Caltex to acquire Chemoleums
New Delhi: Caltex Lubricants India, a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Caltex Oil has announced its plan to acquire Chennai-based Chemoleums. Caltex proposes to acquire the entire shareholding of Chemoleums comprising 60,000 shares for a consideration of Rs 16.10 crore.

The latest acquisition is part of the US major’s strategy of buying out existing lubricant blending units in the country to expand and consolidate its operations. The acquisition proposal is yet to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
Caltex Lubricants has already bought 49% stake in IBP Ltd., a public sector oil company and has been in negotiations with several other lube blenders in the country for acquiring more capacity through the mergers and acquisitions route. Caltex Lubricants India is targeting a 10 per cent market share in India’s lubricant business during the next three years. At present, the company has about two per cent share with its brand Havoline. The Indian lubricants market has over 30 odd players with Castrol and Indian Oil, as leading players in the market.
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IOC to bid for IPCL’s Nagothane & Gandhar plants
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has decided to independently bid for the remaining two plants of IPCL. The IOC decision to bid for the Nagothane and the Gandhar plants of IPCL on its own follows the government’s move to invite fresh bids for the remaining assets of IPCL. Fresh bidding for the two IPCL plants is being announced in the first quarter of 2001.
Indian Oil already has been given the go-ahead by the government to take over IPCL’s Vadodara plant at a negotiated price and the public sector oil major has a joint venture with the Soros Chatterjee Group to bid for IPCL. Indian Oil joined hands with the Soros Chatterjee Group to set up the JV when the government rejected the former’s initial bid for IPCL, on the grounds it was late in submission of its bid.
Indian Oil is interested in getting control of IPCL, as it would provide a synergy into its foray into the petrochemicals sector. IOC is already planning to enter petrochemicals business at its recently commissioned Panipat refinery.
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Tata Sons to hike stake in Tata Elxsi
New Delhi: Tata Sons Ltd., a Tata group holding company has decided to increase its stake in Tata Elxsi Ltd., one of group company. Tata Elxsi Ltd. (TEL) has informed Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday that Tata Sons, which already owns around 6.4 per cent (20 lakh shares) in the company has acquired additional 39.69 lakh equity shares on December 27, 2000.

Tata Sons holding in Tata Elxsi has now moved up to 19.17 per cent through the latest acquisition.

The company has however, not disclosed the price at which the transaction is completed. The share price of TEL meanwhile is quoted around Rs 100 in the last six months.

Tata Elxsi Ltd. operates in both hardware and software sectors of information technology (IT). In the hardware, it provides the services of system integration and design and development of networks. On the software front, the company offers technically advanced CAD (computer aided designing)/CAM (computer aided manufacturing), scientific computing and other high-end services.
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Road Builder to set up subsidiary in India
New Delhi: Road Builder (M) Sdn Bhd of Malaysia with a market capitalisation of Rs 1,500 crore in Malaysia is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary named Road Builder (India) Pvt. Ltd. for taking up road projects in the country. This is the first wholly owned subsidiary to be set up by a foreign company involved in India's highway development programme.

Road Builder (M) is already executing two national highway projects in Bihar and West Bengal, besides taking up four-laning of the 126-km-long highway stretch between Gurgaon and Kotputhli in Haryana/Rajasthan on NH-8. The Malaysian company is also in the bid for the Panagarh-Palsit highway project on NH-2 in West Bengal, the first annuity-based highway project to be developed in the country with private sector participation under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) method.

The company has set up the wholly owned subsidiary here taking advantage of the Government's policy provision on automatic approval for 100-per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the highway's sector on a case-to-case basis with a certain equity cap.
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MUL plans B2B initiative in 2000-01
Hyderabad: Maruti Udyog Ltd. (MUL) is planning to launch a major B2B initiative this year and has targetting $1.7 billion in business-to-business turnover in 2000-01. One of the largest such initiative to be planned in the country, MUL’s new business model seeks to connect all the 216 sales outlets online to the company's central database.

The proposed system would allow Maruti dealers to place their orders online, which in turn would be used to plan production schedules. The company also plans to open accounts in Corporation Bank, Bank of America and ICICI Bank, to help ease payment process.

The company, which has 216 sales outlets and 173 dealers country-wide, is seeking to more effectively use IT, both at the dealer level and within the company to improve working capital management, and increase the efficiency and speed in systems that comes from elimination of paper invoicing, faxes etc. It has already enrolled nearly 130 of its dealers in the process and the company is now preparing more sales outlets and dealers to get involved.
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