Sterlite bags highest chunk of DoT cable order
New Delhi: Sterlite Industries, along with its 100 per cent subsidiary, has reportedly bagged 19 per cent of the department of telecommunications' Rs 2,085-crore order for jelly-filled telecom cables required for the countrywide telecommunications network.

DoT had projected a requirement of over 450 lakh km of cable for use in 1999-2000 and had floated a tender for 366 lakh km. The tender was opened in March 1999. It had reserved 65 lakh km of cable for Hindustan Cables, a public sector undertaking.

Three suppliers, Finolex Cables, RPG Cables, and Usha Beltron, have bagged 9 per cent each of the total order. Others include Bhagyanagar Metals, Gujarat Telecom Cables and Uniflex Cables.

Besides DoT, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is also likely to issue orders for 55 km of cables shortly.
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Offshore MFs acquire IPCL stake
Vadodara: Two offshore mutual funds have purchased equity equivalent to 12.6 per cent of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. The government is proposing to divest 25 per cent of its stake in IPCL and the acquisition of a 12.6 per cent stake is significant if the shares are acquired for the same group or person, as this may provide enough flexibility in making a public offer as per Sebi requirement.

The Economic Times, in a report, said Mauritius-based Monument Investment has picked up 4 per cent of IPCL's equity from the market in April and May 1999. Monument also acquired shares in May 1999 from UTI, which sold some 10 million IPCL shares then.

Almost at the same time, Well Corde Finance, another offshore mutual fund, picked up about 5 million IPCL shares from UTI. A further 5 million shares were picked up by the two mutual funds from the market.
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PowerGen to divest part of stake in Bina Power
New Delhi: PowerGen, the UK-based power company, is planning to divest a part of its holding in Bina Power in favour of AV Birla group companies. The A.V. Birla group has a 13 per cent stake in Bina Power.

Bina Power has approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board seeking permission to remove the ceiling on the equity levels of two promoters -- PowerGen and offshore companies of the AV Birla group. PowerGen has a 49 per cent stake in the company.
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Infosys acquiring company abroad
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies is in the process of acquiring a software company and setting up a software development centre abroad. Nandan Nilekani, managing director of the company, said the company is in the preliminary stage of an acquisition process.

The company is also identifying a suitable location for setting up a software development centre, he said.
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Essar default may affect bank stocks
Mumbai: Essar Steel's default on its $250 million floating rate notes may affect the positive sentiment on banking sector stocks and in particular of those who have large project exposure and exposure to Essar, a study by Jardine Fleming India Broking has said.

Among the major banks, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have some investment in the FRNs.
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Satyam, Bharti to set up gateways
Mumbai: Satyam Infoway and Bharti-BT are planning to install their own international gateways soon. Satyam Infoway may put up 10 gateways, while Bharti says it has plans for three.

At present only Videsh Sanchar Nigam has a gateway and all private internet service providers have to make use of this.

The government had recently announced that private ISPs planning to set up gateways will have to abide by security guidelines, including connecting routers to central intelligence agencies.
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Hindujas to invest Rs 1,000 cr in media business
Mumbai: The Hinduja group is planning to invest Rs 1,000 crore in its electronic media business. The group, which runs the largest cable television company in India, In Network, has appointed ABN Amro as financial advisor for the business venture.

The service will be upgraded through sophisticated broadband equipment. The Hindujas own 80 per cent equity in the debt-free company IndusInd Media and Communications.
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SAP eyes $200 million revenue from Indian arm
Calcutta: SAP of Germany has set an ambitious $200 million annual revenue target for its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary SAP India, to be achieved by the year 2003.

SAP will enlarge its employee base in India and actively consider acquisitions or equity participation in technology start-ups in India, says Leslie Hayman, president and chief executive officer of SAP South Asia-Pacific.

