RIL eyeing stake in Dutch petchem major: Sources

RIL eyeing stake in Dutch petchem major: Sources



Mukesh Ambani-owned petrochemical behemoth Reliance Industries (RIL) is eyeing to acquire part or whole of LyondellBasell, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

LyondellBasell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LyondellBasell> is a Netherlands-based bankrupt petrochemical company, which is among the world’s producer of polymers, petrochemicals and fuels. It has an about USD 27 billion in assets with over USD 19 billion in debt at the time of filing for bankruptcy — the company also had an annual revenue of USD 50.7 billion in 2008. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January this year and obtained a debtor-in-possesion financing of USD 1.8 billion in February — Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and RBS are among the key lenders to the company. LyondellBasell is expected to come out with a rights issue in October for additional liquidity.

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Sources said the acquisition could entail RIL making a cash payment of USD 3.25 billion to its vendors.

Reacting to the report, LyondellBassel said it does not yet know who would be the sponsor for the rights offering. “The rights details would be determined and would be communicated in the next few weeks. The details would be made part of the planned supplement,” it said, adding that the rights details would be made known to the bankruptcy court.

RIL, which had on Thursday raised USD 650 million via a sale of treasury stock, declined to comment if the sale was connected to the LyondellBasell transaction.

“The sale of treasury shares is accretive for RIL and is a transaction, which represents only 7.5% of our treasury stock and less than 1% of our equity capital. RIL is committed to growth and creating value for long-term shareholders,” it said. “The sale of treasury shares is a clear statement of intent from the management that it is going to make substantial investments to continue its' established track record of value creation. However, as a policy, we will not comment on any speculation on the deployment of these funds."

Read page 2 for CNBC-TV18's Gautam Broker's analysis..

According to sources, Reliance could be eyeing the bankrupt Petro-chemical giant LyondellBasell. This could be big for Reliance and even for India because there are few companies that can make this kind of a mark in the world.

LyondellBasell, before it went bankrupt in 2008, had annual sales of USD 50.7 billion. The company had USD 27 billion in assets and now an USD 19 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.

LyondellBasell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January this year because of a short-term liquidity crisis. They did not have cash to manage that is why they went on to create a record of raising almost USD 9 billion in debtor in possession bankruptcy loan from bankers at a time when the liquidity crunch in the US was at a high. So they made a big record by raising such a big bankruptcy loan.

The debtor in possession bankruptcy loan of LyondellBasell stands at USD 8.1 billion and the lenders who lend to this company had lend about USD 3.25 billion in new money. That was in cash to the company so that it could run its businesses. The others were more on taking on the senior debt that the other lenders had with LyondellBasell.

Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland are among the key lenders to LyondellBasell. So this is where the puzzle fits into the picture that Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were the ones that helped Reliance sell treasury shares and they are the same lenders to LyondellBasell so there could be a transaction between them.

LyondellBasell is now working to emerge out of the bankruptcy so it is looking to make a rights issue and disuse equity to the lenders and then exit out of its bankruptcy. In order to do that whoever is taking the new shares must make a cash payment to LyondellBasell and here is where Reliance could come into picture. It could make USD 3.35 billion new money that LyondellBasell is now promising its lenders to pay in cash. Reliance could make that offer and could take that rights issue offering shares on itself and that is how it could make the acquisition.

When we wrote to Reliance, Reliance did not deny this, that is why we have the confidence of presenting to you this story that Reliance is not directly saying that this acquisition or whatever inorganic growth that they are perusing would be value accretive to the company. In the end they added that they would not want to comment on how they are going to deploy the funds.

LyondellBasell on the other hand had to say that at this time we do not know who will be the rights offering sponsor so it could perhaps be referring to RIL and would not want to disclose it this point in time. RIL rights details will be determined and communicated within the next few weeks. Details of the rights offering will be a part of the plant supplement. Rights offering details will be communicated to the bankruptcy court and the rights offering will be providing additional liquidity to the company.

