Corporate happenings

Bharti-Zain deal: In the largest ever telecom takeover by an Indian firm, Bharti Airtel on March 30, 2010 signed a deal with Kuwait-based Zain Telecom to buy its African business for about Rs 48,000 crore. The takeover made Bharti Airtel the fifth largest telecom company in the world. As a part of the deal, all the 15 nation in Africa that have Zain operations will now came under the umbrella of Bharti Airtel.After this, the total subscriber base of Bharti has become 180 million and its operations are spread over 18 countries including India.

Ambani brothers truce: In a major development, the two Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil on May 24, 2010 decided to bury their differences and create an environment of harmony, co-operation and collaboration between their groups. The harmony came within a few days of the Supreme Court declining to give any relief to younger brother in the gas dispute. The news was happily welcomed by the government analysts and stock markets.

Mukesh-EIH link: Mukesh Ambani on August 31, made a surprise entry into the hospitality segment by acquiring a significant stake in EIH Ltd - the company that runs the Oberoi and Trident chains of hotels in India. Three EIH promoters - Oberoi Hotels Private Ltd, Aravali Polymers Private Ltd and Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi - sold 5.54 crore shares amounting to 14.12 per cent to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for Rs 1,021 crore. The acquisition was done through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Industries Investment and Holding Private Ltd.

Vedanta-Cairn deal: Promoted by Anil Agarwal, Vedanta is the London-listed holding company that owns Sterlite Industries, Hindustan Zinc and Sesa Goa. It will acquire 51 per  to 60 per cent of Cairn India once it gets the government approval on the deal.

A. Raja and 2G scam: Former Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja hit headlines for the wrong reasons ever since he allocated license for the 2G spectrum in 2007 soon after he took over the telecom portfolio. He has been facing criticism after he decided in 2007 to bring in new players and give licenses and spectrum as per the existing policy of "first-cum-first-serve" basis and rejected demands for auctioning.

Lavasa: In a major blow to the Lavasa lake city project near Pune, the Union environment ministry headed by Jairam Ramesh termed all construction activities in the 25,000-hectare project illegal. A show cause notice from the ministry deems all structures so far unauthorised as they have been built without any environment clearance under its notifications of 2004 and 2006.

SKS Microfinance: SKS Microfinance, India's only listed microlender, came under scrutiny after fears of large-scale defaults due to high interest rates and reports of suicides due to mounting debt.