LAP commonly known as property loan is a loan provided by the bank/financial institution against the mortgage of your property (residential or commercial) provided the same has not been put up as security for any other purpose. LAP differs from a mortgage/home loan which is a taken to buy a property. LAP is a loan taken by putting up the existing property as a security against the loan.

When you find yourself in a spot of bother as far as finances are concerned, due to medical emergencies or losses in business or requirements to fund your child’s education or any other need, let not liquidation/sale of assets be your only option to solve the current cash flow problems. Financial markets now provide several loan products that will help you to keep intact your assets but at the same time provide you with the finances you need to tide over the situation. Some of the products available include personal loans and Loan against property (LAP)

Personal loans:

These are loans given to individuals without any security, collateral or guarantor on the same. Hence they are unsecured loans. The quantum of loan to be given will be based on the credit rating and the monthly income of the individual. The processing of this loan is very quick because of minimal paper work. The rate of interest on this type of loan is very high and is second only to the interest rates charged by credit card companies.

When is a personal best taken?

If there is an urgent need for cash, personal loans may be an option because of the quick processing.
Paying off your credit card dues because the interest charged on credit cards is very high. Therefore taking a personal loan may reduce the amount of interest that you will pay. Personal loans are very expensive and should be resorted to only if you have no other choice and you are in need of short-term cash.

Loan against property (LAP)  :

LAP commonly known as property loan is a loan provided by the bank/financial institution against the mortgage of your property (residential or commercial) provided the same has not been put up as security for any other purpose. LAP differs from a mortgage/home loan which is a taken to buy a property. LAP is a loan taken by putting up the existing property as a security against the loan. The maximum loan amount would be anywhere in the range of 40% and 60% depending on the market conditions and other factors. The borrower can either opt for an overdraft option where he is required to pay interest only on the amount withdrawn or a lump sum loan amount. The disadvantage of an overdraft facility is that the interest rate charged may be higher, in some cases up to 0.5% and also annual processing fees will be charged. Besides, if you want the overdraft facility, you have to take the loan only from the bank as other financial institutions do not offer saving/current account. In case of a lump sum loan, processing fees are charged only once when the loan is taken and also the individual can approach either a bank or financial institution for the loan.

When is an LAP best taken?

• Long tenure loans: For individuals requiring funding for a long periods of time, LAP can come very handy because the tenure of these loans can be a maximum period of 15 years
• Large Loan amount: Individuals requiring substantial funds also should consider this loan option as a large loan is possible. Of course it depends on the property value. There is no restriction as in case of personal loans where the maximum loan permissible is Rs. 10 lakhs.
• Lower rate of interest: On account of the security provided in terms of the house, the rate of interest charged by banks tends to be much lower than personal loans

Macquarie Research has cut its 2012-13 GDP forecast to 6.9% from 7.9% citing lack of policy reforms and lagged impact of monetary policy tightening
The knives are out and they are chopping economic growth forecasts. Each day brings more news which confirms the trend of a slowing economy. The fact that economic growth will slow down in the current financial year and the government will miss its fiscal deficit target is a no-brainer.

Now, the pundits are gazing still further into the future. The picture they see is gloomier. Macquarie Research has cut its 2012-13 GDP forecast to 6.9% from 7.9% citing lack of policy reforms and lagged impact of monetary policy tightening.

Tanvee Gupta Jain of Macquarie said in a note: Incorporating the lack of policy reforms and the lagged impact of monetary tightening in the context of a continued weak global economic environment, we are now downgrading our FY13 GDP growth forecast to 6.9% from 7.9% ‘with downside risks’ estimated earlier. While the global environment is likely to remain uncertain, we believe domestic factors will dominate the growth outlook.

Macquarie is not the only one. Ambit Capital on 17 October has cut its next year GDP growth forecast to 6.2% from an earlier estimate of 7.2%.

Ritika Mankar of Ambit Capital said in a note: We are cutting our GDP growth forecast … as the persistence of macroeconomic uncertainty translates into weak investment demand growth which in turn affects industrial sector growth and services sector growth.

Note that economists are shying away from cutting current year forecasts. Motilal Oswal in its report dated 11 November has downgraded the current year GDP growth estimate to 7.2% from 7.6% earlier. BNP Paribas has sounded even more pessimistic. It expects the economy to witness ‘hardish landing.’

