Rahul Bajaj takes brother to court
Mumbai: The Rahul Bajaj group, acting through Bajaj Sevashram, has filed a case in the Hugh Court against Shishir Bajaj and son Kushagra, alleging 'breach of trust' and claiming a compensation of Rs600 crore. The suit is a result if Kushagra's refusal to acknowledge a verbal agreement reached between the two groups after two meetings held in 2005-06.

Rahul Bajaj says the final settlement between the two groups was to be based on three things - an MoU of the family settlement, family mediator DS Mehta's decision and two meetings held between Niraj Bajaj and Kushagra Bajaj.

According to Rahul Bajaj in the fourth and final meeting it was decided that a mirror image company of Bacchraj & would be created by transferring the Bajaj Hindusthan shares and Shishir would hold a 78 pc stake in that company. Bajaj said Kushagra denies that the discussion ever took place as the minutes of the two meetings were not recorded the Shishir Bajaj faction has subsequently denied any such discussion, prompting Rahul and other members of the faction to take the matter to court.

The Shishir faction wants to go by the original MoU and DS Mehta's decisions. With both parties taking a hard stance on the matter, the settlement issue is unlikely to be resolved even at CLB hearing in May 2007.
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Reliance considers acquiring stake in global retailers
New Delhi: Primed for a global footprint in the retail business, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group is talking to French retail major Carrefour as also other global players for acquiring controlling stake to reach out to international consumers with its basket of Indian food produce. (See: Reliance looking for stake in French retailer Carrefour)
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Mukherjea's INX to launch TV network
Mumbai: INX Group, INX Media and INX News, promoted by Peter Mukerjea former Star TV CEO and his wife Indrani Mukerjea have announced plans to launch a new television network.

The bouquet of channels will include a Hindi entertainment channel, an English news channel, various entertainment channels in regional languages, a music channel and city-specific channels.

The Hindi general entertainment channel, the music channel and the English news channel will be launched by the last quarter of 2007. The other channels will be rolled out over the next two years.

The entertainment company, INX Media, has been financed by Asian investment firm Temasek Holdings via Dunearn Investments, New Silk Route, New Vernon, Kotak and Srei Group.

The news company, INX News, will be 26 pc owned by the entertainment company, and, in accordance with the government regulations, by a single Indian entity drawn from the INX Group.

Indrani Mukerjea, the wife of former Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea and the promoter of the INX Group, will be chairperson of this venture. Vir Sanghvi will be the CEO of INX News and editorial head of the news channel.
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JSW Steel prepared to shift project location if required
Kolkata: JSW Steel, which floated a special purpose vehicle JSW Bengal Steel, and a 10-mt steel plant at Salboni in West Bengal says it is ready to shift the project site if required.

The vice-chairman and managing director of JSW Steel Sajjan Jindal after a meeting with the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that till date, there was no major resistance from the local people at Salboni where the plant would come up on 5,000 acres.

He also said however that should the resistance become unsurmountable, the company was prepared to shift the location. He said that there was minor resistance and this was not a problem. At the moment, there was no question of shifting the project site, he said. JSW Bengal Steel would invest Rs35,000 crore for the project.

He said that the Government would give 90 per cent of the land required, while the company would procure the balance.
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ITC to bid for Patak's: plans Rs150 crore investment for foray into snacks biz
New Delhi: ITC Foods is likely to put in a formal bid for Britain's popular pickles and curries brand, Patak's. The other company that may interested in acquiring Patak's is Heinz, which already has a partnership with Patak's.

Patak's however is asking for a £200-million takeover price which could be a sticking point as it on the higher side for potential partners or buyers.

ITC sources said the company was approached by Patak's investment banker NM Rothschild with a proposal.

ITC Foods is also planning to invest Rs150 crore in the next two years for its foray into the snacks segment and is eyeing 25 per cent market share of the Rs2,000 crore organised market in the next 4-5 years. The company has launched its snacks brand 'Bingo' in 16 different flavours.
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Indian companies among biggest investors in N Ireland
London: Indian companies were the second biggest business investors in Northern Ireland, after the US during 2005-06 said Lord Diljit Rana, Honorary Consul for India in Northern Ireland. FirstSource, part of ICICI Bank, Polaris Software Lab, and HCL-BPO pledged investments of almost £30 million in Northern Ireland to create over 1,000 new jobs.
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Russian company Altimo looks for acquisitions in India
Moscow: Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's mobile firm Altimo, is looking for potential acquisition opportunities in India and plans to invest over $2 billion in the next few years into mobile telephony projects in Asian and emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Altimo sees these markets as highly prospective from an investor viewpoint, with large population, low mobile penetration and high economic growth rates.

The company's chief financial officer Teijo Pankko recently said at a telecom conference in London that it was in talks with the Essar and Hinduja groups about a potential role in the acquisition of Hutch-Essar.

Altimo said in a separate statement issued today it has borrowed 1.5 billion dollars from Deutsche Bank AG to expand in fast growing markets like India.
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Elder Pharma in marketing deal with Spanish firm
Mumbai: Elder Pharmaceuticals has entered into an alliance with Spain's Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi S.A to market drugs to treat thrombo-embolic venous diseases in India. Elder would initially market the Spanish firm's Bemiparin in India, it said in a statement.
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Strides Arcolab's AIDS drugs get tentative US FDA approval
Mumbai: Drug maker Strides Arcolab has received tentative approvals for two anti-AIDS drugs from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the company said on Wednesday. (See: Strides Arcolab receives US FDA approvals for two new drugs)
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Nagarjuna Construction gets orders worth Rs348 crore
Mumbai: Civil engineering firm Nagarjuna Construction Co has secured orders worth Rs348 crore. These include contracts for an irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh and for the construction of a cricket stadium in Punjab, the company said in a statement.
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HP to hike BPO staff by 20 per cent
New Delhi: US-based PC giant Hewlett Packard (HP) has said it remains committed to its BPO unit in the country and plans to increase its headcount by 20 per cent over the next one year. The company plans to ramp up its BPO headcount in India to 7,800 over the next year. At present the company has approximately 6,500 employees at its India centres and expects to expand its headcount by 20 per cent over the next year.

Over two-dozen multi-national firms are said to be mulling over plans to sell off their India offshore units, following the precedent set by firms such as General Electric (GE) and British Airways in the past.
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Chinese aluminum maker to form joint venture with Ashapura Minechem
Beijing: China's second largest aluminium maker has got the go ahead from the Chinese government to set up a 5-billion-yuan ($651 million) joint venture with an Indian company to produce alumina, the Chinese state media has reported.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency, has approved Qingtongxia Aluminium Group's proposal to set up an alumina mining and processing joint venture Ashapura Minechem Co. Both the companies will have a 50 pc share in the company.

The facility will have a capacity of 1 million tonne annually.

This is the Chinese company's first investment in alumina, the main raw material for aluminium production, and will see China's biggest investment in India so far. Qingtongxia has an annual production capacity of 4,30,000 tonne of primary aluminium, which needs 9,00,000 tonne of alumina a year, the report added.
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