Godrej Soaps to focus on detergents,
soaps
Mumbai: Godrej Soaps will focus on its core business -- soaps and liquid
detergents and haircare. Adi Godrej, managing director of Godrej Soaps, is quoted in The
Economic Times as saying that the company is on the look-out for acquisitions in
toilet soaps and plans to introduce a number of new products on its own by December 1999,
including liquid detergents meant for superior garments. The company will stay away from
the detergent market for cotton and synthetic garments, now dominated by Hindustan Lever,
Procter & Gamble and Nirma.
The company has also
taken a conscious decision not to have edible oil as one of its thrust areas as there is
little margin in this segment.
The Godrej group as a whole is restructuring. Godrej
Soaps had recently divested part of its stake in Godrej Sara Lee to holding company
Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co, while another group company Godrej Foods divested is stake in
Godrej Pillsbury to the holding company. The Godrej-GE alliance is also coming to an end
as the US major is exiting the joint venture, Godrej-GE Appliances.
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DCM restructuring, plans sale
of assets
New Delhi: DCM is restructuring and plans to focus on information
technology and branded textile in future. The company will retire its debts of Rs 420
crore over a five-year period with funds to be raised through sale of real estate, foundry
facilities, and investments in group companies and through a divestment of its holdings in
DCM Data Systems' software business.
The company has finalised a scheme, which is being
presented to its board. The scheme will later come up before the Delhi High Court. ICICI
and UTI, the financial institutions with exposure in DCM, are understood to have approved
the proposal.
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Reliance Systems plans
co-units
Bangalore: Reliance Systems, the Bangalore-based software products and
services company, is setting up subsidiary companies to focus on business activities in
the US and Europe. The company will change its name to create a common corporate identity.
Reliance Systems has been founded by a team that had
earlier worked with Verifone India, comprising V. Ramakrishna, P.N. Karanth, M.G.
Balakrishna Rao and Vandana Malaiya. The company focuses on electronic payment systems and
smart card-related areas.
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Sail VRS to close on 31
October
Calcutta: The Steel Authority of India Ltd has decided to close its
voluntary retirement scheme on 31 October. Sail had recently told its employees in the age
group of 58-60 to put in their VRS applications by 31 October so that they can hedge a
possible rollback in the retirement age to 58 years.
The VRS is expected to remove nearly 10,000 people from
the ailing public sector steel company. Sources claim the company has already reached its
target - hence the early closure of the scheme.
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Ruias acquire full stake
in Sterling Cellular
New Delhi: The Essar group is acquiring the equity holding of C.
Sivasankaran and Swisscom in Sterling Cellular, the cellular service provider in New
Delhi. While Mr Sivasankaran has 16.4 per cent of the company, Swisscom holds 32.6 per
cent.
The stake will be sold in one block to Essar, which
already has 51 per cent of Sterling Cellular equity. The transfer of 49 per cent from Mr
Sivasankaran and Swisscom will give Essar full control of Sterling Cellular.
The price at which the transfer is taking place is
estimated to be over $100 million.
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Essar Steel told to
rework plan
Mumbai: Financial institutions are understood to have told Essar Steel to
rework its financing plan and resolve the floating rate notes issue before they can take
any decision on a financial revival package for the company. The institutions have,
therefore, deferred a decision on the company's proposal to float a Rs 300-crore rights
issue and to extend the maturity of its domestic loans from the current seven years to 10
to 12 years.
The institutions are learnt to have agreed that they can
share the charge over the assets of the company with the FRN holders.
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Indian Rayon bids for
carbon black unit
Mumbai: The AV Birla group company Indian Rayon and Industries is
planning to acquire a carbon black plant of the Korean Steel Company. Indian Rayon is
among 20 bidders shortlisted for the unit.
Indian Rayon has two overseas carbon black units, the Thai
Carbon Black Public Company in Thailand and Alexandria Carbon Black Company in Egypt.
