Godrej Soaps selling stake in Godrej Sara Lee
Mumbai: Godrej
Soaps is selling 22.5 per cent of its 48 per cent stake
in its joint venture Godrej Sara Lee to holding company
Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co as part of its plan to retire
debt and reduce its interest burden. Sara Lee has a 51 per
cent holding in the joint venture. Godrej Sara lee, formerly
known as Godrej Hi-care, is a leading insecticide manufacturer
with brands like Good Knight and Jet mosquito repellants.
Earlier, another group company,
Godrej Foods, had sold its 29 per cent stake in a joint
venture, Godrej Pillsbury, to Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co.
These divestments have been made on the basis of valuation
advisory reports from a management consulting firm.
Godrej Soaps, in the meanwhile,
has acquired Ezee liquid detergent, Trilo and Key
brands from Cussons India and will manufacture and distribute
Imperial Leather soaps and talc.
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IBM
India launched
Mumbai: IBM launched its full-fledged
India operations on 23 September. The US company has bought
out the Tata group's stake in the joint venture, Tata
IBM.
Speaking at a function in
Mumbai marking the launch of IBM India as a wholly-owned
subsidiary of IBM, John Joyce, president, IBM Asia Pacific,
said the company will set up a PC manufacturing facility
near its existing facility in Pondicherry.
IBM India plans to add about
1,000 people to its team this year and will double its
research personnel to 150 by 2001. Mr Ranjit Limaye, managing
director and chief executive officer of IBM India, said
the company is involved in research in voice recognition
and in software and support services. For more details,
click
here.
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RBI
interim order on corporate funds abroad
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India
has rescinded its order to Reliance Industries, Sterlite
Industries, Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company and
Tata Electric Companies to bring back their funds lodged
abroad. The RBI has, however, clarified that the
reprieve is only interim. The funds parked abroad amount
to $1.5 billion.
The RBI has also said that
the funds cannot be used for pre-payment of debt.
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Dabur
permitted to try anti-cancer drug
New Delhi: The Drug Controller General
of India has given permission to Dabur India to conduct
phase 1 clinical trials of an anti-cancer molecule developed
by the Dabur Research Foundation. This is the first chemical
entity developed by the foundation to reach the clinical
trial stage.
Dabur India sources said
the drug, a derivative from natural sources, has been
successfully tried on animals. It will now undergo a three-phase
clinical trial to establish its safety, efficacy and toxicity
levels on humans.
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Hindustan
Lever to acquire Cococare
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever is planning to
acquire Cococare, a well known coconut oil brand, from
Recon Oil Industries. The acquisition will double Hindustan
Lever's market share in the coconut hair oil segment.
At present, it markets Nihar brand of coconut oil.
Cococare has a market share
of 8.5 per cent in the 3,750-tonne coconut oil market.
The market leader is Marico Industries, with its Parachute
brand.
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Reliance
paraxylene plant goes on stream
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has commissioned
the first line of its paraxylene plant at Jamnagar in
Gujarat. The second and third lines are expected to be
commissioned in the next few weeks. The plant has a capacity
to produce 1.4 million tonnes of paraxylene per annum.
Reliance has built the plant
with United Oil Products technology, which yields paraxylene
with a 99.9 per cent purity level. The entire output will
be consumed over the next few months by the company's
pure terephthalic acid plants. For more details, click
here.
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Novo
Nordisk splits into two companies
Bangalore: Novo Nordisk, the Danish bio-technology
major, is splitting into two independent companies --
Novo Nordisk Health Care and Novo Nordisk Enzyme. The
holding company of the group, Novo Nordisk Foundation,
has decided to establish a wholly-owned company, Novo
A/S, to manage the foundation's funds, handle its interests
in the healthcare and enzymes business and invest in new
business ventures, Novo Nordisk's corporate executive
vice-president and chief of healthcare operations, Lars
Rebien Sorensen, said.
In India, the company operates
through Novo Nordisk Pharma India. It has tie-ups with
Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Knoll Pharmaceuticals and Lifescan,
a division of Johnson and Johnson.
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Sri
Adhikari's software assets valued
Mumbai: KPMG India has valued the 1,500
hours of television software assets of Sri Adhikari Brothers
Television Network at Rs 53 crore.
Disclosing this at the company's
annual general meeting, joint managing director of the
company Markand Adhikari, said the company has signed
a joint venture pact with an Indonesian media company,
PT Menara Media Sakti, to produce 300 hours of television
software in the local language. The company will also
launch a Hindi entertainment channel.
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Incubator
for net start-ups
New Delhi: Exodus Communications is setting
up an "incubator" with an initial investment
of $2 million to help Indian internet start-ups to set
up shop in the US.
