Companies Bag Large Scale Orders

Hefty Order Inflows

State owned Maharatna Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has bagged a contract worth Rs 7900 crore. The order is related to 1980 MW thermal power project in Jharkhand. This contract has been won by the company through international competitive bidding which is for NTPC's 1980 MW North Karanpura super thermal power project. The plant will have three units, each having a generation capacity of 660 MW. The EPC (Engineering Procurement and Construction) order is valued at Rs 7900 crore.

Hindustan Construction Company JV Bags Another One

In a recent development, Hindustan Construction Company, in a joint venture with GVPR Engineers, has bagged an order worth Rs 903 crore from Karnataka Neeravari Nigam. The contract is for diversion of flood water from Sakleshpura (West) to Kolar/Chikkaballapur (East) under Yettinahole diversion project-package-4. HCC's share in the joint venture is 50 per cent. The project is slated to be completed in 36 months.

Launching New Products

Drug major Lupin has received final approval from the US health regulator USFDA to market the generic version of Mycobutin capsules of Pharmacia and Upjohn Company. The drug for which the company has received approval is used in treating advance HIV infection. The approval from the US Food and Drug Administration is for Rifabutin Capsules USP, in strength of 150 mg.

Authorising Roll Out

Venus Remedies has got the marketing authorisation for its antibiotic 'Elores' from Myanmar and said it plans to roll out this drug by April this year. The management is of the opinion that this authorisation will help them to make big strides in Southeast Asia. The size of Myanmar's pharmaceutical market is USD 400 million and the country imports 85-90 per cent of its pharma products.

Higher Tariffs

Tata Power's Mundra UMPP will get about 47 paise per unit more following electricity regulator CERC allowing higher tariffs to mitigate the company's higher cost of imported fuel. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has allowed higher tariff of 52 paise and a compensation of Rs 329.45 crore to the company, effective April 1, 2013. However, as per the CERC ruling, Tata Power will have to forgo 1 per cent of its return on equity which amounts to Rs 50 crore per annum.

Scaling Down Investments

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) plans to scale down its investment by nearly 22 per cent to Rs 9000 crore on expansions and modernisation at its five integrated plants during the next fiscal.  The highest outlay of Rs 2960 crore has been proposed for the Bhilai plant, followed by Rs 1790 crore for the Rourkela plant. The company also plans to invest Rs 1244 crore in Burnpur unit, Rs 642 crore in Bokaro unit and Rs 588 crore in Durgapur facility.

Signal Gets Stronger

Ahead of the launch of its mobile services, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm signed an agreement with Bharti Infratel to utilise the latter's tower infrastructure. The companies have signed a master services agreement and pricing would be at 'arm's length,' based on prevailing market rates.