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Telco will soon have a MD, says Ratan
Tata
Mumbai: Tata Engineering and Locomotive
Company chairman Ratan Tata has said the company will soon have a managing director.
Addressing the shareholders of the company at the 54th
annual general meeting, Mr Tata said it has become imperative for the company to
have a managing director since he has stepped down as executive chairman. Mr Tata,
however, did not reveal any name.
Mr Tata said Telco Construction Equipment Company, the
construction equipment business arm of Telco, will soon go public. He also said that the
company is open to going in for a voluntary retirement scheme for factory and corporate
office employees.
Tata Sons, the Tata group holding company, has hiked its
stake in Telco to 20 per cent.
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Titan talking to Swatch for
tie-up
Bangalore: Watchmaker Titan Industries is in
talks with Swatch group of Switzerland for a possible tie-up. Titan and Swatch will look
at all aspects of a business joint venture, including manufacturing and distribution.
Xerxes Desai, vice chairman and managing director of Titan Industries, has said that the
two companies are keen on working together.
The company is also enhancing the activities of "Time
Zone", its chain of marketing outlets, which are essentially franchisees of Titan
Industries to sell watches and other Titan brands. For the purpose, the company is holding
talks with some Japanese watch manufacturers, whose products are expected to be made
available in India through "Time Zone" outlets.
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BPCL to export naphtha
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
(BPCL) will export naphtha for the first time. This export is on behalf of Madras
Refineries, whose products are being marketed by BPCL. The company intends to sell 35,000
tonnes of the product overseas and a tender for the purpose has been floated.
India has a surplus naphtha and company officials state
that exports will continue till the stocks are exhausted.
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Cipla eyes US market, to set
up new formulation units
Mumbai: Cipla is going to invest in
dedicated formulation facilities with a view to cater to the US market. An amount of $15
million, beginning this year, has been earmarked for the purpose, company sources
said.
The company is filing eight abbreviated new drug
applications -- which are essentially permissions to market off patent drugs in US markets
-- for asthma, cardiac problems and infection.
The facilities are being added to the existing plant of
the company at Kurkumbh in Maharashtra.
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Walden acquires stake in
Transaction Technologies
Mumbai: Walden International Investment
Group has acquired a 26 per cent stake in Transaction Technologies. IBM has already taken
a 5 per cent stake in the company.
Transaction Technologies has a strategic tie-up with Visa
International. It also holds 50 per cent stake in Equifax Venture Infotek, a joint venture
with US-based Equifax Inc, which undertakes work for banks and financial institutions in
processing consumer payment systems.
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ICICI invests in Plexus
Technologies
Mumbai: ICICI has invested Rs 4.3 crore in
acquiring a 30 per cent stake in the city-based Plexus Technologies, a company engaged in
developing a travel and recruitment portal in India.
Plexus Technologies intends to utilise the funds for its
US operations and to enhance the work it is undertaking in India, Nitin Komawar, chief
executive officer of the company, said. It has recently signed up three or four deals in
the US worth over $1 million, for designing and maintaining portals.
The company has a strategic tie-up with Sun Microsystems
for development of business-to-business e-commerce solutions.
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UTI seeks 10 lakh additional
ACC shares
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India, which holds
nearly six per cent of Associated Cement Companies' equity and is one of the company's
largest institutional shareholders, has applied for 10 lakh shares of the company under
the rights issue.
This is in addition to UTI's rights entitlement of 20.6
lakh shares, based on its current equity holding.
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Maruti sells record number
of cars
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog has sold 35,528 cars
in July, recording the highest ever monthly sales achieved by the company since its
inception 15 years ago.
Passenger car sales increased by 16 per cent in July
compared with the same month last year. Its models, Zen, Maruti 800 and Omni have achieved
record sales, the company said in a press release.
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Piaggio in destabilisation
game, alleges LML
New Delhi: LML has informed the company law
board that Piaggio, its Italian partner, had threatened to destabilise the company if it
did not comply with its conditions, including a blanket waiver for breaches of various
agreements and payment of a fixed fee of 50 billion Italian lira.
LML, in its reply filed before the board, alleged that
Piaggio had demanded a waiver and even made it a pre-condition for subscribing to the
preferential issue in December 1998. LML had to drop the preferential capital issue
because of Piaggio's refusal.
Piaggio had earlier moved the Board seeking removal of
Deepak Singhania as managing director of LML.
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Gujarat Hi-Tech
plan off
New Delhi: The proposed acquisition of
Gujarat Hi-Tech Industries by Gujarat Ambuja has fallen through following objections
raised by the Gujarat government and the State Bank of India to the revival scheme for the
ailing company.
The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction had
circulated a draft rehabilitation scheme for the company proposing sale of all Gujarat
Hi-Tech's movable and immovable assets to Gujarat Ambuja for Rs 12 crore.
