Company news this week

Bharti Airtel has bagged a $150 million contract to Chinese vendor Huawei for building and managing GSM mobile infrastructure for its Sri Lankan operations.

Cognizant announces a 2:1 (2 for 1) stock split. In addition, the board authorised a share repurchase programme of up to $100 million of the company's common stock over the next 12 months.

Essar Construction won a contract worth Rs 186 crore from Bharat Oman Refineries for laying a stretch of a proposed crude pipeline between Gujarat and MP, where the Indo-Oman joint venture is setting up a refinery.

Educomp acquires 70.5% stake in a Canada-based e-learning company Savvica.

Finland-based, IT-company TietoEnator has acquired Hyderabad-based Fortuna Technologies for $29 million.

Godrej & Boyce have planned a capex of Rs 300 crore this financial year and are considering the possibility of entering the colour TV segment.

IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Ltd has bagged projects worth Rs 368.14 crore to be implemented in different parts of Tamil Nadu.

Tata group's Indian Hotels has acquired a 10% stake in US-based Orient Express Hotels. Orient Express Hotels has rejected Tata Group's offer to forge a strategic alliance.

Europe-based asset manager Notz Stucki has joined the race to acquire ICICI Ventures 63% stake in Infomedia (formerly Tata Infomedia). Private equity funds such as General Atlantic, Blackstone and Warburg Pincus have also shown interest to buy out ICICI Venture's stake in the media firm.

The FIPB cleared a proposal by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd to form a JV with Japan's Futaba Industrial Company for setting up an exhaust parts manufacturing facility in Haryana.

US private equity major Blackstone plans to invest over $1 billion in Indian real estate, in association with Nagarjuna Construction.

National Hydroelectric Power Corp (HHPC) expects to launch its IPO in January-March this financial year.

IT-company Omnitech Solutions announced a joint venture with Japan-based Sanwell Company to be called Arham Technologies Company.

Rumours abounded that ONGC is planning a stock split and a bonus after RS Sharma, chairman and MD, said that they will consider both “at an appropriate time” at the company's AGM.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, won 3 exploration blocks in Colombia in the latest round of auctions.

Engineering and construction major Punj Lloyd has entered into a shareholders agreement with Pipavav Shipyard Ltd to acquire a 28.84% stake.

Ranbaxy Lab's project collaborator and sponsor, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a World Health Organisation (WHO) agency has apparently decided to end the joint anti-malarial drug research project leaving Ranbaxy to continue on its own.

Ramsarup Group plans Rs 4,000 crore capex to fuel expansion plans over the next 3 years.

RIL strikes oil in its D4 block in the Krishna Godavari basin, after striking gas in two exploration blocks.

Reliance Communication owned Flag Telecom signed a 5-year contract with UK-based virtual network operator Vanco to share their networks. This agreement provides Flag and its customer's access to further 81 countries.

Reliance Retail posted a net loss of Rs 10.9 crore (on total income of Rs 259.85 crore) in the first year of its commercial operations.

US-based global real estate companies Walton Street Capital and Starwood Capital Group have teamed up to buy 33% each in the Rs 5,000 crore integrated township project in Kolkota to be executed by Shriram Properties.

Subex Azure lowered its earnings guidance.

Following a limited review of its financial performance by auditors for the quarter ended June 30, SpiceJet declared a net loss of Rs 44.22 crore.

Standard Chartered is to acquire American Express Bank (the banking subsidiary of Amex with a presence in 47 countries) for $860 million.

Sula Vineyards has received Rs 45 crore from Indiavision India Partners, Future Capital Holding's Pvt Equity arm, and another investor.

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has floated 4 joint ventures to enter into shipbuilding, container terminal operation, dredging and offshore services.

Titan Industries has entered into a 5-year tie-up for exclusive marketing-cum-distribution of Hugo Boss watches in India with MGI Luxury.

Tulip IT Services has bagged West Bengal State's Wide Area Network project. The network will be established on the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model and the company will do so for 5 years.

Trent announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Benetton India Limited.

UTV plans to invest Rs 6 billion over the next three years to launch 9 new television channels.

Clubbed together…..
This week, the IPOs of Koutons Retail India and Consolidated Construction Consortium received a tremendous response. The IPO of Supreme Infrastructure opened on Friday.

Indian pharma companies Ranbaxy, Wockhardt and Sun Pharma are in a race to acquire US-based Par Pharmaceutical.

The information is not comprehensive and has been compiled from reports that appeared in the media over the past few days.