Tata Motors' British luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Saturday, 11 January 2014 said the company has delivered its strongest ever full year global sales performance due to the introduction of a series of multi-award winning new vehicles in 2013. Full year retail sales rose 19% to 425,006 units in 2013 over in 2012, with strong growth in all major regions and new Jaguar Land Rover records set in 38 markets, including Russia, Brazil, Korea and Canada.
Commenting on the company's sales performance, Dr. Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover CEO said, "2013 has proven to be a very positive year for Jaguar Land Rover thanks to continuing strong demand for vehicles across the range. Our unrelenting focus on design, technology, innovation and quality has seen Jaguar Land Rover reach global consumers in more markets than ever before thanks to its most desirable product line-up, enriched further in 2013 by the Jaguar F-TYPE and all-new Range Rover Sport".
Jaguar recorded a 42% increase in sales to 76,668 vehicles in 2013 - its strongest full year sales performance since 2005 with new records set in 17 markets including, Brazil, India, Russia and China. The iconic British motoring marque also emerged as the fastest growing major premium brand in the USA, Germany and India in 2013. This strong global performance was primarily driven by F-TYPE introduction and a new annual record for XF retailing 47,391 saloon and Sportbrake models. XJ also delivered its best full year performance for ten years with 19,677 vehicle sales, with particular strong demand from North America and China thanks to the introduction of All-Wheel Drive, and an enhanced engine line up which includes the 3.0 V6 and 2.0 4-cylinder petrol engines.
Land Rover set a new full year sales record, retailing 348,338 vehicles in 2013, up 15% on the prior year following record sales of the Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque, and an incredible performance from Range Rover Sport which was close to equaling its prior record set in 2007, despite the all-new model having only been on sale for part of the year. The Freelander (LR2) also delivered a very strong full year performance, up 20% on the prior year.
Commenting on the sales success, Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover Group Sales Operations Director said, "2013 has been a great year in which we have seen some incredibly exciting new models launched to customers across the world. The Range Rover Sport, F-TYPE, new engines and drivetrains, and a number of 14 Model Year enhancements to our existing line up have seen Jaguar Land Rover continue to build strong sales momentum in every global region. It is not just our customers who are delighting in our strongest ever vehicle line up, international journalists bestowed almost 200 awards on our vehicles in 2013 with the F-TYPE, our star performer receiving more than 59 accolades. This recognition is a demonstration that Jaguar Land Rover's focus is on delivering cars that surpass customer expectations."
Shares of companies engaged in production of natural gas viz. Reliance Industries (RIL), ONGC and Oil India will be in focus after the government on Friday, 10 January 2014, issued the notification regarding Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines, 2014. The new gas pricing norms will be applicable to all natural gas produced domestically, irrespective of the source, whether conventional, shale, CBM etc. These guidelines will be applicable from 1 April 2014. The new gas pricing norms shall be applicable to all consuming sectors uniformly, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas said in a statement on Friday, 10 January 2014. These guidelines shall also be applicable for natural gas produced by ONGC/Oil India from their nominated fields, it said.
First, the netback price of all Indian imports at the wellhead of the exporting countries will be estimated. Since there may be several sources of gas imports, the weighted average of such netback of import prices at the wellheads would represent the average global price for Indian LNG imports, the oil ministry said explaining the methodology of gas price calculation. Secondly, the weighted average of prices prevailing at trading points of transactions - i.e., the hubs or balancing points of the major global markets will be estimated. For this, (a) the hub price (at the Henry Hub) in the US (for North America), (b) the price at the National Balancing Point of the UK (for Europe), and (c) the netback wellhead price at the sources of supply for Japan will be taken as the average price for producers at their supply points across continents. Finally, the simple average of the prices arrived at through the aforementioned two methods will be determined as the price for domestically produced natural gas in India.
Domestic gas prices shall be notified in advance on a quarterly basis using the data for four quarters, with a lag of one quarter, the oil ministry said. In respect of D1 and D3 gas discoveries of Block KG-DWN-98/3, these guidelines shall be applicable subject to submission of bank guarantees in the manner to be notified separately, it said.
The extant gas pricing policy under NELP was earlier approved by the Government for five years commencing from April 2009 and is due for revision with effect from April 2014. The Government had constituted a Committee headed by Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in May 2012, to look into "the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) mechanism in petroleum industry". The Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Committee included, among others, formulating a structure and elements of the guidelines for determining the basis or formula for the price of domestically produced gas, and for monitoring actual price fixation. The Committee submitted its report in December 2012. Based on Committee Report, Government of India (GOI) approved the Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines in its meeting held on 27 June 2013.
In pursuance of the earlier decision, GOI on 19 December 2013 approved applicability of the Guidelines for D1 and D3 gas discoveries of the NELP Block KG-DWN-98/3, subject to submission of bank guarantees that will be notified separately, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas said in a statement.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas showcased 46 onshore and offshore hydrocarbon exploration blocks which have so far been finalized for auction in the Tenth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-X). Chairing the session to announce these blocks at the oil and gas industry event Petrotech 2014 at Greater Noida, Petroleum Minister Dr Verappa Moily said that more blocks will be identified and added to the Notice Inviting Offer (NIO). He said that the tender documents will be announced later while the prospective investors could take advantage of the advance information about these blocks.
