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Chase takes stake in planetasia.com
Mumbai: Chase Capital Partners has taken a
26.02 per cent stake in planetasia.com for Rs 9.81 crore.
The Economic Times, in a report, said the investment hikes
equity in the web services start-up of Bangalore-based Microland Ltd, promoted by Pradeep
Kar from Rs 3.10 crore to Rs 4.19 crore.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has approved the
investment. The investment will reduce the stakes of Microland and ICICI Venture Fund in
planetasia.com to 35.14 each from 47.5 per cent each earlier. Mr Kar and employees
together held 5 per cent equity in the company, which will now stand reduced to 3.70 per
cent.
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Tatas may drop Tetley
acquisition plan
Mumbai: The Tata group, which was very keen
on acquiring the London-based international packaged tea brand Tetley, may now drop the
proposal. The group is not willing to hike its offer beyond the 270 million pounds that it
had quoted earlier.
Business Standard in a report says the present
owner of the brand, Schroders Pvt Equity Fund, is seeking a price of 300 million pounds.
Schroders seems to be on a strong wicket as there are at least two other bidders, Sara
Lee, which had offered a price of 200 million pounds, and Nestle, whose offer price is not
known.
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Indian company complains
against Kodak
New Delhi: Stovec Industries of Mumbai has,
in a letter to the industry ministry, alleged that Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a joint
venture between Eastman Kodak Company and Sun Chemical Corporation of the US, has
contravened government policy by trying to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary without
obtaining prior consent from the Indian joint venture partner.
Stovec says the multinational has sought the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board's approval to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary for
manufacturing graphic films and printing plates without the Indian partner's knowledge or
prior consent.
Stovec had a technical collaboration with Polychrome
Corporation, a division of Sun Chemicals, for manufacture of pre-sensitised lithographic
printing plates. The company could not, however stabilise its production and in 1997, Sun
Chemicals formed a new joint venture with Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak Polychrome Graphics
India, and Polychrome Corporation, the original joint venture partner of Stovec, was
merged into Kodak Polychrome. Stovec states in its letter to the ministry that Kodak
Polychrome as successor to the original joint venture partner of Polychrome Corporation,
continues to be a joint venture partner.
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Tech Pacific to acquire
majority stake in Godrej Pacific
Mumbai: Tech Pacific of Australia is all set
to acquire a majority stake in Godrej Pacific Technology, a joint venture project of the
Jamshed Godrej group.
Godrej Pacific has an equity capital of Rs 28 crore and
each partner currently holds 50 per cent in the venture, the fifth largest information
technology hardware marketing company in India.
However, the company's chief executive officer Shailendra
Gupta, has denied the development.
The company is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in
1999-2000.
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Hindustan Lever to get
patent for Annapurna salt
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever will obtain a patent
for the production process of Kissan Annapurna salt in 120 countries. The company claims
that the salt is made in such a way that the iodine content is not lost even after
cooking. The company is planning to export the salt through its worldwide marketing
network.
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Declare Piaggio unfit, LML
tells CLB
New Delhi: LML Ltd has told the Company Law
Board that it should declare the Italian company Piaggio unfit to do business in India.
In its reply to Piaggio's petition seeking removal of
Deepak Singhania as managing director, LML says it is seeking this remedy because of the
obstructive and wrongful conduct of Piaggio over the last 17 years characterised by
breaches and defaults of its obligations and commitments. The foreign ally should be given
no say in the management of the joint venture, LML has pleaded with the Company Law Board.
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PowerGen to invest Rs
2,000 cr in power projects
Mumbai: PowerGen India says it is finalising
plans to invest up to Rs 2,000 crore in the equity capital of various power projects in
Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The Indian arm of the 2.34-billion UK power major says it is also planning to enter the
transmission and distribution sector.
PowerGen has increased its stake in Gujarat Torrent Energy
Corporation, has a 74 per cent stake in Spic group's Tamil Nadu Petroproducts, and is an
equity partner in the Bina Power Supply Company, a venture of the AV Birla group.
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ISPG to have stake in
Albright Wilson
Mumbai: ISPG Ltd, a subsidiary of Donau
Chemie of Austria, is acquiring a 27 per cent stake in Albright Wilson Chemicals India.
The UK-based ISPG is acquiring the stake through an open
offer for 9.18 lakh equity shares at a price of Rs 240 per share. Albright Wilson shares
are quoted in the market at around Rs 261.
ISPG is understood to be in the process of acquiring 96
per cent of the total capital of Albright & Wilson plc, the parent company of Albright
Wilson Chemicals India.
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Coca-Cola takes over
Pune bottling unit
Pune: Coca-Cola has taken over the marketing
and distribution of one of its franchisee bottlers, Poona Bottling, as a prelude to taking
over the bottling operations by the end of the year. The acquisition has been done through
Hindusthan Bottling South West Pvt Ltd, a venture of Hindusthan Coca-Cola Holdings, which
in turn is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola South Asia Holdings.
