Buzzing News of the Week – BWA Auction, World’s Tallest Residential Tower, Anil’s defamation suit, Bhopal Gas & more…

Haven’t Touched Newspaper this Week? Here’s Summarized News At a Glance…

This specific post is dedicated to those who have not been able to be in touch with the daily newspapers and missed some of the important buzzing news across this week.

The week kicked-off with the expectations of fuel price hike (which did not materialize), BWA spectrum auctions has already reached dizzying heights, Apple has stormed with its all new 4th edition of iPhone and the Centre has come out with the law of mandatory 25% public float for the listed companies.

Lodha Group to Erect World’s Tallest Residential Tower

The 17.5-acre plot at the defunct Shrinivas Mill at Lower Parel (Mumbai) is all set to be the construction ground for a 117-storey tower, World One, touted as the world’s tallest residential tower, to be ready by 2014.

Going by the area where it is being constructed, there would be no points for guessing that this residential tower is targeted at ultra-rich Indians, where the minimum price per flat is expected to be in the range of Rs. 7.5 crore. The site would have 2 lakh sq.ft. of landscape area for the residents, including a 80,000 sq.ft. sports club at 175 ft above ground.

Any plans to book a flat?;)

Bharti Airtel Closes $10.7 billion Zain Acquisition

Some of you might be feeling as to why am I repeating this good old news of Bharti-Zain acquisition now? But, the fact remains that the official announcement that Bharti Airtel has completed the acquisition of Kuwait’s Zain, at an enterprise value of $10.7 billion, arrives as late as Tuesday, June 8, 2010.

The combined revenues of Bharti and Zain will be around $12.4 billion, while the combined operating profits are expected to be in the region of $4.7 billion.

With Zain acquisition, the deal paves the way for Bharti Airtel to expand its footprint across the 15 African markets where Zain has strong presence. With this deal, Bharti vaults onto global rankings as the world’s 5^th largest telecom company.

As per latest news, S&P has lowered the long-term corporate rating on Bharti to BB+ from BBB-.

Anil Withdraws Defamation Suit against Elder Brother

According to a latest development, Anil Ambani has dropped a Rs.10000-crore defamation suit against Mukesh Ambani in the Bombay High Court. The defamation case was filed by Anil in September 2008 on allegation that the elder Ambani had defamed him in an interview to the New York Times.

The leading American publication had said,

“What most distinguishes Reliance from its rivals is what Ambani’s friends and associates describe as his ‘intelligence agency’ a network of lobbyists and spies in New Delhi who they say collect data about the vulnerabilities of the powerful, about the minutiae of bureaucrats’ schedules, about the activities of their competitors.”

Govt Revenues from BWA auctions Soars past Rs.1 L cr.

The all-India bid price for BWA rises to Rs.11518 crore at the end of Day 13. With this the government revenues from BWA auction process soars to Rs.34554 crore. Once again it’s Mumbai and Delhi circles that are leading the race with highest bid prices of Rs.1993 crore and Rs.1943 crore respectively.

Interestingly, the combined revenues for the government from the auction process of both 3G and BWA have reached Rs.102000 crore, way above the targeted Rs.35000 crore. From here it’s carry forward to our finance minister…

The Judgment of Bhopal Gas Tragedy

The verdict for an unfortunate gas leak tragedy that occurred in Bhopal during 1985 has consumed 25 years to arrive at a judgment. For all those new generation geeks unaware about the infamous Bhopal tragedy, the leak was all about the spread of toxic methyl isocyanite from the Union Carbide plant across the slums which killed about 20000 people and impaired a generation of life.

The verdict has been stamped by many as not just justice delayed but also justice not delivered. The judgment has convicted eight people involved in the industrial disaster and sentenced to years in prison. Keshub Mahindra, who was the non-executive chairman of the Indian arm of Union Carbide then, is also convicted in the criminal case arising from the Bhopal tragedy.

Auto Sales zooms in May

The domestic passenger car sales rose for the month of May rose from 113810 units last year to 148481, an up-tick of robust 30%. On the other hand, two-wheeler sales increased from 727933 units previous year to 936555 units in the month of May 2010.

The auto sales of M&M, India’s largest tractor maker by sales, rose a whooping 69% to 28486 units for the month of May. Total sales of Maruti surged to 102175 units, 28% higher than the numbers clocked during the same month previous year. Tata Motors reported 41% growth in vehicle sales at 56779 units during the scorching month of May.

Any news which you would like to add which I may have missed mentioning above?