Non-executive directors spike Indian Oil plan to buy
out Birla stake
Mumbai: Two key non executive directors
on the board of Indian Oil have spiked the companys plans to buy out the Aditya
Birla groups 37 per cent stake in Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals. These
directors are SK Barua of IIM Ahmedabad and Vineet Nayar of HCL Technologies.
The boards investment planning committee, which met last week, has concluded that
there is no justification in buying into the loss-making refinery, in view of the fact
that international refining margins are at a all-time low.
Despite this objection, it is understood that the Birla group and the third partner,
Hindustan Petroleum, are preparing to make a presentation to the Indian Oil board on the
merits of the latter buying the Birla stake in MRPL.
The Aditya Birla group has
been wanting to exit the 9-million tonne refinery for the past two years and has
communicated this to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
While the acquisition of the Birla stake may make strategic sense to Indian Oil, the oil
majors financial resources are likely to get stretched if the acquisition goes
through in view of its proposed plans to buy Haldia Petrochemicals and part of IPCL.
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Balaji Telefilms calls
off merger deal
Mumbai: Balaji Telefims, promoted by
yesteryears film star Jeetendra, has decided to call off the high-profile merger
with Nine Networks, the Vinay Maloo-Kerry Packer combine promoted company.
However Balaji will continue
to be a content provider for the Nine Gold slot on DD Metro.
Nine Networks recently got an eighteen month extension for its 7-10 p.m slot on
state-owned Doordarshan on the same terms and conditions as currently applicable.
HFCL-Nine Broadcasting pays Rs 121 crore for the three-hour of airtime on DD Metro.
However it is understood that
Nine Network executives are in parlays with DD officials for easier terms for the extended
contract. Earlier, Nine Networks had pressed for a longer five-year contract and had even
threatened to walk out of the deal.
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Talks about merger
between Tata Infotech and TCS
New Delhi: According to Nirmal Jain,
managing director of Tata Infotech, the company is likely to be merged with group company
and software major, Tata Consultancy Services.
The proposed merger, as and
when it happens, will create the largest infotech company in the country in terms of
turnover, manpower and services.
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Tata Infotech
launches new courses
New Delhi: Leading Tata group IT company,
Tata Infotech, recently launched its range of professional courses for skill upgradation
in the advanced and introductory value-added computer training segment under the brand
name Ambition.
The new courses are expected to cater to the IT training needs of professionals, across
the industry segments.
The company, along with
its channel partners, is understood to have invested Rs 60 crore in the total courseware
preparation, which also includes setting up of training centres.
The courses have been brought
out in association with US-based Smartforce, and have been either co-developed or approved
by 19 infotech vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Intel, Sap, Sun and IBM.
The company plans to have more than 100 centres for the Ambition course with the capacity
to train 20,000 professionals by the end of the current fiscal.
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Morepen
Laboratories files for 3 patents
New Delhi: Domestic pharma company, Morepen Laboratories, recently announced that
it has filed for three patents, of which two are process patents. These patents cover
products belonging to the dermatology and anti-biotic segments. Two of these are
international patents.
According to Atul Gandotra, vice-president (marketing and sales), the company has filed
these patents as part of its plans to meet competition head-on. Mr. Gandotra also stated
that the company is scouting around for some brand take-overs, which will help in
safeguarding its position in the post-patents era.
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AV Birla group to
buy Rhone-Poulenc House
Mumbai: The AV Birla group is close to
sealing an agreement to buy out the Worli, Mumbai-based, five-storey corporate
headquarters of Ajay Piramal group company, Rhone-Poulenc India. The deal is said to be
valued at an estimated Rs. 85 crore.
Rhone-Poulenc House, as
the building is currently called, is slated to be the new corporate headquarters of the
Aditya Birla group. The sale is expected to conclude by September this year.
Rhone-Poulenc House, located
on prime real estate at S K Ahire Marg, Worli has been the RPI headquarters for nearly 25
years.
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Balco to return
to normalcy in one month
New Delhi: After a debilitating 67-day
strike, recently privatised Balco saw its workers come back to work. The company stated
that it would take about a month for the plant to return to complete normalcy.
The 7,000 workers were protesting against the government's sale of a 51 per cent stake in
Balco to metals firm Sterlite Industries.
Balco managing director S C Krishnan said production would resume in four to five days at
the plant in Korba in Chhattisgarh. Balco supplies 15 per cent of India's aluminium
output.
Experts were examining the smelter to assess whether there was any damage due to the
shutdown. Balco runs a 200,000-tonne-a-year alumina plant and a 100,000-tonne aluminium
smelter. It has also set up a 40,000-tonne hot and cold rolling mill at the plant.
Sterlite, which bought the controlling stake for Rs 551 crore, has said it aimed to turn
the plant into the largest in the world.
