Marubeni, Eym Proposals Get Fipb Clearance

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Saturday cleared 30-odd proposals of foreign direct investment worth about Rs 570 crore, including those of IL&FS, Essar Power, Daewoo Anchor, Escorts Yamaha Motor Ltd (EYM)and Marubeni India Pvt Ltd.

IL&FS has also been given the go-ahead by the FIPB to increase the equity stake of AIG from the existing 70 per cent to 90 per cent. The company has also been allowed to raise in utilised securities of investing companies from 40 to 49 per cent.

Meanwhile, Mauritius-based Prime Hazira is to increase its stake in Essar Power from 49 per cent to 100 per cent. Thus, the foreign investment in Essar Power is to rise from Rs 250 crore to Rs 525 crore according to the FIPB approval.

In the Escorts Yamaha case, Japan's Yamaha Motor has been allowed to subscribe to a Rs 30 crore redeemable preference share capital issue by EYM which is a 50:50 joint venture company between Escorts and Yamaha Motor.

The board gave permission to Marubeni to increase the scope of its marketing and trading activities in the country.

However, the FIPB deferred yet again a proposal of Banque Nationale de Paris which proposes to have a joint venture here for NBFC activities.

The reason: some government agencies like the department of economic affairs and Sebi need more time study the proposal.

The board also deferred a proposal of Ispat Industries for its refinery project at Kakinada. Ispat, which had earlier sought an extension of the validity period of the project, had been turned down by the board after reported hectic lobbying by the IOC with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

Other proposals which have been given the go-ahead by the FIPB include that of Daewoo Anchor to make a payment of $4 million to Daewoo as technical fee, Bayer AG to have a joint venture with Zydus group and that of Microwave Communications to increase the size of capital base. The board discussed 47 proposals.

The proposed JV firm, where Bayer industries will hold 51 per cent and the Zydus group 49 per cent, will market the existing brands of Bayer in India and select brands of Zydus. A proposal of Brown Forman was deferred. Sometime back a similar proposal from the liquor major had been rejected by the board on objections from some government agencies like the commerce ministry.