Reliance to ease out of power; may use BSES for its power plans
Mumbai— Except for captive projects, Reliance may be easing out of the power sector.
Last year Reliance hiked its stake in BSES to around 29 per cent in an open offer, and now seems to be in the process of making BSES its vehicle for pursuing power projects in India.
RV Shahi, chairman & MD of BSES, said his company was currently evaluating 20-odd projects, which included those pursued by Reliance and other promoters, apart from a few greenfield projects. The BSES in-house project evaluation team has already completed the feasibility study on Reliance projects, said sources.
Though all its power projects under development have now been offered to BSES, Reliance is yet to decide on its four captive power projects that are running in Jamnagar (360 MW), Hazira (250 MW), Patalganga (85 MW) and Naroda (45 MW). Reliance, which runs the operation and maintenance functions for these captive projects, has not offered these to BSES.
The major power projects pursued by Reliance include Hirma (3,960 MW), Jamnagar (500 MW), Jayamkondam (initially 500 MW, and to be increased to 1,500 MW), Patalganga (447 MW) and Ghogha (375 MW).
Last year, Reliance Industries, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Power Ventures, had made an open offer for 20 per cent, or 2.8 crore BSES shares, and had acquired around 1.6 crore shares accounting for 11.9 per cent of the BSES equity of Rs 138 crore.
Prior to the open offer, Reliance and its associates held 14.8 per cent of BSES’ equity. Subsequently, in November ‘00, Reliance had nominated two representatives, S Seth and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala to the BSES board.
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India; future hub of low end Honda scooters Manesar--Honda Motor Company of Japan plans to make India it’s hub for designing and manufacturing of low-end scooters and subsequently, the arrangement will be extended to other two-wheelers.

As part of its expansion plan, Honda is doubling its manufacturing capacity in India from the existing 100,000 units to 200,000 units.

The Japanese company is planning to invest an additional Rs 100 crore in Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (Pvt) Ltd during the current financial year and has invested around Rs 200 crore so far into the latter.

A top company official said Honda sought the government’s permission to import two-wheelers, primarily scooters, in the completely built unit (CBU) form, which would help Honda gauge consumer response for other scooters and bikes which may be manufactured in India in the near future with minor changes. Import of high-end bikes is also being explored.

According to the company, the size of the Indian two-wheeler market in 2004 is expected to be around five million, of which scooters would comprise 1.2 million.

Honda plans to sell between 200,000 to 300,000 units notching up around 25 per cent of the market. Break-even point will be achieved at 200,000 units.
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HCL banks on software to drive profits
New Delhi-- The Rs 1,136-crore HCL Infosystems is depending on software services to drive its profits and is looking at growing its software services business by 45-50 per cent, while its hardware growth remains stable at 25-30 per cent levels.
Infosystems chairman and CEO Ajai Chowdhry said that hardware would drive HCL Infosystems’ revenues and software would drive its profits.
According to Chowdhry, HCL Infosystems’ software services revenue; domestic and international, stood at Rs 200 crore in fiscal 2000, the company expects that figure to touch Rs 300 crore by the end of fiscal 2001.

