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What made the US FDA issue a warning letter to Sun Pharma’s subsidiary Caraco?

The US FDA had issued a warning letter to Sun Pharma’s subsidiary Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories on Oct 31, 2008. The letter is now available on the FDA site detailing the reasons why the warning was issued. It points out deviations from current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations for medicines. These deviations were detected in an inspection between May 1 to June 11 2008, and are mainly due to issues related to quality control. Continue Reading →

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Crisil sells subsidiary in a MBO deal

Crisil, the credit rating agency, has sold a majority stake in Gas Strategies Group, in a management buyout transaction. Crisil had paid 1.5mn pounds to acquire a 100% stake in the Gas Strategies Group (then known as EconoMatters) in December 2003. As of December 2007, it held 400,000 shares of Gas Strategies Group with a book value of Rs 16.2 crore.
 

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Fertiliser companies get liquid

The government has issued 7% fertiliser bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore to 23 companies, representing the subsidy given during FY09. These bonds are not eligible to be kept with banks as SLR but can be bought by insurance companies, in the ‘other approved securities’ list and as special bonds by PF/Gratuity/Superannuation funds. Moreover, they can also be eligible for repo transactions.
 

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Booster Dose #2: RBI cuts rates, eases credit availability, warns of painful adjustment

On Saturday, the RBI presented its part of the stimulus package, a combination of interest rate cuts, credit flow improvement, relief to exporters and rescuing banks from showing red ink on their books. Since mid-September, the RBI claims to have made available primary liquidity of Rs 300,000 crore. While the October crisis has blown over, when money evaporated from the system, it still does not appear as if there is money sloshing around.
 

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Booster dose #1: Petrol and diesel prices reduced

The Indian government has been attempting several measures to boost economic growth. From today, petrol and diesel prices have been reduced by 10% and 6% respectively due to a sharp fall in crude oil prices. The Indian government is in the midst of putting together a package to prevent a recession.
 

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Carborundum in Rs 250 crore expansion at Volzhsky Abrasive Works

Carborundum Universal (Cumi), the Murugappa group owned industrial abrasives company, is adding to its silicon carbide capacity in Russia, through Volzhsky Abrasive Works (VAW), the company it acquired in September 2007. It will spend $50mn or about Rs 250 crore to build a new plant in the Volgograd region, Russia.
 

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Sun Pharmaceuticals to pay 2x revenues to acquire Chattem?

Sun Pharmaceuticals has acquired Chattem Chemicals Inc, a US-based pharmaceutical company, which makes $26mn in revenues from selling bulk drugs. Chattem had been acquired by Elcat Inc in 1995 from Chattem Inc, for $25mn. Sun has not disclosed the acquisition price but we will try to make some educated guesses.
 

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JSW Steel and Severfield Structures form JV for steel structurals

JSW Steel, India’s third largest steel-maker, will make steel structurals in a joint venture with Severfield Structures. JSW Severfield Structures will be a 50:50 JV, with JSW’s investment being routed through a subsidiary, JSW Building Systems. The JV will spend ₤30mn pounds or Rs 220 crore to set up a plant that will fabricate 35,000 tonnes of structural steel.
 

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RBI pours cash, govt readies for more goodies for banks

India’s economic actions today resembled that of the US today: concerted action to restore confidence in the monetary system. Strange, that the system should have been exposed to be so weak when we supposedly had none of the rot that had permeated the US banking system. Makes one really wonder what went wrong. Maybe we will get to know sometime; at present all one knows is that there is a liquidity crunch, which is being blamed on various factors, ranging from rising credit demand, drying overseas fund markets, FII outflows and whatever else. Continue Reading →

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