Rs 8,425 crore realty initial public offers headed for Street

The successful foray of power companies into the primary market has emboldened real estate firms to seek an entry. On Tuesday three real estate firms -- Emaar MGF, Sahara Prime City and Ambience f iled their draft red herring prospectuses with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise a combined Rs 8,425 crore through initial public offers (IPOs).

Taking a cue from signs of recovery in real estate, they hope to raise the money primarily for business expansion.

Ambience, focused on developing premium commercial and luxury residential complexes in the National Capital Region (NCR), hopes to raise Rs 1,125 crore, with a greenshoe option of Rs 168.75 crore.

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Air India suspends flights on several routes

As the talks with its striking pilots reached a dead end, Air India hardened its stand and decided to suspend services on some routes. Late on Monday night, the carrier stopped taking bookings for some IC code and AI code flights for Tuesday.

There suspension could be for as long as two weeks, though no official confirmation of this was available.

"We cannot fly if there are no resources available," Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director of the airline, told Financial Chronicle.

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G20 to become world's economic council: United Kingdom

Global leaders will institutionalise the G20 as the world's main economic governing council, British prime minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday.

He said G20 leaders would meet regularly, with South Korea taking over the presidency next year.

"The G20 will take a bigger role in economic cooperation than the G8 has in the past," Brown told reporters ahead of this week's meeting of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh.

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Petrol version of E-Class 350 out

Mercedes Benz India, the Indian arm of German car maker Daimler, on Wednesday said it sees flat sales in the country this year, on account of global recession affecting sales of luxury cars in the first half.

The luxury car maker sold 3,625 units in 2008, while it has sold 2,026 units so far since January this year. However, Mercedes will still retain its number one position in India's luxury car mart, as its competitor BMW India is targeting at selling 3,000 units in 2009, after selling 2,908 units last year.

"We don't necessarily see more sales this year compared with last year because the luxury car market in the country was down in the first half," said Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and chief executive officer, Mercedes-Benz India.

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New laptops focus on colours, artistry

Say goodbye to the "black brick" laptop. The era of the plain, dowdy PC is officially over.

As computer makers roll out their new notebooks and netbooks ahead of the end year holiday shopping season, razor-thin, sleek and colourful are most definitely in, as are arresting designs in an ever-expanding array of choices.

Hewlett-Packard(HP) and Dell are now more likely to point to subtle etchings in the exterior shell, or a famous artist behind a new design, than to the "speeds and feeds" that PC makers used to tout when they wrestled for technological superiority.

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Indian farmers use US tech to beat Americans

You have to give it to India's farmers. They have used American seed technology to beat the US at cotton production. In just four years since 2002, when genetically modified Bt cotton was introduced in India by the US multinational, Monsanto Holdings, production more than doubled to 21.80 million bales, while the US output increased from 17.20 million to 21.58 million bales.

Today, India at 25 million bales is second only to China with 36.5 million bales, and second again, at 5 million bales to US exports of 13.52 million bales. Rarely has the arrival of a technology created so much heat.

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Nifty kisses 5K after 16 months

Nifty's rise to the 5,000-mark, the first time since May 22, 2008, has been influenced by the higher weightage for stocks like Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank, after the index computation method was changed from full market-cap to free float method from June 26.

The weightage for Infosys (from 3.30 per cent to 7.83 per cent) and ICICI Bank (up from 2.95 per cent to 6.70 per cent) has gone up after the free float method. The two stocks rose as much as nearly 30 per cent and 16 per cent respectively from June 26. The index increased 15 per cent from June 26.

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Pepsi now gets into branded products

Soft drink major plans to set up concept stores to retail products ranging from tee-shirts to bicycles, reports Ruchika ChitravanshiSOFT drink major Pepsi is now entering into a completely new line of business. The company is planning to set up its fashion and apparel business that will market all of Pepsi's merchandise. Pepsi would set up exclusive concept stores to retail products ranging from T-shirts, sneakers, eye gears, and backpacks to even bicycles.

The company's global brand licensing agent Bradford Licensing has entered into an agreement with License India a division of Franchise India Holdings to enter into licensing agreements with manufacturers and retailers here. License India in turn will receive royalty as a percentage of the total volume of goods.

The merchandise retailed in India will feature the new Pepsi logo, which at present is not used by the company's beverage business in India.

