Reliance Industries (RIL) on Tuesday (21 February 2012) announced a $450-million joint venture (JV) with Russian petrochemical company SIBUR, for setting up a one-lakh tonne butyl rubber plant at RIL's Jamnagar refinery. While Reliance will hold a 74.9% stake in the venture, the rest would be held by SIBUR, RIL said in a statement. The plant is expected to be commissioned by the second half of 2014 (calendar). The joint venture has been named as Reliance SIBUR Elastomers. The JV will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India and the fourth largest supplier of butyl rubber in the world. The JV will cater to the demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian automotive industry of over 75,000 tonnes per year, which is currently satisfied by imports. RIL said in a statement that investment in the JV is in line with RIL's vision of emerging as a significant player in the global synthetic rubber market.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries may rise on reports the US Food and Drug Administration has reached a limited, temporary arrangement to import Lipodox from the Indian drugmaker and its distribution subsidiary, Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories. Lipodox, a generic of Johnson & Johnson's Doxil, has been in short supply since about mid-2011, reports suggested.

Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines reportedly got some relief on Tuesday (21 February 2012) after banks gave some guarantees and working capital loans and the income tax department indicated that it may defreeze the airline's bank accounts. According to reports, State Bank of India committed around Rs 1200 crore to the troubled airline, including working capital of Rs 400 crore, bank guarantee of Rs 500 crore and loan repayment extension worth Rs 250-300 crore. Besides, either SBI or Punjab National Bank will issue another guarantee of Rs 160-200 crore today (22 February 2012) to the income tax department to defreeze Kingfisher's account, reports added.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) said contracts for new expiry months in Areva T&D India, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Mercator and National Aluminium Company (Nalco) will not be issued on expiry of existing contract months. However, the existing unexpired contracts of expiry months February 2012, March 2012 and April 2012 would continue to be available for trading till their respective expiry and new strikes would also be introduced in the existing contract months. NSE said the circular shall be effective from 24 February 2012.

Redington (India) said its wholly-owned overseas subsidiary, Redington International Mauritius (RIML), acquired the balance 2.16 lakh shares, or 14.50% equity, of its subsidiary, Redington International Holdings (RIHL), from Investcorp. With this purchase, RIML's stake in RIHL has increased to 95.46% from 80.96% and Investcorp's stake has reduced to NIL from 14.50% earlier.

The board of Development Credit Bank (DCB) has decided to allot equity shares through a qualified institutions placement (QIP). The issue will open on 27 February 2012. The bank has fixed the floor price for the issue at Rs 47.84 per equity share.

The board of Bank of India has approved raising funds by issuing upto 7 crore equity shares to Government of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India, or to any other investors, on preferential basis. The proposal is subject to the approval of the shareholders and regulatory authorities. Further, the board also decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders on 24 March 2012 for their approval in proposed preferential issue plan.

Jubilant Life Sciences said its unit, Jubilant Biosys, signed a drug discovery pact with US-based Mnemosyne Pharmaceutical Inc that would seek to identify preclinical candidates in the area of neuropsychiatric diseases.