Financial Express - 29th September

Submitted by
Tarun Khare
Swati Kapoor
Section I

ITC and EIH to combine hotel biz , become largest hospitality chain • Currently, the Oberois hold 32% stake in EIH, while ITC holds 14.98%.
• ITC Group would demerge its hotel business,a nd then form a partenship with with EIH group.
• Indian hotels is currently the largest hotel chain in the country in terms of revenue , clocking Rs 1566 crore in 2009-10.
• ITC revenues from hotel business stood at Rs. 910 crores.
• Currently the ITC has over 100 hotels operated under four segments- Luxury Collection, Five star hospitality, Fortune hotels and Welcome Heritage.
• Have to resolve the branding aspect.

LLPs to see foreign investments soon• Limited liability partnership (LLP)- new business vehicle introduced by the government a year ago.
• LLPs will witness foreign money inflows with prior approval.
• LLPs are business vehicles that have benefits of the limited liability of companies and operational flexibility of partnership firms, without any limit on the number of partners.
• The RBI had favoured FDI upto 49% in LLPs in sleect sector.
• Foriengners will not be allowed to set up LLPs in sectors such as real estate where conditions such as minimum capitalisation and lock-in period are required.

Rcomm flags off plans for tower biz sales again
• Second largest telecom company.
• As told by Anil Ambani on Tuesday, it will be debt free in the next three years.
• Rcomm has around Rs 33,000 crore in debt including Rs 8,200 crore it raised to pay for the third generation radio bandwidth it recently won via a government-run auction.
• May consider selling a stake in its tower infrastructure arm Reliance Infratel.
• The firm intends to invest about Rs 3,000 crore each year for the next three years as a capital expenditure.
• Rcomm has spent nearly Rs 35,000 crore as capex in the last three years which is gonna dip in future.

Supreme court ends uncertainty, Ayodhya ruling on thursday• Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea to defer the verdict in the Ram- Janambhoomi Babri Masjid title suits.
• Lucknow Bench of high court is now free to deliver the verdict anytime, ideally before or on October 1, 2010, when Justice Dv Sharma is to retire.
• Ramesh Chandra Tripathi , a retired public official , got a divided SC bench to stay the verdict to initiate last minute settlement talks.
• The bench simply dismissed Tripathi’s plea without giving a reason.


ADB raises India GDP estimate for the FY11 to 8.5%
• Asian development bank on tuesdya said that India will expand 8.5% this financial year as expected 8.2% in April.
• High inflation and a rising rupee could threaten the country’s sustained growth.
• Maintained its 9.6% growth for china this financial year.
• India’s current account deficit will raise from 1.5% to 2.7% of GDP to reflect the sharp pickup in trade inflows.
• The bank also raised forecast for the annual year average inflation this fiscal year from 5% to 7.5%.
• The 2011 forecast remains unchanged for the developing Asia.
• Forecast growth for the 10 economies of Southeast Asia has been revised upto 7.4% in 2010- the fastest since 1996, before the Asian Financial Crisis- from 5.1%.

Retail rentals increase on short supply of quality anchor space
• A matter of concern for the retailers.
• Bound to increasea further 10-15% by the end of this calender year.
• Rentals for anchor space have risen between 15-20%, whereas the vanilla rentals have seen a rise of 5-10%.
• This is due to a huge shortage of space .
• Key cities like Delhi and Mumbai will see a faster rate of growth in values against others due to greater interest in these markets.
• Mumbai’s linking road recorded one of the highest annual gains in the rental values across the globe.
• Retailers like Shopper’s stop, Hypercity and Aditya Birla Retail are also in an expansion mode, and are slowly and gradually shifting to the revenue sharing model.

Mcx-sx accuses sebi of damaging its reputation
• Mcx-sx accused sebi of discriminatoin on rejection of its application fro commencing equity operations
• The damage is already been done to the reputation of the exchange says joseph massey md of Mcx-sx
• The exchange is likely to soon challenge the sebi order either at the securities and appellate (sat) or the bombay high court , according to the company officials
• Sebi last week while rejecting the application of the exchange , had mentioned in the order that the Mcx-sx has been 'dishonest' in withholding material information on ownership and has therefore not adhered to fair and reasonable standards of honesty
• Mcx-sx today shared a letter with the media sent by the exchange to sebi chairman on december 21 '09 explaining the details of scheme of capital reduction.
• Sebi chairman cb bhave have said that everybody has to stick to the guidelines .”sebi is a public authority and whatever we do have to stand the test of public scrutiny “
Spice jet to fly overseas in october
• Kalanidhi Maran – promoted low cost carrier spicejet will add 13 aircraft to its fleet by 2013 besides targeting to ferry 85 lakh passengers by the end of the current financial year
• The airlines would be starting its overseas operations in october , said kishore gupta director
• The delhi kathmandu service will kick start on 7th october and the chennai colombo service will start on 9th october.
• The company had placed fresh orders with boeing for 30 more aircrafts ammounting to close to $2.4 billion.
• He said that the airline is looking to expand its domestic network as well as the adding some more destinations.
Gold slips from record level
• Gold fell on tuesday as investors paused for breadth and awaited economic data after betting the metal up to a record $1300 an ounce in the previous session
• Silver was off a 30 year high while platinum and paladium tracked stock markets lower.
• US gold futures for december delivery fell $8.9 to $ 1289.80 an ounce .
• The gold is just having troubles getting through $1300 , it was probably just in need of a period of consolidation , said stephen briggs , analyst at Bnp paribas
• Meanwhile the euro is struggling to with concerns over sovereign debt .