L&T and Demag Ergotech in 50:50 joint venture
Mumbai: Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and Demag Ergotech, a German engineering firm have formed a 50:50 joint venture company to make injection moulding machines at the L&T’s manufacturing facility in Chennai. The joint venture, christened as L&T Demag Plastic Machinery, will commence operations from January 1, 2001.

L&T Demag venture has set a target to manufacture 600 injection-moulding machines every year by 2005. Substantial portion of these machines would cater to demand from overseas markets. L&T currently produces a range of other related machinery for plastic industry in technical collaboration with Demag.
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TV Today Network launches 24-hour Hindi channel
New Delhi: TV Today Network Ltd. has launched its 24-hour Hindi satellite news channel, Aaj Tak, on New Year's eve. The programming-mix of the channel would be mainly centred on hard core news, directed at close to 16 million Hindi speaking homes.

TV Today Network has invested Rs 60 crore into the venture, with another Rs 20 crore scheduled to be invested. ICICI has invested 10 per cent in the venture. According to Mr G. Krishnan, Executive Director, TV Today Network, the channel is looking forward to other strategic investors and was willing to offer another 10 per cent to a single investor.

The TV Today Network a subsidiary of Living Media group also has plans to go public through listing at either an Indian or foreign bourse. The 24-hour news-based channel is expected to generate revenue of Rs 40 crore in the first financial year, and break even by its third year of operations.
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Birla Tyres puts off equity deal with Pirelli
Kolkata: B.K.Birla group put off the proposed Rs 500 crore equity sharing deal of Birla Tyres- a division of group company Kesoram Industries- with the Italian tyre giant Pirelli, following differences over the offer price. Pirelli has been a technical collaborator to Birla Tyre's unit at Balasore unit and a preferred equity partner for the venture. .

A senior company official has confirmed that the development and said that the companies have now preferred to judge the Indian as well as international radial-tyre markets before signing the deal at later date. Under the proposed deal, Pirelli was to have brought Rs 500 crore to fund its acquisition of shareholding in the Birla company.

The Rs 600-crore Indian radial tyre market is mainly led by MRF and J K Tyre, who enjoy 35 per cent and 20 per cent share respectively while Ceat and Goodyear have a market share of 10 per cent each. The remaining 20 per cent is divided among several players. Birla Tyres' saw its turnover falling down to Rs 588.27 crore in 1999-00 from Rs 593.21 crore in the previous year, but profits have gone up to Rs 33.40 crore from Rs 21.82 crore in the same period.
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Vintron acquires Crystal
New Delhi: Vintron Informatics Limited, the New Delhi-based Rs 125 crore computer hardware company has acquired Crystal, a software services company, to form a software operations division. The creation of VSoft, the new software division, is part of the Vintron’s strategy to emerge as a complete IT services company, providing end-to-end solutions.

The new division will concentrate in offshore development and e-enabling of enterprises by mainly targetting the US market. With the acquisition, Vintron is expecting that its present revenues from software, which is about Rs 2 crore would grow considerably.

Vintron is also expecting to increase its revenues from hardware sales to the tune of Rs 275 crore for the year 2000 - 01, a 60 per cent hike from its last year's revenue of Rs. 126 crore.

Currently, the sale of PCs contributes to about 40 per cent of the revenue of Vintron while the rest of the revenue is being contributed by the component sale. Vintron has so far been predominantly targeting the small office home office (SOHO) segment but is now extending its reach to the small and medium scale segment. The company has stopped distribution of MNC products and completely turned into a manufacturer and distributor of own products. It is also restructuring its channel distribution model, changing from a single tier distribution and adding a second tier of distribution partners.
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