Fiat, Ford in pact for common use of Indian plant
Mumbai: Fiat Spa of Italy and Ford Motor Company of the US have entered into an agreement facilitating joint manufacture of engines and other auto components for their vehicles designed for India. The agreement, signed in Turin, Italy, envisages Fiat and Ford exploring the feasibility of using Fiat India Auto's Kurla plant in Mumbai as a production facility for engines.

The study, which is expected to be completed by 1999 end, will cover all aspects of the matter, including size of the engines of small and mid-size cars planned for India, production capacity, plant location, and employment.

Ford's Chennai plant is also being considered as an alternative production facility.
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Tata Sons hikes holding in Tisco
Mumbai: The Tata group's holding company Tata Sons has hiked its stake in Tata Iron and Steel Company from 8.74 per cent to 13.3 per cent. Announcing this at Tisco's annual general meeting, Ratan Tata, chairman of the group, said the shares were purchased from the open market at the prevailing rate of Rs 80 to Rs 150.

Mr Tata, answering queries from shareholders, said the company was also planning to acquire steel companies in South East Asia.

Tisco will come out with a privately-placed preference share issue of Rs 100 crore next month to meet its immediate financial commitments, Mr Tata said.
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M&M to benefit from RBI rules in Otis stake sale
Mumbai: Otis Elevator Co of the US will pay Rs 375 per share to acquire the 23.89 per cent stake held by the Mahindras in Otis Elevator Company (India).

Reporting on the price agreed, The Economic Times said Otis has approached the Foreign Investments Promotion Board for an approval and that Mahindra Holding & Finance Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra group, which holds the shares, may get additional funds from the sale in view of certain regulations by the Reserve Bank of India in the sale of stake in Indian company to a foreign entity.

At the agreed price of Rs 375 per share, the Mahindras will get a price of Rs 112.35 crore for the 29,95,810 shares in Otis Elevator Co (India). The group may get an additional Rs 11 to Rs 14 crore as a result of the RBI stipulations.

The RBI has set the average of the weekly high and low of the company's scrip for the past six months and the average of the weekly high and low of the scrip for the past two weeks as parameters and the higher of the two of these is chosen as the minimum price payable by the foreign company. The ruling price of Otis shares is Rs 453.
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Ranbaxy to acquire Speciality stake, then exit venture
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories is negotiating with US partner Speciality Inc to buy out its 50 per cent stake in Speciality Ranbaxy. The company is offering a 50 per cent premium on the prevailing price of over Rs 15 per share of the joint venture.

Ranbaxy is understood to be planning to exit the joint venture after buying out Speciality's stake, as the group does not want to have diagnostic laboratories as part of its business.
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Tata Petrodyne to sell 2 oilfields to Enron
Mumbai: Tata Petrodyne, a Tata group company in the petrochemicals sector, is selling its stake in two oilfields to two Enron-promoted companies. The group has decided to reduce its presence in oil exploration and production.

The Business Standard reported that Tata Petrodyne has decided to sell 30.5 per cent of its 40.5 per cent stake in one of the oil fields to Enron Oil and Gas and Enron International Mauritius. Hardy Oil of the UK, a partner in the consortium running the oilfield, has also decided to sell its stake of 32.5 per cent to the two Enron companies.

Both Tata Petrodyne and Hardy Oil have sold their entire holdings in the other oil field to the Enron companies.
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Jet Airways to continue fare cut
New Delhi: Jet Airways will continue with its concessional fare offer on the Delhi-Mumbai sector till 15 August. Earlier, the company had decided to withdraw from the fare war and was planning to call off the discount schemes offered in the sector from 1 August.

Jet Airways has been offering a fare of Rs 3,800 for the Delhi-Mumbai journey against the earlier one-way fare of Rs 5,110.
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ESOP from Essel Packaging
Mumbai: Essel Packaging has offered stock options to its employees. The company has allotted 3.75 lakh warrants to the employee welfare trust, which will hold the warrants on behalf of the employees.
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Escotel approaches ICICI to retire debts
Mumbai: Escotel Mobile Communications, a private cellular telecommunications services provider, is in talks with ICICI to refinance its dollar and rupee-based loans. Escotel has $60 million as loan from a consortium of seven overseas banks and export credit agencies and Rs 100 crore as loan from Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services.

The company is migrating to the revenue-sharing scheme for telecom service providers and hence wants to revise its business plans and avoid a forex risk. ICICI is believed to be offering better terms.
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Allahabad Bank too seeks acquisition of Bachchan property
Mumbai: Following Canara Bank's filing a court case for acquiring Amitabh Bachchan's residential property in the ABCL case, Allahabad Bank has sought permission from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction to attach Mr Bachchan's personal property in order to recover Rs 4.76 crore.

Allahabad Bank, along with Canara Bank, was part of a consortium, which lent money to Amitabh Bachchan Corporation in 1996.
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Morgan Stanley to prepare Dunlop revival plan
Calcutta: Dunlop India has given the mandate to J.M. Morgan Stanley to revise and revalidate a revival package to be submitted to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.

