Birlas decide to mend differences with HPCL
New Delhi: AV Birla group has announced that it will not exit from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals and has sought government’s intervention to sort out differences with its joint venture partner - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL). A group spokesperson has stated that group had approached the petroleum ministry over its differences with co-promoter HPCL.

Both HPCL and AV Birla group have 37 per cent stake each in the nine million tonne refinery joint venture, which has an asset value of Rs 7,000 crore. Differences over marketing arrangements have caused the two partners to review their relationship.
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LG plans $100m India investment over 3 years
Chennai: LG Electronics, South Korean white goods major is planning to invest $100 million for establishing its production base in India and improving its market penetration in the next three-years. Mr. K R Kim, managing director of LG Electronics India has said that LG would be investing at least $20 million for setting up production base for frost-free refrigerators, $10 million for washing machines, $20 million for refrigerator compressors and $10 million for computer monitors to start with.

The plan focuses on increasing its market presence in India as well as to make India the hub of its production activities so as to match its ambitious exporting plans to the highly-potential markets in neighbouring countries, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia as a whole. The company's exports which stood at $5 million in 1999, touched $10 million last year and were expected to reach $20 million in 2001 and a whopping $100 million by 2003, adding that the exports were mainly to Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Africa and Ivory Coast.
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Amul to refocus itself on confectionery market
New Delhi: The Gujrat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), with its flagship brand "Amul is revamping its business strategy with plans to consolidating its presence in the confectionery segment. With expanded capacity and a good distribution network, GCMMF is of the view that confectionery segment can prove to be a major money-spinner. The GCMMF is expected to keep its product prices low to capture the mass market sentiment.

With Amul trying to include chocolates and confectionery as its core competency areas, the competition is expected to hot up in the Rs 1,000 crore confectionery market. Amul’s chocolate capacity has already gone up considerably after its tie up with Campco. It plans to further expand its capacity by getting into several such arrangements with other cocoa beans producing cooperatives.
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Tatas to exit lubricants venture with BP
Mumbai: The Tata group and UK-based oil major BP-Amoco are set to end their partnership in 50:50 joint venture - Tata BP Lubricants India. The Tatas would, however, continue to be in the other joint venture - Tata BP Solar. Mr. Sudhir Deoras, managing director of Tata International, which was instrumental in the Tata group forging the two ventures with BP, has confirmed the exit move, which follows BP-Amoco’s takeover of Burmah Castrol, the parent company of Castrol India, the second largest lubes player in the country.

After the acquisition, BP-Amoco has decided to focus entirely on the Castrol brand,

which has more than 30 per cent market share in India, next to Indian Oil Corporation’s Servo. Tata-BP manufactured only truck lubricant was a marginal player. With the Tatas having decided to remain only in those businesses where they would be among the top three players, Tata-BP Lubricants venture did not meet the Tata group requirement leading to the decision to exit. The Tata BP Solar venture for manufacturing solar photovoltaic modules and systems would continue as before, since power is a focus area for the group. However, the Tata group’s holding in this venture is likely to be eventually transferred to Tata Power, the group's flagship company in the energy sector.
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Godrej to hive off its chemicals & medical diagnostics business
Mumbai: The Godrej group is considering privatising its chemicals and medical diagnostics company, after hiving it off as a separate company, as part of a restructuring exercise. By hiving off its chemical operations, the group hopes to boost the market value of its faster-growing consumer products business.

The two businesses are now both owned by Godrej Soaps, whose shares are trading at about six times last year's earnings. The Godrej group had previously announced plans to split Godrej Soaps into two, creating Godrej Consumer Products -- for the soaps, detergents and toiletries businesses -- and Godrej Industries -- for chemicals and medical diagnostics. The two new companies, Godrej Industries and Godrej Consumer Products, will start operating April 1.

Godrej Industries will also own stakes in a range of group companies, including packaged drink and edible oil maker Godrej Foods, animal feedsmaker Godrej Agrovet, mosquito repellant producer Godrej Sara Lee and real estate developer Godrej Properties & Investments. The businesses making up Godrej Industries are expected to garner sales of about 4.5 billion in the first year of operations, up from four billion rupees this year.
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Pizza Corner to now target highways & shopping malls
Chennai: Pizza Corner India, which currently has 25 outlets across the country, is now setting up its sales outlets in high traffic turnover areas like highways and shopping malls. To be called `Pizza Corner Express', each one of these outlets, typically `11 ft x 11 ft' in size, manned by one or two persons would function just like any other fast food outlets and deliver pizzas in four minutes flat to the customers.

The first such `Express' outlet has been opened on the East Coast Road on the outskirts of Chennai. The instant food company has also tied up with retail major, Food World for opening `Express' outlets in Food World stores. The company plans to have 100 such outlets in 2-3 years time and each outlet is expected to cost Rs 7 lakh.

The `Express' outlets will serve four varieties of the `six inch' pizzas — two vegetarian and two non-vegetarian, besides garlic bread and Coke. The pizzas will be available with a price tag of Rs 39, Rs 44 and Rs 49.
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Sun Pharma launches "Edegra"
New Delhi: Sun Pharmaceuticals has launched yet another "desi" version of Viagra, called "Edegra" - on Wednesday to cure erectile dysfunction in men. The company claims that drug would be able to cure the commonly prevalent disease, which affects one out of every 10 men in the country.

Currently, four domestic companies have come out with erectile dysfunction drug - Ranbaxy's Caverta, Zydus Cadilla's Penegra, Torrent's Androz and Unichem's Erix.
Sun Pharma's Edegra, which is an oral therapy Sildenafil Citrate drug would be available in 25 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg and price of tablets would be Rs 12, Rs 18 and Rs 27 respectively.
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