IL&FS sets up Rs 100-cr holding co for roads
Mumbai—The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) is restructuring itself.

A large part of this exercise involves unlocking value from its various subsidiaries.
To begin with IL&FS has floated a holding company to unlock value from its special purpose vehicle for investments in the road sector.
A senior official said that a company called Consolidated Toll Network (India) had been set up, with a paid up capital of Rs 100 crore to focus on the surface transport business as its core area.
The company has appointed an independent CEO K Ramchand, whose sole job will be to focus on this business as it is felt that running a road project requires different skill sets from that required to conceptualise and implement a project, said a senior IL&FS functionary.
The stake held by IL&FS of 29 per cent in the Rs 408.2-crore Noida Toll Bridge Company and the 27 pr cent stake held in the Rs 175-crore Vadodara Halol Toll Roads company has been transferred to this holding company.
Apart from these two completed projects, stakes held by IL&FS in the Rs 323.1-crore Ahmedabad Mehsana Toll Roads and the Rs 61-crore East Coast Roads project is also being transferred to CTNL.
The formation of the holding company is part of a restructuring plan, which also involves IL&FS going public.
Back to News Review index page  

Konka gets government rap
New Delhi—The government has rapped the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer, Konka Electronics for violating entry norms. The government says that violations have occurred on two accounts. Konka has been sourcing electronic goods from local manufacturers, including small-scale sector players and selling them under the Konka brand name without requisite clearances from the government.
Konka also imported DVDs, washing machines and CTVs in the 29 inch and above categories from China and sold it in the Indian market without seeking government approval.
The government has directed the company to stop the two activities with immediate effect.

It has also noted that the company can take permission for both the activities separately since both are allowed under the policy guidelines for foreign companies operating in India.
Back to News Review index page  

Sify on ‘P2P’
Chennai-‘Path to Profitability’ or ‘P2P’ is the new mantra at Satyam Infoway or Sify.

Sify is the country’s largest Internet company, which has just cut down its cash loss for the first time ever and is now inching towards the break-even point with turnover having grown from Rs 10 crore to Rs 67 crore to Rs 179 crore in the last three years. But market rumour has it that the company is running out of cash and the key personnel are leaving.
Says the CEO and managing director R Ramaraj,
"We have adequate cash," he said. When asked if the company would need to go for another round of funding to maintain its current growth rate, he firmly said "No".
Back to News Review index page  

GE to buy out iGate stake in iProcess
New Delhi—General Electric is negotiations with infotech company iGate Capital to buy out its 50 per cent stake in the joint venture company iProcess.
The price at which GE plans to buy out the 50 per cent stake of the US infotech company could not be ascertained at present.
Sunil Wadhwani-promoted iGate was fomerly known as Mastech and ranked among the fastest growing IT companies in the US till two years back.
More than a year ago Mastech was broken up into 10 different entities under the iGate Capital Corporation umbrella. iGate has an Indian subsidiary in Mascot Systems.
Back to News Review index page  

GE to expand call centre operations
New Delhi--GE is planning to expand its call centre operations in India. GE Capital International Services, under whose umbrella the US giant has set up its back-office processing centres in India, is looking at a multi-fold growth that will take its total strength to 20,000 employees by 2003 from the present 7,500, according to internal targets set up by the company’s top brass.
Thus by year 2003, the Indian operations will be in a position to cater to 50 per cent of the group’s total IT-enabled services requirements. At present about 40,000 employees are currently employed in meeting the back-office processing requirements of the various group companies worldwide.
Sources familiar with the company said that gradually much of this work is likely to be shifted to India.
The expansion in call centre business is a key part of $1-billion GE India's strategy to achieve a $2.5 billion turnover by 2005.
Back to News Review index page  

Ranbaxy in technical collaboration with Vectura
New Delhi—Ranbaxy Netherlands BV, a subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories, has announced a joint collaboration programme with European pharma major Vectura Ltd to develop a novel oral controlled-release technology with potential application for a broad range of pharmaceutical compounds.
The market for oral-controlled-release systems has been recently valued at over $14 billion.
According to a company statement, Ranbaxy will utilise its expertise in clinical development and scale-up, as well as its manufacturing and international marketing capability, while Vectura will contribute its proprietary intellectual property and innovative drug delivery solutions in the area of controlled release system to the collaboration.
Ranbaxy said the technology had the potential to release a once daily dose of drug throughout the whole gastrointestinal tract and is being developed with an aim of providing unique release modulation suitable for both low and high dose drugs.
Oral-controlled release medicines developed using this new technology provide the potential to improve patient compliance through enhanced convenience, reducing dosing and minimised incidence of side effects.
The new drug delivery technology utilises cost-efficient materials and processes and will further help in reducing the overall cost of therapy for chronic diseases.
Back to News Review index page  

Shalimar to redecorate itself
Kolkata—Though a late entrant in the field of automatic tinting in decoratives, the Jindal-Jhunjhunwala promoted Shalimar Paints, is scurrying to tie-up partnerships.
It is tying up with Crenova, a leading global manufacturer of stainers and US-based Fluid Management Inc for supply of tinting machines in India.

