market leader Mahindra & Mahindra on Thursday said it had signed an agreement to buy 33 per cent stake in agricultural machinery making company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for $25 million (Rs 160 crore). M&M would get new common shares in addition to Class A (non-voting) shares of Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery Co (MAM) and four board positions.

The deal is expected to be closed by October 1, it clarified. The two companies have committed on joint development of products, sharing of engines and transmissions, common sourcing of parts and reciprocal product access for respective strong markets. The two are open to cross-badging too, said a senior executive of M&M.

The country’s largest property developer DLF is working on launching its first real estate investment trust (REIT) by pooling together its office properties by the end of the current financial year.

“Both financial and strategic investors have approached DLF in this regard,” the company said in a presentation. The government has recently issued clarification of minimum alternate tax (MAT), which is expected to give a boost to the launch of REITs.

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and its partner, Cairn India, are readying to spend between $750 million and $1 billion (Rs 4,800-6,400 crore) in the Nagayalanka onshore block in the Krishna-Godavari Basin.

Officials from ONGC and Cairn India said the finds were promising and they were set to commence production next year. The investments would be over three to five years, on creation of infrastructure, production facilities and transportation.

State Bank of India, the nation's top lender by assets, reported a better-than-expected 23% rise in quarterly profit on Friday and said its bad loan ratio declined sharply, sending its shares up by more than 5%.

The bank's gross bad loans ratio stood at 4.25% in its fourth quarter ended March, compared with 4.9% in the December quarter. The net non-performing loan ratio fell to 2.12% in the March quarter from 2.80% a quarter earlier.

German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz today launched an updated version of its armoured vehicle 'S 600 Guard' in India with starting price at Rs 8.9 crore (ex-showroom Delhi).

The vehicle, which is certified for the highest ballistics protection class, would be aimed at high profile customers, including high ranking officials and industrialists.

The benchmark BSE Sensex today ended marginally lower by 28 points at 27,809.35 as blue-chips witnessed a mixed trend amid concerns over poor quarterly earnings and a diverse closing at other Asian markets.

Of 30 Sensex counters, 14 ended lower and 15 rose, while TCS settled unchanged.

Reliance Industries and its partner BP plc have surrendered two more oil and gas blocks, reducing their tally to four exploration acreages from 21 they held four years back.

"During the year, RIL opted to relinquish two blocks KG-DWN-2003/1 and CY-PR-DWN-2001/3 as part of the ongoing effort to high grade its upstream asset portfolio," the company said in its annual report for 2014-15.

No-frills carrier SpiceJet today claimed its bookings surged by 400 per cent on day one of its three-day special airfare offer “Celebration”, in which the airline has announced an all-inclusive ticket at a price as low as Rs 1,010 on its domestic network to celebrate 10 years of operations.

SpiceJet has witnessed an overwhelming response to its latest “Celebration Sale” with bookings volumes jumping by a whopping 400 per cent on day one of the sale as compared to a normal day, the airline said.

Calling for support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy on Wednesday said a lot of good things have happened in the past year and all political parties and citizens should “rally behind the PM.”

“We have a PM who is enthusiastic and is working hard... People, all parties and opposition should rally behind him,” he said.

Lenovo just completed its first full quarter of business as the owner of Motorola and, with its $2.91 billion acquisition from Google under its wing, the Chinese company shipped a record 18.7 million smartphones in its most recent Q4 2014 quarter.

That figure included 7.8 million smartphones from Motorola, and represented an increase on the 16 million devices that Lenovo shipped in the previous quarter. For its entire year, the company said it shipped a best-ever haul of 76 million smartphones.

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