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ONGC, OIL plan equity swapMUMBAI: The country's two national exploration companies the Oil amp; Natural Gas Corporation ONGC and Oil I...

ONGC, OIL plan equity swap

MUMBAI: The country8217;s two national exploration companies the Oil amp; Natural Gas Corporation ONGC and Oil India Ltd OIL have agreed to swap equity in exploration blocks that they are expected to get under the NELP. Thus, OIL will join hands with ONGC, the Gas Authority of India Gail and Indian Oil Corporation IOC to form a grand public-sector effort to explore new blocks in the country.

The quartet is not thinking of any multinational alliance to help in the exploration programmes in the new blocks. The entire equity in each of the blocks will come from the four public-sector oil giants, depending upon the level of participation by each. The extent of the equity swap has not been worked out, as the OIL-ONGC alliance, unlike the ONGC-Gail-IOC partnership, is a post-bid development involving public sector companies.

Seafood units

KOCHI: The 1.2 billion seafood industry, which has been passing through a rough patch thanks to fall in output and exports,is facing yet another crisis with a slew of seafood units facing the threat of arbitration from the Marine Products Export Promotion Authority MPEDA. The export promotion body has slapped legal notices on a number of seafood units for their failure to adhere to the agreement on equity buyback. The seafood exporters, however, had sought time from the commerce ministry and MPEDA for buying back the equity citing the tight liquidity scene in the industry.

Top officials of MPEDA said the export promotion body has served legal notices to a slew of seafood units spread across the country for their failures to buy back the shares subscribed by MPEDA. Like the industrial development corporation, MPEDA helps the seafood units to raise capital by subscribing to a portion of the equity stake offered by the company.

Leather exports

CHENNAI: Exports of various types of goat, sheep, cow and buffalo leathers which were to the tune of 295.83 million in 1997-98 declined by 10.35 per cent to 265.20 millionin 1998-99 April/March. The step-motherly treatment meted out to the leather sector by Council for Leather Exports CLE is considered to be the main cause for its downward tendency along with the effluent problems.

8220;Interested to promote leather products, the council brought in restrictive measures like export duty, quota system, Leather Development Fund LDF etc. only on leather exporters at different times and harmed the industry,8221; leather exporters said. While the export duty and quota system were withdrawn by the government, the LDF was held unconstitutional by Madras High Court and the amounts collected from leather exporters by CLE were ordered to be refunded with interest.

Shree Krishna Petro

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MUMBAI: Shree Krishna Petro Yarns reported a net profit of Rs 16.2 crore for the three months ended June 1999 compared with Rs 15.31 crore same period last year. Sales jumped to Rs 151.9 crore from Rs 124.56 crore.

Siemens Hearing

MUMBAI: Siemens has formally announced the formationof Siemens Hearing Instruments Pvt Ltd, a company formed for marketing and distribution of hearing instruments in India.

The company is a 100 per cent unit of Siemens Audiologische Technik GmbH, Germany, a world leader in the field of hearing instruments. This marks its entry into a new segment of business in India, which is expected to grow substantially in the near future, according a press release.