Tata Tele launches limited mobility service
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices Ltd., has announced the commercial launch of Tata Mobitel, a limited mobility service, the first private basic operator to offer wireless in local loop (WLL), using the code division multiple access technology (CDMA). Tata Mobitel will be available within a 20-40 kilometre radius and will not have roaming facility like the cellular phones using the GSM technology.

The handsets for WLLCDMA are at the moment priced at around Rs 9,800. The limited mobility service will be available in areas currently covered by the company's wireless network in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. Next on the agenda are Guntur and Vizag, which the company plans to cover within the next four months.

Tata Mobitel is a basic service and will attract call charges applicable to any basic fixed phone service. The company plans a fixed monthly rental of around Rs 600 and Rs 1.20 for a 3-minute out going call. The incoming calls will be free as in the case of fixed phones. Besides, there will be an activation charge of Rs 1,050 that the subscriber will have to pay the company. Subscriber will have the benefit of value-added services like call forwarding, call waiting and three-way conferencing.
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DaimlerChrysler looking for vendor partners in IT
Pune: DaimlerChrysler, is reportedly looking out scouting for vendor partners in the automobile and software segments. The company is believed to have shortlisted about 50 companies for various products, in an effort to enhance capacity, reduce development time and save on costs.

The company carried out an IT market investigation last year for finding out the potential suppliers, primarily in the area of engineering services, e-commerce, embedded software, infotainment (telematics, office on wheels, intelligent car etc), ERP and product data management (PDM). Formulasys India has already been shortlisted for software development in the wireless sector. Formulasys designs, develops and implements eBusiness solutions, Internet infrastructure products and co-owned content and commerce Web sites for niches verticals.

During the year 2000, DaimlerChrysler had achieved an export turnover of $30 million. The major components exported included wiring harness, rubber parts, starter motors, fasteners, castings and forgings, besides software export turnover worth $3 million.
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Asia Pacific, UB in alliance talks
Bangalore: United Breweries Ltd. is in talks with Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. the Singapore-based Heineken-controlled company, to produce its beer brands in the country. UB sources have reportedly confirmed that initial rounds of talks have taken place between the two companies. UB group had earlier been engaged in efforts to rope in Carlsberg as their international partners but there has been no headway in the deal.

Asia Pacific Breweries is looking at the Indian beer market as an expansion opportunity, especially being faced with a sharp fall in its sales. The group's sales in 2000 slipped 11.7 per cent, bringing down the turnover by roughly $90 million.

Asia Pacific Breweries is a joint venture between Dutch beer giant- Heineken and Singapore's Fraser & Neave. The company sells under the brand names of Heineken, Tiger Beer, Anchor Beer and Raffles Beer. The group has its operations in Singapore, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indo-China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia and Thailand.
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Bajaj Auto’s scooter sales rise February
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BAL) has reported that its geared scooter sales rose 16 per cent in February over the previous month after the launch of cheaper models. BAL has said that it sold 37,859 geared scooters in February, compared with 32,622 in the previous month.

Bajaj's February 2001 sales were, however, far lower the year-ago figures. It sold 61,273 geared scooters in February 2000. The company has launched economy versions of Chetak and Super models in the north Indian markets in January and February.

The company said it sold 88,679 vehicles in February and had an estimated marketshare of 27 per cent. However, motorcycles sale stood at 28,435 in February 2001, marginally lower than the year-ago number of 28,533.
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Henkel Spic stages a recovery, nets Rs 8.4 crore
Chennai: Henkel Spic India Ltd. has reported a maiden net profit of Rs 8.39 crore for the financial year ended December 31, 2000, up from a loss of Rs 5.87 crore during the previous year. The company has attributed the increase to a fall in interest charges form Rs 12.33 crore to Rs 3.55 crore.

Henkel Spic’s sales during the same period increased 38 per cent to reach Rs 300 crore, compared with Rs 272 crore in 1999. Meanwhile, the company acquired a 91 per cent stake in Calcutta Chemical Company Ltd. and a 95 per cent stake in Detergents India Ltd. The company sells detergents, soaps and household cleaning products.

Henkel is a 47 per cent subsidiary of German detergent leader Henkel AG.
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Bhushan Steel suspends Karnataka project over slack demand
Bangalore: Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd. has temporarily suspended its ambitious Rs 5,500 crore integrated steel project at Hospet in Karnataka for a few years. The decision follows what the company perceives as "sluggishness in the demand for hot-rolled (HR) coil". Demand for HR coil has declined owing to increased supplies and cut in import duties. The duty had declined to 25 per cent in 2000-2001 from a high of 50 per cent in 1993-94.

