the consumer discovers a defect – as in the case of Maruti’s A-Star cars – it goes to show how businesses are becoming conscious of their image and trustworthiness. “The Indian consumer, who may have lived with minor defects a couple of decades ago, is more aware and demanding now,” said Santosh Sood, a Delhi-based independent brand consultant. Legal support In recent years, consumer courts across India have been flooded with complaints. Government campaigns, such as Jaago Grahak Jaago, have also helped increase consumer rights awareness. But most cases take years to be settled and the consumer ends up spending more money on legal processes than the compensation he applied for. Consumer courts came up in India after the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 was enforced. At least 33 lakh cases have since been filed in different district and state consumer courts and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. Although 29.5 lakh cases have been settled so far, the time they take keeps getting longer. “The number of cases getting filed in consumer courts was negligible in the 1990s, but it has increased in the last few years,” said Nitin Saxena, a Delhi-based consumer activist. The district consumer commissions in Delhi receive on average 150 complaints a week and the state consumer commission gets 15 complaints a day. But in most years, only one-fifth of the cases end up seeing the light of day. Although the Consumer Protection Act stipulates that each case must be settled in 90 days, most cases take between one year and four years to be settled. “When I filed the case, I had no idea about how consumer courts work. The government needs to create more awareness regarding this,” said Rajesh Yadav, who filed a complaint against ICICI Bank in 2006 and won the case. He said, “Although my case took a year to get settled, most take three-four years. The courts must get equipped to process more cases.” No real power Bejon Misra, chairman, cell for consumer education and advocacy, an organization that works for consumer rights, however, said the Indian consumer had no real power. “While companies impose heavy penalties for late payment, there is no penalty if the company fails to address a complaint.” He said the consumer would not have to go to the court so often if companies take the lead in addressing most complaints internally. Experts say maximum number of cases in the consumer courts is against banking, telecommunication and insurance companies. An official of telecom service provider Airtel said on condition of anonymity that the company “has taken steps to empower customers… These measures help deal with complaints effectively”. But Misra said, “There need to be greater monitoring by the government and its regulatory bodies. The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) should be given the power to probe if there are a high number of consumer complaints in the banking or telecom space.” In November 2007, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission slapped a fine of Rs 55 lakh on ICICI Bank for using recovery agents to beat up the owner of a car who had defaulted on his car loan. The agents had not bothered to confirm the identity of the owner and ended up beating up a wrong person, who was hospitalized for two weeks. “From what I know, ICICI Bank has challenged the order and the complainant still hasn’t been compensated,” said Misra. In the US, government bodies, such as Consumer Product Safety Commission and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, maintain online databanks on products that have been recalled. Their websites help the consumer make an informed decision and register complaints. As the recall by Maruti Suzuki made headlines at home, Sood said, “The consumer may forgive Maruti this time, as it took the initiative to admit the fault.” But he said, “As confidence in a company grows, the consumer becomes less forgiving with every subsequent mistake.”
