Adani Wilmar to launch new vanaspati brand
Ahmedabad: Adani Wilmar Ltd., a 50:50 joint venture between the Adani Exports Ltd (AEL) and the Singapore-based Wilmar Holding Pte Ltd plans to launch its own vanaspati product under the brand name `Raag'. The company has capacity to refine 600 tonne per day (tpd) of edible oils and 100 tpd of vanaspati at its sophisticated refinery set-up, with technical assistance from Archer Daniel Midlands of the USA, at Mundra, near the newly developed port, commissioned in October last year.

The company has already launched `Fortune' range of refined sunflower, soyabean and cottonseed edible oils in north-central states in 500 ml to 15-litre tamperproof pouches, PET bottles, HDPE jerry cans and tins in January. It has also launched `Jubilee' brand palmolein in South India and Madhya Pradesh earlier. The company has set-up a distribution network of 18 offices to serve a chain of 200 super stockists, 750 distributors through about 1.50 lakh retail outlets.
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Thapars to acquire Sinar Mas through BILT
New Delhi: The LM Thapar group’s proposed acquisition of the Indian subsidiary of Indonesia-based Sinar Mas, one of the largest paper companies in the world, is expected to be executed through Bilt Paper Holding, its holding company. The valuation of the deal is currently not known.

Sinar Mas India is the wholly owned subsidiary of the Indonesian major. Sinar Mas had earlier short-listed about six to seven multinational companies, including Europe’s Stora, for offloading its stake but finally decided in favour of Thapar group. Sinar Mas India’s sellout was part of a global decision, as the company was need of funds.
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UB acquires Mangalore Breweries
Bangalore: United Breweries Ltd has announced that it had acquired Mangalore Breweries & Distilleries for Rs 20 crore ($4.3 million) to boost its production capacities. The unlisted Mangalore Breweries has a brewery near Mangalore and is likely to be a useful production base for the UB to service its surrounding markets. The acquisition had been made through its wholly owned subsidiary -UB (Holdings). Mr. Vijay Mallya, the UB chairman has said that Mangalore Breweries was a strategic acquisition for UB in the home state of Karnataka, where the group was constantly running short of production capacity.
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Dunlop sues BIFR, IDBI for delaying revival
Kolkata: Dunlop India has filed a writ petition against Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) and IDBI at the Calcutta High Court, over the "inordinate delay on part of BIFR" in approving the draft revival scheme for DIL’s Sahagunj and Ambattur factories.
While M R Chhabria, DIL chairman is in the process of infusing fresh funds to the tune of Rs 15 crore, which will take the promoters’ contribution up to Rs 47 crore, this has not been considered by BIFR and IDBI, a company spokesman has said.
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Spic Pharma’s Pen-G unit gets USFDA nod
Chennai: Spic Pharma’s Pencicillin-G plant at Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, has received US Food and Drug Administration approval. This Pen-G plant is the first in the country to have got this distinction. The FDA approval is expected to enable Spic Pharma to put in place a new marketing strategy. The company has already signed a distribution agreement with an international agency, which will help entering advanced markets and also ensure stable offtake and healthy premium prices.
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DS Foods pioneers eco-friendly composite cans
New Delhi: DS Foods has set up Asia's first composite-can making unit at Noida at a cost of Rs 25 crore, with an installed capacity of 50 million units per annum. The cans cost as much as 25 per cent less, compared to the traditional tin packaging used for food products.

The DS Canpac unit has deployed two globally patented technologies: Paper bottom, which gives additional advantages and replaces conventional tin bottoms, cutting down recycling costs.

The other unique technology is a tear-off membrane, a safer option as compared to conventional metal closures. The membrane is heat-sealed on to the body, instead of being seamed on to the can. Swiss major INDOSA's international trading arm Canpac International AG has supplied the patented technology to DS Canpac.

