Business News

·        M&M not to acquire SIL now: Goenka

·        Essar owes $2 bn to Iran for oil imports

·        Coal production: govt warms JSPL, 4 firms

M&M not to acquire SIL now: Goenka             

Auto firm Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) on Monday said it has decided not to acquire the over 95% stake in the beleaguered public sector unit (PSU) firm Scooters India Ltd (SIL) at present, as it has “various things“ to do.

“We have done our analysis and we have decided not to go after it. We are not pursuing it any more”, M&M president (automotive and farm equipment sectors) Pawan Goenka said.

Essar owes $2 bn to Iran for oil imports

Essar Oil Ltd owes $2 billion to Iran for oil imports since late December when the Indian central bank ended a longstanding payments mechanism for refiners, and it is ready to tap other sources of supplies if needed.

Privately owned Essar and four staterun refiners together import around 400,000 barrels per day of crude from Iran, India's second biggest supplier after Saudi Arabia, in trade worth some $12 billion a year.

Coal production: govt warms JSPL, 4 firms

The coal ministry has asked five firms, including Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and GVK Power, sit ting idle on the coal blocks allocated to them for captive use to either begin production or it would cancel their licences.

“The allocate is hereby warned and directed to develop the block without any delay. Any further failure in the development of the block would lead to necessary action... including deal location of the coal block", according to the warning letter sent by the ministry to the five firms.