Hyderabad: State-run miner NMDC Ltd will invest Rs22,500 crore (about $5.13 billion) and aim at a revenue of Rs35,000 crore by March 2015, its top executive said on Friday.

Chairman and managing director Rana Som said the firm’s capital expenditure plans include a greenfield steel project in Chhattisgarh worth Rs14,000 crore and a pig iron plant with technology from global miner Rio Tinto at Rs1,400 crore.

The company, set to merge government-run Sponge Iron India Ltd with itself, proposes to expand its sponge iron capacity from 200,000 tonnes a year to 1 million tonnes in the next 36 months, said NMDC director, finance, K.R. Venkateswarlu.

Som said the company will neither dilute equity nor approach financial institutions for debt, as it prefers to remain a debt-free company.

On Friday, NMDC’s share rose 4.99% at Rs303.05 on Bombay Stock Exchange on a day that saw the benchmark Sensex gain 3.67%.

SpiceJet posts Q1 net loss of Rs102 crore

New Delhi: SpiceJet Ltd, that runs low-fare carrier SpiceJet has reported a net loss of Rs102 crore for the first quarter of FY09 compared with a small profit of Rs18.5 crore in the year-ago quarter largely due to increased fuel costs and reduced passengers per flight.

“On account of increase in fuel cost, SpiceJet has curtailed its capacity increase foreseeing a subsequent impact of decline in passengers for the current year,” Partha Sarathi Basu, chief financial officer of the company said in a statement, adding the company had received investment of $100 million or nearly Rs440 crore recently.

The April-June quarter loss excludes a notional loss of Rs27.2 crore on revaluation of foreign debt on basis of change in the rupee value of such borrowings. The airline’s revenues grew to Rs457 crore from Rs265 crore, an increase of 72% in the said period.

Shares of SpiceJet rose 8.76% to Rs27.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, whose benchmark index expanded 3.67%.

—Staff Writer

MARKETS

Gammon Infra shares gain on winning order

Mumbai: Shares of Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd climbed the most in more than seven weeks in Mumbai after winning an order to build and operate a bridge that may cost an estimated Rs800 crore.

The Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government will make a grant of Rs208 crore for the bridge on Godavari river, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.

—Bloomberg

Hindalco hires 10 banks for $1 billion loan

Hong Kong: India’s largest producer of non-ferrous metals Hindalco Industries Ltd hired 10 banks to arrange a $1 billion (Rs4,380 crore) loan to refinance debt it took for the acquisition of Novelis Inc., said three people involved in the deal.

The Mumbai-based company hired ABN Amro Holding NV, Barclays Capital, Bank of America Corp., Bank of TokyoMitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Calyon Credit Agricole CIB, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. to arrange the five-year loan, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The company has also proposed to offer three shares at Rs96 apiece for every seven held, raising money to help repay the debt used for the Novelis acquisition, the company said on 14 August.

—Bloomberg

SBI, ICICI named for new IPO payment process

Mumbai: Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, on Friday added State Bank of India Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, the country’s largest lenders, to the list of banks that would implement its new payment process for public issues.

On Thursday, the capital markets regulator had named Corporation Bank, Union Bank of India and HDFC Bank Ltd for implementing the new system, which will allow the application money to remain the in the applicant’s bank account till the allotment of shares is accepted. The new system starts from Monday, 1 September.

—Staff Writer

PHARMA

Teva sues Momenta, Novartis units

Washington/New York: The world’s biggest generic-drug company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, sued Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis AG’s Sandoz unit to prevent them from selling a copy of Copaxone, its first branded product.

Sandoz, the world’s second-biggest generic-drug company, and Momenta are jointly seeking US Food and Drug Administration approval to sell a generic version of the drug, which is used to treat multiple sclerosis.

Teva and patent owner Yeda Research & Development Co. claim the copy of the injection would infringe four patents that expire in 2014.

—Bloomberg