The total investment towards this will be around Rs 2 crore.
A top source in the company said that the new offering will hit the market within the next one month.

To begin with the company would be marketing the product through its dealers and would later extend it to dealers as well. The company declined to give out the name of the new product.
Shalimar Paints has about 30 brands in its portfolio, the leading ones being Number 1 Distemper and Hussain.
Back to News Review index page  

Duphar will await ruling on pharma demerger
Mumbai –Duphar Interfran will await the outcome of a special leave petition pending before the Supreme Court before allotting shares of Duphar Pharma India, the demerged pharmaceutical business of the company to DIL shareholders.
According to the scheme of demerger of DIL’s pharma business, shareholders of DIL will get two shares in Duphar Pharma for every share they hold in DIL.
The scheme of demerger would have let DIL’s foreign collaborator Solvay Pharmaceuticals take control of the pharma business while exiting chemicals in favour of the majority Indian stakeholder.
In the meantime, Solvay’s proposal to pick up equity in Duphar Pharma had come up before the FIPB on May 17 but was deferred as the Department of Economic Affairs wished to consult Sebi, the capital markets regulator on certain issues. It is expected to come up again on Wednesday.
Back to News Review index page  

Stan-Chart Grindlays to dispose non-core property
New Delhi—Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank wants to restructure its real estate operations and has said that it is in the process of identifying non-core property among its 700-odd real estate property in India for disposal.

Post merger of Standard-Chartered with ANZ Grindlays the combined portfolio of real estate property with the bank now stands at over 700.

The bank is planning to put these to its optimum benefit by selling off those, which are in non-core areas and developing those in core areas said the, regional head (strategic sourcing and property management division) Stanchart Bank Ajoy Kapoor.
According to him, the 100-odd free hold properties are valued at around $130 million and the bank is in the process of valuing its remaining 600 leasehold property.
Standard-Chartered is in the process of setting up a back office facility in Chennai spread over an area of 90,000 sq feet, located at harrows road.
The facility will enable the bank to out source some of its overseas back office operations into India to take advantage of cheap labour.
Back to News Review index page  

Damanis may divest VST stake to foreign tobacco giant
Mumbai—It is rumoured that the Damani brothers may offload their stake in VST Industries to either of the two global giants, BAT Plc or US-based Philip Morris.

Though Damani brothers maintain that there is no one behind them supporting their move involving around Rs 70 crore, observers feel that there is a corporate entity with deep pockets behind them in their move to get around 46 per cent stake in VST.
The VST Ind’s stock price, on Tuesday declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to Rs 134 from Rs 135.80 on Monday.
Following the closing on Monday of the highest bid of Rs 151 for Rs 10-share of VST Ind offered by the Damanis-owned BrighStar Investments, the Damani brothers’ holding in VST Ind could go up to a high of 46 per cent, from the current level of around 16 per cent. The offer closes on June 13.
Back to News Review index page  

Ashok Leyland extends tie-up with ZF of Germany
Chennai--Ashok Leyland Ltd, the Hinduja group flagship, (ALL) is extending its technology tie-up with ZF Friedrichshofen AG (ZF) of Germany for the licensed manufacture of ZF’s 6S 850 six-speed synchromesh gearbox in India.
R Seshasayee, ALL, managing director said that the extension of the agreement marks a significant milestone in making up-to-date technology available to commercial vehicle users in India. ALL is the second largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India after Telco.
ZF is one of the world leaders in independent specialist in transmission technology for all types of vehicles.
The company has in its commercial vehicle and special transmission division 10 manufacturing locations spread across the world and a sales turnover of euro 1.6 billion in year 2000.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Engg devises new leave scheme for employees
Mumbai—Tata Engineering has designed an innovative leave scheme, which will offer paid long leave to employees during their period of misfortune.

The concept devised by the company is called "leave bank." In order to become a member of the leave bank, each employee has to contribute a day’s leave in a year to the bank. There is a committee comprising representation from both the union and the management, who would decide the genuineness of the applications before awarding the paid leave to the employee for his entire period of need.
Thus if an employee takes 365 days of leave, almost 35 days of leave has to be granted by the employee to the bank on his return. Therefore, by paying a premium of 35 days, the employee gets a coverage of 365 days by getting a paid leave for the entire period. Officials added that this concept is a way of sharing one man’s misfortune by others. Those who contribute to the bank get a risk coverage through the scheme.
The company, through this scheme, has till now accumulated 5,000 days of leave and has decided to stop the contribution for some time till the available days are fully used. On the other hand, for the last couple of years, the company has not given special leave to anybody apart from extending the facility under the leave bank scheme.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Elxsi net up 106.7 percent
Mumbai-- Tata Elxsi registered a 106.7 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 13.86 crore for the year ended March 2001, as against Rs 6.70 crore in the previous year. Total income rose to Rs 137.90 crore from Rs 124.23 crore last year.

