Verizon in talks to buy Alltel: Vodafone!!

Britain's Vodafone confirmed on Thursday that US-based Verizon Wireless, in which it has a 45 percent stake, is in advanced talks about buying US rural mobile service provider Alltel Corp.

Verizon Wireless is close to buying Alltel for around $27 billion, including around $23 billion of its debts, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday. See

The deal would mean Verizon Wireless -- which is 55 percent owned by Verizon Communications -- would overtake AT&T as the top US wireless service.

Vodafone and Verizon Comms proportional ownership of Verizon Wireless will not change under an Alltel deal, the source said.

A Verizon deal would value Alltel at eight times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared with its November sale to private equity firms for about nine times EBITDA, the source said.

Some analysts said Verizon could be in a good position to refinance Alltel's debt at a lower interest rate; others said that a deal could also help Verizon create savings from a network and handset perspective.

Verizon's move was a surprise to many analysts as it came only seven months after Alltel was taken private by TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs' GS Capital Partners.

The leveraged buyout saddled Alltel with the debt.

That $27.5 billion deal in November 2007 was the largest ever private equity investment in the US wireless industry, but it closed amid a mounting credit crisis that has curtailed the leveraged buyout boom.

SBI employees call for nationwide strike on June 6!

State Bank officers on Tuesday said they would hold a day-long nationwide strike on June 6, protesting against SBI management's policies on different issues.

Their demands include a review of the existing State Bank pension scheme, recruitment of adequate staff, termination of the contract system and regulated working hours for officers.

"The strike would be observed nationwide. The Government and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), despite having signed an agreement on various issues, have not taken any significant steps to resolve our issues," All India State Bank Officers' Federation's General Secretary, G D Nadaf, told reporters in Mumbai.

Nadaf said SBI management, with its decision to go ahead with the merger proposal of State Bank of Saurashtra, was not taking into account the feelings of employees on the matter.

"Such a merger between State Bank and its associates will lead to a plethora of issues, including termination of jobs in different categories. Any such move (of merger) will definitely be met by nationwide protests from the unions," Nadaf said.

Bank unions had struck work early in 2008 to voice their protests on various critical issues including the merger of state-owned banks and one more option for employees to join in the pension scheme.

Later, bank unions and the Indian Banks' Association had signed an agreement following intervention by the Union Finance Minister, leading to deferral of the two-day nationwide strike called for, just prior to the Budget in February end.

Nadaf charged the IBA with not taking any steps so far to resolve the outstanding issues.

Communist and opposition parties in India are holding nationwide protests against a 10% rise in fuel prices!

The Communist-governed states of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are badly hit by a strike called by the parties who say the rise will fuel inflation.

The government says it had no choice because of surging global oil prices.

India imports nearly 75% of its crude oil requirements but subsidises the cost of domestic fuel products to help contain inflation and protect the poor.

India's Congress party-led government faces key state polls this year ahead of general elections due in 2009.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the party is now worried about the political fallout from its latest move.

Total shutdown

Communist parties, which support the government in Delhi, say more expensive fuel will push prices up across the board. Business leaders take a similar view.

In the states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Communists are in power, there was a total shutdown, the BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says.

The Communists as well as the main opposition BJP are also holding protest marches in the capital, Delhi, and other cities across the country.

Calcutta saw shops, markets, schools and colleges closed. All flights to and from Calcutta airport have been rescheduled.

Vehicles, including buses and trams, largely stayed off the roads and many staff at government offices did not go to work.

Many people had trouble getting to their destinations.

"I have to stand in a queue here in pouring rain after having walked two kilometres from my hotel," said visa seeker Sumitra Hazarika Gogoi outside the US consulate.

A protest against the rise in gas prices in Delhi on 4 June 2008
Many people are angry about the price rises

Another strike, called by West Bengal's opposition Trinamul Congress, has been called for Friday.

In Tripura too, schools, colleges, shops and markets were closed and there was little traffic on the streets.

The US consul general in Calcutta, Henry Jardine, said the back-to-back strikes "reflects poorly on Calcutta".

"Your state seeks investments but investors get a wrong message if you have strikes so frequently," Mr Jardine told a business chamber meeting late on Thursday after the strikes were announced.

The business chambers have also criticised Bengal's "strike culture".

'No money'

After debating for almost two weeks, the Indian cabinet finally announced increases in the price of petrol, diesel and cooking gas on Wednesday.

It said the move was necessary because state-owned oil companies were losing millions of dollars every day because of the increase in global oil prices.

The increase - the second this year - comes at a time when inflation is already at its highest level in four years.

"It must be appreciated what has been done is the bare minimum," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an address to the nation on Wednesday night.

"There are limits to keep consumer prices unaffected. This way we will have no money to import oil," Mr Singh said in defence of the price rise.

Malaysia and India Increase Price of Subsidized Fuel

India and Malaysia risked the wrath of voters by raising the price of subsidized fuel, measures that could further weaken the governments of both countries, already made fragile by recent electoral setbacks.

In India, the increase was quickly condemned by political parties from all sides, two of which promised demonstrations. A Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman called the move the equivalent of “economic terrorism.”

Economists and policy makers described the increase as painful but necessary. Fuel subsidies in Malaysia alone would have totaled $17 billion this year.

Consumers in Malaysia, like the woman above, will see gasoline prices go up by 40 percent, and more increases are planned, said Shahrir Abdul Samad, Malaysia’s domestic trade and consumer affairs minister. Gas prices vary across India, but the announcement amounted to an increase of around 10 percent.