The Delhi-based Bhushan Steel had earlier approached the state government to set up the plant in Hospet, near Bellary. The plant had already been put on hold for sometime because of recession in the steel industry. The promoters got state approval to set up the project in March 1996, but since then there has been no activity on the project.
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Bisnauth Tea disposes two Assam estates for Rs 31 crore
Kolkata: Bishnauth Tea of the Williamson Magor group has sold its two estates -- Seajuli and Majulighar in Assam -- for Rs 31.10 crore to M K Shah Exports, a tea broking firm. Mr. Aditya Khaitan, group director, who looks after the Williamson Magor’s tea business, has confirmed the deal.

Seajuli has been sold for Rs 9.10 crore and Majulighar for Rs 22 crore. The combined production of the two estates is around 17 lakh kg. Bishnauth has also decided to sell two of its gardens to George Williamson for Rs 50 crore. Though managed by the Williamson Magor group, George Williamson is controlled by the Magor family based overseas, while in other group companies, majority stake is held by the Khaitan family and their associates.

The Williamson Magor gardens in Assam have been valued at Rs 250 per kg. Bishnauth's tea gardens have been valued at Rs 400 crore and Eveready's at Rs 600.21 crore. The group targets to shore in around Rs 200 crore from the sale of tea gardens and another Rs 100 crore from dilution of minority stake in Eveready's battery business to partially clear off the huge loan burden of the group.
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Maruti car sales goes up 2.6 per cent in February
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd. has reported a modest 2.6 per cent rise in its domestic sales at 31,504 units in February over 30,709 units sold in the same month of 2000.
Cumulative sales (April-February 2000-01), however, fell by 13.3 per cent to 3.06 lakh vehicles from 3.53 lakh units sold in the year-ago period.

Following the sluggish trend in the domestic automobile market in February, Maruti's sales dropped by 7 per cent over 33,898 vehicles sold in January 2001. Overall, the company sold 32,448 vehicles including 944 units of exports, down 7 per cent as against 34,887 units sold in February last year.

Sales of the entry model 'Maruti 800' car, 'Omni' van, 'Alto', 'Zen' and 'Wagon-R' stood at 13,727 units, 4947 units, 3,609, 5,071 and 1,263 units, respectively. The company sold 855 and 97 units of its mid-sized 'Esteem' and 'Baleno' cars respectively while sales of the multi-utility-vehicle 'Gypsy' were 1,935 units during the month under review.
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Coke, Pepsi cut back on soft drink prices
New Delhi: Coke and Pepsi, two soft drink majors have announced their decision to cut prices in a bid to pass on the benefits of excise relief proposed in the Budget to consumers.

While Pepsi announced price cuts in all its product segments except in the 300-ml bottles and cans, Coke has decided on an-across-the-board reduction in prices. Both companies have decided to offer more to the segments consumed by housewife and students and, therefore, decided to offer 7 per cent cuts against the excise relief of 2 per cent.

As per this, in Delhi, the price of the 200-ml bottle will be Rs 7 against Rs 7.50 earlier. In the 1-litre segment, prices will be slashed by Rs 2 to Rs 20 from Rs 22. The price of Slice and Mangola in the 250-ml segment will come down from Rs 10 to Rs 9.50. Pepsi is reducing the price of 2-litre and 1.5-litre packs by Re 1 from the earlier Rs 50 to Rs 49 and from Rs 43 to Rs 42, respectively.
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Novartis board to decide on amalgamation with Ciba CAD
Mumbai: Novartis India board, which will meet on March 9 is likely to approve the scheme of amalgamation of group company - Ciba CKD Biochem with itself. Novartis India had recently hiked its holding in Ciba CKD to 78.65 per cent from 28.1 per cent by acquiring stakes held by Korean fermentation major- Chong Kun Dang (CKD).

Ciba-CKD Biochem manufactures rifampicin bulk and its intermediates - key ingredients that go into anti-tuberculosis drugs. The proposed amalgamation of Ciba CKD with Novartis is expected to give the Swiss giant an integrated presence in the anti-TB drugs segment. Novartis India has 16 anti-TB formulations in its product arsenal and is ranked second in the domestic anti-TB drugs market. It controls roughly 12 per cent of the anti-TB drugs market, next to Lupin Laboratories.

