The board of directors of Reliance Industries (RIL), India's largest private company, and Reliance Petroleum (RPL) are set to meet on March 2 to consider a merger of the two companies.

RIL currently holds 70.6% in RPL.

More clarity on the swap ratio is expected to emerge on Monday. For the moment, many feel the move will benefit RIL's shareholders more than those holding RPL shares.

RIL is currently trading at Rs 1,265.05 per share, while RPL trades at Rs 76.20 per share. On that basis, the swap ratio works out to one share of RIL for 16.6 shares of RPL.

On the basis of book value, the swap ratio is expected to be around 20 shares of RPL for every one share of RIL.

The stock of Ranbaxy Laboratories fell 18% to Rs 169.95 per share on Thursday after the company received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) charging the company with falsifying data and test results in pending and approved ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications) from its Paonta Sahib facility. The decline came on a day the Sensex rose 0.59%.

The USFDA has invoked the Application Integrity Policy (AIP), which questions the integrity of data in drug applications at the Paonta Sahib facility. Somewhat comfortingly, the USFDA does not have any evidence that imply the drugs do not meet quality requirements. Nor has the regulator found any evidence of health risks from the products.

Ranbaxy has 10 days to react to USFDA's charges.

Saltillo, Mexico  - Daimler AG opened a new truck plant in the northern Mexican city of Saltillo on Friday, which will manufacture about 30,000 heavy-duty Freightliner trucks for the United States, Mexican and Canadian markets.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon attended the ceremony at Daimler Trucks North America's second plant in Mexico, which was built with an investment of 300 million dollars. The company said it expected the plant to generate 1,400 direct jobs and 200 indirect jobs, as well as an additional 1,100 jobs in the local autoparts industry.

Ruesselsheim, Germany  - German carmaker Opel has called for the company to break away from its ailing General Motors (GM) parent and forge a new motor vehicle group comprising the giant US auto group's European operations as part of a rescue plan unveiled Friday.

The move could bring to an end Opel's 80-year history as a part of GM's business empire, with Opel seeking 3.3 billion euros (4.3 billion dollars) in aid to underpin the formation of the European car group and help it through the current global car market crisis.

Electronics goods maker, Samsung has slashed the prices of its products between 1 and 1.7% to pass on the full benefit of 2% cut in excise duty to its clients.

In a statement, the company said that it has cut the prices of its high-end LCD TVs by 1.2-1.7% according to the model size that transforms into a price cut in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.

The price cut for Plasma TVs is between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 depending on the model size, the statement added.

Tata says the car will be launched on March 23; but the company’s A’bad dealers aren’t in the loop

With Tata Motors on Thursday announcing that it will formally launch the Nano on March 23, there is much excitement among prospective buyers who have been waiting for the car for long. Car dealers in the city said that they expect to be flooded with enquiries for booking from Friday.