Chinese Banks Loan to India Projects; Manganese Ore IPO Soars

Chandrasekhar Atreya
15 Dec, 2010
New York City

Mumbai stocks declined after oil companies raised fuel prices. Lanco Infratech acquires Griffin Coal of Australia. Manganese Ore India Ltd surged 51% on its first day of trading. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies finalize $3 billion of loans with Chinese banks.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Mumbai stocks declined after oil companies raised fuel prices. Lanco Infratech acquires Griffin Coal of Australia. Manganese Ore India Ltd surged 51% on its first day of trading. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies finalize $3 billion of loans with Chinese banks.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai traded lower after oil companies lifted retail price of petrol stoking concerns that inflation may spike.

Mumbai stocks fell in trade today led by financials after a fuel hike stoked concerns about inflation which is still not under control despite coming down in the last few months.

The BSE Sensex lost 0.76% or 151.42 to close at 19,647.77. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange also dropped 51.80 points to close at 5,892.30.

The rupee dropped 16 paisa to close at Rs 45.71 to a dollar.

MOIL listed on the Indian bourses on Wednesday and debuted at a premium of nearly 47% on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the offering was priced at Rs 375 per share.

Manganese Ore India Ltd on the BSE opened at Rs 551, a surge of 46.93% but closed lower at Rs 465.

India’s Lanco Infratech acquired the prized assets of former tycoon Ric Stowe’s collapsed empire Griffin Coal for about $825 million.

Western Australia based Griffin Coal owns thermal coal mines with a production capacity of more than 4 million tons per annum, with a potential of 15 million tons in the near term, according to Suresh Kumar, Chief financial officer.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies, Reliance Power and Reliance Communications, will finalize about $3 billion in loans mostly from Chinese banks, officials said today.

Reliance Power has already secured loans worth Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium of three Chinese banks and Standard Chartered Bank for the Sasan power project in central India, a company spokesman said.

Chinese vendor Huawei announced on Tuesday that it will invest Rs 9,000 crore in India in the next five years to set up an R&D center, local plant and other activities. The announcement comes on the eve of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s three-day visit to India starting today.

“As an integral part of Indian telecom industry development and an active player serving all telecom service providers, Huawei India strives to be the long-term partner for the development of India’s telecom and IT industry and inclusive growth,” said Max Yang, CEO, Huawei India in New Delhi on Tuesday.

London-listed Vedanta Resources said Tuesday it plans to use proceeds from the IPO of its Zambian copper business to repay debt to acquire majority stake in Cairn India for $9.6 billion.

India’s rice output for the year ending May 31, 2011 is likely to fall below the estimate of the government, after a longer than expected rainy season damaged crops in southern states and also delayed sowing.

A drop in the estimated output of 80.41 million tons is likely to mean the food inflation will continue to rise. Prolonged rains in Andhra Pradesh, India’s top rice producer, damaged crops in about one million hectares, Rachel Chatterjee, a senior official at the state’s agricultural department said on Tuesday.

Ministry of Steel is in talks with the South African government for buying manganese ore mining assets of Manganese Ore India Ltd, a government official said today.

“We are talking to the government of South Africa and we have requested them to allot us certain mines. We are looking at it aggressively,” Dalip Singh, Joint Secretary in the ministry said.