14 August 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: As it battles rising competition, Maruti Suzuki drove in five new models with CNG option, including its best-seller Alto. The company will offer factory-fitted CNG cars, and the models are priced at a premium of about Rs 50,000 to the petrol-only version. Maruti's market share slipped below 50% after the launch of compacts from Ford, Volkswagen and GM. Apart from the Alto LXi (Rs 3.23 lakh), other models to sport CNG option are Estilo LXi (Rs 4.05 lakh) and WagonR LXi (Rs 4.11 lakh), Eeco 5-seater multipurpose (Rs 3.64 lakh) and SX4 VXi sedan (Rs 7.47 lakh).
13 August 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:Even as Government raised petroleum prices putting a lot of burden on State owned marketing companies and common man, it did precious little to recover outstanding fuel bills from the top two private airlines of India — Rs 960.15 from Jet Airways and Rs 814.49 crore from Kingfisher. As per reports, such is the financial state of Kingfisher Airlines that GMR Group has decided to put the airline on cash and carry mode from next week for payment defaults. Interestingly, if this would have been the case with other companies, they would have been declared defaulters and their assests disposed off to recover the dues. But, here this is not the case. What a paradox! In a written reply, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada, on Thursday said that Jet Airways had the highest outstanding of Rs 960.15 crore as on June 30 towards State-owned fuel retailers, while Kingfisher had Rs 814.49 crore in unpaid bills. Jet owes Rs 830.4 crore to Indian Oil, Rs 129.74 crore to Bharat Petroleum and Rs 0.01 crore to Hindustan Petroleum. Kingfisher owes HPCL Rs 536.04 crore, BPCL Rs 248.55 crore and IOC Rs 29.9 crore. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel also recently said in Parliament that as on June 2010, out of total dues of Rs 304.65 crore from private airlines to AAI, Kingfisher owed Rs 184.87 crore followed by Jet Airways (together with JetLite) at Rs 50.99 crore. While Kingfisher Airlines has over Rs 6,000 crore debt on its books, Jet Airways has a debt of about Rs 13,500 crore. Experts say that despite high economic growth these two airlines will take some more time to recover because of their huge debt burden. Probably, keeping the huge debt burden of top two airlines of India in mind RBI is mulling debt restructuring package for the aviation sector. Meanwhile, SBI Chairman OP Bhatt on Thursday said it was right time aviation companies raised equity but added that mandate is required from the RBI. He also added that banks are in discussion with the apex bank in this regard, but ruled out corporate debt restructuring (CDR) as an option. Prasada informed Parliament that HPCL has put Kingfisher Airlines on cash and carry mode since July 1 while BPCL has filed a winding up petition in the Mumbai High Court against the Vijay Mallya- owned company. “Recovery is being made by BPCL in line with consent terms between BPCL and Kingfisher Airlines before the court in November 2009 whereby the entire dues are to be cleared by November 2010,” he added. In all, the six private airlines in the country owe Rs 1,887.82 crore to the oil companies. Outstanding of Spicejet (Rs 74.5 crore), Go Air (Rs 18.8 crore), Indigo (Rs 0.6 crore) and Paramount Airways (Rs 19.28 crore) is marginal compared to what the giants Jet and Kingfisher owe to the oil firms.
14 August 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:MUMBAI: Private sector lender HDFC Bank is likely to raise interest rates on auto loans by 0.5% within 7-10 days, a senior bank official said on Friday. "Borrowing rates have gone up — we are likely to raise our rates (auto loans) by 0.5% in the next 7-10 days," HDFC Bank senior executive vice-presidentAshok Khanna said. Kotak Mahindra Bank, is also feeling the pressure to raise its auto lending rates, one of its senior officials said. "There is pressure to raise our interest rates on vehicle loans, but we have not yet taken a decision on it," Kotak Mahindra Bank's head of consumer banking, K V S Manian, said. "With deposit rates going up, there is a possibility of a 0.5% hike in auto loan interest rates," he said.
13 August 2010;business-standard.com:Mumbai: Home-grown auto major, Tata Motors, today said it plans to expand its commercial vehicles business globally and is contemplating a new plant for small trucks in India. "We are a dominant player in the Indian market and we now want to be a big player at the international level," Tata Group Managing Director and CEO, Carl-Peter Forster, told reporters here. “Our aim is to tap the global market in the commercial vehicle segment,” he said, adding the company might set up a plant in India to manufacture small trucks. Eyeing a huge opportunity globally in the trucks business, Tata Motors is exploring synergies with its joint venture partner, the Italian auto giant, Fiat, Forster said. “Tata has all the ingredients to be a big player globally," he said. Apart from trucks, the company plans to launch more Fiat cars in India in the coming days. "We are looking at strengthening the Fiat brand in the country. We plan to expand the Fiat product range and marketing team in the coming days," he said. Tata Motors and Fiat have an equal joint venture company in the country called Fiat India Automobiles Ltd which produces Grande Punto, Linea and Palio Stile cars at its factory at Ranjangaon near Pune.
13 August 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:Billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned mining firm Vedanta Resources on Thursday said it is in talks to buy a stake in Cairn India, the company that owns the nation’s largest onland oilfield. The London-listed firm said “discussions are taking place with Cairn Energy Plc regarding an acquisition of an interest in Cairn India Ltd, a company listed in India.” Cairn Energy, which holds a 62.37 per cent stake in Cairn India, also confirmed the discussions in an almost identical separate statement saying: “The board of Cairn Energy PLC (“Cairn”) notes the media speculation and confirms that discussions are taking place with a third party in respect of the disposal of an interest in Cairn India Limited. Cairn emphasises that there can be no certainty the contemplated disposal will occur or as to the terms of any such disposal. A further announcement will be made when appropriate.” Interestingly, this is not the first time that talks of Cairn Energy selling a stake have emerged. Over the past 2-3 years, the Edinburgh-based firm has been rumoured to have been in discussions with steel tycoon L N Mittal and Italy’s Eni Spa, among others, for an outright sale of its interest in Cairn India, or at least the sale of an asset.
13 August 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) finally tasted success in a strategic international acquisition as it emerged as the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in cash-strapped Korean SUV maker Ssangyong. The deal will provide the Indian utility vehicle major access to technology and new markets. The company, that had lost out of the race for Jaguar and Land Rover to fellow Indian company Tata Motors in 2008, emerged winner in a three-company race for the loss-making Ssangyong, which exports vehicles to Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and South America. While the development was confirmed by both M&M and Ssangyong, the companies refused to divulge details on the price offered by M&M. " Korea is one of the world's leading centres of automotive excellence and Ssangyong brings with it a rich legacy of R&D and innovation. Mahindra and Ssangyong will create synergy, which will make us significant global players," Mahindra group vice-chairman and managing directorAnand Mahindra said. "This acquisition will provide us with a great opportunity to accelerate our progress as a global player in SUVs". Ssangyong Motor, Korea's smallest car maker by sales with a 2% share, suffered a severe cash shortage due to a slump in sales of fuel-guzzling SUVs, before being placed in court-led bankruptcy protection in early 2009. The company sold 43,811 vehicles in the first seven months of 2010, a 235.2% jump from a year ago. For the first quarter, it reported that its net loss narrowed by more than 90% from a year earlier and shares in the company ended up 0.3% on Tuesday, outperforming Korean stock market's 0.5% fall. Ssangyong had $640 million in long-term debt as of December, M&M Group CFOBharat Doshi said. "The borrowings will be repaid with the money Mahindra is paying to acquire the stake," Pawan Goenka, president of M&M's automotive division said. "When the company is handed over to us, all existing long-term debt will be cleared.
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