Essar Steel offers higher rates to FRN-holders
Essar Steel has offered holders of its floating rate notes (FRNs), which it has failed to redeem on two previous counts, with a proposal of hiking the rate of interest on the FRNs up to 350 basis points (bps) over LIBOR in a bid to make them accept rolling over the loan for another five years. ESL raised the FRNs at 265 bps over LIBOR in 1994. The company defaulted in July last year, when the notes matured for repayment.Rupee closes at new low
The rupee on Wednesday hit a new closing low, though volumes were lower than anticipated. The rupee opened at 44.555/57 from Tuesday's close of 44.565/575. The currency touched an intra-day high of 44.52 on some dollar sales by the State Bank of India and bunched up supply on account of a US markets holiday on Monday. The dollar ended at 44.5725/58.
NTC mill land sale
Bowing to pressure from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), the Maharashtra government on Wednesday lifted the ban on the sale of surplus land and its development by 25 ailing mills run by the state-run National textile Corporation (NTC) here. This will throw open nearly 150 acres of surplus land possessed by these mills in the land-starved Mumbai, thereby bringing in movement in the volatile real estate market.
Tata Chemicals net drops
Tata Chemicals has reported a 35.43 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 117.26 crore for the financial year ended march 31, 2000 down from Rs 181.67 crore reported in the previous year. However, its operating profit (before interest, depreciation and exceptional items) during the fiscal rose by 8.9 per cent to Rs 576.14 crore, up from Rs 528.65 crore in 1998-99.
Oil firms seek fairplay
The recent raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on oil PSUs has left behind a trail of hurt and outrage. The companies believe that other bodies involved in the sales tax controversy should also have come under the CBI glare. This includes the departments of sales tax, civil supplies and explosives, which are the vital inputs to issuing licences to user industries.
Sensex jumps 122 points
The smart rally in technology stocks on Nasdaq on Tuesday aided sentiment on Indian bourses with most frontline software stocks opening with a eight per cent gap and hitting the upper band in a short time. The Sensex opened at 4439.99 against previous close of 4311.77. It closed the day at 4433.61, up by 121.84 points. This is the fifth straight session when the Sensex has risen on buying support from speculators as well as the FIIs.
IDBI clears CARE, Icra merger
The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has cleared the merger of CARE, the credit rating agency floated by the institution, with the Delhi-based credit rating agency ICRA. ICRA is floated by Industrial Finance Corporation of India.
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