Essar Steel to offer 3 options to FRN holders
Mumbai: Essar Steel is preparing three options to offer to its floating rate note holders -- two roll over options and an exit route. These suggestions form part of a financial plan prepared by Bank of America Securities after the company failed to redeem FRNs worth $250 million on the due date of 20 July.

The company has convened a meeting of the FRN holders on 20 October to discuss the options. A decision will be taken only then, a company spokesman said. The three options being suggested are:

• extension of the maturity period of the loan by 12 years on par with other secured creditors
• extension of the maturity period by five years but continuance as an unsecured creditor and
• exit after a negotiated deal

The company is proposing to the Indian financial institutions that they convert their exposure totally worth $40 million into an Indian rupee term loan. The company will issue non-convertible debentures to these FRN holders and the proceeds will be used to extinguish the FRNs. The NCDs will have a maturity period of eight years. The overall plan also proposes to extend the company's existing debts to eight years.
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Pearl Engineering in takeover talks
New Delhi: The ailing Pearl Engineering, a Pearl Polymer group company, is offering itself to be taken over by either the Reliance group or Indo-Rama (Thailand). The company is prepared to divest a majority stake and hand over management control to the acquiring party.

The promoters of the company have a 40 per cent stake in the company, while 16 per cent is held by the Asian Finance and Investment Corporation, Manila, 10 per cent by Indian financial institutions and the rest by the public. The company had reported a turnover of Rs 88 crore in the financial year 1998.
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Asian Paints to acquire Lankan company
Mumbai: Asian Paints has acquired a 76 per cent equity stake in Delmege Forsyth & Co (Paints), the second largest paint company in Sri Lanka. Delmege Forsyth had reported a turnover of Rs 16 crore in 1997-98 and a net profit of Rs 61 lakh.

Asian Paints subsidiary Asian Paints International will acquire the stake. The Sri Lankan company has a paint capacity of 2,500 tonnes per annum.
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eVentures in India
Mumbai: The joint venture between Japanese Softbank and News Corporation of Rupert Murdoch, eVentures, is launching its operations in India. The company has aligned with Pramod Mittal of the Ispat group to establish eVentures India, which will focus on investments in internet.

In another agreement, an internet funding company Acquavit Inc., has merged with eVentures.

eVentures India will help Indian internet ventures to acquire their full potential. The company will also bring Softbank/News Corporation internet properties to India and provide the latest internet technologies and expertise to Indian ventures.
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Singapore co to dispose Chennai waste
Chennai: Singapore-based CGEA Asia Holdings has gained the contract for Chennai's solid waste disposal after the Chennai Municipal Corporation decided to privatise solid waste disposal in the municipal limits. CGEA Asia Holdings will use state-of-the-art technology including hook-lift trucks and mechanical sweepers.

CGEA Asia Holdings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CGEA of France and part of the $40 billion Vivendi. The company intends to set up an operating company in India with an equity of Rs 38.5 crore, the estimated  cost of the project.
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MTNL plans subsidiary company
New Delhi: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is planning a wholly-owned subsidiary to handle internet and related business. The new company, with a paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore, will be floated in one or two months, says S. Rajagopalan, MTNL's chairman and managing director.

The subsidiary will be called Millennium Telecom and it will handle MTNL's internet and other value-added services business.

Mr Rajagopalan, however, ruled out any subsidiary to run the mobile phone service of MTNL.
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Gujarat Sidhee, Saurashtra Cement merge
Ahmedabad: Gujarat Sidhee Cement and Saurashtra Cement, belonging to the Mehta group, have merged their operations. A formal merger is not possible as Gujarat Sidhee Cement has come under the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.

The merger, done at the instance of Anderson Consulting, involves making the organisational structure flat, and leveraging the synergy of the brands Hathi of Saurashtra Cement and Sidhee. Marketing operations will be brought under one roof, but the different brand names will be retained.
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Star ends tie-up with SitiCable
Mumbai: Star TV has ended its marketing arrangement with SitiCable, promoted by Subhash Chandra of the Zee group. Star proposes to have direct links with operators belonging to the network. Star TV claims that it is losing business on account of the arrangement. The company has also alleged that SitiCable has been  showing a reduced subscriber base although its subscriber base is comparatively high -- around 3 million.

