Will TCS hit the markets this year?
Mumbai: According to a report appearing in a leading economic daily, the country’s largest software house by revenue, Tata Consultancy Services, may come out with an initial public offering this year.

The report states that TCS, which is also India’s largest software exporter, is considering selling up to a 10 per cent stake and listing its shares simultaneously in both the local and US Nasdaq markets.

It is understood that prior to the issue, which is expected to hit the markets sometime in the second half of the current calendar year, the Tata Group will spin off TCS into a separate company.

Analysts believe that the proposed offering would help TCS in retaining key employees through stock options and also fuel growth through acquisitions of foreign companies.

While the Group has not been in a hurry to list TCS publicly, it is understood that stiff competition and the need to grow through acquisitions has forced this decision to list this year.
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Hutchison turns around Command operations
Kolkota: Hutchinson’s $145 million all-cash acquisition of the Command cellular network in the city has turned around.

When Hutchison took over the operations of the Command network in August last year, the company was in a very sorry state. With over Rs. 150 crore of debt, poor subscriber numbers and a congested network, the operations seemed a stretcher case.

In less than six months, Hutchinson has managed to turn the Command operations cash-positive and make it the fastest growing metro cellular operation for the group. Monthly revenues are said to have doubled with the critical average revenue per user being in excess of Rs 1,000. Subscriber numbers have jumped to 76,000 and there has been a significant improvement in the network quality, both in terms of cellular coverage and voice clarity.

According to Mr. Rajiv Sawhney, chief operating officer, Hutchison has pumped Rs 150-crore into the Command network for setting up 18 new cell sites, upgrading 25 of the existing ones and installing a simplified frequency hopping system for the first time to boost voice transmission quality. The company is also close to investing another Rs 4 crore in an Australian voice mail system.
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SitiCable applies for basic telephony licenses
New Delhi: Siticable, the Subhash Chandra-promoted cable company, is said to have applied for licences for basic telecom services in five states.

According to industry sources, SitiCable applied for licences for operating basic telecom services in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal – all states where it is already providing TV services.

It plans to lay fibre optic network for broadband services that will carry cable TV, voice and Internet services.

With over five million subscribers to its TV services, it is believed that SitiCable’s basic telephony project may be successful if it manages to improve the last mile network and is able to put fibre optic network. The latter will enable it to offer good quality internet and voice telephone services.
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Zee to burrow lone furrow on cable charges
Mumbai: According to Mr. RK Singh, chief executive officer of Zee Telefilms, the network will not join forces with other broadcasters to pressure local operators to pay more for programming.

With domestic cable operators not reporting all the subscribers they serve, and some not even paying for all the signals they receive, broadcasting companies, which lose revenues, have been pushing for higher rates.

Industry sources believe that Zee’s reluctance to join the other broadcasting companies stems from the fact that its programs have fallen in popularity over the last year and it does not wan to do anything on the price front till its programming quality is improved.

Zee expects that with improvement in its programming quality it will be able to convert itself into a pay-channel, it would be more successful in driving revenues up.

However, analysts believe that Zee would have better success at getting cable operators to pay more if it joined forces with other broadcasters like Star TV and Sony Entertainment Television. Mr. Singh did not rule out the possibility of joining forces with other programming suppliers in the future if Zee's go-it-along strategy fails to sufficiently boost revenue.
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Vedika takes to training to fuel growth
Kolkata: Vedika Software, a leading provider of accounting and business software, is considering branching out into IT training to counter the slow growth that has resulted form a saturation in its primary area of business.

While the company states that it will continue to maintain focus on developing packaged accounting and business application software, it is hoping to draw in revenues of around 10 per cent of its total income from its training program, branded Commando.

Commando involves a kind of software engineering internship programme for six months which will be offered to students with prior exposure to IT training. The company states that this program is more of a finishing school than basic software training per se.

The programme would be initially offered to 20 students for a course fee of over Rs 1 lakh. The company will assist students to get placements and educational loans.
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Sandvik buys out JV partner
New Delhi: Sandvik Choksi, a joint venture between Swedish engineering giant, Sandvik, and domestic major, Choksi Tubes, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former. The Swedish group, which has 51 per cent stake in the joint venture, is buying out the Indian partner’s 49 per cent stake.

The joint venture owns a modern extrusion facility at Rajpur, near Ahmedabad for manufacturing stainless steel tubes. The main product of the joint venture is redraw hollows, which are intermediate products used by redrawers. In terms of quality and yield the plant is said to be in line with other Sandvik Steel extrusion plants.

Sandvik is understood to be paying Choksi Tubes approximately Rs 25 crore as consideration for the 49 per cent stake of Choksi Tubes Company in the joint venture, in accordance with a valuation done by N M Raiji & Company, a chartered accountancy firm.

The parting of ways has come about due to the inability of the Indian partner to bring in any more funds into the joint venture which has accumulated losses of Rs 52.5 crore for 2000. The company’s sales has decreased by 59 per cent from Rs 30.80 crore to Rs 12.50 crore in 2000.

