The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has deferred 19 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals, including those from tractor major John Deere Construction & Forestry, BNP Paribas Securities Services Ltd and Unitech Ltd.
The proposal from John Deere related to setting up a joint venture with Chennai-based Ashok Leyland Ltd to manufacture construction equipment. This attracts Press Note 1 of 2005, which deals with approval under automatic route for those companies that have prior JVs in India.
The board also deferred its decision on Quippo Telecom Infrastructure’s (QTIL) application to sell 16 per cent of its stake to Oman Investment Fund (OIF). Recently, QTIL merged its business with telecom operator Tata Teleservices Ltd’s (TTSL) tower arm Wireless-TT Info-Services Limited (WTTIL). The merged entity will have an inventory of about 22,000 towers by April 2009.
A Unitech spokesperson said the company had withdrawn its application before the last week’s FIPB meeting. “Since it happened very close to the meeting, it got included into the agenda.” The company had applied to FIPB for some exemptions to make it eligible to raise overseas funds for its ongoing projects.
The meeting approved 29 projects with investments amounting to Rs 616.08 crore.
The largest investment relates to an application from AAPC Singapore Pte to invest 100 per cent in an Indian company to develop and manage Formula 1 hotels in India.
Hyderabad-based Astra Microwave Products Ltd has been allowed to seek 26 per cent FDI to manufacture licensed defence products.
