DLF Cement’s loans to be made into equity
New Delhi: At least 25 per cent of the Rs 130- crore loan by financial institutions to DLF Cement is being converted into equity as the company has failed to repay loans due to them. The company will be required to issue 4.7 crore shares to Industrial Development Bank of India, ICICI and Industrial Finance Corporation of India. This allotment as well as the preferential allotment of 15 crore shares to Gujarat Ambuja Cements will take the equity capital of the company from the present Rs 166 crore to Rs 363 crore. Gujarat Ambuja Cements recently concluded an agreement with DLF Cement to acquire 39 per cent of the company’s equity at Rs 12.65 per share. The agreement stipulates that Gujarat Ambuja Cements take the responsibility of  DLF Cement’s outstanding loans although earlier this debt burden was to be shifted to a subsidiary, DLF Universal.
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Intel plans online services division
New Delhi: Intel Corporation plans to invest $10 million in India to set up, what it calls, a separate division for online services in the country. The proposal has already been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Intel already has two separate divisions in India – one for marketing Intel products and another for developing software systems.

The chipmaker hopes the division will provide a whole range of hosting services that will help Indian Internet companies to take full advantage of the scope offered by the Internet.  
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Blues Harris range in India
Chandigarh: Scottish Tweeds of Chandigarh is bringing the Millennium Blues Harris Tweed Collection range of premium jacket clothing to India. The Blues Collection is produced by Donald Macleod, the sole producers of Harris Tweeds.

The Millennium Blues Collection of jacket/coat lengths are unique, as each piece comes with a numbered certificate issued by Harris Tweed Authority, an inspection and promotion authority set up by the British government. There will be some 35 exclusive designs. These will be available in traditional Herringbone’s and Houndstooth labels in major cities of India. A typical jacket length will cost Rs 8,640. 
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Sintex gets US nod for homoeo drugs
Ahmedabad: Polymer-based water tankmaker Sintex is into homoeopathic drugs. Its 100 per cent subsidiary Sintex International has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to sell its homoeopathic medicines in the US. Sintex has been making and marketing Healwell brand of homoeopathic drugs in Indian markets.  
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Sterling Infotech buys Singapore co
Chennai: Sterling group company Sterling Infotech has acquired majority equity holding in Singapore based Comtel Solutions. Comtel is a leading software solutions company, specialising in banking software. It  also has Internet and intranet solutions and telecom-related software systems.  

The Sterling group’s other companies include DishnetDSL, Aircell and ETH. DishnetDSL provides Internet services in 14 cities including Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.
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UB group company plans US acquisitions
Bangalore: Vijay Mallya’s software company Ubics is eyeing US-based software companies involved in Internet and e-commerce-related activities for possible acquisition. Company sources said talks are on with some four or five US companies in this regard. Earlier, Ubics had been in talks with a California-based software firm in this regard, but the proposal did not work and the talks had been called off.  
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Poona Industrial Hotels to shift focus
Pune: Kirloskar group company, Poona Industrial Hotels is changing its focus. At its recently held annual general meeting, the company has been authorised to enter  finance and investment-related activities. The company has so far been in hotel business and had owned Hotel Blue Diamond in Pune, which was recently sold to the Taj group.

Atul Kirloskar, chairman of the company, however, clarified that the resolution passed at the annual general meeting of the company was an enabling resolution to help the company get relief from capital gains tax through investing in approved securities. In keeping with the SEBI guidelines, the company may go in for delisting, as the promoters have nearly 90 per cent of the total stockholding. The public has 7 per cent holding and the balance is with Better Value Holdings. The company had recently bought back its sharers at a price of Rs 136 per share.  
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Toyota claims 1 million cars in N.America
Detroit: Toyota Motors Corporation has claimed that it has made more than one million vehicles at its North American operations, in 1999. This is the first time that the company has produced over a million vehicles in a calendar year. The company said it has produced 1,061,000 vehicles, nearly 10 per cent more than the figure for 1998. It added that its Solara cars, made at the Canadian plant, and the Tundra pick-up vehicle had helped it to achieve this landmark. 
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Tractebel not to exit Kazakhstan
Brussels: Belgian energy company Tractebel said it does not have plans to withdraw from Kazakhstan in spite of the losses suffered there. The company’s operations in Kazakhstan have come under cloud after Belgian prosecutors confirmed that an inquiry is on against the company for international money laundering operations. 
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Allianz plans holding in US aircraft co
Munich: German insurance company Allianz said it is planning to buy a stake  in US aircraft maker Fairchild Aerospace Corporation. A company spokesman said joint talks with US investment house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice are on for this purpose.  
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Telenor bids for Irish telecom company
Dublin: Telenor of Norway confirmed that it is planning a hostile $1.9-billion bid on Ireland’s Esat Telecom. Esat is in talks with other parties to ward off Telenor bid, but Telenor said its bid remained unchanged.  
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