Sandvik believes that by making the venture a 100 per cent subsidiary, it would be able to introduce state of the art technology as also patented products and additional trademarks of the Sandvik group. It also plans to use this facility as a global supplier to the group’s needs.
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August deadline for Daewoo financial revamp
New Delhi: According to a recent announcement made by the company, Daewoo Motors India plans to complete its financial restructuring by August this year.

This restructuring exercise, which is expected to improve the company’s cash flow and help it break-even by 2002, will involve converting part of the company's debt into equity, deferring interest pay-out and rescheduling principle loan payment.

The company has already announced spinning off its engine and gear box manufacturing units, which account for nearly 75 per cent of its losses, by May this year. The Korean giant has invested nearly $465 million in these plants since 1995.

The company has also effected a cost reduction of around Rs 58 crore in this financial year and expects to further cut costs by Rs 85 crore over the next one year.
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Japanese cosmetic major Shiseido enters India
Mumbai: Japan-based, Shiseido, the world’s fourth largest cosmetic company and the largest cosmetic company in Japan, is planning to make an Indian entry.

Given the very high price range of its products, between Rs. 800 and Rs. 5,000, the company is targeting the high-end customer who is rich and wants to understand skin care.

The company, which is opening its first sales counter in the city of Mumbai, is planning to enter into an exclusive distribution and marketing arrangement with Baccarose, an Indian company which distributes cosmetics.

The company is bringing products both for men and women. For women, the range includes make up items like lipsticks and moisturising and cleansing lotions like Skincare (for normal skin), pureness (oily skin) and Benefiance (dry skin), Shiseido fragrances (unisex). For men it is Shiseido Basala.

What remains to be seen is how long will the company concentrate on the high-end segment? A look at the operations of a host of international cosmetic and fragrances houses shows that in most cases, the companies have changed their normal strategy for Indian market by becoming local and reducing prices.

According to market sources, international cosmetic companies have not been able to survive in this country if they targeted only the high-end segment.
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GE Shipping, ESL allege irregularities in LNG contract
Mumbai: Great Eastern Shipping Company and Essar Shipping, which were part of two consortia that seem set to lose the recent bidding process for building and operating two LNG carriers, have alleged that the contract evaluation is in violation of the tender specifications.

The contract is most likely to be awarded to the Mitsui OSK Line-Shipping Corporation of India consortium. The long-term contract was to build and operate two liquefied natural gas carriers having a capacity of 138,000 cubic meters.

The two companies allege that they and their foreign partners had, in accordance with the tender terms, quoted a constant figure for the escalation factor. The Mitsui-SCI consortium, according to them, has linked the escalation factor to the US consumer price index.

This, according to the two companies, will render it difficult to calculate life-cycle cost of the LNG vessel on an equal basis. This will result in the hirer paying out more for the carriers in the long run.
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Avestha to set up biotech lab in Bangalore
Bangalore: Avestha Gengraine Technologies, a biotech and bioinformatics company, that has a library of basmati rice genes, is planning to set up a lab at the International Technology Park.

The company, which has already invested over $1 million in projects that focus on quality and environmental traits, is planning to raise $1.5 million in venture capital.

The company also makes prototype plants for abiotic stress tolerance, which are nothing bu genetically modified plants which could be drought-tolerant, salinity-tolerant, and other quality environmental traits.
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Akzo makes open offer to Centak shareholders
Mumbai: Akzo Nobel Chemicals, the Dutch chemical giant, has agreed to acquire the shareholding of Century Textiles and Century Enka in the joint venture company, Centak Chemicals at a price of Rs. 200 per share.

With this acquisition, Akzo, which already has 40 per cent of the equity in Centak, will see its holding in the Indian company increase to 74.98 per cent.

In keeping with the takeover regulations of the Securities and Exchanges Board of India, Akzo will make an open offer to the remaining shareaholders of Centak at the same price.

Centak shares closed 7.9 per cent higher at Rs 143.75 at the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. Thus, the offer price represents a 39 per cent premium to Monday's closing price.
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PowerGen may sell stake in Rosa to Birlas
Mumbai: The Uttar Pradesh-based Rosa power project which has the Aditya Birla group partnering the UK-based PowerGen, will see the former buy out the latter’s 36 per cent stake in the project. The Aditya Birla group holds 37 per cent and the balance is with the financial institutions. The project, revived recently, is on the verge of achieving financial closure.

The latest development fits in with PowerGen’s plans to exit India. However, both parties refused to make any comments on the issue.

PowerGen, which is exiting the Indian market as part of its strategy to concentrate on the UK and US markets, is understood to be holding out for a better price from the Birlas.

Although PowerGen had formed a joint venture with CLP Power International, to which it proposed to transfer 80 per cent of its stake in all the four projects, it is said to be adopting a wait and watch approach in the Rosa projects, since it is impressed by the pace at which the project was progressing.
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BPL Internet may lease bandwidth from Sify
Bangalore: Following the decision by Satyam Infoway to lease and sell additional bandwidth it has created, BPL Internetworks is understood to be in talks with the former for leasing of bandwidth from the international gateways that Satyam has put up.