HCL Infosystems’ Q4 results are expected on August 11.
According to Chowdhry, the apathy of the government towards the hardware sector has not only impacted the growth of the industry, but also the market capitalisation of hardware companies. The HCL Insys scrip has been reigning at a level of Rs 57-59 at the BSE. Says Chowdhry, it was clear to shareholders, FIs and FIIs is that the government doesn’t care about the hardware sector, and that leads to a negative perception about hardware scrips, including HCL Insys.
He added that the company would continue to penetrate the smaller towns or cities for increasing its PC sales, rather than just concentrating on the metros.
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Hughes to roll out broadband satellite-based ISP services
Mumbai—Hughes Network Systems plans to launch broadband Internet access services through satellite through its group company Hughes Escorts Communication, which is a VSAT service provider. These services are not only for the enterprise segment, but for the retail side of the market as well.
This is since the cost and the size of terrestrial dishes has come down.
The company will offer broadband Internet access with speeds of more than 2 Mbps through small satellite dishes, almost the size of a computer screen. These dishes can be easily moved and will also help enterprises in remote locations to get access to the Internet and will also give Hughes an edge in rolling out the services in buildings where fibre cannot reach.
The company has already invested in a satellite hub in Gurgaon near Delhi for the purpose.
The company recently launched these services under the brandname "Direcway" in US, as a key part of its DirectTV expanding broadband strategy. Hughes’ DirecTV is a leading satellite television service in the US, and it offers digital multi-channel entertainment services to over 10 m customers in US.
The company is planning to roll out the services in phases and will initially target the corporate sector, which needs broadband access. Subsequently the retail end of the market will be targeted.
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SpiceCell rechristened Bharti Mobitel
Kolkata-- SpiceCell has been rechristened Bharti Mobitel by the Mittals of Bharti Enterprises.
The decision after the Bharti group snapped up the erstwhile B K Modi-controlled SpiceCell operation in Kolkata in a $71-million all-cash deal.
For the time being, Bharti Mobitel will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Cellular — the cellular flagship of the Bharti group. It will eventually be merged into Bharti Cellular.
The Mittals’ decision to rename SpiceCell is seen as a prelude to the impending launch of the `AirTel’ and `Magic’ cellular brands in Kolkata.
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BILT to trim flab, freezes hiring
New Delhi--Ballarpur Industries (BILT), has embarked on an exercise to trim its workforce by 3,000 over the next 18 months and from August 1, has put a freeze on new recruitment for a period of three months. At present, the company has staff strength of 16,000.

This is after BILT engaged Innova of Germany to carry out a study of skill levels of the 1000-odd workforce at its Sewa plant. In the second phase, Innova would recommend how many staff are actually required to run the operations given the state of the technology.

BILT is also independently looking at the manning of its plant at Yamunanagar in Haryana, which employs some 3,500 people.

According to company vice-president (people development & communications) Vineet Chhabra, the downsizing is important in view of the investments being made in technological upgradation.

BILT is also working on a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for the workers. Chhabra said two options were being considered: either to make payments under the VRS at one go or stagger the payments over a period of time. The VRS is expected to cost the company almost Rs 150 crore and at the most the cost can be spread over a few years, according to him.
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Bharti to have focussed approached to pure cellular operations, keep away from WLL
New Delhi—The Bharti Group is no longer interested in the limited mobility or WLL business and has ruled out acquisition of any additional basic services licenses. According to Bharti group, chairman, Sunil Mittal, the company has taken the view that it would now be primarily a cellular player, along with its focussed basic licences in three or four circles.
In the fourth licence bidding, the Bharti group has emerged as the second largest cellular operator, in terms of population, in the world after China Mobile, which covers 1bn people.
Bharti now has a footprint of around 700m people covering 85 per cent of the country’s telecom market and Mittal says, the target is to have just 1 per cent penetration or 7m subscribers and $1bn turnover in the next five years. The group’s subscriber base stands at 1m.
Mittal said, the target for this year’s turnover was Rs 2,000 crore from Rs 1,300 crore last year. The group is also looking at merging all cell companies into Bharti Cellular and the circles will all be 100-per cent owned.
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Om Kotak launches operations in Ahmedabad, offers 3 products
Ahmedabad--Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company (OKMLIC), a joint venture between Kotak Mahindra Finance and London-based Old Mutual plc, has launched its operations in Ahmedabad and unveiled its first three products here.

OKMLIC managing director Shivaji Dam said that, as part of expanding its operations across the country, the company plans to open eight more branch offices during the current year which would enable OKMLIC to have a presence in 13 Indian cities by March 2002.

The cities where branches are planned in the coming months include Surat, Rajkot, Pune, Nagpur, Madras, Hyderabad and Gauhati, he said.

Emphasising that OKMLIC would have four branches in Gujarat by the end of this year, Dam said that the company had a strong focus on Gujarat as a market and believed that there were abundant investment opportunities there as people in the state understood good finance and a good bargain. He said that the company had already appointed 46 agents in Ahmedabad and 11 in Vadodara and planned to recruit more agents in the state during the coming months.
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Thermax VRS to cost Rs 15 crore
Pune--Thermax Ltd has announced its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its professional and management grade staff. The program is expected to cut employee strength by 200 to 250, and may cost the company close to Rs 15 crore.

It will remain open up to August 21, 2001, and is part of Thermax's ongoing business restructuring exercise. However, the VRS is not being offered at the very senior levels of management.

There are two variants of the scheme. Under scheme I, employees who are 40 plus or with 10 years of completed service in the company are eligible.

