StanChart Grindlays plans to consolidate four businesses under one
Mumbai—Standard Chartered Grindlays (StanChart Grindlays) is planning to moving its asset management company — Standard Chartered Asset Management, its primary dealership (PD), fixed-income and treasury businesses into a single integrated unit christened "Global Markets."
The person reportedly chosen to head the division is ABN Amro Securities’ managing director, Vishnu Deuskar.
This is envisaged to be one of the biggest bank treasury and securities-related operating divisions in the country.
StanChart Grindlays Asset Management has a portfolio in excess of Rs 1,000 crore, and was recently rechristened to its present name.
The division was earlier known under the umbrella brand of ANZ Grindlays. The new name reflects the identity post-StanChart’s acquisition of ANZ Grindlays Bank’s Indian and Middle-East operations. StanChart will also combine its PD business, for which it recently received the nod from the RBI into its "Global Markets" group along with the treasuries of both the banking entities.

The fixed-income business of both StanChart and ANZ Grindlays Bank, which runs in two clear streams — marketing by the respective corporate banking divisions with trading activities residing in the treasuries — will move into the integrated unit.
The creation of this new integrated division will see StanChart Grindlays run its operations along three well-defined lines: retail, corporate and capital/securities markets.
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Lucent to retire over 10,000 personnel in bid to cut costs
Philadelphia—Lucent Technologies, which recently abandoned merger talks with France's Alcatel, has said it will offer early retirement packages to more than 10,000 employees as part of its effort to cut costs.
Lucent the buyout package would be offered to more than 10,000 US management employees -- ranging from entry-level clerical workers to mid-level executives -- who were eligible for retirement, or close to it and said that it expects the offer to have a high acceptance rate. It declined to comment on whether any forced job cuts would be required if not enough workers accept the offer.
Under the offer, Lucent would add five years of service to an employees' tenure with the company, and five years to their age. That would allow the employees to retire with a richer pension package.
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Star not to fund anymore net ventures
Mumbai—Star is calling off its second round of funding in India for online and internet-driven ventures putting an investment worth about $100 million on hold following the worldwide collapse of Internet-based businesses.
Also Star has wound up several of its own independently operated portals like the youth V India portal, and has made Indya.Com, in which it is a strategic partner, its default portal and will not participate in a second round of investments in ventures where it is a strategic partner like Bazee.Com, IndiaProperties.Com and Explocity. For instance Star has called off its commitments ventures like Fabmart an online shopping mall.
Star has decided to focus all its online activity in Indya.com as for instance, the KBC site is on Indya.com and Star is using its vast television network to popularise Indya.com through promotional campaigns.
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Aptech to announce decision on demerger issue soon
Mumbai—Aptech Ltd, the IT education and software major is expected to announce on Thursday its decision relating to the demerger of its software business into a separate company which would get merged with Chennai-based Hexaware Technologies.
Aptech had earlier set up a committee to study the implication of the merger with Hexeware Technologies. Aptech had said that it would demerge its software and training businesses as part of restructuring exercise.
The software business would subsequently be merged with Hexaware Technologies, where Atul Nishar, Aptech chairman has a majority stake. Nishar has around 26 per cent stake in Aptech.
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Volvo to launch new tip trailer
New Delhi—Volvo India is planning to expand its product range with a smaller tip trailer — Volvo’s construction truck.

Ravi Uppal, managing director Volvo India said that Volvo is going to introduce another version of its construction truck model which will be smaller than the last version introduced. After it is tested the vehicle will be launched in July end or August. The new model will be a three-axle construction truck.
The new model will take Volvo India’s range to two types of tip trailers and three types of tractor trailers. The company is also working on its B7R city coach which should be launched by end-September, said Uppal.
These Inter City AC coaches will be Euro III compliant and fitted with air suspension, central air-conditioning and other in-coach amenities.
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BoI net profit at Rs 252cr
Mumbai—Bank of India has reported a net profit of Rs 252 crore for the fiscal year 2000-01, up by 45.7 per cent over the previous year.
The bank has decided to hike dividend to 15 per cent from 10 per cent last year.

The net profit is arrived at after taking into account full provisions of Rs 134.46 crore for the pay-order scam.
During the year, the bank also absorbed the VRS expense of Rs 330 crore.
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UTI transfers over 600 staff
Mumbai—The Unit Trust of India — India’s largest mutual fund — is transferring almost 650 officials, out of its total 2,500 employees from the branches to its central processing centre and UTI Financial Centres and other departments such as the department of funds management.

The transfers will take place in a phased manner," say senior officials of the UTI.
Even earlier staff from the branches, and departments such as accounts and audit transferred to key departments like dealing and investments.
A large proportion of the employees identified for transfer will man the trust’s central database and processing facility coming up at Belapur-Navi Mumbai.

