Gammon Infra IPO To Hit St On March 10

MUMBAI: A volatile market and bearish investor sentiment notwithstanding, infrastructure firm Gammon Infrastructure Projects (GIPL), a Gammon group company, on Monday announced its decision to raise Rs 300 crore via an IPO. “Given that the infrastructure growth in India is still in its infancy, we have a long way to go,” GIPL managing director Parvez Umrigar told ET.

The company is offering 16.55 crore equity shares at a par value of Rs 10 each for cash, which will be determined through a 100% book-building process. The issue will open for subscription between March 10 and March 13. The price band has been fixed between Rs 167 and Rs 200 per equity share.

The company is also offering part-payment facility to retail investors and non-institutional investors. The amount payable on submission of the bid-cum-application form is Rs 50 per equity share, with the balance to be paid by the due date. The recent trend in the primary market clearly leaves a question mark on the success of the issue.

At the upper band, the company is asking a price-earnings (P/E) multiple of over 100 based on company’s FY08 estimated earnings. This is almost three times the current valuation enjoyed by its peers such as L&T and IVRCL Infrastructure.

GIPL undertakes and develops projects like roads, bridges, ports, hydroelectric power projects on PPP basis.

'Save Tiger' Not On FM's Mind, Only Rs 50 Cr Allocated

New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday announced an allocation of Rs 50 crore to the National Tiger Conservation Authority to protect the big cat.

While presenting the national budget for 2008-09 at the Lok Sabha, he expressed concern over the dwindling number of tigers, calling the situation "alarming".

This amount is the Budget for 29 tiger reserves across India, averaging less than Rs 2 crore per tiger reserve.

While numbers allocated may have doubled since last Budget for tigers, environmentalists might feel the allocation still remains abysmally low

Mobile Handsets To Become Costlier

New Delhi: Mobile phone users would now have to shell out more money for buying new handsets, with the government proposing to levy one per cent excise duty on them.

In his Budget speech, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said: "Excise duty of one per cent, called National Calamity Contingent Duty, is now imposed on polyester filament yarn, which is the only yarn suffering this excise duty. I propose to remove that duty and shift the levy to cellular mobile phones."

"It will definitely increase the prices of mobile phones," LG Business Group Head (GSM) Anil Arora told PTI when asked about the impact of the proposed move.

The proposal may translate into a corresponding one per cent hike in price of mobile handsets. However, a full impact of this needs to be reviewed, a Nokia spokesperson said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Indian Cellular Association President Pankaj Mohindroo said the proposed move of levying one per cent excise duty would increase the prices of mobile phone sets.

When asked how much the prices would go up, he said, "The price rise will not be killing... it will be minimal."

Global cellular handsets majors Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and LG have their mobile manufacturing plants in India.

Budget: India Inc Ready With Charter Of Expectations

New Delhi: Corporate India is keeping its fingers crossed, hoping for Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) to be abolished or at least reduced to five per cent.

Here are the major expectations of the various industry sectors:

Textile industry hit by a rising rupee expects the textile up-gradation fund increased to Rs 1,700 crore.

The Information Technology sector hope its tax holiday is extended beyond 2009.

Cement, which had been hit hard in the last Budget, is asking for a cut in Value Added Tax rates to 4 per cent.

The tobacco industry is simply hoping for a tax hike that is not too steep but they fear a new cess will be imposed like in most years.

But will investors gain today? The market isn’t too excited and Budget is expected to be a non event.

According to CNBC-TV18 analysis, no direction is expected from the market when trade opens. The market is expected to be fixed in a range depending on the US market.

Relief is expected in the market after the session.

Chidambaram Showers More Money On Sports

New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday allocated Rs 1,111.81 crore as total Sports Budget for 2008-09, an overall raise of Rs 254.34 crore over last year, with a special provision for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The Budget includes Rs 890 crore as plan outlay and Rs 221.81 crore as non-plan outlay.

