Indal to gain strength through APA
Calcutta: The merger of world aluminium majors Alcan, Pechiney and Al group into $21.6 billion APA, is expected to change the outlook of Indian Aluminium Company, a subsidiary of Alcan. It is said in corporate circles that Indal will be renamed and the company will gain strength under the new dispensation.

Utkal Alumina, the Rs 4,000-crore alumina project of Indal,  Alcan and Norsk Hydro will benefit substantially as a result of the merger, the sources said. Norsk Hydro is the largest stakeholder in the joint venture, with 45 per cent, followed by Alcan with 35 per cent and Indal 20 per cent.
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Reliance bids for 14 oil blocks
Mumbai: Reliance Industries is the largest private sector bidder for oil exploration blocks under the new exploration and licensing policy, or NELP.

The company has bid for 14 out of 48 blocks on offer. It has joined hands with a Nyco Resources of Canada and is interested in the blocks on the Bombay offshore region, in the Kerala-Konkan basin, Kutch, North-East coast and the Krishna-Godavari basin. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has bid for 15 blocks.

All the international oil exploring companies have kept out the bids. Cairn Energy India is the second largest private sector player.
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Indian Airlines discounts fares in other sectors
Mumbai: Indian Airlines has introduced special fares in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Kozhikode, Mumbai-Mangalore, Mumbai-Kochi and Mumbai-Vadodara sectors, extending the scope of the fare war in the domestic airline sector.

The airline is offering 25 per cent discount in these sectors. The special fares for the economy class are:

• Mumbai-Ahmedabad: Rs 1,905 (Rs 2,535 regular fare)
• Mumbai-Mangalore: Rs 2,700 (Rs 3,610 regular fare)
• Mumbai-Kochi: Rs 3,750 (Rs 5,025 regular fare)
• Mumbai-Kozhikode: Rs 3,500 (Rs 4,580 regular fare).

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BPCL-JNPT sign pact for liquid cargo jetty
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust have signed an agreement to develop a liquid cargo jetty at the port in Mumbai. The agreement envisages the development of the jetty on a build-operate- transfer basis.

The agreement also provides for revenue sharing.
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Supreme Court allows Colgate's appeal
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside a Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission order restraining Colgate Palmolive from using the phrase "suraksha chakra" in its toothpaste advertisements.

The court said the MRTPC order is not justified as it has not given any reasons for the same.

Allowing an appeal by the company, the court said the MRTPC injunction also did not take into account the submission of the company that they had been using the punchline for the last 13 years.
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Samman Scheme winners
Mumbai: Tata Exports, Zee Telefilms, News Television, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation and Bharat Heavy Electricals are among 23 companies that have received awards under the Samman Scheme for encouraging honest and largest customs duty payers introduced by finance minister Yashwant Sinha in 1998-99 budget.

The awards were given away by the Central Board of Excise and Customs.
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SQL Star, i2Office in pact
Hyderabad: SQL Star International has tied up with i2Office.com, a US-based internet company for continued product development. The tie-up is part of a wide range of initiatives of the company on web development and deploying core technology in web-enabled services, education and setting up of new development centres.
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Daewoo Motors tops in exports
New Delhi: Daewoo Motors India tops the list of Indian automobile companies in export performance. The company had exports worth Rs 198 crore, according to the directorate general of foreign trade.

General Motors India comes second with Rs 121 crore, followed by Mercedes Benz with Rs 106 crore. Fiat has exports worth Rs 3.32 crore (against imports for its Uno models), while Honda has Rs 82 lakh.
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Maruti's market share down
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog's market share was down to 68.87 per cent during April-June 1999 compared to 83.90 per cent in the same period last year, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

The fall in market share has come despite the company recording its highest-ever sales -- 89,131 cars against 78,395 cars in the same period last year.

Hyundai Motor India has a market share of 9.80 per cent, while Telco, which had only 0.69 per cent in the first quarter of 1998, has increased its market share to 6.04 per cent, the society said.
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TNT has a new logo
New Delhi: TNT India, the international express distribution company, has a new corporate log -- the three letters placed in orange circular inter-connected rings to show what the company claimed "flexibility, dynamism and innovation".

TNT India is a subsidiary of TNT Post Group, a publicly-listed Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based company with $9 billion sales in 1998.
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JM Morgan Stanley to advise SAIL on Salem plant
New Delhi: The Steel Authority of India has appointed JM Morgan Stanley to select a joint venture partner with global experience for its Salem stainless steel plant.

A source said Japanese company Nissho Iwai-Nippon Metal Industries, Avesta Sheffield of UK and Gama Engineering of Canada have evinced interest in the export-oriented Salem Steel Plant.
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Apple exits software business in India
Bangalore: Apple India has pulled out of direct software development in India as part of its global restructuring agenda. The company will now outsource its development activities.

The Apple India Software Development Centre had employed around 50 professionals. All have been redeployed either in India or abroad.
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IOC, Petronas in pact for aromatic unit
Singapore: Indian Oil Corporation and Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) of Malaysia are in talks to establish an aromatics plant at Panipat in Haryana. IOC has obtained the government approval and it is in the process of formalising a memorandum of understanding, an IOC official said.

The proposed plant will be located near Indianoil's Panipat refinery, which has a throughput capacity of 120,000 barrels a day.
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Lycos plans instant shops on net
New York: Internet company Lycos Inc said it is offering a new service to allow retailers to create online stores on the Lycos site. The online shop can be set up in 10 minutes, Lycos said.

Robert Davis, chief executive of Lycos, said the service is central to the company's strategy. "I expect to have more than 1,000 stores," he said.
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Hewlett-Packard announces e-speak
San Francisco: Hewlett-Packard has announced its e-speak software that can be integrated with Oracle's database software.

The e-speak software has been developed to let websites communicate with one another. H-P predicts that e-speak will do for business on the internet what the HTML universal programming format did for exchange of basic information on the web.

By integrating e-speak with Oracle's 8i database, the leading database software programme in the world, H-P wants to have a big advantage in the still-fledgling market for e-services.
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Compaq unfolds new servers
New York: Compaq Computer Corporation introduced a new class of Intel-based PC servers designed for the high-end business computer market.

The new server offers competitive performance at roughly one-third the price of Unix machines, the company claimed.

The computers can be used to manage websites and handle online transactions. This market is now led by Sun Microsystems.
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Daewoo's foreign creditors form panel
Seoul: Foreign creditors of Daewoo group said they will form a nine-member panel to negotiate a rescheduling of the group's foreign debts.

The nine members are Arab Bank, Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, National Australia Bank, UBS, HSBC Holdings and ABN Amro.
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Iridium shareholders asked to shed stake
London: Iridium, the debt-ridden global satellite communications firm, is asking shareholders to accept a drop of more than 40 per cent in their stakes as part of the company's restructuring.

The Financial Times said Iridium chief executive John Richardson is asking its bondholders to convert all their debt into equity. This move will leave them owning 25 per cent of the company, said the report.
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