NDTV buys out Living Media's stake in Radio Today Broadcasting
New Delhi: Prannoy Roy promoted NDTV has made an entry into the private FM Radio segment by acquiring India Today's stake in radio venture 'Radio Today Broadcasting'. With this the Living Media Group has exited the FM radio business by divesting its entire holding in Red FM to a group of investors that includes NDTV News.

Other members of the consortium buying Red FM, currently in operation in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, are Hyderabad-based Value Labs and Malaysian broadcasting company Astro.

The government is at present in the process of awarding the second round of FM radio licences and last week opened the bids for 13 cities.

Yesterday BBC Radio also announced an Rs31.8 crore deal to acquire a stake in Radio Mid Day.

The companies have not disclosed the exact structure of the joint venture or the financial details of the deal. Sources close to the development said Value Labs is the largest shareholder in the consortium. It has formed a joint venture with Astro, which, in turn, has formed another joint venture with NDTV for the acquisition.

Astro is believed to have taken 20 per cent stake, which is the maximum foreign investment allowed in private FM radio.
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Tata Steel sales up 11 per cent
Mumbai: Tata Steel has reported an 11 per cent increase in sales at 1.12 million tonne for the third quarter ending December, 2005, from the corresponding quarter last fiscal. At the same time the company has increased its production levels, with hot metal production growing by 13 per cent at 1.25 million tonne, and that of crude steel increasing by seven per cent at 1.13 million tonne.

Production of saleable steel in the third quarter registered a nine per cent increase at 1.14 million tonne.

The company also carried out a mid-term repair of the plants, which was completed in 44 days.

One of the billet casters was upgraded and is expected to ramp up its rated capacity by the end of January. Tata Steel has also launched the 'country's first organised steel retail store' in Kolkata. The outlet reported a sales high of Rs4.5 lakh in a day.
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M&M buys UK's auto forging co Stokes Group
Mumbai: Tractors and SUV major, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has acquired 98.6 per cent stake in UK-based automotive forging company, Stokes Group, from its existing shareholders.

The acquisition strengthens the operations of Mahindra Systems and Automotive Technologies (MSAT), which aims at offering a full range of services from design to delivery, including engineering services, strategic sourcing of components and supplying of auto component as Tier 1 manufacturers.

Stokes Group comprises three companies with two manufacturing firms situated at Walsall and Dudley, near Birmingham in UK and its major customers are Koyo Bearings, GWK Group, Land Rover, Bosch, Visteon, Ford and Jaguar among others, the company said.
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Tata Motors reports 11.4 percent higher sales in Dec.
Mumbai: Tata Motors has reported an 11.4 per cent rise in vehicle sales, including exports, for December 2005, at 35,598 units against 31,951 units in the same month last year.

Sales of commercial vehicles for the company in the domestic market during December increased by 1.4 per cent to 18,730 units as compared to 18,467 vehicles sold in the same period last year, the company said. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles sales stood at 11,110 units while light commercial vehicle sales stood at 7,620 units.

Cumulatively Tata Motors sold 1,43,469 units of commercial vehicles in the domestic market in the entire fiscal. In the passenger vehicle segment, Tata Motors reported a 35.4 per cent increase in demand in the domestic market at 13,037 units. Of this, it sold 6,977 units of the hatchback Indica while Indigo registered sales of 2,753 units. Among SUVs, Sumo and Safari sales stood at 3,307 units during the month.

The cumulative sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market for the fiscal stood at 1,27,510 units.
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BSNL to invest in expansion of mobile network
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam will invest over Rs19,400 crore during the next financial year, chiefly in the expansion of its mobile and broadband services, S D Saxena, director (finance), BSNL said.

Most of the investment is likely to come from internal accruals of BSNL, though the corporation may resort to borrowings of Rs5,000-6,000 crore from the market. He said the investment plan has been finalised by the corporation but is yet to be ratified by the Planning Commission.

Saxena said that nearly 80 per cent of the investment would go into expansion of mobile network and broadband, besides up-gradation of switching system, wireless and other IT related services.
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Job show to hit TV screens in February
Bangalore: Naukri.com, a leading job portal, is launching the country's first televised reality job hunt show. Called, the 'The Job Show', it will be presented in association with CNBC TV 18, and would be aired every Saturday, starting Feburary, in the form of a 26-episode show.

Sunil Alagh, ex Britannia honcho, will host the show, and two senior management people from the recruiting company will conduct the selection.

Leading companies including LG Electronics, Aviva Life Insurance and DNA will come on board to recruit some of the best talents, the release added.

Interested applicants could apply for the jobs following which the applications would be forwarded to the human resource department of the respective company. The companies will then short-list candidates on the basis of their criteria. Naukri.com and CNBC will announce the names of the five short-listed candidates 10 days before the close of the call for applications.

The Job Show will be presented in a reality format focusing on the strengths of the successful candidates and throwing light on the weakness of the unsuccessful ones to enable aspirants viewing the show to learn lessons and apply them in real-life job interviews.
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Sony Ericsson to open new outlets
New Delhi: Mobile handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson has appointed Ingram Micro as its second national distribution partner to expand sales distribution network across the country.

Ingram Micro has been operating only in the eastern and western markets for the company till now and would now have national presence from this month said Sony Ericsson.

After the expansion, the company would have 15,000 retail outlets.
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Rising steel prices may impact price of 'One lakh rupee car'
Bangalore: Escalating steel prices may result in the much-awaited Rs. one lakh car from the Tata stable to be priced higher Tata Group official said.

J J Irani, director of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, told reporters, "The Rs one lakh car will be on the roads by financial year 2007-08. Prototypes have already been made. It's now a matter of sourcing materials," he said.

He said the cost of steel for use in the manufacture of cars has gone up from Rs14,000 a tonne to Rs21,000 a tonne.
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Assam Co. signs MoU with DMS Exploration
Mumbai: Assam Company has signed an MoU with US-based DMS Exploration for forming a joint venture and for acquiring a 33.33 per cent working interest in an Australian energy block.

The oil company has entered into the agreement for acquisition of 33.33 per cent working interest in the Yorketown Point Gilbert prospect under the DMS Petroleum Exploration Licence 73, located at Stansbury Basin of South Australia.

The site covers an area of 625 square kilometers and is 30 kms from Adelaide, the company said.

The company will also form a JV to generate future prospects in Australia, India and around the world using DMS' proprietary technology and know-how, it said.
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Tata--Star combine to offer DTH
Bangalore: The Tata group and News Corp.'s Star are planning to launch their DTH service in the April-June quarter. Branded as Space the service will be beamed to homes via small satellite dishes that bypass cable operators, and will be 80 per cent owned by Tata Sons, with the rest held by Rupert Murdoch's Star India.

Space received government approval last year to compete in the world's third-largest cable TV market, which has revenues of about US$3.3bn a year.
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BSNL users spurt in Dec '05
New Delhi: State owned telecom operator BSNL said it has added more than a million mobile users in December, which is the largest-ever monthly addition by a single carrier in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

BSNL's mobile user base is now more than 14.2 million, and it competes mainly with Bharti Tele-Ventures, Reliance Infocomm and the Indian wireless operation of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International.
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Tatas to invest Rs.13,000 crore in telecom
Bangalore: The Tatas are making aggressive plans to expand their telecom business and plan to invest around Rs13,000 crore in the next three-four years in the business.

JJ Irani director Tata Sons told reporters that the investment would be in region of Rs13,000-25,000 crore over the next four years.

The Tatas expect a shake-out in the telecom space eventually with only four-five players surviving including BSNL, Reliance, Bharti and Tatas, he said.
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