This is the company’s reorganization plan which will be provided to the US bankruptcy court and this hearing is schedule for October 14, so that is when the details will be made public. So if this story is right and if Reliance has to acquire or eye LyondellBasell the information should be in public domain before October 14.

Source: Moneycontrol.com < RIL eyeing stake in Dutch petchem major: Sources>

RIL's gas output may be 4 times the estimate

RIL's gas output may be 4 times the estimate

The D-6 fields of Reliance Industries in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin have the potential to produce gas that is over four times the estimated peak output of 80 million cubic metres a day (mmscmd).

VK Sibal, director general, directorate-general of hydrocarbons, told Business Standard, "The 50 wells in D-6 were earlier estimated to produce a total of 80 mmscmd gas (at the rate of 1.6 mmscmd per well). However, each well can produce about 6 to 7 mmscmd, so you can estimate the potential.”

Sibal said that the government was usually conservative in approving the proven reserves as the exact potential could be ascertained only after actual production starts.

Sibal had said earlier that 18 wells had been drilled in the D-1 and D-3 gas fields in the D-6 block, but only eight had been opened, while testing was going on at two wells.

Reliance Industries has already stepped up gas production from 28 mmscmd in June to about 36-37 mmscmd now. The production will soon reach 42 mmscmd once the supply to the Dabhol power plant is increased in the first week of October, said a company official.

The Karnataka government has recently written to the Centre seeking 40-45 mmscmd of natural gas for industry in the state.

The two gas discoveries (Dhirubhai-1 and -3) and one oil discovery (in Dhirubhai-26) are amongst the 19 discoveries (18 gas and one oil) announced so far by Reliance Industries in its D6 KG basin block off the Andhra coast.

Reliance owns 90 percent in the venture, while Niko Resources of Canada holds the remainder. In the east coast, about six to seven belts are rich in gas and oil. So far, India has drilled about 0.16 wells per 1,000 sq km, which is very less as compared to 50-60 wells per 1,000 km in West Asia.

The demand for oil and gas is rising 30 per cent per annum. “We are importing about 95 to 96 per cent of our demand. The commencement of production by Cairn Energy will cater to 25 per cent of the demand,” Sibal later told reporters in Gandhinagar today.

Talking about the ongoing roadshows for bidding of hydrocarbon blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy VIII, Sibal said that the response has been very good and on an average about 60 companies participated in the overseas roadshows.

Sibal said he was happy with the decision of auditing gas-field costs by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Asked if the Ambani feud will impact NELP VIII, he said that any corporate feud will have a negative impact anywhere in the world.

Src: Business-Standard.com <RIL's gas output may be 4 times the estimate>

Forbes — The 50 Top Microfinance Institutions ( an old article)

THIS ARTICLE MIGHT BE A OLD ONE(2 yr ago).....

BUT WILL GIVE SOME DETAILS ABOUT

MICRO FINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN THE WORLD...

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED BY

WWW.FORBES.COM


Forbes — The 50 Top Microfinance Institutions







Microfinance
The 50 Top Microfinance Institutions
Matthew Swibel 12.20.07, 6:00 PM ET