Richard Iley of BNP Paribas said in a note: While any marked improvement in WPI inflation is still a few months away, the latest activity data confirms that our long-held expectation for a hardish landing for the economy is now materialising. Given our forecast for a US recession and stagnation in the euro zone, GDP growth looks on course to drop below 7% in the coming quarters.

Richard Iley adds further: The risk is that the RBI’s revised growth projection is still too optimistic. Our GDP forecasts have been well below consensus since at least early summer. Current targets are for growth of just 7.2% for 2011-12 and 7.1% for 2012-13.

EU parliament gives final approval to short-selling law. European Commission to debate sovereign ratings “blackouts”
The European Union pushed ahead with its regulatory crackdown on Tuesday by giving the green light to curbs on trading sovereign-debt related derivatives at the heart of the euro zone crisis.

The bloc’s financial services chief Michel Barnier will also unveil a measure at 1400 GMT to inject competition into the credit ratings sector dominated by the Big Three: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings.

Many EU policymakers are keen to push ahead with the new rules, saying a ratings downgrade of Greek sovereign debt in 2010 made it more expensive and harder to mount the country’s first bailout package.

The mistaken downgrade by S&P of France’s banking industry system will reinforce the EU’s determination to regulate agencies more closely, Barnier said last week.

The draft law, part of a broad regulatory push prompted by the financial crisis, will propose a temporary “blackout” on sovereign debt ratings in exceptional circumstances.

The “blackouts” element has proved divisive, and Barnier was due to meet with fellow European commissioners at 1200 GMT to thrash out its scope in the draft law as member states like Britain mount a last - minute effort to scrap the provision.

EU states and the European Parliament, which is meeting in Strasbourg this week, will have the final say on the measure, with some changes likely.

Short-selling:

Parliament on Tuesday voted by 507 to 25 in favour of an EU law that restrict “naked” or uncovered selling of shares and sovereign debt. This refers to when a seller has made no prior arrangements to borrow the security.

EU states have already given the nod to the law, which was jointly agreed with parliament and is due to take effect within a year.

It also bans naked sovereign credit default swaps (CDS), where there is no ownership of the underlying government debt the CDS contract “insures” against default.

Policymakers want to crack down on what they see as speculation by hedge funds and others betting on falls in euro zone bond prices.

“The parliament has successfully fought for very strict conditions for short-selling to contain destructive speculation. The new transparency rules will help stabilise financial markets,” Markus Ferber, a German member of parliament’s centre-right party, said.

The draft law on ratings agencies, the EU’s third measure to regulate the industry since the financial crisis began in 2007, will avoid trying to create an EU answer to the US dominance of the sector.

Instead, it will seek to inject more competition by requiring users of ratings, such as companies and banks, to “rotate” or switch agencies on a regular basis so that some of the 10 or so smaller agencies registered in Europe, such as Euler Hermes​, can pick up more business.

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Scientist Daniel Nocera said MIT’s technique has seen more than a year of preliminary research and hopes to produce enough electricity from a bottle-and-half of water, however dirty, to power a small home

In the first such effort, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has signed on a leading scientist from the globally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to commercialize cutting-edge research that promises to produce cheap power from water.

Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry and energy, and his group of elite scientists at MIT attracted attention from Tata when he heard they had found a way towards one of science’s holy grails—to imitate photosynthesis, the process by which plants breathe, and produce power while doing so.

“I met him in September, and in October we signed,” Nocera said on the sidelines of EmTech India, a technology conference organized by MIT’s magazine for innovation, Technology Review.

Nocera would not disclose any more details of the deal. “I think you should ask Mr Tata that,” he said, before flying to Mumbai to meet Tata on Monday.

As he did with the Nano small car and the Swach non-electric water purifier, Tata hopes Nocera’s solution will be the latest in the group’s effort to serve the “bottom of the pyramid” and turn a profit while doing so, said a Tata group executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tata’s hope is that Nocera’s “personalized energy” can produce a stand-alone, mini-power plant, perhaps a refrigerator-sized box, that could reinvent rural electricity supply and bring power to about three billion people worldwide who don’t have it.

Nocera said MIT’s technique has seen more than a year of preliminary research and hopes to produce enough electricity from a bottle-and-half of water, however dirty, to power a small home.

