Centre may takeover DPC
Mumbai--Enron team led by chairman Kenneth Lay discussed several options with the central government, which included an exit route in which the government’s takeover of the beleaguered $3-billion Dabhol power project could be one of the solutions. Power secretary Asoke Basu and other senior officials in the ministry attended the meeting. From Enron’s side the meeting was attended among others by Wade Cline, managing director of Enron India. It was suggested at the meeting that the government takeover could be possibly done through NTPC or an SPV involving Enron taking over the plant and selling power to the national grid. Sources feel that it would then be possible for the government to directly subsidise power tariff without being seen to be offering subsidies to any one state. Union power minister Suresh Prabhu, when contacted, refused to divulge any information on the discussions.
The other major options discussed include a buyout by another equity holder, a total exit by the developer and conditions that would be necessary if Enron were to continue, which include various taxes and custom duty exemptions to the tune of around Rs 1,600 crore in line with the benefits given to PSUs. An official source, however, confirmed that the company had not presented any separate alternative package.
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Corpn Bank in JV with LIC
New Delhi—Life Insurance Corp will form two joint ventures with Corp bank to manage investments in government securities. The board of Corporation Bank has approved the allotment 2.4 crore preferential shares to Life Corporation of India (LIC) at Rs 196 per share in a deal that would fetch Rs 470.4 crore for the bank.
K Cherian Varghese Corp bank’s chairman and managing director said, "We have managed to get a premium of Rs 186 per share, and the share price is way above than the minimum of Rs 144 per share stipulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. We would get Rs 470.40 crore from the deal, of which only Rs 24 crore (for 2.4 crore shares at par) would be capital and the rest Rs 446.40 crore premium would shore up our reserves.
After the allotment, LIC's stake in the bank would rise to 26.93 per cent from the present level of 12.32 per cent, which the insurance major had picked up at a price of Rs 80 per share when Corporation Bank had come out with an initial public offer (IPO).
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Capital Group takes 5.1 percent stake in Polaris Software
Mumbai-- Capital Group a fund managing company in the US through group company Smallcap World Fund has acquired a 5.1-per cent stake in Polaris Software Labs, the Chennai-based software company.
The current foreign institutional investor holding in Polaris has now risen to 10 per cent as of June 30, 2001, from the earlier 6.37 per cent as on March 31, 2001.
Although Capital Group has been active on the Polaris counter and has been accumulating shares ever since the company’s IPO, it turned into a big buyer in March 2001, and has cornered almost 3.5-per cent holding during the last three months.
The Capital Group also invested around $125m for a 5-per cent stake in satellite broadcasting company Sony Entertainment Television. The enterprise value of SET, which has operations in India and Singapore, has been estimated at $2.5bn.
Polaris Software Lab’s shares closed at Rs 198.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday giving the company a market capitalisation of Rs 338 crore.
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H-P cuts salaries by 10 percent
Jaipur-- Hewlett-Packard has decided to cut the salaries of its India employees by 10 per cent. The cut will continue for a period of four months. Company officials said the salary cut had nothing to do with India specifically, but was part of the global policy of H-P to cut costs in the face of the US slowdown.
At its recent semi-annual business update for the financial community, Hewlett-Packard Company had said that it sees the slowdown in IT spending spreading beyond the United States and Europe and that May sales in both consumer and enterprise markets in all regions were soft, and H-P was becoming more cautious regarding its revenue guidance of flat to down 5 per cent for the third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2001. H-P also said that it was implementing additional expense reductions.
On the development front the company is going ahead for marketing its powerful Itanium architecture in India. HP has co-developed this architecture with chipmaker Intel for use in backend servers and workstations of mega-corporations that handle huge amounts of mission-critical data. Say company officials the Itanium chip, which will go into all Itanium-based systems is far superior than other chips like Intel’s own Pentium.
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Zee lines up mega revamp
Mumbai--Zee TV Networks, the flagship channel of Zee Telefilms, has lined up a revamp of its programming with a new look and feel.
The relaunch has been scheduled for the third week of August and the new menu will be driven by Aap Jo Bole Haan Tu Haan, Aap Jo Bole Na Tu Na (If you say Yes, then yes; if you say No, then its no), an hour-long drama, which can have two endings.
The clincher is that the audience decides the ending — whether the couple marries or breaks up — through phone-ins announced every 10 minutes after the show goes on air.
Zee TV is also bringing in hot favourite Tamil soap on Sun TV, Chithi, renamed Choti Ma, the daily weekday Hindi version will be handled by the original producer Radhika of the Chennai-based Raaden Productions.
A new family drama spin will be added to the channel with the addition of the serial Dollar Bahu from August. The 52-episode serial is based on Sudha Murthy’s (wife of Infosys chief NR Narayan Murthy) novel in Kannada and is being produced in the US by Sunil Halli.
Sandeep Goyal, Zee TV’s CEO incharge of broadcasting while admitting that the family drama would remain the channel’s mainstay, said the storylines would be different and would contribute to "re-inventing the channel.
