Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), India’s third-largest realty player, is diversifying into the oil and gas sector. The company will bid for 10 of the 57 hydrocarbon blocks on offer in the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp VII). The gambit is to offset softening growth in the real estate sector. HDIL is likely to bid with a foreign partner as it lacks the experience in oil exploration. However this was not confirmed by the management.
Meanwhile, as part of its airport slum rehabilitation project, HDIL has acquired 110 acres of the 170 acres that it needs to relocate 85,000 families. The average cost of the acquisition is Rs 22 crore per acre. The acquisition includes 53 acres in Kurla, where the Premier Automobiles car factory was once located. IL&FS sold the land for Rs 1,900 crore.
HDIL is expected to relocate 20,000 families to this place in the first phase of the rehab project. HDIL’s airport project is moving on schedule. This can unlock a lot of capital in the next two years. The company will get around Rs 10,000 crores from the project. HDIL’s current revenues are around Rs 17,000 crore, with a net profit of around Rs 1,301 crore.
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In a boost to the domestic tea vending industry, the Government has allowed export-oriented units (EoUs) to sell more ‘instant tea’ in the domestic market to meet the growing demand in the country. There is a strong demand for instant tea due to increased consumer preference for convenient, instant food and beverage products.
The Commerce Ministry has now increased the cap on EoU sales of ‘instant tea’ in the domestic tariff area (DTA) from the existing 20 per cent of free-on-board value of exports to 30 per cent. This will improve availability of ‘instant tea’ for tea vending industry, which has been importing (instant tea) from Sri Lanka and other foreign markets, say industry players. The domestic tea vending industry, valued at about Rs 400 crore, has been growing at 35 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the recent years, say industry observers.
This is a progressive welcome step. The cap should have been raised to 50 per cent as available for a number of products. Generally at present, EoUs are permitted to sell up to 50 per cent of their free-on-board (f.o.b.) value of exports in the DTA. Government has taken this supply side measure to control domestic inflation in food and food products. This will give Tea companies the flexibility in selling its products in the market which fetches highest price.
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State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has bagged a Rs 1,150 crore turnkey contract for setting up an energy-efficient 153-MW captive power plant at the upcoming Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab. The Rs 1,150 crore order has been placed on the company by HMEL, a joint venture of HPCL and Mittal Energy Ltd.
The company won the contract under international competitive bidding (ICB). The designing, engineering, manufacturing, supply, erection and commissioning work of the captive power plant in addition to complete civil works would be done by BHEL. The 153-MW gas turbine-based combined cycle power plant to be commissioned in a period of 30 months would meet the power and process steam requirement of the upcoming refinery.
The equipments for the project would be supplied by BHEL’s plants in Tiruchi, Ranipet, Bhopal, Jhansi and the Electronics Division in Bangalore. The civil works, erection and commissioning of the plant would be carried out by BHEL’s Power Sector-Northern Region. BHEL has so far supplied and commissioned more than 700 steam turbine and gas turbine-based plant for industries such as metal, paper, sugar, cement and process industries like refineries, petrochemicals, fertiliser in both domestic and overseas market.
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