Cairn India

The market was crawling with rumours that Vedanta is in talks to take a stake in Cairn India.

Mining companies

The government is proposing to make it mandatory for mining companies to share 26% of profits with local communities or to provide 26% equity in mining entities to the affected people, mostly tribals, where excavation of minerals takes place.

Texmaco, Titagarh Wagons

The buzz is that the government will release rail wagon orders this month. In FY10, 18,000 wagons were meant to be procured and the same amount is supposed to be procured in FY11.

However, no orders have been released in FY10. Had both years' orders been released, it would have meant an order-flow of Rs45 billion for the industry. The whole problem apparently started with four key wagon-makers writing to the railways, saying that no orders should be placed with the Rajasthan-based Cimmco Birla Ltd, revived recently under a Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) scheme. The letter raised legal issues about the tender criteria and ministry officials got involved. Orders from the railways came to a grinding halt.

Jagatjit Industries

There is interest building up in this stock due to rumours that the family feud between Anand Jaiswal and Jagatjit Jaiswal is close to being settled. In March 2009, the Company Law Board (CLB) had ruled that there was no merit in challenging the allotment of shares with differential voting rights (DVRs) as it was legally permissible. Anand and Jagatjit had moved the CLB against the company decision in 2004 on preferential allotment of shares with DVRs, giving Karamjit 64% voting rights on his 32% stake in the company. At that time itself, the two brothers had apparently agreed to the CLB-proposed settlement where Karamjit would buy out Anand and Jagatjit's 12% stake in the company for roughly
Rs730 million.

However, according to the latest shareholding pattern, 2.15 million shares held by Karamjit Jaiswal are shown under the pledged or otherwise encumbered account and placed in an escrow account. In addition to this, there is also talk of a takeover bid from UB. Jagatjit owns

Aristocrat Liquor, Binnie's Malt and dairy products, and also makes glass containers.

VLS Finance

There is talk floating around of a favourable outcome in an ongoing case over Sunair Hotels. According to a report in Business India magazine, in 1995, VLS invested in Sunair Hotel and for Rs70 million, it got a 25% stake in this five-star hotel in Delhi, which runs the Metropolitan Nikko at Connaught Place. The balance Rs220 million was brought in by the promoters, the Gupta family, while a Singapore-based hotel chain, Accor Asia, was to bring in Rs10 million at a premium of Rs90. VLS also mobilised loans of Rs850 million, agreed to manage the public issue, and gave Sunair a security deposit of Rs100 million at an interest rate of 20%. VLS claims that within a year, Accor withdrew, and Sunair was not paying the quarterly interest on the deposits. VLS and the Guptas are mired in a legal battle over the property which, in 2007 itself, was valued at Rs8 billion. VSL says that according to the agreement, it would become the majority stakeholder.

Force Motors

There are some rumours of equity-expansion plans. In March 2010, Bajaj Holding & Investment increased its stake in the Firodia-controlled Force Motors to over 19%. Force is a Pune-based maker of light, medium and heavy duty trucks and buses. — Munira Dongre