The Hindu Business Line : Weekly News Round up

The UK-based Vendanta Resources' subsidiary Sterlite Industries on Thursday said it has raised its offer for the operating assets of bankrupt US copper mine Asarco by about $500 million. The revised bid will be $2.1 billion in cash. While there is an increase in the cash consideration, Sterlite will receive about 72.5 per cent interest in the Litigation Trust, to be set up by the `Debtors in Possession' (Asarco), at the closing of the transaction consequent to a US court judgment against America's Mining Corporation.

Even as the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, has confirmed that the country's rice output may drop by 10 million tonnes this year, the Centre has decided to slash the minimum export price on basmati shipments from $1,100 to $800 a tonne. The move cleared by the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, at its meeting on Monday, has been justified on the grounds that basmati is a premium variety, not commonly consumed, and its exports will not impact domestic food security.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said SmithKline Beecham Corporation has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its US subsidiary Glenmark Generics for the abbreviated new drug application filing for atovaquone and proguanil hydrochloride tablets. GSK markets its products as Malarone(R) in the US for prevention and treatment of malaria. Glenmark said it believed that it is the sole first to file applicant for this product.

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd will buy out its group company - Trident Life Sciences Ltd, a clinical research organisation - for about Rs 135 crore. The board of directors of the Hyderabad-based company has approved a proposal to acquire 100 per cent stake in Trident Life Sciences. The acquisition is expected to expand Aurobindo's business space into injectables. The equity value of Trident Life as on June 30, 2009 was pegged at Rs 38.8 crore while the debt was at Rs 96.1 crore. The total cash outflow for the proposed acquisition would be Rs 38.8 crore for Aurobindo Pharma.

Coal India Ltd, with an equity capital of Rs 6,316 crore, has proposed to the Union Government a 15 per cent disinvestment in two stages within the next one year. In the first stage, there will be five per cent disinvestment in favour of employees and a trust; and in the second, another 10 per cent will be offloaded through an Initial Public Offering. The company favours disinvestment as it is already sitting on a cash reserve of Rs 30,000 crore earning bank interest.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd has acquired the worldwide coal and minerals processing business and equipment manufacturing facility of KHD Humboldt Wedag, a German engineering company, for an undisclosed amount. McNally said that the company's wholly owned Singapore-based subsidiary, MBE Holdings Pte Ltd, entered into purchase agreements on August 20 for the acquisition of unlisted KHD Humboldt Wedag's global coal-and minerals-related business and its manufacturing facility in Cologne. In May, McNally had signed an MoU for the acquisition.

Compiled by M J Madhavan