PRESS DIGEST - Indian Business News - March 17

MUMBAI, March 17 (Reuters) - Indian newspapers carried the
following stories in their print or Web editions on Tuesday.
Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for
their accuracy.

ECONOMIC TIMES (www.economictimes.com)
* State-run telecom firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
is considering hiving off real estate and mobile towers worth
more than 60 billion rupees to fund expansion into new areas.
* Larsen & Toubro is learnt to be in discussions
with a clutch of private equity players including Blackstone
, Carlyle, Goldman Sachs , KKR and Temasek
[TEM.UL] for a joint bid for fraud-hit Satyam Computer .
* Pantaloon Retail (India) will spin off Big Bazaar
and Food Bazaar, which make up 55 percent of the turnover, into
Future Value Retail.
* Mercator Lines plans to invest $110 million to
buy two additional dredgers in a month.

FINANCIAL EXPRESS (www.financialexpress.com)
* Life Insurance Corp of India doubled its stake in India's
No. 1 lender, State Bank of India , to 9.16 percent in
less than three months.
* India's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has
permitted drug makers to raise prices of 285 kinds of packaged
drugs by about 15-20 percent.
* The government is planning to raise 100 billion rupees
through its special purpose vehicle, International Coal Ventures
Ltd, to buy coal assets in Australia, Mozambique and Canada.
* State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is
talking to global chemical firms, including Japan's Itochu Corp
<8001.T> and two UK-based companies, Ineos and Lyondell Basel,
for a strategic partnership in its petrochemical plant in Dahej.

DNA (www.dnaindia.com)
* GAIL India Ltd has agreed to buy a 19 percent
stake in a petrochemical venture by ONGC.
* Iron ore producer NMDC Ltd has projected a 5
percent fall in production and sales this fiscal, but is likely
to see a 40 percent rise in profit on higher contract prices.

BUSINESS STANDARD (www.business-standard.com)
* Tata Power will divest part of its holding in an
ultra mega power project to finance a 5,660 megawatt capacity
addition.
* Consumer electronics firm Videocon Industries has
decided to delay a foray into mobile phones by a year. It has
also put on hold its plan for a consumer electronics retail foray
across west Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

($1= 51.40 rupees)
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(Compiled by Swati Pandey; Editing by Harish Nambiar)
((swati.pandey@thomsonreuters.com; +91-22-6636-9123, Reuters
Messaging: swati.pandey.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: INDIA PRESS/

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