On hearing the objections, BIFR ruled that the draft
rehabilitation scheme cannot be sanctioned. In the circumstances, the BIFR bench has
formed the opinion that the company be wound up.
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Indian Seamless,
Kalyani Seamless to merge
Mumbai: The Indian Seamless Metal Tubes and
Kalyani Seamless Tubes are merging their operations. The new company will be known as The
Indian Seamless Metal Tubes. It will issue one share for every erstwhile Indian Seamless
Metal Tubes' shares and one share for every four Kalyani Seamless Tubes' shares.
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Ecoboard to set up power
plant
Pune: Ecoboard Industries, manufacturers of
bagasse-based particle board, is setting up a captive power plant at Velapur near Solapur.
The plant will use bagasse, bagasse pith and dust as fuel.
The 1.4-mw plant is expected to go on stream by September
1999. It will require an investment of Rs 5 crore will be partly raised from Ecoboard
Industries' internal accruals and the balance from institutions.
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Videocon to enter
internet business
Mumbai: Videocon International is getting
into internet. The company has acquired a licence to become an internet service provider.
The new status, company chairman Venugopal Dhoot says,
will help it to market its new colour television models, which have built-in internet
facilities.
The company will start its internet operations in a few
months with the four metros -- Mumbai- Calcutta, New Delhi and Chennai -- being covered in
the initial stages. The services will come free of cost with the new product, Mr Dhoot
said.
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New media chip
from Sun Microsystems
San Francisco: Sun Microsystems says it is
working on a new family of computer chips that will eventually power media-rich consumer
devices such as video game machines, handheld computers and screen phones.
The design of these new media chips, called MAJC
Instruction Set Architecture, will be released at the Hot Chips Conference on
high-performance chips at Stanford University, later this month.
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Daewoo restructuring open
to foreign creditors
Seoul: Foreign creditors of Daewoo can take
part in the talks about restructuring the ailing group, South Koran government said.
"The government will let foreign creditors take part
in the process of Daewoo's restructuring in consultation with local creditors, Lee
Yong-keun, vice-chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, the regulator in South
Korea said.
The government had earlier said creditors would handle the
restructuring of the group, keeping the management out of it, but later reversed its
announcement, allowing the management of to have control over its destiny.
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Intel in internet JV with
Hong Kong company
Los Angeles: Intel Corporation said it is
investing in a new joint venture with Pacific Century Group of Hong Kong to bring
high-speed internet access to Asia.
Under the deal, Intel's existing joint venture with
Pacific Century, known as Pacific Convergence Corporation, will be folded into a new
company, Pacific Century CyberWorks.
Pacific Century Group, a private company controlled by
Richard Li, the youngest son of Li Ka-shing, a noted Hong Kong entrepreneur, is creating
CyberWorks out of its acquisition of telecommunications firm Tricom Holdings. Intel will
invest $50 million in the venture and also supply chips, software and systems.
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Shell subsidiary to sell
energy systems in India, Lanka
London: Royal Dutch Shell group's
subsidiary, Shell Renewables, has established a marketing presence in the India and Sri
Lanka.
In India, Shell Renewables has opened a wholly-owned
subsidiary in Bangalore, which will market solar photovoltaic energy systems in rural
areas. The system will be assembled locally using multi-crystalline cells imported from
Shell Renewables' Helmode plant in the Netherlands or the Gelsenkirchen plant in Germany.
In Sri Lanka the company has acquired a local company,
Solar Power and Light Co, which will sell solar systems in rural regions.
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Fidelity to buy Title
Irvine, California: Fidelity National
Financial said it will buy Chicago Title Corporation in a $1.2 billion deal that will more
than double Fidelity's size. It will then be the largest US title insurance firm.
Fidelity National, already a leading national title
insurer, said it will pay $52 per share for the Chicago-based company in cash and stock.
The new company will retain the Fidelity National Financial Inc name and will sell title
insurance, credit reporting, property valuation services and post some $3.2 billion in
revenues a year.
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BNP sure of acquiring SocGen
Paris: Just five days remaining for the bids
to close for what is France's most bitter banking takeover battle, Banque Nationale de
Paris chairman Michel Pebereau said he is confident of winning control over both Societe
Generale and Paribas.
Analysts reacted to the claim saying perhaps BNP may
acquire majority control in Paribas by the time the bidding closes, but it will be
difficult for the bank to do so in the case of Societe Generale.
Mr Pebereau, however, said he did not need 50 per cent of
Societe Generale to take charge of the bank. "We are certain that we will gain
effective control with or without 50 per cent," he was quoted as saying.
He said in case BNP failed in its bid for Societe
Generale, he would view for a tie-up with Paribas. "BNP-Paribas is worth more than
Societe Generale-Paribas, he said.
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