B.V. Jagdeesh, chief technology
officer of Exodus Communications, said the founder of
Exodus, K.B. Chandrasekhar, is also likely to team up
with him in the venture.
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IDBI
credit for Bhel project
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank
of India has sanctioned an additional Rs 250-crore short-term
credit to Bharat Heavy Electricals for its vendor development
programme. With this, IDBI will have sanctioned a total
of Rs 1,250 crore to Bhel for its vendor development programme.
The programme involves small short-term loans to Bhel's
suppliers against the security of firm orders from Bhel.
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BIFR
rejects Dunlop plea for more time
New Delhi: The Board for Industrial and
Financial Reconstruction has denied more time to Dunlop
India to make its net worth positive on its own. The BIFR
has asked the Industrial Development Bank of India to
formulate a revival package for the sick company.
A two-member BIFR bench
said there is no justification in allowing the company
any further time as it had not gainfully utilised the
time granted.
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Punj
Lloyd JV given expressway contract
New Delhi: A joint venture of Punj Lloyd
and Sanghamitra of Indonesia has been shortlisted for
constructing the phase 1 of the 43-km Ahmedabad-Vadodara
expressway project. The phase is estimated to cost Rs
430 crore, and is part of the Rs 900-crore, 92-km expressway
to be built to connect the two cities in Gujarat.
The National Highway Authority
of India is developing the first phase via a special purpose
vehicle, which will have equity participation from the
NHAI and the Gujarat government. The entire stretch will
be developed on a build, operate and transfer basis.
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Tribunal
orders verification of Essar Steel assets
Mumbai: The Debt Recovery Tribunal for
Maharashtra and Goa has appointed Anant Bamne as commissioner
of court to verify the assets belonging to Essar Steel
at its registered office in Hazira in Gujarat. The tribunal's
order has been given in a case filed by the State Bank
of Travancore for recovery of Rs 3.3 crore loaned to the
company.
Mr Bamne has been asked
to file a detailed report on 29 September in regard to
the goods hypothecated to the bank. The tribunal has also
restrained Essar Steel from disposing of its assets until
further orders.
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Ruling
against Pentafour
New Delhi: The Debt Recovery Tribunal
has passed an injunction against Pentaour Products vice
chairman and managing director BV. Ramakrishnan, restraining
him from transferring, dealing, pledging and alienating
shares held by him in the company and other group companies.
The State Bank of Travancore
had filed a case against Pentafour Products and Mr Ramakrishnan
for recovery of over Rs 40 crore. The tribunal restrained
Pentafour Products from alienating in any manner any of
the property owned by the company at various places in
Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
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Mannesmann
splits
Frankfurt: Mannesmann of Germany is splitting
into two companies -- one covering its engineering and
automotive operations, and the other telecom. The split
was announced even as rumours spread about Vodafone AirTouch
planning to acquire Mannesmann.
The company said there is
no immediate plans to have a strategic partner for either
of its new divisions. The two companies will have separate
managements and will be listed in 2001.
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Trademark
violation by Pfizer
Los Angeles: A Los Angeles jury decided
that Pfizer has violated an existing trademark when it
named its antibiotic Trovan.
British company Trovan and
Electronic Identification Devices had claimed in a US
district court that Pfizer wrongfully misappropriated
their trademark name. The companies are seeking more than
$100 million in damages.
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Xerox
to buy Tektronix's printing unit
New York: Xerox Corporation said it will
buy Tektronix's colour printing unit for $950 million
in cash. The deal is expected to help Xerox to shift from
dependence on copiers and take on office printer leader
Hewlett-Packard.
This will be the biggest
acquisition in Xerox's history.
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Du
Pont plans for renewable energy sources
Boston: Du Pont chairman and chief executive
Charles Holliday says the company expects to derive 25
per cent of its revenue in 2010 from non-depletable raw
materials. He said in 1998 less than 5 per cent of the
company's sales came from materials other than depletable
raw materials.
Du Pont, the world's largest
chemical company, has set a goal of sourcing 10 per cent
of its energy needs from renewable sources, such as solar
power, by the end of 2010.
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Mazda
to sell stake in Kia
Tokyo: Mazda Motor, the Japanese car
maker which is 33.4 per cent owned by Ford Motor of the
US, is selling its entire stake in Kia Motors, the Korean
car company, now owned by Hyundai, as part of its efforts
to focus on core operations and clean up its balance sheet.
Mazda has already sold a
quarter of its 8 per cent holding in Kia. The carmaker
has recently reported its first profit in six years and
has been trying to restructure under the Ford management.
It has sold its equity stake in its finance company to
Ford Credit and its holding in Jatco, a transmission joint
venture, to Nissan Motors.
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