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Lever gets shy, bids Liril babes goodbye

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major Hindustan Unilever (HUL), known for launching starlets popularly known as Liril girls through advertisements for its lemon soap, is charting a different strategy to tap family audience, keeping in tune with the changing times.

Liril soap, which was recently relaunched, is now targeting a wider audience with the brand tailored to appeal to the entire family a change from the earlier times, when the likes of Karen Lunel, Preity Zinta, Tara Sharma and Deepika Padukone were made the face of the brand focusing on the youth segment.

While HUL did not respond to queries, the firm's advertising agency Lowe Lintas said the change in strategy was prompted by the evolution that the market has undergone.

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Obama pushes for stricter regulation

President Obama came to Wall Street on Monday to tout how the nation's economic outlook has improved from a year ago, but he called on Congress to pass stronger financial regulations this year, as he offered a sharp admonition that "there are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment".

Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them," Obama said in a speech at Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan. "They do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation's."

The president offered no new policy proposals during a lunchtime speech but sought to use the one-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers as a moment to mark how the country's financial system has moved beyond the brink of collapse.

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Taj's Abu Dhabi projects run into rough weather

Global economic slowdown has hit the Taj group's international expansion plans in the west Asian region. Two projects Taj Resort Exotica and Spa in Saraya Ras Al Khaimah at the northern tip of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a 500-room, 5-star Taj Palace hotel proposed to come up in YAS Island, also in the UAE have both "slowed down and are expected to commence after only a year," said Taj officials. "Every developer in the UAE has a bit of a funding issue and these two projects are no different," said a senior official.

The YAS Island luxury resort hotel was scheduled for completion in 2010 while the Ras Al Khaimah project was scheduled for completion by end 2011. So far, the Taj has maintained that its hotel projects under development have not been impacted by the slowdown. This is the first admission by its management that some of its projects have been impacted. YAS Island is coming up over 2,500 hectares, of which 1,700 hectares is being reclaimed for development.

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Warren Buffett is starting to worry

Warren E Buffett has two cardinal rules of investing rule No 1: Never lose money; rule No 2: Never forget rule No 1.

Well, a lot of old rules got trashed when the financial crisis struck -even for the Oracle of Omaha.

At 79, Buffett is coming off the worst year of his long, storied career. On paper, he personally lost an estimated $25 billion in the financial panic of 2008, enough to cost him his title as the world's richest man. (His friend and sometime bridge partner, Bill Gates, now holds that honour, according to Forbes.) And yet few people on or off Wall Street have capitalised on this crisis as deftly as Buffett.

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Land row forces Bengal to scrap Rs 10,000 crore township

In what could effectively end West Bengal's dream of making it big in information technology, the state government on Monday scrapped its 1,600acre Kolkata Link IT township project at Rajarhat, on the outskirts of the metropolis. Infosys and Wipro, which had been promised land there, were informed of the decision.

"Unfortunate" was how Infosys board member and HR head T V Mohandas Pai described the decision.

He told Financial Chronicle: "It's sad that a state is turning its back on employment opportunities, especially during a downturn. At this rate, no one will be encouraged to invest in that state."

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Gold rules above 16,000, heading for a record high

Gold prices are likely to hit a new high of Rs 17,000 per 10 gm in next the 2-3 weeks due to rising demand from investors and weak US dollar, analysts said.

The price of the metal reached a seven-month high of Rs 15,780 per 10 gm in the domestic markets on September 3. On the same day, it also touched an almost seven-month high of $999.5 an ounce (28.34 grams) in the global market.

On Saturday, jewellers continued buying gold despite the onset of Shradhh, pushing up prices to the landmark Rs 16,000 level in the national capital.

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Hyundai to assemble Santa Fe to lower costs

Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), which plans to introduce its most successful luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV) ­ Santa Fe, in the Indian market next year, has decided to import the vehicle as a complete knock down (CKD) unit. The move is expected to bring down the import cost for the Indian subsidiary of South Korean auto major substantially, a top company official said.

"At present, we pay over 60 per cent duty to import the Tucson. If we import the Santa Fe, the company will have to pay similar import duty, which would be a costly affair. As a result, the company has now decided to import Santa Fe as a CKD, so that our import cost goes down, significantly," HMIL, managing director, HS Lheem told Financial Chronicle.

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