Significantly, the much-touted POW — a reality show that was earlier promoted as Zee TV’s channel driver — is not part of the new line-up and may die a quiet death like Sawal Dus Crore Ka. Shows that go off the air next month include Chandan Ka Palna, Babul and Pradhan Mantri — which have not done too well.
Zee TV will retain its three top-performing serials — Mehndi Tere Naam Ki, Aamanat and Koshish...Ek Aasha.
Goyal said ZTL will invest Rs 150 crore over the next year in the new programming line-up but added it is just marginally higher than the previous year’s investments.
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Honda wants to be associated with Kolkata F1 project
Kolkata--Honda Motor Company, the $55 billion Japanese automaker, would like be associate with the proposed Formula 1 racetrack project scheduled to come up in Kolkata. Honda’s participation will be in the form of endorsements, in line with its global practice where Honda takes part in such multi-billion dollar mega motorsport events.
The development may come as a blessing for the Rs 350 crore Kolkata F1 project, which has been doomed to controversy since its inception.
There has hardly been any progress since the MoU was signed between the West Bengal government and UK-based Grand Prix India Plc. It is learnt that the government is awaiting a detailed project report (DPR) from GPIP before taking final decision. The state government has already taken possession of the land required in Rajarhat where a new township is being developed.
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Grasim’s VSF unit deal falls through
Mumbai--Grasim Industries' proposal to transfer its ailing viscose VSF division at Mavoor, Kerala, and transfer it to Moonlight Canfab has fallen through due to labourers' resistance to the transfer. As a result, the company has decided to take a one-time hit of Rs 60 crore towards retrenchment costs for closing down the division. Last year, Grasim had decided to hive off its ailing pulp and paper division at Mavoor and transfer it Moonlight Canfab for a consideration of Rs 21.5 crore.
At the time, 1,700 workers were planned to be given the option of either joining the new company or opt for a voluntary retirement scheme.
The company, however, has continued to pay its employees during the past two years when the operations at the pulp and fibre units were shut. This is the second time that the Aditya Birla group has closed down a unit and taken a hit. Earlier, Indian Rayon's sea water magnesia unit was closed down following which the company had taken a Rs 300 crore loss, forcing Indian Rayon into the red that year.
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Tata Tea out of insurance agency services
Kolkata--Tata Tea is closing down its insurance agency services, which operate under the umbrella of its division, Tata Marine Agencies.
This is because the company's wants to conform to the statutory regulations stipulated by the Insurance and Regulatory Development Authority (Irda).
Under the corporate agency norms of Irda, the directors on the company board from non-insurance background would have to undergo a 100-hour training.
Moreover, as the insurance agency business was being run by Tata Tea as an agency of Llyod's, the division could not be hived off into a separate company either. Tata Marine Agencies has been agents of Lloyd's for more than 130 years. The corporate agency norm however is still pending with the government for approval.
Authority (Irda), said Homi R Khusrokhan, managing director, Tata Tea. The division also represented The Institute of London Underwriters, the Salvage Association, London, and some 200 foreign insurance companies including CIGNA of the US and most leading insurance companies in Japan, such as Mitsui, Tokio, Sumitomo, Yasuda, and also from other countries.
The company has introduced voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for the 60 employees of the division.
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SAB not decided on course action
New Delhi--Sri Adhikari Brothers TV Network has not yet decided its future course of action against Doordarshan’s decision to reject its Rs 18 crore bid for the 8 to 10 pm time slot on DD Metro. This is as as no official intimation from DD has come according to senior vice-chairman of Sri Adhikari Brothers, Markand Adhikari.
Along with SAB, the other two bids rejected by DD last week were those of Pritish Nandy Communications (Rs 1 crore for 8-9 p.m. slot) and Prachar Communications (Rs. 16 crore for 7-11 p.m. slot). The three bids, combined together, failed to outstrip Rs. 121 crore --- the amount paid by Kerry Packer’s Nine Broadcasting last year for the 7-10 p.m. slots on DD Metro for a one-year contract which comes to an end later this year. This year, the contract was to be signed for a period of three years.
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Nalco to diversify into detergents; to market zeolite
Mumbai—The National Aluminium Company (Nalco) India’s second largest aluminium company is diversifying into the detergents business at its zeolite plant scheduled to start operations in July end.
Zeolite, a newly developed compound, is a key input for detergents and is used by manufacturers the world over. zeolite is reportedly an eco-friendly substitute of sodium tri-poly phosphate (STPP), currently used by most domestic detergent players. zeolite costs 40 per cent less than STPP. The current price of zeolite is Rs 20,000 per tonne, while STPP costs in the range of Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000, according to a senior Nalco official.
Nalco will be starting production at the Rs 30-crore, 10,000-tonne-per annum zeolite plant near the aluminium facility at Damanjodi, Orissa, towards the end of this month.
Zeolite has emerged as a substitute because of the increased awareness about the polluting effect by phosphate builders like STPP. And since there have been legislative measures to curtail the use of STPP, Zeolite has emerged as a substitute.
Incidentally, the Chennai-based detergent manufacturer Henkel Spic is the only company so far to use zeolite for its brand Henko. It also has a captive zeolite unit with a 10,000-tonne capacity. It consumes 2,000 tonnes at its detergent plant.
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