SitiCable has already switched off the Star channels in some parts of the country.
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Zee floats educational company
Mumbai: Zee Telefilms has created a new company from its education division, Zee Interactive Learning Systems. The company, a full-owned subsidiary of the parent company, will focus on the creation of a learning network,  integrating   television, multimedia, internet and print media to provide learning solutions to various segments of the society at lower costs.

The service will be available from the first quarter of 2000, Uma Ganesh, chief executive of the company, said. It expects to have between 50,000 and one lakh students in the first year and its activities will be expanded to the neighbouring countries by 2001 and to Europe and the Americas by 2002.

Zee Telefilms will invest Rs 100 crore in the company in the next three years.
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Silverline to acquire US company
New Delhi: Silverline Industries, a subsidiary of the US-based Silverline Holding Corporation, is acquiring one of the holding company's US subsidiaries, Silverline Technologies. The acquisition is expected to consolidate the Indian software company's business ahead of its planned ADR issue.

The company has applied to the Foreign Investments Promotion Board for permission to acquire the US company. The purchase consideration payable to the owner, Silverline Holding Corporation, will be by way of equity shares of Silverline Industries.
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Daewoo trebles car sales
Calcutta: Daewoo Motors India has recorded a three-fold increase in sales in the first half of the financial year 1999-2000 compared to the same period of the previous year. The company sold 14,668 vehicles during April-September 1999-2000, against 4,144 cars in the same period last year. In September 1999, the company sold 3,166 cars.
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Kalpataru returns land to Knoll
Mumbai: The Kalpataru group, which had contracted to purchase the manufacturing facilities and land belonging to Knoll Pharmaceuticals at Sion in Mumbai, has returned a part of the land to the company, The Economic Times said in a report. The deal is now understood to have been completed at Rs 43 crore and Kalpataru will retain the original building and a part of the prime urban land. The original deal involved payment of Rs 66 crore in tranches over five years.
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Toyota to invest $400 m for each new model
Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor plans to invest around $400 million for each successive model of its vehicle in India. The company expects to recover its costs from its investment in the multi-purpose vehicle by the sixth year of operation. The company has plans to introduce a second model and a small car model shortly.

The multi-purpose vehicle, which is designed for India, will be a passenger car with a seating configuration of either 3-3-4 or 2-3-3, K.K. Swamy, deputy managing director of the company said.
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Kshema Tech plans US acquisition.
Bangalore: Kshema Technologies, a software development company, is planning to acquire software companies in the US. It is in talks with three such companies, and at least one of them will be acquired in the next six months, Anant R. Koppar, president and chief executive officer of the company, said. The cost of acquisition will be in the range of Rs 10 to Rs 12 crore.

Mr Koppar said Kshema is also planning an initial public offering in 2000. IL&FS Venture Corporation and Citicorp Finance (India) have taken an equity of 17 per cent in Kshema at a value of Rs 15 crore.
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ICI selling acrylics unit, brand
London: Imperial Chemical Industries is selling its Belgian-based acrylic business and its Perspex brand for $834.3 million. The sale is a major step towards conversion of the chemicals giant into a speciality chemicals producer. It will also reduce the company's debt levels, company officials said.

The acrylics operation has 2,000 plus staff worldwide. It is being acquired by Ineos Acrylics, the vehicle for British businessman Jim Ratcliffe.
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Broadcom starts new media company
Los Angeles: Broadcom Corporation, maker of microchips, has started a media company to speed up the convergence of television and the internet and to create demand for its own products. The Irvine, California-based company is aligning with Gotcha International for the new venture. Gotcha makes surfing software and produces magazines and TV progmrammes on surfing and sports like snowboarding and skateboarding.

The new company, Broadband Interactive Group, will acquire Gotcha's media assets, including its website and a library of sports footage.
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Free web privacy software
Menlo Park: Enonymous.com, a San Diego start-up, is planning a free online privacy utility to protect the identities of shoppers on the web from the marketers. The company's programme protects consumer privacy by segregating information about their identities from their characteristics like age, gender and interests. There has been demand for a curb on the misuse of web surfers' personal data for unsolicited mass-marketing via the e-mail.
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Amazon site access from wireless devices
Seattle: Amazon.com said it has introduced a new service to enable customers to shop at its site using wireless access devices. The service allows customers to shop or check order status from wireless devices like handheld computers. Recently 3Com had announced nationwide availability of its Palm VII handheld computer.

Amazon has acquired a privately-held company Convergence Corporation for about $20 million in equity to create internet access software for a variety of information devices.
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