Dunlop had made three commitments to the government of West Bengal -- fresh infusion of funds by the promoters, setting up an asset sale committee and updating of a revival package. The company is beginning to fulfil these conditions.

J.M. Morgan Stanley will prepare a package taking into account Dunlop's plan to raise Rs 202 crore and the various reliefs sought from the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu governments under the Sick Industrial Companies Act.
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SAP AG plans internet software for India
Calcutta: SAP AG of Germany will announce a number of internet initiatives to enable Indian companies to make better use of the internet infrastructure. One of the initiatives is System mySAP.com, an open e-business solutions environment, comprising portals, industry-specific enterprise applications and internet services that will allow Indian companies to participate in the internet economy.

The company will target oil and gas, automotive, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, banking and insurance sectors in India.
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Warrants from Orchid
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals has issued interest-free warrants for Rs 175 crore to foreign institutional investors, which will be converted into equity within a year.

The funds will be used for development of products and brands, besides meeting capital expenditure, K. Raghavendra Rao, Orchid Chemicals' managing director, said.

The price at which the conversion will take place after a year will be determined at the time of conversion.
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Usha Beltron unit buys EMMC, UK
Ranchi: Umicor UK, a joint venture between Usha Beltron and Exim Bank, has acquired EMMC, a British firm specialising in services and solutions for the wire rope industry. The acquisition has been made at a cost of $3.5 million

Umicor is the international arm of UBL for distribution of wire and wire ropes.
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Wipro net profit up 87%
Bangalore: Wipro has registered an 87 per cent increase in its profit after tax for the first quarter ended 30 June 1999 over the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

The company has also recorded a 27 per cent increase in sales turnover in the 1ast quarter. Profit after tax rose to Rs 48 crore (from Rs 25.7 crore in the earler period) and sales and other income to Rs 425.9 crore (Rs 333.1 crore).

The company has declared a dividend of 15 per cent.
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L&T net up 10%
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has reported 10 per cent growth in its net profit to Rs 79.25 core for the first quarter ended 30 June 1999, which compare with Rs 72.05 crore for the first quarter last year.

The company's turnover for the period rose 8.3 per cent to Rs 1,591.85 crore.
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Indian Airlines net tumbles
New Delhi: Indian Airlines' net profit plummeted 93 per cent in the first quarter of 1999-2000.

The net profit came down to Rs 0.55 crore form Rs 8.35 crore in the first quarter of 1998-99. The airline attributed the dismal performance to recession in the aviation sector and a steep fall in traffic.
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Deutsche Telecom offer for One2One
London: Deutsche Telecom has offered to acquire One2One, the British wireless operator, for a $11.98 billion consideration. Industry watchers believe that the deal will be concluded within a week.

One2One, the smallest of four cellular phone companies in the UK, was offered for sale four months ago, by its co-owners, Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group. France Telecom and Mannesmann of Germany were anxious to acquire One2One, but could not agree on the initial demand price of $11 billion.
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Casino culture in Detroit
Detroit: MGM Grand secured a casino licence from the state regulators, clearing the way for Detroit to become the largest US city to offer legalised gaming. The Michigan Gaming Control Board voted to issue MGM Grand Detroit Casino a licence following an earlier approval of the casino's suitability.

The $220 million, 75,000-sq.ft MGM Grand Detroit Casino is the first of three casinos that will open in Detroit this year or early in 2000.
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Korea trying to pacify Daewoo's foreign creditors
Seoul: South Korea's administration   will hold talks to try and pacify foreign creditors of the cash-strapped Daewoo group who are considering calling in their loans.

Oh Kap-soo, assistant governor of the country's Financial Supervisory Service said a meeting of representatives of the Foreign Bankers Group in Seoul has been convened.

Foreign creditors hold about 20 per cent of Daewoo's nearly $50 billion in debts.
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British insurer to hike state in SocGen
Paris: The battle between three French banks took a new turn when Societe Generale shareholder CGU plc said it may raise its stake to try and block Banque Nationale de Paris's hostile bid for the bank.

CGU, Britain's largest composite insurer, said it was already in talks with Societe Generale about extending a limited joint venture before the French bank war erupted, involving Societe Generale, Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas. Now it wanted to protect its commercial relationship.

The CGU intervention may tip the balance and help Societe Generale ward off the threat from BNP. CGU has said it might raise its 3.1 per cent stake to 10 per cent.

Separately, Spain's biggest bank, Banco Santander Central Hispano said it has acquired additional shares in Societe Generale to increase its stake to 3.34 per cent.
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Nippon Mitsubishi to acquire Koa
Tokyo: Nippon Mitsubishi Oil, Japan's largest oil distributor, has announced a friendly $224 million takeover bid on Koa Oil, a specialised refiner that is 50 per cent owned by Caltex. Nippon Mitsubishi Oil has a 5.8 per cent stake in Koa. It said it would buy all the 72.6 million stake in Koa held by Caltex.
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