Hit by increased expenses, Coal India Ltd (CIL) has recorded a 16 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,262 crore for the December quarter. The net profit in the year-ago quarter was Rs 3,894 crore.

The net sales during the quarter under review stood at Rs 17,763 crore - a five per cent rise over Rs 16,928 crore in the year-ago period.

GMR Group and Essel Group have shown interest to participate in bids for all the four government-run airports, sources said.

The Airport Authority of India has initiated a pre-bid process to shortlist bidders to develop the airports at Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur, and Kolkata. The companies will have to give details by March 24.

Pilots and cabin crew members of Air India are posing “significant security risk” by exiting the Mumbai Airport without customs check, the national carrier has been told by the Customs Department after two of its employees were allegedly caught smuggling gold.

Officials recently caught two Air India crew members while they were allegedly smuggling three kgs of gold worth over Rs 78 lakh on a domestic flight, the department has informed the airline.

SINGAPORE: Indian conglomerate Wipro has formed a strategic partnership with two American companies to offer a software package that optimises the entire Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply chain.

The partnership, called RapidLNG, aims to serve some 500 LNG companies globally, ranging from upstream gas production to consumer market, Wipro officials said after launching the scheme in Singapore at the LNG Global Congress held this week.

ONGC and other state-run explorers may have to pay about Rs 10,900 crore in fuel subsidy after Finance Ministry has agreed to provide only Rs 5,085 crore in cash subsidy for the December quarter.

Out of the Rs 15,981 crore of revenue losses fuel retailers incurred on selling LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates in October-December, the Finance Ministry has agreed to make good only less than one-third or Rs 5,085 crore by way of cash subsidy, sources said.

L&T Infotech, the IT services and solutions arm of the EPC major, is looking at revenues of over $1 billion in FY16 before it comes with its IPO in mid-2016.

(We are) working on strategies for revenues to cross $1 billion and go for IPO in mid 2016, its chief operating officer Chandrashekar Kakal told PTI

Markets firmed up in late trades with the Sensex rising over 200 points led by pharma and capital goods majors.

At 15:10PM, the Sensex was up 236 points at 28,770 and the 50-share Nifty was up 78 points at 8,706.

Markets continued to trade flat in late noon trades on Thursday as losses in index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Industries capped upside gains.

ICICI Bank today said it has acquired 32 million shares or 15.31% of the total diluted capital of Deccan Chronical Holdings Limited (DCHL), taking its total stake in the company to 24.90%.

The bank, which is in a legal tussle with the media firm to recover its Rs 490-crore loan, said it has not taken into account the equity allotment by DCHL to Srei Infrastructure Finance as it was done in breach of a court order.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender by assets, is likely to raise close to Rs 12,000 crore of capital by issuing fresh shares to investors.

The public sector bank appointed nine arrangers for the issue. Sectoral sources claimed Bank of America will be the "international marketing coordinator" for the share sale programme along with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Barclays. ICICI Securities, Axis Bank, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI Capital Markets will also manage the transaction.

Officials at Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), seeking redress for millions of investors it says were burnt in conglomerate Sahara’s illegal bond scheme, say the group might not wholly own some of the properties in India it listed as proof of its ability to repay the savers.

An official and a separate source with direct knowledge of the situation said Sebi had been checking an affidavit filed by Sahara detailing property assets, as time runs out for the group to post $1.6 billion in bail to free its jailed founder.

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