M&M bids for Czech tractor plant
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is planning to take over a tractor unit in the Czech Republic in an effort to foray into the European market. The company has bid for a state-owned tractor unit, which in been put on the block for divestment. The deal is expected to be finalised in two to three months if M&M’s bid was accepted. Mr. K J Davasia, M&M’s executive director in charge of the farm equipment sector, has reportedly confirmed that M&M was exploring options to enter the European tractor markets in a big way.

The company has in recent years, established its presence in tractors in the US and a few African countries like Egypt. Its wholly-owned subsidiary Mahindra USA, is believed to have captured a market share of close to 40 per cent in the 30-40 horse power segment of tractors.
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United Airlines set to relaunch services from April
Bangalore: United Airlines is relaunching round-the-world flights from Delhi from April 1.
The airline, which returns to India after a two-year break in services is likely to announce special introductory fares, double frequent flyer mileage points, and online booking facility to kick-start its operations. The airline proposes to launch twice-daily flight from Delhi, via Hong Kong and London. The airline is also likely to consider a non-stop connection to Chicago, codeshare pact with Air India, special deals from India with select airline partners of Star Alliance like Lufthansa, and new points of call, such as Mumbai and Chennai/ Bangalore.

The airline's entry to Delhi will make it the single biggest player from the north with two jumbos offering 736 seats a day to Hong Kong and London/ US, apart from giving travelers a wider choice of gateways into the US and south-east Asia.
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IA losses likely to rise to Rs 160-180 crore
Bangalore: Indian Airlines (IA), which is slated for divestment is likely to make losses in fiscal year 2000-01 to the tune of Rs 160-180 crores. Already, by January 2001, the airline has registered an estimated net loss of Rs 147 crore for the first 10 months, despite a profit of Rs 1.9 crore in the same month last year. The months of February and March are expected to accelerate the downslide of the earlier months. The losses are attributed to rising fuel prices and wage bills of a bloated workforce, maintenance and operation costs of nearly 20 old aircraft out of a 50 strong fleet. The airline has however made profits in the last three years, which made it eligible for divestment.
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Royal Enfield cuts bike prices
New Delhi: Royal Enfield Motors has slashed prices of its motorcycles between Rs 2,000-2,500.
The price cut would be made applicable for the Bullet Standard, Deluxe, Machismo, Machismo A350, Bullet 500cc and Lightening 535 models. The price cut by Royal Enfield, a unit of the Rs 1,000 crore Eicher Group, closely follows price cuts announced by other two-wheeler companies like Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, TVS-Suzuki and LML after the the excise duty reduction announced in the Union Budget 2001-02.
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Samtel to set up Rs 300-crore project at Ghaziabad
New Delhi: Samtel Colour is setting up a 2.2 million greenfield 21" super flat colour television and 15" colour display picture tube plant at Ghaziabad with an estimated investment of Rs 300 crore. The new unit will enhance Samtel's total manufacturing capacity to 5.5 million. With the commissioning of this plant in November/December this year, Samtel will become the first company in India to manufacture 21" super flat CTV and colour display tubes in India.

The project is being financed through internal accruals of Rs 120 crore and external debt of Rs 180 crore. International Finance Corporation (IFC) has given a rupee loan of Rs 100 crore and ICICI a loan of Rs 80 crore.
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Verette to set up CRM operations in India
Mumbai: Verette, a US-based multi-channel customer relationship management services provider, is setting up a 250-seat contact center in Mumbai, which is expected to be operational by end of March 2001. The company plans to provide CRM services to the US technology market and executes all phases of a customized solution, including staffing, solution design, and technology implementation and performance management.

The company plans to base its front-end operations in the US and the back-end including human resource and technology divisions in India. The company plans to hire 750 people for its Mumbai center, which will offer four multi-channel communication services like web collaboration, Web-mail management, fax management and telephone support. Veretta has set up a dedicated lease line connecting India to the US and has tied up with companies like AT&T, Cisco Systems, HP, Microsoft and Telera.
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Apollo on expansion drive
New Delhi: Apollo Hospitals group is planning a major expansion drive, which includes opening clinics and managing overseas hospitals as part of its goal to become a Rs 1000-crore entity by 2006. Apollo Hospital is also planning to venture into traditional forms of medicine like homeopathy and ayurvedic.

The expansion plan forms part of the strategy put forth by the group’s global consulting firm, which seeks to move the group towards management of hospitals rather than ownership. The group in line with this strategy is also setting up operations in African nations like Tanzania, Ghana and Namibia and Gulf countries like Oman and UAE.
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PepsiCo ranked "most-respected company"
New Delhi: Financial Times (FT) has ranked PepsiCo as the world's most respected food and beverage company in its latest survey. The soft drink major has also overtaken its arch-rival Coca-Cola as America's most admired beverage company, in a yet another latest survey conducted by Fortune magazine.

The FT survey of "The World's Most Respected Companies" says PepsiCo has moved up from No 9 position in the previous year, to No 1 position this year, leaving behind Nestle at No 2, Procter and Gamble at No 3, Coca-Cola at No 4 and Danone at No 5. In Fortune's latest measure of "America's Most Admired Companies", again PepsiCo has moved up from No 3 to No 1 in the beverage industry category.
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Adani group to foray into multi-mode delivery business
Bhubaneswar: Adani Exports Ltd., a private sector trading house, is planning to foray into multi-mode delivery business and has planned to substantially invest in setting up required infrastructure. The Rs 3,500-crore group is exploring the possibility of coastal transportation of coal, minerals and finished goods, through the Gopalpur Port on the east coast and the Mundra Port on the west coast.

The group has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government, to develop the Gopalpur fair weather port into a major harbour on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. The group is also weighing proposals to enter into coal mining, coal washery and coal blending businesses and is working out plans to offer complete packages of delivery of coal to power plants and other industries, located in the western and northern states of the country. The group also has plans to venture into trading of other minerals such as iron ore and chromite.
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Kinetic to power growth with new launches
Bangalore: Kinetic Engineering, the Rs 1,200 crore two-wheeler major is planning to launch several new generation motorcycles and scooters models over the next twelve months. The plan includes foray into upper mid-segment mobikes at 175 and 250 cc, along with an entry level breezy 60 cc scooter to be followed by a 125 cc up market luxury version.

The company has entered into the motorcycle world at the lower level with the 100 cc Challenger bike. Since its launch, the company has sold close to 15,000 bikes since October 2000 in select smaller towns and mainstream metros. The 100 cc Challenger is now slated for a nation-wide launch commencing with Bangalore. The bike carries an ex-showroom tag of Rs 41,700 in the Garden City. By mid-2001, Kinetic also plans to launch two more racy bikes, GF 125 and 150, with higher price points - Rs 55,000 to Rs 65,000 - and newer features in collaboration with Hyosung of Korea.
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Hindustan Lever launches Fair & Lovely premium soap
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is set to Fair & Lovely soap, its first-ever serious move to achieve growth through cross categorisation, wherein the brand equity of its leading fairness cream "Fair & Lovely" is sought to be extended to premium soap. Mr. MS Banga, chairman HLL, had earlier stated that the company had rationalised its brand portfolio to focus on 30 power brands and that it would soon embark on cross categorisation to get better value of the brand strength. The newly launched Fair & Lovely soap is priced at Rs 15 (75 gm) will directly compete with Godrej Soaps' Fair Glow fairness soap.
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