According to Mr. BK Syngal, group chairman of BPL Innovision, the company is in talks with Satyam for international bandwidth and that the company is looking for a simple commercial alliance.

At the present moment BPL Internetworks Ltd. buys bandwidth from VSNL. But the company is also understood to be in talks with various optic fibre holders like Spice and Power Grid for additional bandwidth.

The company was also looking at creating both bandwidth and Internet infrastructure in the south-western part of the country for which it had the right of way. The company plans to lay ducts between Mumbai and Pune, and was debating the establishment of a link between Bangalore and Pune.
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Novartis to resubmit request for duty waiver
Mumbai: Pharmaceutical major, Novartis India, is likely to appeal again to the government to withdraw the 60 per cent import duty on its life-saving drug Simulect, used as an antibody in organ transplant recipients. The drug currently costs Rs. 1.5 lakh in the market.

The company had earlier made a representation to the government in this regard before the Budget for 2001-02, but the government did not announce any relaxation in import duty.

It is estimated that there are around 3,000 patients in the country undergoing transplant programmes every year. According to the company, a reduction in the duty will bring about a significant reduction in the prices, making it more affordable.

The company stated that the government introduced the duty in order to protect domestic manufactures. In India Cipla, Panacea Biotech and RPG Life Sciences produce drugs in the immuno-suppressive segment, to which Simulect belongs.
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Birla Global Retail Finance set to start operations
Mumbai: Birla Global Retail Finance , the 50-crore equity retail finance subsidiary of Birla Global Finance Ltd (BGFL) is set to kick off its operation by the end of this month.

The retail finance firm will focus on consumer finance and auto loan initially and later plans to enter into the rent securitisation business in a big way as well.

The group is looking to list the company on a stock exchange at an appropriate time. It may also enter into a tie-up with other company provided we find a good partner.

Meanwhile, Birla Global Finance has been planning to come out with a 1:1 rights issue shortly.
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Mumbai to get 1,500 CNG Ambassadors
Mumbai: As pollution control in the city of Mumbai becomes a serious concern, Hindustan Motors is planning to go in for an aggressive marketing of its CNG Ambassador car in the city. It is particularly targeting the taxi segment and is planning to sell more than 1,500 of such cars in the coming financial year.

According to a senior HM official, despite the imposition of 8 per cent excise duty on CNG, more and more vehicles will be shifting to the CNG mode. The operating cost for diesel is Rs 2 per km while in case of CNG it is merely Rs 1.20 per km, according to industry observers.
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Reckitt Piramal explores contract research
Mumbai: Despite the speculation about its future, Reckitt Piramal, the joint venture between the Reckitt Benckiser group and Nicholas Piramal, is exploring the option of extending the scope of the alliance to include contract research and herbal products.

The JV markets a range of products including Dettol, Saridon, Disprin, Polycrol and Lacto-Calamine.

Plans include undertaking contract research at Nicholas Piramal's Quest Institute of Life Sciences in Mumbai for Reckitt Benckiser and co-operation in the area of herbal products.

The venture aims to combine Reckitt's distribution strength at the grocery level in India and Nicholas Piramal's muscle in medical detailing to establish a strong presence in the over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals segment.
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Madura Garments to tighten supply chain management system
New Delhi : In keeping with the recommendations made by global consulting giant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, AV Birla group company Madura Garments is working hard to integrate its supply chain management system to cut time and improve efficiency.

The company will, in the first phase to be completed by September this year, tie up its internal supply chain management systems.

In the second phase, which will span over a year, the company would impact major changes in its information technology infrastructure. It hopes that all these steps would improve our customer service by reducing the delivery time by about half leading to better sales performance and improved margins.
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Owens Corning’s plan for 3-wheeler segment
Mumbai: Owens Corning India, the fibre glass composite major, is said to be scouting around for a partner for its three-wheeler project in India. The company, which is working on a design for three-wheelers to make them lighter and cost-effective, is understood to already have commenced talks with a three-wheeler company.

According to the company, a lighter vehicle would mean lower fuel consumption of fuel and the over-all cost of running the vehicle in the long term would be reduced by 10 per cent. The vehicle will be on the roads by mid next year.

The company has established a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Taloja, about 40 km from Mumbai with an investment of Rs 550 crore to manufacture 38,000 metric tonnes (MT) of glass fibre enforcement material.

Composites are mainly applicable to the automative, telecommunications and infrastructure industry. In the long run, we are planning to import residential solutions used in architectural designs, he added.
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US higway authorities probes complaints in DaimlerChrysler minivans
Washington: Following persistent complaints, the US government has initiated an investigation into 2.8 million DaimlerChrysler minivans with airbags that may not deploy in crashes. In two incidents involving these mini-vans, the airbags did not deploy and two persons were injured in the crashes.

The complaints have been about a problem with the clockspring assembly, the system that provides electricity for the driver-side airbag, horn and cruise control.

The models involved in the investigation include Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager and Grand Voyager and Chrysler Town and Country for all production between 1996 and 2000.

While the auto major has not officially reacted to the investigations, it is understood that DaimlerChrysler sold 124,511 replacement parts for the clockspring assembly on those models besides the complaints.
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