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Transmile Air to ply to
Indian cities
Bangalore: Transmile Air, the Malaysian flag carrier, is planning flights
to India. It will have flights to New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. The airline, the
second largest in Malaysia, expects to tap the India-Far East route, and focus on cargo
movement.
It will also tie up with Indian Airlines for ground
handling of its flights. To start with, bi-weekly flights to Chennai and once-a-week
flights to Bangalore will be introduced. The cargo flights will be routed through Kuala
Lumpur to destinations like Taipei, Shenzen, Manila, Jakarta and Penang.
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Hyundai Accent launch next
week
Chennai: Hyundai Motor India will launch its Accent in India next week.
The company has said Accent's price will be below that of Mitsubishi Lancer.
The 1,500-cc, 12-valve, 4-cylinder engine vehicle, which
is Euro II compliant, will be available in six colours. The company also claims Accent
gives a mileage of 26 km per litre of petrol. Initially, there will be a petrol version
with manual transmission and other facilities. Later, the company will introduce a deluxe
model, and diesel versions.
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Honda plea on exports
rejected
New Delhi: The government has rejected Honda Motor Company's plea against
an export obligation commitment of its proposed wholly-owned subsidiary for making
scooters and motorcycles. The company has been directed to sign a legal undertaking with
the director general of foreign trade to meet the required level of exports.
Honda had said that such a commitment was not required,
and argued that under the export-import policy, it is not required to execute any legal
undertaking. The Foreign Investments Promotion Board had cleared Honda's proposal to set
up the subsidiary on condition that it executes a legal undertaking to fulfil the export
obligation with the DGFT prior to commencement of production .
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Phelps Dodge succeeds
with Asarco too
New York: Asarco said it has accepted the $1.12 billion cash and stock
offer from Phelps Dodge. Having already annexed another rival, Cyprus Amaz Minerals,
Phelps Dodge will be the largest copper company in the world.
The Phoenix, Arizona-based Phelps Dodge will pay $28.21
per share in cash and stock for the New York-headquartered Asarco.
Earlier, Asarco and Cyprus Amaz Minerals had talked of a
possible merger. Phelps Dodge thwarted their plans through hostile bids for both
companies. It then reached a friendly $1.8 billion agreement with Cyprus.
The acquisition of Asarco and Cyprus will make Phelps
Dodge the top player in copper, toppling Chile's Codelco from the first place.
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CBS investing in internet
portal
New York: CBS Corporation has said it is investing $100 million in
iWon.com, a new internet portal that has give-away schemes under which it offers $10,000
daily as part of its plan to popularise internet usage. The site, which is like Yahoo.com
or Excite.com, also promises to award $1 million per month and $10 million on "tax
day" on 17 April 2000.
The winners will be announced on CBS's television network.
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New iMacs introduced
Cupertino, California: Apple Computer has introduced a new line of its
Mac computers, pricing the systems $999 upwards. The top-end models will have DVD players
and software for making home movies.
The company hopes the pricing will make the base model a
favourite with first-time purchasers.
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Shell Canada sells
assets to Apache
Calgary: Shell Canada has sold its assets in its Canadian oil and gas
fields to the Houston-based Apache Corporation for $524 million.
Apache said the deal will boost its Canadian oil and gas
operations by 47 per cent. The company intends to fund the purchase by drawing down its
credit line. This will be Apache's second purchase of assets from the Royal Dutch/Shell
group. It had in April 1999 purchased Shell properties in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Cigarette firms to merge
Paris: Spanish tobacco firm Tabacalera and Seita of France will merge to
create the world's fourth largest tobacco group. Sources involved in the merger talks said
post-merger the group will be headquartered in Paris with stock listing in Paris and
Madrid.
The two companies will have a 50:50 shareholding in the
new entity. Seita has the famous Gitanes and Gauloises brands of cigarettes and Tabacalera
has Fortuna and Ducados.
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