Rank Name Country Scale Efficiency Risk Returns 1 ASA Bangladesh 14 83 56 40 2 Bandhan (Society and NBFC) India 108 49 42 1 3 Banco do Nordeste Brazil 46 27 213 25 4 Fundación Mundial de la Mujer Bucaramanga Colombia 58 72 193 1 5 FONDEP Micro-Crédit Morocco 119 26 196 1 6 Amhara Credit and Savings Institution Ethiopia 56 126 118 42 7 Banco Compartamos, S.A., Institución de Banca Múltiple Mexico 15 24 295 11 8 Association Al Amana for the Promotion of Micro-Enterprises Morocco Morocco 17 212 133 1 9 Fundación Mundo Mujer Popayán Colombia 53 181 141 1 10 Fundación WWB Colombia - Cali Colombia 27 206 155 4 11 Consumer Credit Union 'Economic Partnership' Russia 82 300 19 1 12 Fondation Banque Populaire pour le Micro-Credit Morocco 59 126 219 1 13 Microcredit Foundation of India India 75 142 7 185 14 EKI Bosnia and Herzegovina 66 102 242 1 15 Saadhana Microfin Society India 263 79 73 1 16 Jagorani Chakra Foundation Bangladesh 136 176 128 1 17 Grameen Bank Bangladesh 8 280 100 62 18 Partner Bosnia and Herzegovina 64 169 230 1 19 Grameen Koota India 209 106 156 1 20 Caja Municipal de Ahorro y Crédito de Cusco Peru 48 99 222 119 21 Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Bangladesh 10 159 126 205 22 AgroInvest Serbia 84 195 222 1 23 Caja Municipal de Ahorro y Crédito de Trujillo Peru 20 163 220 101 23 Sharada's Women's Association for Weaker Section India 229 207 55 13 24 MIKROFIN Banja Luka Bosnia and Herzegovina 60 240 205 1 25 Khan Bank (Agricultural Bank of Mongolia LLP) Mongolia 19 149 280 59 26 INECO Bank Armenia 96 173 202 39 27 Fondation Zakoura Morocco 51 268 194 1 28 Dakahlya Businessmen's Association for Community Development Egypt 200 215 102 1 29 Asmitha Microfin Ltd. India 80 254 73 111 30 Credi Fe Desarrollo Microempresarial S.A. Ecuador 28 252 206 34 31 Dedebit Credit and Savings Institution Ethiopia 50 246 80 154 32 MI-BOSPO Tuzla Bosnia and Herzegovina 128 120 283 1 33 Fundacion Para La Promocion y el Desarrollo Nicaragua 173 89 171 100 34 Kashf Foundation Pakistan 123 194 219 1 35 Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women Bangladesh 170 221 151 1 36 enda inter-arabe Tunisia 198 90 257 1 37 Kazakhstan Loan Fund Kazakhstan 120 118 320 1 38 Integrated Development Foundation Bangladesh 300 134 140 1 39 Microcredit Organization Sunrise Bosnia and Herzegovina 114 103 341 17 40 FINCA - ECU Ecuador 125 138 264 54 41 Caja Municipal de Ahorro y Crédito de Arequipa Peru 23 126 220 215 42 Crédito con Educación Rural Bolivia 135 152 298 1 43 BESA Fund Albania 109 135 345 1 44 SKS Microfinance Private Limited India 61 395 141 1 45 Development and Employment Fund Jordan 83 388 135 1 46 Programas para la Mujer - Peru Peru 292 82 242 1 47 Kreditimi Rural i Kosoves LLC (formerly Rural Finance Project of Kosovo) Kosovo 213 158 247 1 48 BURO, formerly BURO Tangail Bangladesh 137 207 186 91 49 Opportunity Bank A.D. Podgorica Serbia 49 234 319 23 50 Sanasa Development Bank Sri Lanka 86 206 93 241

Forbes' first-ever list of the World's Top 50 Microfinance Institutions were chosen from a field of 641 micro-credit providers. The list was prepared by the Microfinance Information Exchange ( www.themix.org) under the direction of Forbes magazine. To qualify, the institutions must have made available their audited financials and must have passed review by a Forbes panel of advisers.

This sortable table gives the rank (out of 641) for the top institutions according to scale, which is based on the size of their gross loan portfolio; efficiency, which considers operating expense and the cost per borrower as a percent of the gross national income per capita of their country of operation; risk, which looks at the quality of their loan portfolios, measured as the percent of the portfolio at risk greater than 30 days; and return, which is measured as a combination of return on equity and return on assets. Each category is equally weighted for an institution's overall ranking.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >

Microfinance Movement

VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE.... THIS WILL VERY USEFUL FOR SELF HELP GROUPS, ENTREPRENEURS AND ETC.

