Wal-Mart to go ahead with India plans despite opposition

Global retail giant Wal-Mart on Wednesday said it would go ahead with its planned expansion of cash and carry stores in partnership with Bharti Enterprises in India, irrespective of opposition to organised retail in many parts of the country.

"The initial plan was to roll out 15 stores in seven years. We still stick with it... There is no rethink of our plans in India," Wal-Mart India President Raj Jain told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event here.

Wal-Mart had entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises for cash and carry and the JV would open its first store in Northern India during the first quarter of next year.

Asked if opening 15 stores in seven years wasn't too slow, he said : "... it could be faster, it could be slower, I don't know. Lets open our first one. We will get some experience and we will take it from there."

As per earlier announced plans, the company would locate its cash and carry wholesale stores in Tier II and III cities.

The company had planned that about 90 per cent of sourcing would be from the local market and going forward the JV would help in increasing Wal-Mart's global sourcing from India.

Banks with the new IPO payment facility

11 Banks participated in the mock test for the new IPO payment facility conducted by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The 11 banks that participated in the mock test were Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Indus Ind Bank, Kotak Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, SBBJ and Union Bank. The first IPO in which the facility will be used is that of 20 Microns, which opens on Monday.

This facility, called the Application Supported by Blocked Amounts (ASBA), helps to retain the money in the applicant's account itself, as a blocked fund till the time of allotment of shares. Only that amount proportionate to the share allotment will be transferred from the account.

“BSE has successfully tested its interface with 11 banks for participation in the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amounts) process,” said a BSE news release.

Oil India LtdIPO likely to come in October

Oil India Ltd., (OIL) is a large natural gas and petroleum company in India under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Government of India. OIL is engaged in the business of exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, transportation of crude oil and production of liquid petroleum gas.

Initially OIL IPO was expected in Jan-feb of this year, but it has been delayed due to non-availability of due approval for expansion of the board which was considered a pre-requisite. Now, OIL is expected to come for an IPO in october. The tentative decision on IPO timing follows the recent approval by the Centre for appointing six new independent directors on board and conform to clause 49 of the listing agreement. According to sources, the OIL board will meet on Tuesday to approve inclusion of the new directors and discuss pending issues regarding the proposed Rs 1,400-crore IPO.

“The Centre recently cleared appointment of six new directors on our board. We are holding discussions relating to the IPO with our issue managers. The issue is expected to open in October, most preferably in the third week of October,” an OIL source told Business Line.

OIL proposed fresh issue of 10 per cent of the company’s paid up capital through IPO. An additional one per cent capital will be issued to the employees. HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Citibank are the lead managers to the issue.

NHPC Refiles the DRHP with Sebi

National Hydroelectric Power Corporation(NHPC), has already filed prospectus but withdrew it because of some technical objections with sebi. So it has refiled the draft red herring prospectus with sebi. It plans to tap the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO) of 1676.04 million equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be decided through a 100% book-building process. NHPC IPO is likely to be the first from the public sector after the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA government.

“We have submitted the draft red herring prospectus with the Sebi today,” said S K Garg, Chairman and Managing Director, NHPC.

A Mini Ratna (Category I) company, NHPC has developed 13 hydroelectric power stations and the total installed capacity is currently 5,175MW.

Enam Financial Consultants, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, SBI Capital Markets and Karvy Computer Share are helping them in the process

Of the total equity float, at least 60% of the issue shall be allocated on a proportionate basis to qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) including 5% of the QIB portion that would be especially reserved for mutual funds. Further, not less than 10% of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional bidders and not less than 30% of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to retail individual bidders, subject to valid bids being received at or above the issue price

Navarathna Status to Shipping Corporation of India

Shipping Corporation of India(SCI) was in the mini-rathna status. Now on August 1st the company has been given 'Navrathna status', announced by Department of Public Enterprises - Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, in the letter dated August 01, 2008.

“SCI complies with all the criteria required for gaining navratna status. Right now, it has a mini-navratna status, which gives autonomy to its board to take decisions that involve an expenditure of less than Rs 500 Crore. We cannot even acquire a VLCC with this money,” the source said.

The navratna status for SCI will help the shipping company speed up its ambitious ship acquisition programme, lined up for the next four years. SCI can now order ships without having to go through the burdensome process of having to get the prior approval of the government.

About two years ago, SCI had unveiled a capital expenditure programme of Rs 15,000 crore for the acquisition of 72 vessels till 2011—this also includes replacement of some of its older vessels. Out of this, it has already spent close to Rs 7,000 crore to buy 28 vessels in the last two years. The balance 44 vessels will be acquired during the next three years, with four of them scheduled to join the SCI fleet within a month.

MCX IPO

MCX (commodity trading) IPO which has got the highest rating by CRISIL, is expected to launch by August, in the mid of the volatile market conditions. MCX, which received the SEBI approval for IPO on May 15, has to tap the market before August 15, after which the SEBI approval will expire.

Companies has to proceed with the Issue before 90 days of sebi's approval, or else they have to re-file the offer documents. MCX will become the first commodity exchange trading to list in India.

The grade indicates that the fundamentals of the issue are strong. It is neither a trading recommendation, nor a comment on the future market price or its suitability, it said.

Falling markets shrink super rich club

Since there is a decline in the stock prices for the past six months, the super-rich club is reducing in a fast pace. Sensex touched its all-time high during January 8th and the number of Indian billionaires started increasing but now Billionaires (net worth of Rs 100 crore and above) are becoming millionaires as a result of bear market. Some of the reluctant millionaires include Usha and Suresh Shah of Consolidated Constructions, Gaurang Gandhi of Pioneer Investcorp, Anuradha Shukla of Bag Films, the Kansagra family of SpiceJet and Siddharth Sriram of Mawana Sugars.

The market wealth or net worth has been calculated on the basis of the promoters' holding in their respective companies as on March 31, 2008, and the difference in the market price — as on January 8 and on July 4 this year. The calculations ignore cross-holdings. The issue price is considered a market price for companies listed after January 8.

Even Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani has been affected due to market condition. His wealth declined by Rs 1,37,690 crore since the January 8 peak of Rs 2,53,567 crore.

With the market turbulence, the number of billionaires-turned millionaires is only expected to grow, market analysts feel.