16 March 2010

RIL out of race for Canada's Value Creation

RIL out of race for Canada's Value Creation

NEW DELHI: Energy major Reliance Industries Ltd was out of race for the Canadian firm Value Creation, which it had bid for $2 billion. BP Canada
has taken the controlling stake of the oil-sands company. (
Watch )

RIL had expressed its desire to buy Calgary-based Value Creation, which holds oil sands assets. Value Creation’s subsidiary Technoeconomics is the owner of a technology that helps produce oil from sand and upgrade bitumen - a major feed stock for petroleum - at a relatively lower cost.

Value Creation Inc's largest block of leases, Terre de Grace, covers about 290 square miles in the Athabasca region of Alberta.

RIL had earlier failed in its attempt to take over bankrupt petrochemical major LyondellBassell. India’s largest private sector company, which is looking to expand its global footprint, has targeted loss-making companies.

RIL is sitting on cash and cash equivalent of Rs 15,960 crore and treasury stock worth Rs 35,000 crore.

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Market Watch: Nifty above 5175; Reliance, BPCL, Cairn lead


Src: ET and etc

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Magma Fincorp a good bet for long-term investors


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Heard on the street


Failure to get nod for name change drags JRG

Sec


Shares of JRG Securities fell over 2% on Monday as reports that the special resolution to change the name of the broking firm to ‘Inditrade Capital’ failed to get approval from shareholders. According to sources, the Baring India-promoted broking firm received support from just about 68% of the shareholders supporting the name change. A special resolution needs the approval of 75% of the polled shareholders to get it successfully passed.

Company officials were not available to confirm the result of the postal ballot. According to sources in broking circles, private equity firm Baring India has been running the Kochi-based broking JRG Secs for the past one year, after original promoters stepped down from the management due to differences with the PE firm. A month ago, JRG International Brokerage DMCC, JRG Securities’ Dubai subsidiary, removed the board members of JRG Securities (on the boards of JRG International) citing “low shareholding and non-participation in business matters” as reasons.

Punters build long positions in frontline stocks

Bargain hunters seem to be scrounging for value at some of the beaten-down sugar counters. On Friday, HDFC Asset Management bought three lakh shares of Dhampur Sugar through a bulk deal on BSE. On Monday, punters were seen building up long positions in frontline stocks like Balrampur Chini and Bajaj Hindusthan. Sugar shares have been falling for the past one month in line with declining international sugar prices.

Most analysts feel there could be some more downside in store as a lower-than-expected shortfall in globally production and government measures could keep sugar prices in check. So, the renewed buying interest in some of the stocks has come as a surprise. While fund houses could be trying to average out their cost of acquisition, punters could be betting on technical factors, as most of these stocks appear to be oversold in the short term.

Options see a build-up in far-month contracts

The options segment is seeing some build-up in far-month contracts. After seeing a noticeable surge in Open Interest creation in Nifty April 4800 Put earlier this month, now Nifty June 4800 Put saw a build-up in Open Interest on Monday. Though the quantum of Open Interest build-up is not very significant, analysts said the timing is surprising. This is because Implied Volatility of options is at its lowest level. Also, options sellers, of late, have generally refrained from writing in such far month contracts.

Contributed by Shailesh Menon & Nishanth Vasudevan

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Src: ET and DP blog