“We hope to have a prototype in a year-and-a-half,” said Nocera, whose other backers include Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet and a former director of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency.

It is too early to say which Tata company will take MIT’s technology to market, the Tata official said. The Swach water purifier was developed by three Tata companies.

The deal with MIT is fundamentally new for the Tatas because Nocera’s technology is at a very early stage. As Nocera acknowledged, his research has not yet been published, though it is being submitted to the journal Science.

The idea of imitating the tiny chemical engines in plants, which essentially generate power from the sun by splitting water molecules, is not new and has energized science since the 19th century. Commercially available electrolyses devices can split water, but they are costly and need clean water.

Nocera’s solution can use even human waste water, “from the front and back”, as he put it euphemistically.

It was only 45 days ago that Nocera’s scientists made their biggest breakthrough, plunging an artificial silicon “leaf”, coated with a proprietary solution of cobalt and phosphate, into a jar of water and coaxed it to generate power at efficiencies that now exceed solar panels.

Still, the process of cracking the “most guarded secret of plants”, as Science magazine put it in 1912, is still in the research stage, and there are many issues that need to be solved. That includes dealing with the waste gases produced and how to get the system into a box that can be manufactured and sold on a mass scale.

“Mr Tata told me, ‘You know what you’re getting with me, right? Patience’,” said Nocera, who is also the energy industry’s go-to man for global energy calculations.

Nocera estimates that the world consumes 14 terawatts (TW) of power today. By 2050, it will need 16TW. If his solution works, said Nocera, it would need a swimming pool full of water every day to meet the world’s electricity needs. For the Tatas, the bet on Nocera and MIT is obviously likely to be a big one.

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A shift in speculative activity from equity cash market to derivatives market could be a factor, a Morgan Stanley​ study says

How long have investors in the Indian markets been holding on to stocks in the backdrop of high volatility and tepid returns in the past four years? Morgan Stanley has come out with an interesting report which addresses this question.

The study finds that investors are holding on to equity investments much longer now than they were during the bull phase between 2003 and 2007.

Back then, the average holding period was around 20 months, or a little over a year-and-a-half. It now stands at around 35 months, or nearly three years, having almost doubled compared with the bull phase. To be sure, the rise has been gradual since mid-2003, but has accelerated since 2009.

The average holding period for foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who account for a large part of trading in the cash market, had steadily come down to as low as 14 months by the end of the bull market in early 2008. Since 2009, it started rising sharply and now stands at 22 months, Morgan Stanley’s calculations show. This is the highest level for FIIs since 2004.

Why are investors holding on to stocks longer now than they did during the bull phase between 2003 and 2007, when the Indian markets rose by over 500%?

Morgan Stanley points out that one factor may be the shift of speculative activity from the equity cash market to the derivatives market.

Cash market turnover now amounts to less than 10% of derivatives market turnover. The extent of intraday trading in the cash market has come down. With less speculative activity in the cash market, the calculation of investors’ holding period would naturally be influenced.

Even so, it’s interesting to note that investors, including FIIs, are holding on to Indian stocks for longer periods.

In the past, such a rise in the level of holding period of stocks had occurred during bear markers and right before the onset of a bull phase, such as between mid-2000 and 2003.

But with the uncertainty in the global economy, and considering that Indian markets have already doubled from their lows during the financial crisis, it seems unlikely that they are on the verge of another bull run.

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State-owned NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power generation utility, signed a Rs10,000 crore loan agreement with State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday, making it the largest loan extended to any company by the country’s biggest lender.
 

 

 

NTPC, which has a power generation capacity of 34,584 megawatts (MW), plans to increase its installed capacity to 75,000MW by 2017 and become a 128,000MW utility by 2032.

The company’s deal with the state-owned lender comes as funding for new power projects has been losing steam.

"The number of power project financing deals in India, which had been rapidly increasing up to the early part of 2010, has now begun to slow," rating agency Fitch Inc. said in a report last month. Fitch attributed this to lending constraints on banks by the Reserve Bank of India and heightened risk awareness of power projects.

The nation’s power sector is facing an acute shortage of funds. The 11th Plan (2007-12) targeted an addition of 78,577MW of power generation capacity, requiring an investment of Rs10.31 trillion. The power ministry estimates there will be a shortfall of Rs4.51 trillion. The sector will need investment of $400 billion (Rs17.72 trillion today) during the 12th Plan.

