News Capsules

• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to use its surplus cash to repay about Rs 15,000 crore or about 21 per cent of its debt during the current financial year. The combined debt of RIL and its subsidiary RPL will be brought down to around Rs.57,000 cr from Rs 72,000 cr at present.
• Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt., the operator of India’s biggest gas-fired power plant, may shortlist customers to lease its 1 million tonne-a-year liquefied natural gas import terminal by July. The company will choose “one or more than one” of the six initial bids sent by companies, including Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s biggest by value, and state-run Indian Oil Corp.
• Delhi-based hospital chain, Fortis Healthcare, forayed into healthcare market in Bangalore with the opening of its maiden hospital at Seshadripuram in city centre. This is also its second venture in South India, where it is trying to get a major foothold. The hospital is a brownfield project with 100 beds and is developed as a super-speciality hospital, focusing more on preventive healthcare.
• Tata Steel plans to prepay over £200 million (about Rs 1,500 crore at current exchange rates) of the non-recourse debt that it took to acquire Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus in 2007. The plan to prepay the debt is part of the Jamshedpur-based steel company’s efforts to derisk its European operations in the face of tough conditions in the steel market.
• Essar Telecom Infrastructure, the country’s second-largest mobile tower company not attached to any cellphone operator, has approached American Tower Corporation (ATC) for a possible merger or even a complete sellout according to person familiar with the development.
• Aditya Birla Nuvo has decided to create a holding company for its financial services business comprising asset management, insurance, stock broking and distribution. The move is aimed at separating the fledgling financial services business of the company from its manufacturing business.