FreePress India

Apex body Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is expected to come out with initial public offer (IPO) norms for insurance companies by October. After a series of consultations with market watchdog SEBI, the insrurance regulator still awaits further rounds with SEBI to chart out the final guidelines on IPO facilitating fair valuation of an insurance firm. In India, there are 22 life insurance firms and 21 non-life insurance companies currently.

Institute of Actuaries is likely to come up with guidance note on valuation in the next 10-15 days. The IPO guidelines will facilitate standardizing the calculation of embedded value of the companies. On the other hand, IRDA is working on disclosure norms for insurance companies that will work in the larger interest of the public.

Read moreIRDA to issue IPO norms for insurance cos by October

Maruti Suzuki, the largest passenger car manufacturer of the country, has reported 41.6% growth in its August sales figure.

The auto major sold total 84,808 units during the month under consideration against 59,908 units in August 2008.

The company sold 39.3% more vehicles in the domestic A2 segment while the A3 segment sales grew by 44.1% during the month against the year ago period.

Read moreMaruti Suzuki reports 41.6% sales growth in August

The government has geared to come out with a uniform and single licence fee for telecom service providers soon, currently in the range of 6-10% of the revenue of these companies.The Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behuria has not divulged much detail, but it is believed that the unified licence fee could be nearly 9%. Following the internal telecom operator report, the government had to, in-principal, agree for de-linking the spectrum from the licence.

Conceding to the Subodh Kumar committee report, DoT has suggested de-linking spectrum from the licence and proposal for the same has been sent to TRAI for its opinion in the context.

Read moreUniform licence fee for operators soon: Telecom Secretary

After being criticized for disproportionate allocation of RIL KG basin gas, Petroleum minister Murli Deora has suggested reconstitution of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) to decide on allocating gas to new customers.

After meeting with principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Deora has formally written to the Cabinet Secretary urging reconstitution of the eGoM on the lines of the previous ministerial group. Why does Murli Deora want this ? We believe someone in h current group is getting tough on Murli Deora.

Read moreWhy Murli Deora wants reconstitution of EGoM for RIL KG gas ?

Bombay Dying has a landbank of 64 acres across the two sites in Dadar and Worli, premium locations in Mumbai, which, according to management, carry at least 7msf (saleable) potential (based on current rules). Thus far, BD has developed roughly a total of 0.9msf
(equally between two sites).

So far, BD has developed a residential tower of about 0.43 msf (largely sold out, 18 apts left), which should be ready for handover in three months. The project was launched in September 2006 at BSP of about Rs10.5k psf, which peaked at 25k psf and is presently quoting at 18.5k psf. The company is planning another two residential blocks (0.45 msf each) at this location, with the first tower likely to be open for booking by March 2010.

Read moreBombay Dyeing – Mumbai Land Bank