NTPC alone would require an investment of around Rs30,000 crore annually, leading to a capital expenditure of around Rs15 trillion during the 12th Plan. A bulk of this, just over Rs1 trillion, will be raised as debt. NTPC currently has debt of around Rs37,783 crore on its books.
 

"Historically, the majority of the debt funding for new power projects has come from the domestic commercial bank loan market, plus a handful of specialized financial institutions," Fitch said. "Banks exposure to the power sector increased by 62% from March 2010 to 2011, totalling about Rs2,423 billion."
 

Indian banks, though, are at an increased risk of default on loans to companies linked to the power sector, as mounting losses of state electricity boards and delays in the execution of new power plants have made recovery difficult.

NTPC reported a net profit of Rs9,102.59 crore on revenue of Rs59,247.84 crore in 2010-11.

Eight Simple Ways to Plan your Taxes

You have got only a few more months to complete this financial year. Very soon you will get a call from your company to submit the proofs for tax saving investments. So why don’t you spend some time on organising your tax plan?

1) Proper Allocation of Annual compensation :

Restructuring your salary with some additional components can reduce your tax liability. This restructuring doesn’t require any additional cash outflow. The following components can be efficiently used to reduce your income tax liability.

•  Transport allowance to the extend of Rs.800 is exempt
•  Medical expenses which are reimbursed by the employer are exempt to the tune of Rs.15000
•  Food coupons like sodexo or ticket restaurant are exempt from tax up to Rs.60000
•  Individuals who are all living in a rented accommodation can include House Rent Allowance ( HRA ) as a    part of their salary
•  Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) can be part of your salary as this can be claimed twice in a block of 4 years.

2) Effective Utilization of Tax Exemption :

As far as possible utilize the maximum exemptions available under section 80 C, 80 CCF and 80 D. The maximum exemption available under section 80 C is Rs. 100000.

Under this section Rs.100000 investment or contribution can be made in PPF, NSC, Life insurance premium, 5 year FD with banks and Post offices, Mutual Fund ELSS, Principal Repayment of housing loan, and the tuition fees paid for children’s education.

Under Section 80 CCF, you can invest up to Rs.20000 in infrastructure bonds.

Under Sec 80 D, the premium paid towards the mediclaim policies are exempt. The maximum limit of exemption is Rs.15000 and for senior citizens the limit is Rs.20000 and for covering senior citizen parents there is an additional exemption to the extend of Rs.15000.

3) Properly Structure your Housing Loan :

The Principal repayment of a housing loan is eligible for a deduction up to Rs.100000. The interest paid on a housing loan is eligible for a deduction up to Rs.150000. If the housing loan is for a sizeable amount, then it is possible that the principal repayment and interest may exceed the specified tax exemption limit. To utilise the maximum tax benefit, an individual can consider going for a joint home loan with his/her spouse or parent or sibling. This will make sure that both the co-owners can claim tax deductions in the proportion of their holding in the loan.

4) Tax Plan in Sync with Overall Financial Plan :

You should not do your tax plan in isolation. You need to do it in sync with your overall financial plan. So a tax plan is not only to just save taxes and also it should assist you in achieving your other financial goals like children’s higher education, buying a home or retirement.

5) Avoid Last Minute Rush :

In fact the right time to do the tax plan is the beginning of the financial year. If you postpone your tax planning even now and do it in the last minute, then you will not be able to choose the right investment. In the last minute rush, you will be forced to choose a scheme which gives the proof immediately. Is the investment sound and profitable? Is there any other better options? You will not be able to choose the best scheme and you may settle with a mediocre one.

6) Invest Some Quality Time :

Before investing your money, you need to invest your time. You need to take some quality time to understand the various tax saving options and compare their benefits and limitations.

7) Check for Future Commitments :

Some tax saving options like NSC or ELSS need only onetime investment. Some other tax saving options like PPF, Ulips need periodical investments year after year. You need to be careful in choosing a tax saving scheme where you need to commit for periodical future payments. You need to check on a few things like; do you need such a future commitment? Will you be able to meet the future commitments at ease? The law may change and you may not get any tax exemption for your future payments. Would you consider the scheme irrespective of tax benefit for the future payments?