"The Commonwealth Games are only 947 days away. As promised, we shall provide Rs 624 crore in 2008-09. I would urge the authorities concerned to adhere to the strict timelines and the quality standards," Chidambaram said in his Budget speech in Parliament on Friday.

The Commonwealth Games will be held in Delhi October 3-14, 2010.

The provision is meant for upgradation/renovation of the Sports Authority of India stadiums, tennis stadium, upgradation/creation of training venues and preparation of teams for the Games.

A provision has also been made for the grant of loans to the organising committee for holding the Games.

The Finance Minister also provided some relief to the sports good manufacturers.

"To provide a fillip to the manufacturers of sports goods, I propose to reduce the duty on specified machinery from 7.5 per cent to five per cent. I also propose to exempt from duty specified raw materials for sports goods," he said.

An amount of Rs 67.20 crore has been earmarked for different projects/schemes of Northeastern states, including Sikkim, for youth welfare scheme, sports and games.

Budget 2008 Brings Cheers To Middle Class

New Delhi: The Finance Minister brought cheer to lakhs of middle class families just as he announced the cut in taxes. The loan waiver for farmers may have been on expected lines, but the real surprise was the when the Finance Minister also extended his generosity to the tax paying middle class.

Finance Minister, P Chidambaram announced, "Salaries up to Rs 1,50,000 — nil, Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 3,00,000 — 10 per cent, Rs 3,00,000 to Rs 5, 00,000 —20 per cent, and Rs 5,00,001 and above 30 per cent.

The above line from the Finance Minister brought a smile to the faces of lakhs of middle class families like the Gulatis, a smart rejig of the income tax slabs bringing a hefty reduction in income tax across board, especially for those who are at the lower end of the tax bracket, women and senior citizens.

Advocate, S K Gulati says, "Our Finance Minister has given relief by increasing the tax limit to the general public. I'm happy about the cut in taxes."

Dr Shravan Kumar Chhabra says, "Inputs for the drug manufacturers duty cut have been made and that will go a long way in cutting down the cost of the medicines, also the 2.25 lakh tax cut for senior citizens makes me happy"

And the benefits will be substantial with an income of exactly Rs 5,00,000 per annum; one will now pay Rs 55,000 compared to Rs 99,000 earlier, which is — a neat saving of Rs 44,000.

The FM has also made a large number of items cheaper to buy, expect a cut of up to Rs 15,000 in the price of small cars, and motorcycles and scooters could be cheaper by Rs 2000.

Water purifiers and medicines have also got cheaper across the board.

The ladies of the Gulati household have mixed views on the budget as the lady of the house Lakshmi Gulati says, "Except water purifiers and cereals there is nothing really for housewives, I am disappointed."

For the salaried class there is very little to fault Mr Chidambaram, but for those with an inclination towards equities, take note that short-term capital gains tax has been hiked to 15 per cent from 10 per cent earlier.

So think before you do those quick daily trades as the FM's message is clear — it's better to be a long-term investor than a day trader.

V-Guard Industries Fixes Issue Price At Rs 82 Per Share

MUMBAI: V-Guard Industries has raised Rs 65.60 crore by fixing its initial public offering’s issue price at Rs. 82 per share.

The issue has constituted 26.80 per cent of the post issue paid-up capital and the net issue to public constitutes 25.46 per cent of the post issue paid-up capital of the company.

The issue was oversubscribed 2.70 times. The issue received an overwhelming response with the qualified institutional buyers' portion being oversubscribed by more than 1.74 times, the retail portion by 4.24 times and the HNI portion by 2.92 times.

V-Guard Industries has embarked on expansion project to be funded by IPO proceeds. The capital raised from the issue will be deployed to set up cable manufacturing facilities in Coimbatore and Uttaranchal, enameling plant at Coimbatore, development and pilot productions plants for water heaters, fans and pumps at Himachal Pradesh and Coimbatore, service and distribution centers at Bangalore, Hubli and Vijaywada.

The shares will be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India.