The Hindu : Business : FDI proposals worth Rs. 85 cr cleared

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 02, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Business

Business

FDI proposals worth Rs. 85 cr cleared

Special Correspondent

Bharti Telemedia, Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo proposals rejected

NEW DELHI: The Government on Wednesday approved 21 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs. 84.90 crore out of which the clearance to Germany-based BASF to make an open offer for acquiring 20 per cent stake in chemical manufacturer Ciba India is expected to fetch Rs. 63 crore in foreign exchange.

The open offer by BASF, which was approved on the recommendation of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), follows the global take-over of Ciba Holding AG by the German company and the Indian acquisition will enable it to manufacture and trade in speciality chemicals.

Significantly, an official statement here revealed that while approving the 21 FDI proposals, the government deferred its decision on 14 others and rejected another seven. Among those deferred was the proposal of the Vijay Mallya-run United Breweries to raise Rs 708 crore through convertible warrants and that of venture capital company India Rizing Fund which had sought reconsideration of its application to set up a fund for the Indian defence sector in the light of new norms for FDI calculation.

Also deferred was a proposal by Zee Entertainment to transfer shares to an overseas entity of the promoter group for uplinking a non-news and current affairs TV channel.

Among the seven rejected FDI proposals were those of three telecom majors — Bharti Telemedia, Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo. The government, however, approved GSM operator Vodafone Essar’s proposal to hive off its towers and related infrastructure business to a separate arm Ortus Infratel. Earlier, a decision on the telecom major’s plans to set up Ortus Infratel had been deferred following the Revenue Department’s concerns over the company’s application.

Among the proposals cleared, the Government gave its nod to Ventureast Trustee Company to accept contributions up to $2 million from Mauritius-based Ventureast Proactive Fund. The fund proposes to invest in securities of Indian companies.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business