The company informed the BSE that, for the quarter ended March 2001, net profit increased by 8.8 per cent to Rs 5.61 crore from Rs 5.16 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Total Income declined to Rs 41.15 crore from Rs 41.24 crore over the corresponding quarter. The board has declared a divided of 25 per cent for the year.
Back to News Review index page  

TTK group eyes the small electric appliances market
Bangalore—TTK Prestige part of the Bangalore-based TTK Group launched a range of kitchen appliances in the city on Tuesday and plans to add more products to the existing range every three to four months.
The TTK group is eyeing the Rs 1,500-crore small electric appliances market to boost growth.
TTK group chairman TT Jagannathan said the move intends to counter the company’s sluggish growth for the past two years.
According to him: "In order to grow, we decided to tap a larger Rs 3,000-crore market that will include the electronic appliances market rather than restrict ourselves to the traditional business of pressure cookers and non-stick ware." The Indian pressure cooker market is estimated at Rs 600 crore while the non-stickware segment is around Rs 900 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Century Textiles chalks out three-pronged thrust
Kolkata--Century Textiles and Industries has laid out a three-pronged strategy under which the company will withdraw from its shipping business, continue with its chemicals and adhesive division, and focus on cement, rayon and paper as its long-term business plan.

As part of this the company has been offloading ships gradually.

Century's fleet consists of four ships, down from 13 a few years ago, aggregating over 1.30 lakh tonne deadweight.

The company's decision to retain its chemicals and adhesive interests was based on the fact that the rayon division -- the main money-spinner -- used the products of the division as raw materials.

Rayon, cement and paper have been identified as core areas owing to their substantial contribution to the company's turnover, sources added.

The company has no plans to infuse fresh capital in the core area of business owing to its huge outstanding debt of nearly Rs 900 crore, it is not in a position to go for fresh investments.

"Rather, we would like to inject small capital for modernisation of plants and alternation of product mix, if required," source said.
Back to News Review index page  

TVS retooling two-wheeler range, 4-stroke variants loom
Kolkata-- TVS-Suzuki Ltd plans to unveil a number of 4-stroke two-wheelers in the motorcycle, scooterette and moped categories.

Company officials said that in each of these segments, four-stroke variants would be introduced. The first rollout would be a 110 cc range of 4-stroke motorcycle in September.

These initiatives are part of the restructuring plan put in place by the company that will enable the company to further gain market share.

TVS sales turnover grew by 20 per cent to Rs 145 crore in May 2001 compared with April 2001.

Sales volumes increased by 23 per cent to 62,610 vehicles during May 2001 compared with April 2001. Motorcycles sales grew by 17 per cent during May 2001 compared with April 2001.

Similarly, scooter sales and moped sales grew by 58 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, in April 2001 and May 2001.
Back to News Review index page  

Indian Hotels to hold reins in venture with Portmans
Mumbai--The Indian Hotels Company, IHC, which runs the Taj Group of Hotels, will hold a majority stake in the proposed joint venture formed with Portmans, the US-based multinational real estate developer, for its Indian Tourism Develpment Corporation (ITDC) bid.

A top IHC official, confirmed this and a senior official of Portmans said that the group was comfortable with the Taj Group having majority control in the ITDC properties, taking into account its corporate culture and good management skills.

The official also said Portmans is in the process of evaluating potential investment opportunities in India. The joint venture is looking at select properties of ITDC and is quite keen in acquiring the Ashoka Hotel.

Portmans, along with the Taj group, are developing Wellington Mews, an apartment hotel, in south Mumbai.

Portmans had earlier planned to bid for Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) properties. However, it has now decided against the move.
Back to News Review index page  

MSEB not to buy DPC power at 90 percent PLF
Mumbai--The Maharashtra government will not buy power from the Dabhol Power Company’s (DPC) project at a 90 per cent plant load factor (PLF), said a senior state government official here today.

This represents a hardening of Maharashtra’s position on talks with DPC and kills the latter’s proposal to split tariffs for the Centre and Maharashtra.

Though the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) is required to buy 90 per cent of the power generated by the first phase (740 mw) of the project, during negotiations with the Godbole Committee, MSEB has been demanding that the requirement be cut to 35 per cent.

At the last Godbole Committee meeting, DPC put forward a plan to split tariffs for the Centre and Maharashtra, with the Centre paying Rs 3.30 per unit of power and MSEB paying Rs 3.50.

Maharashtra’s latest position undermines DPC’s proposal since the Enron-promoted company’s tariff hinges on MSEB absorbing 90 per cent of the power it generates in the first phase.
Back to News Review index page  

GM to launch station wagon Opel Swing
New Delhi-- General Motors plans to enter the multi-utility vehicle (MUV) segment with the launch of its station wagon Opel Swing.
The MUV segment is expected to see a host of new launches this year with the Mitsubishi Pajero and Suzuki.
Sources said that Opel Swing, which is a Corsa station wagon, has been developed on the Corsa platform. The all-purpose MUV will be launched in two variants 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre by mid-July.

Sources said that the pricing of the MUV 1.4 litre will be "very competitive", but refused to give further details.
The localisation content of the Opel Swing is expected to be around 60 per cent. The production line for the Opel station wagon is being prepared so that it can roll out by next month.
Back to News Review index page