The move follows implementation of McKinsey recommendations on the business process reengineering exercise, which envisages all branches functioning as marketing outfits with some investor servicing functionality, while processing, accounting and back-office related facilities will be centralised under one roof.
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Coke to introduce more ethnic flavours
Chennai—Soft drinks major Coca-Cola will launch at least three more Indianised flavours in the domestic market shortly.
Said Amit Jain Coke’s regional operations director, on the occasion of the launch of the company's latest Fanta flavour ‘Green Apple,’ Fanta Watermelon would hit the market next followed by three more Indian flavours.
Jain said Fanta Apple Green and Fanta Watermelon were selected from a variety of typical Indian flavour options which included grape, brown apple, peach and strawberry.
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Bata plans to shore up bottomline
Kolkata—Bata India has planned out a strategy to improve its bottomline and profitability in fiscal 2001. As part of this the company plans to increase penetration by setting up more retail outlets and taking space in shopping malls across the country.
AL Mudaliar, Bata India chairman said, efforts to streamline the company’s wholesale business in the current fiscal has already been initiated by the newly appointed managing director, C Morzaria.
Morzaria has introduced new thinking into the marketing strategies of the company, which will, once again, put the company back on a healthy growth path, he said. Currently, the thrust is on becoming a market-driven firm from a manufacturing-oriented company.
Outlining the initiatives being taken by the company, the chairman said old stocks of footwear have partly been liquidated through "Mega" sales to generate cash, and thus, reduce the level of borrowings.
Morzaria said the stock of finished goods has been reduced by 15-20 per cent in some categories of shoes and efforts are being made to keep the factories loaded to reduce fixed costs. This, coupled with outsourcing of finished products, which the company cannot afford to manufacture, will help it reduce the net loss in the second quarter.