8) Changed Your Job; Redo your Tax Plan :

Did you switch your job in the middle of the financial year? Then you need to redo your tax plan with consolidating the income from both the companies. It is advisable to inform the new company about the income during the particular financial year from the old company. So that your new company will deduct the right amount of TDS. Otherwise you may need to pay extra tax at the end of the financial year.

Whenever you change your job, you need to have a sitting with your financial planner or tax advisor. So that the required changes in your tax plan can be done proactively.


Written for Stocks Catalog by Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners . He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

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Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has signed an agreement with oil major British Petroleum (BP) for 30 per cent stake in Reliance Industries' 23 oil and gas blocks including the KG-D6 gas fields. The deal is valued at $7.2 billion and is one of the biggest foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country.

The two companies will also form a 50:50 joint venture for sourcing and marketing of gas in India.

"BP will pay Reliance Industries Limited an aggregate consideration of US$7.2 billion, and completion adjustments, for the interests to be acquired in the 23 production sharing contracts. Future performance payments of up to US$1.8 billion could be paid based on exploration success that results in development of commercial discoveries. These payments and combined investment could amount to US$20 billion," RIL said in a statement.

While RIL will get $7.2 billion from BP for 30 per cent stake in its oil and gas blocks, "another $1.8 billion is contingent on finding more hydrocarbon resources. The balance $11 billion is an estimate for the investments over the next many years in building the joint venture," Mukesh Ambani said from London.

"We needed one major global energy partner. In Reliance's assessment BP is the best finder of deep water hydrocarbons in the world," Ambani added on the association with BP.

The 23 oil and gas blocks together cover approximately 270,000 square kilometres. This will make the partnership India's largest private sector holder of exploration acreage.

The deal is "subject to necessary government approvals. All blocks are under NELP and we expect to apply for government approval and expect to get them soon. We expect to close the deal in the April-March 2012 fiscal", Ambani added.

The deal is seen as a positive for Reliance. Ambareesh Baliga of Karvy Stock Broking said the rumour (about the deal) was in the market since the morning. This will play up tomorrow as it is extremely positive news. RIL has been an underperformer for the last 2 years. RIL rose 2.22 per cent on the NSE today though the deal was announced after market hours.

Commenting on the deal former chairman of ONGC RS Sharma said, “This is positive news for the entire E&P (exploration and production) sector for India. The deal covers the entire value chain - upstream and downstream." Referring to the Cairn-Vedanta deal that has failed to take off, Sharma said "the sentiments have been negatively impacted because of one deal...this deal shows confidence in the Indian oil sector."

"This partnership meets BP's strategy of forming alliances with strong national partners, taking material positions in significant hydrocarbon basins and increasing our exposure to growing energy markets," said Mr. Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman of BP.

The benchmark emerging market index is in negative territory, having fallen more than three quarters of a percent
London: A month into 2011, one of the biggest swings in asset flows has been the outperformance of previously lagging developed market equities against once red-hot emerging ones.

The chances are that this rotation by investors, encouraged by shifting valuations, inflation concerns and growth spurts in some developed economies, will remain in place for a while -- perhaps six months -- but it is not likely to become a permanent fixture.

Nothing has happened to dilute the overarching view that emerging markets are a long-term, strategic growth story, albeit with somewhat heightened political risk -- as is now being seen in Egypt and Ivory Coast.

Standard & Poor’s cutting of Japan’s sovereign debt rating on Thursday, meanwhile, was a stark reminder that, in contrast to emerging economies, many developed markets continue suffer from government bank balance problems.

But for the time being, the tale of the tape is clear -- the flows are into developed markets and away from emerging.

So far this year, MSCI’s developed market stock index has risen a healthy 3.2% -- healthy in the sense that in the highly unlikely event this rate continues, developed market stocks would have the best compounded gain in at least 40 years.

The benchmark emerging market index, however, is in negative territory, having fallen more than three quarters of a percent.

Individual country indexes show the same pattern. The US S&P 500 is up more than 3% for the year while India’s BSE Sensex has lost around 10%.

The outperformance goes further. On a day-by-day basis last year, developed markets outperformed emerging markets on just 47% of occasions. So far this year, they have done so around 63% of the time.

