Frank Furt: Europe’s largest computer services company, Cap Gemini SA, fell the most in four months in Paris trading after saying it isn’t in talks with India’s Wipro Ltd about a takeover.
Cap Gemini dropped as much as €2.57 (Rs146), or 5.7%, to €42.43, the biggest decline since 16 August. It was trading at €43.58 at 12.05 pm in Paris.
No deal: Azim Premji
The ‘Hindustan Times’ had reported on 23 December that Wipro, India’s third largest software services exporter, may offer to buy Cap Gemini for as much as $7 billion (Rs27,580 crore). The newspaper did not say where it got the information. The bid may be made by the end of January, it had said.
Cap Gemini stock rose 11% on 24 December, the biggest gain in almost five years. Cap Gemini, based in Paris, had said after the market closed on 24 December that it wasn’t in takeover talks with Wipro.
‘The Times of India’ had reported in July that India’s second largest provider of computer services, Infosys Technologies Ltd, was in talks with at least four companies, including Cap Gemini, for a potential acquisition. Infosys plans to purchase smaller European competitors, B.G. Srinivas, head of the company’s operations in Europe, West Asia and Africa, had said in November.
Cap Gemini doubled its workforce when it bought Houston-based Kanbay International Inc. for $1.25 billion in February.
Wipro shares rose 2.5% to close at Rs549.3 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Philipp Grontzki/ Bloomberg
GAIL, Oil India sign MoU to cooperate, bid jointly
Mumbai: State-run GAIL India Ltd said on Thursday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with explorer Oil India Ltd for cooperation and to bid jointly for oil and gas assets being auctioned by the country.
The two firms would cooperate in exploration and production, natural gas marketing and transmission, city gas distribution, petrochemicals and technology, it said in a statement.
The two firms would also jointly bid for blocks being auctioned in the seventh round of the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP), as well as overseas exploration blocks.
Bids for NELP-VII, launched earlier this month, are scheduled to close on 11 April. This is India’s biggest auction yet and the first under new rules aimed at attracting global firms.
India expects to draw somewhere between $3 billion (Rs11,820 crore) and $3.5 billion for the 57 blocks that would go under the hammer.
GAIL and OIL are already partners in the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd in Assam, GAIL said.
Reuters
Madras high court says Dunlop no longer sick
Kolkata: Tyre manufacturer Dunlop India Ltd said the Madras high court has declared the company out of the purview of Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985.
A release issued by the company said that as of 31 March, the networth of Dunlop had become positive and the entire accumulated losses had been wiped out. Dunlop was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1998.
PTI