Bata India posted a Rs 3.02 crore loss in the quarter ended March 31, 2001.
Aggressive brand-promotion, revamping existing retail outlets apart from setting up new wholesale retail stores are part of the overall strategy to improve financials.
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Renaissance plans to be the numero uno hotel in Mumbai
Mumbai-- Renaissance, the US-based Marriott International’s five-star deluxe hotel brand, is to begin operations in Mumbai this month. Located in North Mumbai at Powai Renaissance combines the attributes of being a deluxe five-star hotel and has the added attraction of housing the largest convention centre in Mumbai and Western India, according to company officials.
With the infrastructure in place, Renaissance aims to attract international conventions and trade fairs to Mumbai. The hotel is targeting to generate 40 per cent of its revenues from trade fairs and conventions.
Says a senior company official Marriott specialises in convention and event management business globally and has an event management team which manages and organises events.
The convention centre spread over a massive 80,000 sq feet has a large indoor and outdoor meeting space. The enclosed ball room inside is 13,000 sq. feet which can accommodate 3,000 people for a party and can seat around 1,700 people at one go. In addition to the grand ball room, there are two more ball rooms (4,000 sq.feet) and 15 meeting rooms. It also has a 10,000 sq.feet terrace for open-air banquets.
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Amtrex Hitachi hits out at design pirates
Ahmedabad-- Amtrex Hitachi Appliances, AHAL, which took Godrej-GE appliances to court over alleged imitation of its air-conditioner designs recently, has trained its guns at the unbranded segment in the air-conditioning industry for alleged violation of its copyright over air-conditioner grill designs.
AHAL has filed a petition in the Delhi high court seeking an injunction on the alleged infringement of its grill designs by a New Delhi-based manufacturer.
The high court granted a stay on the manufacturing and sale of these air-conditioners with duplicate designs and appointed two court commissioners to visit the concerned factory and seize the dies, blocks and grills used by them. The court has also directed the local police to assist the court commissioners.
AHAL had registered the grill designs under the Designs Act in May 1998 and the Controller of Patents had accepted its application and registered the design. The petition said that the grill was designed at Hitachi design centre, Tokyo, Japan and developed for local conditions by AHAL.
The novel shape, configuration and design of the air conditioner grill had helped in generating goodwill among purchasers, traders and consumers.
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RCI launches travel services
Bangalore--RCI India, a timeshare vacation exchange announced the launch of its new travel company, RCI Travels, in India.
RCI Travels that is meant to be a single window for travel-related services will be headquartered in Mumbai.
According to company officials the travel company will offer added value to the range of services RCI provided to approximately 40,000 member-families in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The idea is to create a one-stop travel shop for our members.
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Asian Paints net up 9.29 percent in 2001
New Delhi—Asian Paints India has posted a net profit of Rs 106.39 crore for the year 2000-01 against Rs 97.34 crore reported last fiscal year.
The company's total income for the year ended March 31, 2001, stood at Rs 1215.01 crore compared with Rs 1079.75 crore in the previous year.
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Bharat Petro net profit up by 16.50 percent
New Delhi—Bharat Petroleum Corporation's, (BPCL), net profit for stood at Rs 820.1 crore for 2001, against Rs 703.9 crore for the previous fiscal year.
The petroleum mojor's total income for fiscal year 2001 was at Rs 46,232.4 crore against Rs 33,532.9 crore the previous fiscal year.
On a quarterly basis, the company's net profit rose to Rs 160 crore for the quarter ended March 2001, against Rs 154.5 crore for the same period last fiscal year.
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VST, Brightstar imbroglio may be heading for the courts
Mumbai--The battle for VST Industries is possibly heading towards the courts following Securities & Exchange Board of India’s Sebi’s ruling that shareholders who have already tendered their shares with Russell Credit cannot switch over to Damani’s higher offer of Rs 151 per share.
Over 4 per cent of VST shareholders are understood to have subscribed to the ITC offer even before Damani’s opened.
The Damani camp is against the ruling on the grounds that Sections 5 & 6 of the Indian Contracts Act say a shareholder despite tendering shares to one offer could withdraw as long as the offer remained open.
Sources close to Russell Credit said it will stick to what Sebi says.Both the offers close on June 13.
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Pajero to be launched in Sept, price set at Rs 22 lakh
Mumbai—Sports utility vehicle Pajero will be launched in India by September this year and will sport a price tag of around Rs 22 lakh for the base version.
Hindustan Motors and Mitsubushi Motors have finalised the details of the launch.
The C K Birla group flagship, Hindustan Motors, is planning to import the Pajero in the completely built unit (CBU) form, notwithstanding the higher levels of import duties against the completely knocked down (CKD) or semi knocked down (SKD) options.
As CBU imports are currently not allowed in the 1,000-2,500 cc engine capacity range, only the diesel versions of Pajero will be available during the initial period.
The company is also considering the 2835 cc turbo-diesel variant for imports, as the petrol version is available only in the sub-2500 cc category.
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Dabhol to challenge MERC order in high court
Mumbai--The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) decided to challenge, in the Mumbai High Court, the order of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) restraining it from seeking recourse to international arbitration till June 14. The case is slated to come up for hearing on June 11, three days before the next MERC hearing.
DPC says that it is beyond MERC’s jurisdiction to debar the company from proceeding with international arbitration. DPC has informed MERC about its decision in a communication dispatched this evening, MERC officials said.
When contacted, the DPC spokesperson declined to comment on the issue.
MSEB has slapped a claim of Rs 401 crore on DPC for non-supply of power at adequate levels on January 28.
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UB abandons Inertia-Alcobev merger plans
Mumbai--The UB group has dropped plans to merge Inertia Industries, in which it recently acquired a 51 per cent stake, with Millennium Alcobev, the beer company set up by the group and former Shaw Wallace managing director Ravi Jain.
According to the new plan, Millennium Alcobev will transfer its beer brands, human resources and assets to Inertia Industries, and remain just a shell company. After this is completed Inertia will be renamed Millennium Alcobev.
With this transfer, the UB group will hold 34 per cent stake in the new company, 17 per cent stake will be held by Ravi Jain, 13 per cent by the ESOP Trust, while, Sunil Tandon, the former promoter of Inertia, and his family will hold around 4 per cent and the balance 32 per cent will be with the public.
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TGIF to open shutters in Mumbai soon
New Delhi--Thank God It's Friday (TGIF), has drawn up plans to foray into the Mumbai market within this fiscal.
TGIF is run by Bistro Hospitality Ltd, a joint venture of Vickers Ballas, Punj Lloyd and Escorts , a master franchisee for TGIF in India.
TGIF is part of the US-based Carlson group.
The company is eyeing several locations and is likely to finalise it in the near future.
The only problem the company is facing is the availability of land in Mumbai at prime locations suitable to its specifications.
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BoI to reduce govt stake by 25 percent
Mumbai--Bank of India (BoI) is planning to reduce the Centre's stake in the bank to 51 per cent from the present 76 per cent during the current financial year and will pay around Rs 150 crore to the government for its stake.

BoI will also negotiate with the government on the issue of returning the capital preferably at par.
This move will improve its earnings per share substantially though the capital adequacy ratio will come down to 11 per cent from 12.23 per cent at present. The bank is also in the process of closing down wholly owned subsidiary, BoI Finance, while its mutual fund will not undertake any new business. It will either close down the mutual fund, which runs 3 open-ended schemes and has a corpus of Rs 30 crore, or sell it off.
BoI posted a healthy 45.75 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 252 crore in financial year ended March 31, 2001 as against Rs 172.81 crore posted last year. This is despite the bank absorbing extra-ordinary VRS expenses of Rs 330 crore and making full provision of Rs 134.46 crore for probable losses arising out of the pay-order crisis. The bank's Board has declared a 15 per cent dividend for 2000-01 as against 10 per cent last year.
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