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Godrej group to
set up young executive board
Mumbai: The Godrej group announced the
setting up of a Young Executive Board, which will advise the executive committee of the
group. The objective of the Young Executive Board, to be comprised of members from across
the group, is to engage bright young talent in the group to use their knowledge and
enthusiasm to further the progress of the group.
The total number of
members on the Young Executive Board is expected to be around 12.
The group has also set up a think tank which will advise the group executive committee on
futuristic developments in areas like information technology, science, R&D, human
resource trends, among others.
The think tank consists of senior personnel like vice-presidents and general managers, who
are not on the executive committee or on the boards of the group companies.
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Crossroads
opens new outlet in Pune
Pune: Piramal groups Crossroads
megastore venture opened its shopping mall in Pune, marking the ventures first
attempt outside Mumbai.
The Pune megastore is a
compact version of Crossroads in Mumbai and will lay emphasis on shopping and will not
focus on entertainment. The group is also said to be scouting for space for opening the
first Crossroads shoppertainment mall in Pune in the next few months.
According to Crossroads managing director, Jaydev Mody, the company plans to open similar
ventures in the western and souther regions, mainly in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai
and Hyderabad.
The Pune outlet has been
opened after a significant amount of market research which indicated that the Puneite was
evolving a very distinct lifestyle for himself. The city was among the regions
fastest growing customer markets. The Pune outlet is expected to attract 3,000 customers
per day. The Pune store is spread over 51,000 square feet.
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Zensar Technologies aims at tripling turnover
Pune: According to Ganesh Natarajan, who
recently took over as chief executive, Zensar Technologies is implementing the
Triple Plus agenda aimed at tripling turnover to US $150 million by March
2004.
Zensar is a joint venture between ICL (UK), a Fujitsu company, and RPG Enterprises
(India).
Zensar plans to accelerate its growth through expanding the geographical focus and
exploring new markets. The company has created six territories out of its global business
with each of them yielding profitable revenues.
With nearly 55 per cent
of the business coming from the US, the company is opening three new offices in Boston,
Washington and Los Angeles and plans to set up a new office in the Middle East.
The companys delivery model will be focussed on Mission Plus and BlueChilli. The
former is its brand for offshore dedicated centre with customers such as Cisco, Fujitsu,
Sprint, P&ONL, Transco and a few more companies from Europe and Japan. BlueChilli is
the second brand that addresses e-business transformation needs of a company for which it
has a strategic technology alliance with Microsoft as their e-commerce solution partners.
Under its new plans the company plans to focus on three major verticals BFI
(banking, finance and insurance), MRD (manufacturing, retail and distribution) and TWE
(telecom, wireless and embedded systems).
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Bajaj Auto not
to spin off bike business
Mumbai: Leading two-wheeler manufacturer,
Bajaj Auto has decided to drop its plan to hive off the motorcycles business into a
separate joint venture with Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan.
For the last two years
the company had been considering spinning off the business into a 80:20 venture with
Kawasaki.
This move was confirmed by
Sanjiv Bajaj, general manager (corporate finance). He also confirmed that the
companys existing relationship with Kawasaki will stay.
It is understood that the
companys change in plans is due to declining geared scooter sales, its mainstay, and
the sudden spurt in demand for motorcycles.
The Maharashtra government's
decision to withdraw tax sops to Bajaj Auto in case the joint venture was set up to
manufacture motorcycles is another factor that has influenced the decision.
Currently, all the
motorcycles sold in the country under the Bajaj banner are Kawasaki-designed products.
However, Bajaj Auto is now also looking at developing its own range of motorcycles.
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ACC drops plan to
sell units to Tata Power
Mumbai: The Associated Cement Companies
(ACC) has dropped its plan to sell the two captive power plants at its Jamul and Kymore
units to Tata Power. The sale would have helped ACC raise around Rs. 300 crore.
The sale, for which
shareholder approval had already been obtained, had met with a roadblock with the Madhya
Pradesh government, whose approval was critical, sitting on the clearance for months.
According to analysts given
ACC's improved price realisations in recent months, it would not be under much pressure to
sell the power units to raise cash.
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Kotak Mahindra
to renew holiday finance contract with SOTC Kuoni
Mumbai: After a successful first phase of
36 months, Kotak Mahindra has renewed its contract with SOTC Kuoni India for financing
holiday travel. The renewed contract is also likely to run for a further 36 months.
Holiday finance has
emerged a major retail finance business of KMFL, accounting for 30 per cent of its total
retail finance business. The holiday finance business of the NBFC is in the form of
providing loans to the upper middle-class, with income levels more than Rs 1.2 lakh per
annum, for their foreign tours. Financing for domestic tours is on the anvil.
The KMFL-SOTC tie-up,
however, is likely to face stiff competition from recently formed alliances -- Cox &
Kings with HSBC and Thomas Cook with Citibank.
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