The company is part of Rs 500-crore DS Group, having diverse interests in tobacco, engineering, food & beverages and packaging. The group is is in talks with MNCs as well as small Indian export-oriented units to persuade them to switch to this "revolutionary" packaging option. Several multinationals like Nestle, Britannia, P&G and Unilever are already using the composite cans in the European and American markets.
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Kazakhstan takes 12.5 per cent stake in Ajanta Pharma project
Mumbai: The Kazakhstan government has reportedly acquired a 12.5 per cent stake in the formulation project to be set up by Ajanta Pharma in that country. Ajanta Pharma will have a 87.5 per cent stake, while the remaining 12.5 per cent will be picked up by the Kazakh government. The cost of the project is estimated at $13.5 million, of which the equity part comes to around $4 million.

The Kazakhstan government has invested $0.5 million for acquiring the 12.5 per cent stake. The equity of Ajanta Pharma in the project is $3.5 million. Exim Bank and banks in Kazakhstan have extended the $9.5 million debt part of the project. The Exim Bank has already granted Rs 13 crore to Ajanta Pharma for setting up the project. The plant, for which construction work has already commenced, would be completed by the mid-2001.
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Dabur Foods likely to break even this fiscal
New Delhi: Dabur Foods, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dabur India, expects to post maiden profits in 2000-01 and has announced several new product launches that include fruit-based beverages, papads and pickles.

After completing three years of operations this fiscal, the company expects to break-even mainly on the high-volume growth of Real brand of fruit juices and is going in for a major portfolio expansion next fiscal. The company hopes to make profits for the first time this year, mainly due to good sales of Real brand, which contributes over 75 per cent of company’s sales turnover. In the next fiscal, the company plans to launch host of new products in the form of fruit-based beverages.

The necessary ground work for expanding the product portfolio has already been completed and the company has successfully test-launched four flavours of papads, besides pickles and coconut pastes in the south Indian markets.
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Hoganas AB plans to pick up 49 per cent stake in its Indian arm
Mumbai: Hoganas AB, the Swedish parent of alloy-powder producer, is making an open offer to acquire 26.71 lakh fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each at Rs 100 a share in Hoganas India. The offer is for 49 per cent of the paid-up equity capital of Hoganas India, in which the Swiss major already holds 51 per cent.

The company is a fully integrated iron-powder producer making ready-to-press pre-mixes of ferrous powders in its 5,000 million tonne per annum mixing station at Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.

Hoganas India started with an annual annealing capacity of 6,000 million tonne in November 1987 and has now crossed production level of 8,500 million tonne. The additional imported annealing furnace recently installed is expected to increase the installed capacity to almost 18,000 million tonne per annum.
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Ispat to review its 354 mw power project
Mumbai: With the financial institutions (FIs) having turned down the proposal for meeting the Rs 100 crore shortfall caused by Enron's exit, the Ispat group has been forced to review the 354 mw Ispat Energy project. FI’s in turning down Ispat's proposal have questioned the viability of the project and have called for a fresh feasibility study by lead institution ICICI.

The group is now reportedly working out the modalities of cutting down the project size and change in the proposed fuel from LNG to coal for the 1,432-crore project. Ispat had decided to go alone in developing the power plant at Dolvi in Maharashtra, after Enron, which held a 49 per cent stake in the project exited from the project.

The project was originally envisaged as part of Ispat Industries, the group flagship, and was to be only of 253mw. The group is currently reworking the plant capacity and planning to restrict capacity to its own requirement of power for the steel plant.
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Pioma talking to Del Monte for a JV deal
Mumbai: Pioma Industries, the makers of Rasna brand of soft drink concentrate, is negotiating a joint venture deal with the US-based Del Monte Foods Company, the largest producer of canned fruits and vegetables in the US. The US major with net sales of $1.5 billion in fiscal 2000 is looking at the JV deal as its entry vehicle into India.

Del Monte Foods manufactures premium quality food products principally under the Del Monte, Contadina and Sunfresh brands. Under Contadina, it has a range of tomato products. The Sunfresh product line includes chilled and canned fruit products. The canned fruit line includes red grapefruit, white grapefruit, citrus salad, orange sections and mango.

Pioma, which owns the Rasna International and Rasna Spread Maker brands, has a nationwide network of 2,000 stockists and 4 lakh retail outlets. Mr. Piruz Khambatta, chairman and managing director of Pioma Industries has said that the joint venture once finalised will enable Pioma to leverage foreign technology, while Del Monte can access Pioma’s vast distribution network for their wide range of offerings.
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