Novartis India had earlier spun off its agribusiness into a separate entity, Novartis Agribusiness India Pvt Ltd., as part of an effort to revamp its domestic operations in line with the global business structure. Internationally, the Novartis group and AstraZeneca Plc had in December 1999 agreed to spin off and merge Novartis' crop protection and seeds business with Zeneca Agrochemicals to create Syngenta AG.
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BPCL ties up with Quicky's, Pepsi, Kwality Walls
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has tied up with Quicky's, the global coffee chain, Pepsi Foods India and Kwality Walls for providing beverages, soft drinks and ice-creams at its petrol pumps.

The new alliances are part of the company's bid to implement the strategy drawn up by McKinsey, which aims at converting its fuel stations into customer service centres, and bring various services to customers' neighbourhood by the time the oil sector gets totally deregulated. By 2002, BPCL plans to extend the facilities to all the strategically located outlets.

BPCL has also tied up with Victoria Entertainment for vending tickets, DHL for logistics, Kotak Securities for financial services, Kodak Express for photofilms and Tata Internet Services for providing Internet access to the Apple I-Mac-equipped cyber cafes at its retail outlets. It has also forged alliances with six banks -- StanChart-Grindlays, ICICI, UTI, Global Trust, HSBC and Centurion -- for ATM services, three cellular operators -- Orange (Mumbai), Skycell (Chennai), and Essar (Delhi) -- for bill payments, and two music companies -- Sony and Saregama -- for sale of cassettes.
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Hindustan Lever to cut processed food prices
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) has decided on price reduction in processed foods based on fruits and vegetables, which have been exempt from excise duty levy. The details of price reduction are being worked out. The duty on fruit and vegetable-based processed foods was reduced in the Budget 2001-02, from 16 per cent to nil.

Canned and processed fruits and vegetables make up for Rs 136 crore turnover of HLL though it constitutes marginal 1.2 per cent of its total turnover at Rs 10,604 crore for the year 2000. The market grew at the rate of 10 per cent over the previous year's sales of Rs 123 crore. HLL markets processed foods under the Kissan brand of tomato-based products - like ketchup, sauce and puree - jams and squashes and is a market leader in these categories.
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LML announces cut in its scooter and motor cycle prices
New Delhi: LML Ltd. has slashed its scooter and motorcycles prices by Rs 1,929 to Rs 3,187, following the excise duty relief announced in the Union Budget 2001-02. With this, ex-showroom (Delhi) prices of the `Select' and `NV' scooter models have been reduced by Rs 2,918 and Rs 1,929 respectively. The two models would be now be sold for Rs 34,113 and Rs 32,682 respectively.

Prices of LML's recently introduced motorcycles `Energy' and `Adreno' have also been cut between Rs 2,697 and Rs 3,187 respectively.

The company had reported a massive 65.4 per cent fall in scooter sales at 7,815 units in February over 22,615 units sold in the same month last year. The scooter sales were also down by 46.6 per cent as against 11,457 units sold in January 2001.
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De- Nocil, Indofil Chemicals in marketing JV
Mumbai: De-Nocil Crop Protection Ltd. and Indofil Chemicals Company (chemical division of Modipon Ltd.) have entered into a strategic alliance for marketing and manufacturing "Tricyclazole"- a product for control of paddy blast disease. These companies have jointly developed the product in India.

Both companies had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on February 14, 2001. De-Nocil and Indofil will use their existing manufacturing facilities and commence production within a year.
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Mahindras to sell 24 per cent in Schenectady
Mumbai: Mahindras are selling their entire 24 per cent stake in the joint venture Schenectady-Beck to the foreign majority partner BASF of US. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the sale of the stake has been was signed by the representatives of the two partners.

The Rs 76-crore Schenectady-Beck is a major producer of insulating varnishes and resins at its plants at Pune and Ankleshwar. According to sources, the block of shares is being sold at over Rs 80 a share against the current market price of Rs 57. The shares were hovering around Rs 51 early last month.

The Mahindras hold a larger portion of their stake in Schenectady-Beck through Mahindra Holdings and Finance, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra.
The BASF Group holds 51 per cent equity capital of Rs 7.08 crore of the company.

Schenectady-Beck earned a net profit of Rs 7.27 crore on sales of Rs 76 crore for the year ended March 2000. For the first nine months of the current year, the company earned a net profit of Rs 4.17 crore on sales of Rs 54 crore.
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