And in terms of beta, a gauge of how a security reacts to moves in the market, emerging markets are moving closer to being in lockstep with developed markets -- meaning that at the moment there is little to be gained for the extra risk they may carry. Emerging market beta is currently close to 1.0, compared with 1.8 about five years ago.

Buggins’ Turn

Three things have brought this about and the issue for investors is how long each will remain a driver.

First, the popularity of emerging markets has made them a very crowded trade, meaning that prices have arguably got ahead of themselves.

“They had a good run over the past couple of years and the valuations are now looking more full,” said Jason Hepner, investment director at Standard Life Investments.

Second, as a result of their recent growth, many emerging markets are coming up against strong inflationary headwinds which are prompting central banks to enter a tightening cycle.

Food price inflation, a growing issue, is likely to have more impact on emerging markets than on developed ones.

Credit Suisse estimates that food represents about 34% of an Asia ex-Japan consumer price basket. In the United States, it accounts for less than half that. Thirdly, some leading developed economics, particularly the US and Germany, are showing strength.

Fund flow analysts EPFR Global say that the week up to 21 January was the sixth of net inflows to US equity funds that they track out of the past seven, amounting to total net inflows of $17.3 billion.

It compares with net $49 billion outflows from the sector in 2010.

Six Months

So will it last? The indications are that it won’t and that most of the embrace of developed markets has been tactical, a short-term move to grab an opportunity.

Goldman Sachs, for example, has been telling its clients to emphasis US and Japanese stocks in the first half of the year and to go back to emerging markets (along with European) in the second half.

“A cyclical slowdown in parts of EM driven by tighter policy is a concern but the secular trends and the growth leadership of EM is not in doubt,” Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman’s head of European portfolio strategy, said in a note.

There is also a likelihood that some of the factors putting investors off emerging markets at the moment will reverse.

William De Vijlder, chief investment officer at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, reckons inflation pressures will ease in emerging markets along with uncertainty about monetary policy, in part because there is little evidence of China overheating.

Six months should bring down the cost of emerging market equities versus developing as well.

“The appetite for emerging should pick up again. The relative valuation should by then have improved,” he said.

The trigger may be the developed economies. If they slow -- and US recent data has been disappointing, not to mention Europe and Japan’s fiscal problems -- emerging will start to look better more quickly.

If, on the other hand, the US economy takes off, emerging markets might take a back seat for a bit longer.

Under this pact, Kowa Company Ltd will act as an agent for Adani Group for attracting Japanese firms to set up their units in Mundra Port and SEZ Ltd.
Ahmedabad: In a bid to attract Japanese firms to invest in Mundra Port and SEZ Ltd (MPSEZL) and to acquire more vessels for its shipping business, Adani Enterprises Ltd, on Friday signed a long-term pact with Kowa Company Ltd.

Yoshiro Miwa, president and chief executive officer, Kowa Company and Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group signed the business alliance agreement today in Kowa Company Ltd has interests in trading, shipping, pharmaceutical, industrial and chemicals, textiles and apparel.

“Under this pact, Kowa Company Ltd will act as an agent for Adani Group for attracting Japanese firms to set up their units in MPSEZL. Kowa will also help us in our future acquisitions of vessels, heavy engineering machinery for thermal and solar power generation, and grow exports to” a spokesperson of Adani Group said.

Earlier this month, Adani Shipping Pte Ltd, the shipping arm of Adani Group, had acquired two capsize vessels to transport coal from the group’s mines in Australia and Indonesia.

“We will be soon acquiring two new capesize cargo vessels of 180,000 DWT (Dead Weight Tonnage) each for loading dry cargo like iron-ore, coal, grains and other materials. We will also buy five tug-boats for operations in Mundra and Hazira ports.

Adani Group plans to have a fleet of 20 capsize vessels by 2020. Kowa will act as Adani Group’s agent in these acquisitions,” the spokesperson said without revealing the financial details of these future deals saying that the detailed specifications for the vessels are yet to be decided.

Adani Group already has 12 tug-boats deployed at Mundra and Hazira ports.Moreover, Kowa Company Ltd will represent Adani Group in and make formal presentations to Japanese firms interested in setting up their units in.

“Kowa will soon start making presentations to Japanese firms on our behalf to attract them to set up their units in Mundra SEZ ” the official said.

In return Adani Group will act in similar capacity to facilitate Kowa’s business interests in, the company said in a statement.