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Jet Airways plans 8 new routes
New Delhi: Jet Airways will be adding eight
new stations to its route network in the next 10 months. The routes will be covered by an
ATR-72 turboprop fleet.
Saroj K. Datta, acting chief executive of Jet Airways,
says in1999-2000 the airlines will expand its routes through ATRs and not through its jet
fleet. The company will induct five ATR-72s in October, and the new hinterland stations
that will be connected with the 64-seater aircraft are Keshod, Bhavnagar, and Porbunder in
Gujarat, Belgaum in Karnataka and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Udaipr in Rajasthan, and
Chandigarh.
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Sahara to have separate
unit for short-haul routes
Mumbai: Sahara Airlines plans to add
short-haul routes, which will be handled by a new division of the company, Sahara Connect.
The services on these routes will be operated with 12 Embraer aircraft to be leased from
the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.
The 30-seater aircraft will be operated on routes like
Mumbai-Nagpur, Calcutta-Darjeeling, Chennai-Coimbatore and Delhi-Amritsar.
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Wockhardt split approved
Mumbai: Wockhardt's board has approved a
scheme to split the company into two with existing shareholders and global depository
receipt holders entitled to shares in the second company in the ratio of 1:1.
The two companies are expected to be incorporated and made
functional by January 2000.
While Wockhardt will retain the pharmaceutical business,
the new company, Wockhardt Life Sciences, will operate in agriscience, intravenous fluids
and hospitals areas.
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Titan to stop making Tanishq
range
Bangalore: Titan Industries will pull out
its Tanishq range of watches, which are jewellery items.
The company is coming out with a new range called Nebula,
and digital watches under the FasTrack brand name. The digital range will hit the market
in September and priced at around Rs 700-1,200. There will be 20 models. The company will
outsource the manufacture of the watches.
Titan recently launched the Dash range of watches for
children.
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M & M buys back FCCBs
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra has bought
back foreign currency convertible bonds worth $16 million in the first quarter of the
current financial year. The FCCBs were bought at around $96.5 per bond.
The company had raised funds through FCCBs in 1996 and
this is the first buy back. The company's foreign debt obligations have come down to just
over $80 million at the end of the first quarter.
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Mallya firm drops
acquisition plan
Bangalore: Ubics Inc, the Nasdaq-listed
software company of Vijay Mallya's UB group, has called off its plans to acquire R Systems
of California. The deal has been called off due to problems discovered at the due
diligence stage, UB officials said.
UB group had announced in March 1999 that Ubics had
executed a definitive agreement with R Systems to acquire all the outstanding stock of the
company.
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Reckitt & Colman,
Benckiser to merge
London: Britain's Reckitt & Colman and
Dutch Benckiser are to merge and form a world leader in household cleaning products. The
tie-up will to give Reckitt & Colman shareholders 59.1 per cent of the new group and
Benckiser shareholders 40.9 per cent.
The merged entity will have a market capitalisation of 4.9 billion, and will be listed on the
London Stock Exchange. The business of the group will be in the range of 2 billion, which will surpass
Unilever's 1.6 billion in this
line. The deal involves exchange of five new Reckitt & Colman shares for each
Benckiser share.
Benckiser's Bart Becht will be the chief executive officer
of the company.
The global merger is not likely to have any impact on
Reckitt & Colman India's operations. The Rs 440-crore Reckitt & Colman India is a
leader in the Indian market in various brands. Benckiser has no presence in South Asia.
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BT in control of Cellnet
London: British Telecom is taking full
control of the mobile phone company Cellnet after agreeing to buying the outstanding 40
per cent from Securicor for $5.02 billion.
The deal will enable Securicor to concentrate on its core
businesses of cash collection and overnight parcel delivery, while British Telecom will
get the ownership of the second biggest mobile phones group in Britain.
British Telecom is facing bitter competition in the UK
mobile market from Vodafone, which had merged with its US counterpart AirTouch to become
the world's biggest cellphone company.
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Daewoo creditors take
control of restructuring
Seoul: The Daewoo group's creditors have
taken control of the restructuring programme of the cash-strapped group. The action,
analysts say, has reassured the markets, which are on the brink of a collapse.
Kim Young-jae, chief spokesman of the Korea's Financial
Supervisory Commission, said the era of Daewoo-initiated restructuring has passed. The
restructuring will be turned over to the group's creditors, he confirmed.
Creditors have given some $3.3 billion in cash to the
ailing conglomerate and have agreed to extend the maturities of its bonds and commercial
paper in return for collateral from Daewoo and its founding chairman.
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Dell offers free internet
services with PCs
New York: Dell Computer of the US says it
will offer a full-featured consumer personal computer with a year's free Internet services
at $959.
The new Dell home PC offer comes with a year's access to
the company's Dellnet internet service for US consumers. The PCs have an Intel Celeron 400
megahertz computer chip, a keyboard, monitor, MS Windows 98 and Works application software
with a three-year warranty and online technical support.
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