Rs 215 crore loan for Lafarge
Mumbai: Three financial institutions, ICICI, HDFC and State Bank of India, have together agreed to extend a loan of Rs 215 crore to Lafarge India, the Indian arm of the French cement major, for funding its acquisition of the cement division of Tata Iron and Steel Company. ICICI is offering Rs 125 crore and HDFC and the State Bank of India the balance.

Lafarge is paying  Rs 550 crore for the acquisition. The company intends to meet the balance fund requirement through equity. The loan has a final maturity of eight years.
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Chettinad Cements to hike capacity
Chennai: Chettinad Cements is doubling its cement capacity to 2 million tonnes per annum. The project is estimated to cost Rs 340 crore, and a new plant will be set up at Palayam in Tamil Nadu. The company's existing plant is located at Puliyur. The company intends to raise Rs 250 crore as debt from domestic sources to meet the project costs. The balance will be from internal accruals.
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Govt seeks 100% localisation in Maruti
New Delhi: The government has told Suzuki Motor Corporation that it wants Maruti Udyog to implement 100 per cent localisation for the cars made by the company. Heavy industry and public enterprises minister Manohar Joshi has conveyed this view to Suzuki Motor president and chief executive officer O. Suzuki.

Mr Joshi said Mr Suzuki has conveyed to him that Suzuki Motor will enable the Indian company to introduce at least one new model every year in India.
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Nicholas Piramal acquires 3 Eli Lilly brands
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India has acquired the Indian rights for US pharma major Eli Lilly’s three anti-infective brands. These are Mucokef, Zidime and Keroxime. The company has also bought Lovir brand from Ranbaxy Laboratories. The four brands, which were being sold through joint venture Eli Lilly Ranbaxy, have a sales turnover of Rs seven crore. Nicholas Piramal has paid nearly Rs 10 crore for the acquisition.

Mucokef is a cefalexin formulation, Zidime a ceftazidime preparation and Keroxime a cefuroxime preparation. Lovir is a formulation of anti-viral Acyclovir. The deal is the first between Nicholas Piramal and the Ranbaxy group.
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CSFB, BancAm buy stake in DSQ
Mumbai: Credit Suisse First Boston, BancAmerica Equity Partners and some overseas companies have together picked up stocks forming nearly 25 per cent of DSQ Software by subscribing to nearly 75 per cent of a new shares issue by the company. The company had come out with a one-crore share issue at a price of Rs 275 per share. With this, the holding of promoter Dinesh Dalmia in the company will come down to around 20 per cent from the earlier 30 per cent.
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Adobe to support Linux
Mumbai: Adobe Systems of the US says its graphics and page layout software will support the Linux operating system. Adobe said from the first quarter of 2000 it will offer a Linux version of Adobe Acrobat Distiller. The software, a beta version of Adobe FrameMaker, which supports Linux, can be downloaded from the Adobe site.
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British Telecom hikes bid for Airtel
London: In a bid to thwart rival Vodafone AirTouch, British Telecommunications is planning to increase its holding in Spanish mobile phone operator Airtel. The UK major has made an offer to acquire Spain’s Banco Santander Central Hispano’s 30.5 per cent holding in Airtel. Vodafone had offered $7.25 billion for the holding. It is understood that British Telecom has offered some five per cent of its equity to the bank in exchange for the latter’s Airtel stake.
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Virgin wins flights to Cape Town
London: Virgin Atlantic Airways has secured the spare weekly service from London to Cape Town against strong bids by British Airways. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said its decision (to award the service to Virgin) will best promote competition between British airlines and with foreign airlines to the benefit of users of air services. The choice, the authority said, was to allow Virgin to increase its service to Cape Town from once weekly to twice or to allow British Airways to increase its flights from six to seven a week.
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Singapore Airlines to buy Boeings
Seattle: Singapore Airlines has decided to buy 10 Boeing 777-200ER wide body jets worth 41.5 billion. The order boosts Boeing’s 1999 orders to 378.
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AT&T contests awards decision on Bell
Washington: AT&T Corporation is contesting the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to allow Bell Atlantic to offer long distance phone service to New York. AT&T, in a filing, has asked the agency to revoke its approval by 27 December, failing which it said it will file a challenge in the US Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia.
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