Dr Moily invited various investors to take advantage of the vast investment opportunities in the Indian oil and gas sector. These are the blocks which have received all statutory clearances. Under NELP, 360 exploration blocks have been offered so far and 254 blocks have been awarded. Presently 148 blocks are active and 106 have been relinquished.
IT stocks may fall on weak US jobs data for December 2013. US is the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms.
CMC, Exide Industries and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure are some of the notable companies that will release their December quarter earnings today.
Canara Bank said after market hours on Friday, 10 January 2014, that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank will be held on 20 January 2014 to consider declaration of interim dividend on the paid-up capital of the bank for the year ending 31 March 2014.
Oriental Bank of Commerce said on Saturday, 11 January 2014, that the board of directors of the bank at its meeting held on 11 January 2014, has declared interim dividend of Rs 4 per share for the year ending 31 March 2014, subject to approval of Government of India in respect of Section 15(1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
Punjab & Sind Bank said after market hours on Friday, 10 January 2014 that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank will be held on 16 January 2014 to consider and declare interim dividend.
Indian Bank said after market hours on Friday, 10 January 2014 that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 10 January 2014, has approved the conversion of 4 crore Perpetual Non-Cumulative Preference Shares (PNCPS) of Rs 100 each aggregating to Rs 400 crore, held by Government of India, into such number of equity shares in favour of Government of India pursuant to compliance with Chapter VII of SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 and subject to approval of shareholders and other regulatory / statutory authorities. The board has fixed Extra-ordinary General Meeting of the shareholders of the bank on 10 February 2014 at IMAGE Auditorium, MRC Nagar, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai for this purpose.
The board has also declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 (30%) per share for the year ending 31 March 2014, subject to bank obtaining notification from Government of India exempting the bank from the provisions of Sub-section (1) of Section 15 of the Banking Regulations Act, 1949.
Indian Bank also said that the record date to ascertain the shareholders eligible to receive the interim dividend is fixed as 21 January 2014 and the date of payment of interim dividend will be 25 January 2014.
Allahabad Bank said on Saturday, 11 January 2014 that the board of directors of the bank at its meeting held on 11 January 2014, has approved and declared an interim dividend of 25% on paid up equity capital of the bank of the face value of Rs 10 each i.e. Rs. 2.50 per equity share. The dividend payment date for the aforesaid interim dividend will be 30 January 2014. The payment of aforesaid interim dividend will be subject to the necessary permission/approval from the Government of India and/or Reserve Bank of India and other Statutory/Regulatory Authorities, if any.
Coromandel International after market hours on Friday, 10 January 2014 said that at the separate meetings of the equity shareholders and the unsecured creditors of the company held on Friday, 10 January 2014 pursuant to the Order of the High Court of Judicature of Andhra Pradesh dated 6 December 2013, convened for seeking their approval for the scheme of amalgamation of Liberty Phosphate and Liberty Urvarak with Coromandel International (Scheme), the shareholders have approved the Scheme, by a requisite majority, and the unsecured creditors have approved the Scheme unanimously.
Coromandel Engineering Company said that the Rights Issue Committee of the board of directors of the company at their meeting held on Friday, 10 January 2014, approved the opening and closing dates for the rights issue of equity shares viz. issue opening date as 23 January 2014 and issue closing date on 6 February 2014.
It may be recalled that Coromandel Engineering Company had on 3 January 2014 said that the rights issue committee of the board of directors of the company at their meeting held on 3 January 2014, approved the rights issue of equity shares at Rs 20 per rights equity share (including premium of Rs 10 per right equity share) in the ratio of 91 equity shares for every 10 equity shares held as on 15 January 2014, the record date.
Accel Frontline said that the Allotment Committee of the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on Friday, 10 January 2014, allotted 55 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each at Rs 45 per share to CAC Corporation, Japan by way of preferential allotment.
3i Infotech said it has allotted 7.04 lakh equity shares on Friday, 10 January 2014 against a conversion notice received in respect of the 229 5% foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) due 2017, which are a part of the 5% convertible bonds due 2017 of principal value $125.35 million issued and listed on Singapore Stock Exchange on 26 April 2012.
Rushil Decor's board of directors at a meeting held on Friday, 10 January 2014, approved the procedures for conducting postal ballot as required under the Companies Act read with the Companies (Passing of the Resolution by Postal Ballot) Rules, 2011 for the sale, lease or otherwise dispose of the selective land approximately 14 acres, existing building on these selective land, selective plant & machinery of Particle Board Manufacturing Unit (The Navalgadh Unit) in Surendranagar District, Gujarat to a prospective buyer and balance 25 acres industrial land to any person(s).
Further, the Board has entrusted the finalizing of this decision into Chairman and Managing Director of the company, Rushil Decor said.
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