Source:FORBES.com < Forbes — The 50 Top Microfinance Institutions >

Check out the top 10 highest salary-earners of India Inc

Check out the top 10 highest salary-earners of India Inc

The list of highest salary-earners 20 Sep 2009, 1120 hrs IST

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The best paid individuals in the country are promoters of their respective companies, says a survey by SundayET. The list of highest salary-earners is led by Anil Ambani, the head of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, who draws a salary of over Rs 30 crore per annum. Flanking the junior Ambani at the top are Malvinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy who later sold the company to Daiichi and chairman of telecom giant Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal. Image Courtesy: Reuters

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Check out the top 10 steel stocks

Top 10 steel stocks 20 Sep 2009, 0633 hrs IST

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After seeing a decline in the demand, the steel industry is witnessing revival. During the last quarter, both production and consumption of finished steel went up by around 3% and 6%. Steel demand in the domestic market is expected to grow further on the back of high demand from infrastructure sector. Since the steel prices have also gone up, however marginally, it will help increase the revenues of steel companies. Other sectors such as auto and consumer durable, which are buyers, are as well seeing revival in their demand. Following are the top 10 steel stocks based on three-month returns as on September 18, 2009 on BSE.

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Top 10 stocks attracting MF money

Top 10 stocks attracting MF money 20 Sep 2009, 0449 hrs IST

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Money managers handling mutual funds are playing it safe and betting on the top 10 stocks in the bourses, ensuring that their funds perform in line with the overall market. In fact, these blue-chip companies are attracting 28% of mutual fund investment in the equity market. According to a SundayET analysis, out of the Rs 143,860 cr being invested in stocks by mutual funds, as much as Rs 40,246 cr has been invested in just 10 scrips — Reliance Industries, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HDFC Bank. FULL STORY Click NEXT to see the list of top 10 stocks attracting MF investments. Source: Economic Times

India's richest industrial/business houses

Check out India's richest industrial/business houses

India's top 10 business houses 18 Sep 2009, 1031 hrs IST

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ET Bureau The combined wealth of the country's top-20 promoter families, based on their equity holding, has swelled to Rs 8.43 lakh crore, or $174 billion, as per Thursday's closing price. Among big business houses, the Tatas, Wipro and the Om Prakash Jindal family have been the biggest beneficiaries of the current bull-run. The Tatas, for instance, have not only recouped their entire losses of 2008, but also are now richer than they were at the peak of the bull run. Check out India's richest industrial/business houses....

Reliance Group (Mukesh Ambani) 18 Sep 2009, 1029 hrs IST

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Net Worth: on September 17, 2009: 1, 60, 992(Rupees in crore) on October, 27, 2008: 82, 927 (Rupees in crore) on January, 10, 2008: 2, 15, 745 (Rupees in crore)

Tata group 18 Sep 2009, 1026 hrs IST

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Net Worth: on September 17, 2009: 1, 23, 176(Rupees in crore) on October, 27, 2008: 50, 296 (Rupees in crore) on January, 10, 2008: 1, 17, 756 (Rupees in crore)

Reliance Group (Anil Ambani 18 Sep 2009, 1024 hrs IST

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Net Worth: on September 17, 2009: 89, 129 (Rupees in crore) on October, 27, 2008: 50, 959 (Rupees in crore) on January, 10, 2008: 1, 89, 063 (Rupees in crore)

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Go to: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowpics/5025476.cms




Source:ET

Nifty at 5000: What does it mean for you?

Nifty at 5000: What does it mean for you?

Where should investors park their money?

Comment Mail to friend

ET Bureau

It has been a roller-coaster ride for investors right from the beginning of the year. Those who dared to bet against the crowd during the panic of March, have raked in unbelievable returns. Real estate and metal shares witnessed the sharpest bounceback, partly because these had also been badly beaten down during the bear phase. Other strong performers are banking and automobile shares. Investors briefly shifted to defensives like FMCG and pharma, but shunned them the moment the broad market started to look up.

