ONGC to merge Russian assets with Bashneft, RussNeft-report

MUMBAI, June 20 (Reuters) - The cabinet has approved a merger of ONGC's Russian assets with Bashneft and RussNeft in a deal that will give the state-run explorer a 25 percent stake in the combined entity and access to one of the biggest discovered oilfields in Russia, the Economic Times reported.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has long been eyeing Bashneft as well as an involvement in the Arctic fields Trebs and Titov that the Sistema subsidiary acquired last year from the Russian state.

The merger will give ONGC a quarter share in the Russian firm's annual oil production of 25 million tonnes besides partnerships in their refineries totaling 20 million tonnes capacity, the newspaper said on Monday without revealing how it got the information.

Indian Oil Corp may also join ONGC in the venture, the paper said, citing officials in the oil ministry.

ONGC and Indian Oil could not immediately be reached for comment.

ONGC already has a stake in Russia's Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in the Pacific, and in 2008 it acquired the Imperial Energy oil company in western Siberia.

Last December, the Russian oil-to-telecoms holding firm Sistema and ONGC signed a non-binding agreement to consider assets swaps and joint tapping of Russia's energy deposits..

Tata group market value exceeds Ambanis

Changing market dynamics have helped the Tata group overtake the combined market wealth of the two groups led by the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil.
The share prices of both the Reliance groups have slumped recently, which analysts blame on a string of controversies that have surrounded the groups for months now.
On the other hand, a host of Tata group firms have grown stronger in terms of stock market valuation, shrugging off controversies of their own as well as bearish sentiments in the broader market.
The stock market wealth of the Tata group has grown close to `4.4 trillion—the highest for any corporate house and bigger than the combined value of the two Ambani groups together, which is around `3.67 trillion.
One year ago, the Tata group, with 30 listed companies, was smaller than just the group owned by Mukesh Ambani, which has only two. The latest market valuation puts the Tatas on top, followed by the Mukesh Ambani-led group in second place with about `2.85 trillion.
The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, which was ranked third a year ago, does not feature even in the Top 10 anymore. Its market wealth has plunged by more than `60,000 crore to `82,000 now.
The Mukesh Ambani-led group’s valuation has also fallen by around `73,000 crore. Tata group’s valuation on the other hand has grown by more than `1 trillion in the same period.
The Tata companies that have added significant market wealth in the past one year include Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd, Titan Industries Ltd, Tata Coffee Ltd, Tata Chemicals Ltd and Rallis India Ltd.
In contrast, all companies of the two Ambani groups have lost market value since July except Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd.
From Mukesh Ambani’s group, Reliance Industries Ltd has lost around`72,000 crore and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd has lost around `650 crore.
Among Anil Ambani-led companies, the losses are around `21,000 crore for Reliance Communications Ltd, around `20,000 crore for Reliance Power Ltd,`14,000 crore for Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and over `5,000 crore for Reliance Capital Ltd...

Diesel-electric buses' trial start by year-end: Tata Motors

Tata Motors is preparing diesel-electric hybrid buses for user trials by the State Transport Undertakings (STCs) by end of this year and could launch it subsequently, company officials said on Friday.

“We're developing a diesel-electric hybrid. Once that is ready, we expect to see higher demand for hybrids from STCs,” Mr Ravi Pisharody, President, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors.

The automaker expects such buses to find favour with STCs around the country, because of their low running costs and reduced emissions. Though the company is already running few CNG-electric hybrid buses on trials in Mumbai (BEST) and Delhi (DTC), it believes that the wider availability of diesel fuel makes diesel-based hybrids a more attractive choice across the country.

PRICING

Another company official added that the diesel-electric buses will be launched by end of the year and will be cheaper than the CNG-electric buses. They, however, did not mention the exact pricing of either product, but said that the high import content makes the product very expensive.

“We have not yet priced the product. We hope to localise key components like the battery, though this will depend on demand. With mass production in the country, prices should come down. We expect some policy support from the Government, especially through their new initiative on electric vehicles and hybrids,” Mr Pisharody said.

Much like the CNG-electric hybrids, the diesel-electric hybrid Starbus will have a smaller diesel engine than conventional buses, resulting in both lower emissions and a drop in fuel consumption. The electric motor will work with the diesel engine to power the bus. However, the challenge for the company would lie in reducing the gap in pricing over traditional buses.

Mr Pisharody said that the company has also bagged an order for 10 hybrid buses from the city of Madrid, Spain. This will be supplied by Tata Motors' wholly-owned European subsidiary, Hispano Carrocera.

MEP to replace CTC at B-schools

AHMEDABAD: Gone are the days when MBA aspirants were lured by misleading advertisements on attractive packages. The concept of reporting just the cost-to-company (CTC) in packages offered to business school graduates is set to be replaced with Maximum Earning Potential (MEP), which will now include cash incentives and variable components as well.

At present, companies and business schools report only the CTC in placement reports, which does not specify the guaranteed cash components. The decision was made at a conference hosted by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to discuss the revision in the draft for Placement Reporting Standards.

The Placement Reporting Standards aim to make the placement reports transparent, easy to understand, more comparable and reliable. The conference was attended by 33 business schools, four recruiters and other stakeholders like media and ranking agencies.

It was also decided that internship data will be further segregated based on whether internships were secured through the institute or otherwise. The participants also agreed that verification by an external auditor would be the appropriate method to lend credibility to this initiative.

Saral Mukherjee, chairperson, placements at IIM-A said, "Reporting the total guaranteed cash components and MEP separately will provide sufficient meaningful information."

In October 2010, IIM-A had proposed the Placement Reporting Standards at a recruiters' conclave. The institute released the first draft of these standards in February this year to its stakeholders. The conference held on Saturday focused on refining the draft further and concluded with the decision that a copy of the revised draft would be sent to the stakeholders. A reply from them will be sought by July 31, 2011 in terms of their acceptance or rejection of the draft.

Every business school has its own system of reporting placements after campus recruitment. According to IIM-A, the lack of standardization may lead to misinterpretation of data and wrong decision-making for future aspirants to a business school. Top global business schools like Harvard Business School, Stanford, Wharton and MIT Sloan are compliant to the 'MBA CSC Standards for Reporting Employment Data', a standard reporting format...