The company expects that the Indian arm contributes at least 30 per cent of the aggregate revenue stemming from SAP South Asia-Pacific's operations, he said. The unit's revenue is expected to rise from $300 million in 1998 to $800 million by 2003.
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Moody's puts Enron on review
Mumbai: Moody's Investors Service said it has placed $1.1 billion worth of securities of Enron Oil and Gas on review for downgrade following an announcement that the group is spinning off Enron Oil and Gas from Enron Corporation.

All outstanding debt rating related to Enron Oil and Gas have been placed on review for downgrade after the announcement of an agreement to swap interests in its India and China operations plus $600 million, in exchange for 62.70 million Enron Oil and Gas shares held by Enron Corporation, Moody's said in a press release.

Enron Corporation plans to spin off Enron Oil and Gas into a new independent company called EOG Resources Inc. US-based Burlington Resources is expected to take a controlling stake in EOG Resources.
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Telco vehicles to be Euro-II compliant by April 2000
New Delhi: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company says all its vehicles -- the Indica, utility vehicles and light commercial vehicles -- will be Euro-II compliant by April 2000. The Indica is expected to be Euro-II compliant by the end of this year, the company said

Telco plans to introduce high pressure fuel injection pumps, turbo chargers with intercoolers, exhaust gas circulation and oxidation catalytic converters in the diesel vehicles to make them more eco-friendly.

For petrol vehicles, the company will have multi-point fuel injection engines, close-loop air fuel ratio control, advanced three-way catalytic converters and exhaust air recirculation. The company expects that these modifications will lead to a price rise, as the components will have to be initially imported.
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Apollo Tyres, BPCL in pact for gauges
Calcutta: Apollo Tyres has signed an agreement with Bharat Petroleum Corporation to install and maintain auto cut-off air pressure gauges at all the new generation retail outlets of the company across the country.

At present Apollo Tyres maintains regular tyre pressure gauges at 1,000 BPCL outlets.
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Videocon notice to ORG on "distorted figures"
Mumbai: Videocon International has served a legal notice on ORG-GFK for publishing "deliberately distorted" sales and market share figures on TV manufacturers.

ORG in May 1999 put Vidoecon's total sales (other brands included) at around 75,000 units. The company claims a record-breaking sales of 1.58 lakh units, including Sansui, Toshiba and OEM sales to Akai in May.

ORG had also pegged Videocon's market share at 18 per cent while the company claims it has a 22 per cent share. ORG-GFK is the only organisation in India that does a retail audit of consumer durables sales.
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Lego ties up with McDonald's, Shell
Calcutta: Danish toymaker Lego has aligned with McDonald's and Shell for a marketing foray in India. The company is also negotiating with gift store chains like Hallmark and Archies to jointly market its range of creative toys.

One of Lego's high-tech toys is Brain Storm, which needs a computer to operate. Developed in collaboration with the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, Brain Storm is a robot that can be assembled by a child and given computer commands to perform simple tasks.
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Emami-Landmark JV for Calcutta store
Chennai: Emami Landmark Store, a joint venture between the Emami group and the retail bookstore of Chennai, Landmark, is all set to open a Rs 11-crore outlet in Calcutta in September.

A 15,000-sq. ft. store is under construction in Calcutta's latest shopping mall, Number One Shoppers' City. The mall, spread over five levels and an area of 60,000 sq. ft., is promoted by Real Value Projects, a part of the Emami group.

The store, in brand colours and subdued silver and blue will be fitted with an atrium complete with a caf, juke box, music stations and a podium to host events. It will also be connected to the store in Chennai, which will be the purchase hub from where imported stocks will be transported to Calcutta.
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Modi Telstra changes name for cellphone
Calcutta: Modi Telstra, the 51:49 cellular joint venture between the B.K. Modi group and the Australian telecom giant Telstra, has decided to market its cellphone services as Modi Telstra instead of the existing brand name of MobileNet.