Here are some experts' advice on where investors should park their money.

Next >>

Sanjay Dutt

Comment Mail to friend

Sanjay Dutt
Director, Quantum Securities

This is a great event for the market and that too the markets have climbed every possible wall of worry and scepticism that has been there.

I would advice caution with the current levels and only from a longer term perspective people should stay invested and that too in stocks and in companies where they have conviction and they have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals, because the ride from here is not a straight line up, it is going to be pretty rocky.

Yes, momentum may carry us to 300 or 400 points more in the Nifty but we all know that it is pretty dangerous playing the momentum and if you do want to play, play for purely trading perspective with very tight stop losses.

It would be prudent at this point of time to really wait and see what happens in terms of what the RBI does next month, what the bankers do worldwide in the next few weeks as well as what the quarterly numbers are like in India and abroad.

Nirmal Jain

Comment Mail to friend

Nirmal Jain
Chairman and Managing Director, Indiainfoline

If you look at corporate earnings or advance tax figures for second quarter then there is significant improvement and we should not forget that the last time it touched 15000 for the first time, it was about 2 years back, so earnings also have gone up say on an average 25% to 30%.

So this or the 5000 Nifty is equivalent to say maybe 4500 2 years ago or maybe 4300 2 years ago. So, earnings have kept the momentum even in an adverse year. The earnings in aggregate went up by 10%. This year we expect growth to be around 20%.

Another very important fact is that Indian macro fundamentals are far superior compared to other emerging markets, even China I would say and therefore the flow of foreign capital will continue. Unless you see something unexpected or completely catastrophic which we cannot foresee today, I think the market undertone will continue to remain bullish.

Market has already run up a lot in terms of discounting fundamentals of the next 6 months, so market should consolidate in this range which is Nifty maybe up to 5200 on the upside and on the lower side 4800 to 4900.


Hugh Young

Comment Mail to friend

Hugh Young
Managing Director, Aberdeen AMC

In a global context, the case for India remains extremely strong. Good companies, well run economy that has not made the mistakes of many of the western economies, so those are all very positive points, but, like stock markets worldwide, India has run very-very hard and fast and I would say in common with other stock markets, ahead of fundamentals.

The good news about India is that the fundamentals specific to India are very healthy and better than most countries but at the moment, I am afraid we are seeing stock markets worldwide being listed by the same tide and some of them are rather vulnerable at these levels but the support for India is probably stronger than virtually every other major market in the world.

Read full text: India's fundamentals stronger than other markets

Motilal Oswal

Comment Mail to friend

Motilal Oswal
CMD, Motilal Oswal Fin Services

Retail investors should invest in fundamentally-sound companies for the long term without having much reason to worry. As for the traders, there is a reason to be cautious. Long-term investors can invest in sectors such as auto, banking, telecom, infrastructure and FMCG. The advance tax numbers point to a good earnings season ahead. We are seeing participation of retail investors picking up in the markets, and new clients are being added.

More @ Nifty at 5000: What does it mean for you?

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Nifty:

Best performing stocks, Worst performing stocks, Best sectoral performers

Tata Motors 18 Sep 2009, 1022 hrs IST

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Latest Quotes | Charts | News/Announcements | Quarterly Results | P&L | Price History Price: Rs 605.75 Percentage change (over 13 Sep, 09): 130.63

Hindalco Industries 18 Sep 2009, 1018 hrs IST

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Latest Quotes | Charts | News/Announcements | Quarterly Results | P&L | Price History Price: Rs 136.40 Percentage change (over 13 Sep, 09): 94.03

HCL Technologies 18 Sep 2009, 1015 hrs IST

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Latest Quotes | Charts | News/Announcements | Quarterly Results | P&L | Price History Price: Rs 342.65 Percentage change (over 13 Sep, 09): 87.55

More @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowpics/5025447.cms

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More about:

Worst performing stocks, Best sectoral performers

Source:EconomicTImes.com