The decision to dispense with the MobileNet tag after four years and emphasise the Modi Telstra name "aims to clarify who we are to our customers", according to Barry Cooney, chief executive officer of Modi Telstra.
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Software incubator from Cognizant
Mumbai: Cognizant Technology Solutions of the US is planning to launch a software incubator programme in India. The incubator programme is akin to venture capital funding, except that it funds seed capital and also offers managerial support to start-up companies.

Lakshmi Narayan, president and chief operating officer of Cognizant, said the programme is aimed at people who have great ideas but no resources. The programme will be aimed largely at employees. "We will invest in their ideas," he said.

Under the programme, Cognizant will commit money, management and marketing expertise and testing facilities for new software, he said.
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Godrej acquires Bangalore hatchery
Mumbai: Godrej Agrovet has acquired a Bangalore-based hatchery, Indian Poultry Farms for Rs 20 crore. With this, the company has completed its vertical integration process. Godrej Agrovet is planning to launch a new type of frozen chicken called Chilled Chicken.

Adi B. Godrej, managing director of Godrej Soaps, said the acquisition was based on recommendations by consulting firm McKinsey and Co, which has advised the group on its restructuring.
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Daewoo to defer Nubira launch
New Delhi: Daewoo Motors India is deferring the launch of luxury car Nubira apparently in view of the grave liquidity problems faced by the parent company, Daewoo Motors of Korea.

Byung Soh Min, deputy managing director of Daewoo India Motors, said the car will not be launched as expected by March 2000. He insisted, however, that this decision has nothing to do with the group's troubles back home.

"There will not be any new car launched this year. We are at present trying to meet the demand for our small car Matiz and will concentrate on the small car for the present," he said.
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Alcatel, Thomson to merge
Paris: Alcatel of France and Thomson Multimedia have agreed to merge their telephone, internet terminal and modem subsidiaries to create the world's top home telephone equipment firm.

The French government is also preparing sale of its minority stake in Thomson Multimedia on the stock market. Alcatel and Thomson Multimedia will each hold half of the total shares in the joint venture, which will have an annual sale of  $800 million.
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Microsoft, EDS form alliance
Dallas: Microsoft and Electronic Data Systems are tying up to offer comprehensive network services to business customers. The alliance would allow businesses to benefit from EDS's comprehensive life cycle services to design, deploy and manage Microsoft-based server desktop infrastructure solutions.

EDS, a Texas-based company, is the world's largest provider of computer services and management.
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J&J to acquire Centocor
New York: Johnson & Johnson is near finalisation of plans to acquire biotechnology company Centocor in a stock deal valued at $4.9 billion. The two companies have been in talks since May, but could not earlier agree on the price.

Centocor's product range includes drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and cardiovascular diseases. It makes Remicade, a drug for Crohn's disease, which is also to get an approval for rheumatoid arthritis.

Johnson & Johnson will get access to these drugs and in addition will be selling ReoPro and Retavase, two anti-clotting medicines. Johnson & Johnson has a coronary stent business, which has been losing market share. ReoPro may fit in with this business.
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Contraceptive patch form J&J
New York: Johnson & Johnson said it is developing a contraceptive patch that will deliver contraceptives through the skin and last for a week. The company is planning to seek government approval next year.

Johnson & Johnson, which controls 39 per cent of the oral contraceptives market in the US, is in the final stages of testing the patch, Evra, the size of half a dollar, on several hundreds of women.  
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Power Ranger, Barbie to co-habit
Tokyo: Bandai Co, the makers of Power Ranger action figures and Mattel, the makers of Barbie dolls and the world's largest toy maker, announced that they planned an alliance in marketing.

Bandai is Japan's biggest maker of toys and merchandise based on animated characters, including Pocket Monster toys, besides the Power Ranger.

Under the agreement Bandai will market and sell Mattel products such as Barbie dolls and toy cars in Japan and Mattel will concurrently market and sell Bandai products including Power Ranger in Latin America.
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