Scheme II targets those in the age group of up to 40 years. The compensation here will be up to a maximum of Rs 6.25 lakh.

Thermax is in the process of pruning material and employee costs. Manufacturing and operational processes are being streamlined to improve its bottomline.

The company's wage bill, at about 14 per cent of the turnover, is considered very high in the Indian engineering sector.

Post-VRS, the wage bill is expected to come down, though sources say it will continue to have surplus workforce unless business orders pick-up.

Thermax's current staff strength is about 1,350 people, excluding group companies, which employee about 400 people.
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HLL extends Denim brand to soaps
Mumbai-- Hindustan Lever (HLL) is undertaking a major exercise to extend the product portfolio of Unilever's Denim range of personal products in the country.

As part of this the brand will be extended into soaps as well, while internationally, Unilever has not extended the brand to soaps.

Earlier in 1999 HLL experiment briefly with a Denim cologne soap, but did not record any significant gains.

Now HLL has decided to launch Denim deodorant soap in the market, targeting it at young people in the range of 20-22 years.

The Denim deodorant has a 5 per cent market share, after-shave lotions 18 per cent share, Denim talcs 4 per cent and shaving creams around 8 per cent share.
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Amalgamated Bean serves up coffee chain
Hyderabad--The Bangalore-based Amalgamated Bean Trading Co Ltd (ABC), promoter of the brand Coffee Day, has launched its chain of airport-based Coffee Day cyber cafes at the NTR domestic airport in Hyderabad.

Surendra Kancheti, director, Coffee Day said the company planned to open one Cyber Cafe at the New Delhi airport soon followed by similar ones at Bangalore and Chennai airports.

The Coffee Day cyber cafe will not only offer airline passengers an exotic range of specially brewed coffees but will also help travellers surf the Internet and stay connected as they await their departure calls.

Kancheti said Amalgamated Bean also runs 19 cyber cafes in four cities after it launched its maiden one in Bangalore in 1996.

ABC is the largest exporter of coffee in the country, shipping about 30,000 tonne per year. It also retails coffee under the brand Coffee Day through 250 coffee points spread across various cities in south India.

The Indian coffee mart has been steaming of late, with the deal of the recent past happening when Tata Coffee picked up 34 per cent stake in the New Delhi-based Barista coffee chain.
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Maruti ups car prices
New Delhi—Maruti Udyog, the country's largest carmaker, has hiked prices of almost all its car models by Rs 2,622 to Rs 6,509, company officials said.
The prices of the three variants of the Maruti 800cc -- Standard, EX and DX -- have gone up by Rs 3,293, Rs 4,849 and Rs 4,513 (ex-showroom, Delhi), respectively.
Prices of the Zen variants have also gone up. While the price of Zen LX has gone up by Rs 6,509, the price of Zen Diesel price has not gone up, and a minimal Rs 560 hike has been effected on the Zen VXI and Alto VX models.
For the Alto LX and WagonR LXI models, a Rs 4,909 and Rs 5,366 hike, respectively, have been implemented.
The company has also made a uniform Rs 2,622 increase on the WagonR LX and Omni prices, officials said.
Although the mid-size Esteem LX price has been increased by Rs 6,021, there has been no increase in the prices of the other two variants of the Esteem.
The company has also left the premium mid-size Baleno, Baleno Altura and Gypsy untouched in the latest price hike, its third this year.
The Maruti officials attributed the hike to increased production costs.
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Ford India car sales down 26.6 percent in July
New Delhi-- Ford Motor India said sales of its mid-size Ford Ikon, fell 26.6 per cent in July to 1,103 units from 1,502 in the same month last year.
Ford shipped a total of 3,463 Ikon cars in July, including exports of 2,360 units in knocked-down form, the company said in a statement.
Sales in the January-July period totalled 24,016 Ikons, including domestic sales of 10,186 cars, it added.
The Ikon, launched in India in December 1999, competes in the Indian market with General Motors' Opel Corsa, Fiat's Sienna, Hyundai Motor's Accent and the Esteem from Maruti Udyog, a joint venture between Suzuki Motors and the Government of India.
Ford announced two months ago, that it would begin selling its new Mondeo, a large family car, in India by the end of 2001.
Ford began operations in India in 1996 with the locally assembled Escort model and has so far invested Rs 1,700 crore ($361 million) in India, including a new plant to manufacture the Ikon in Chennai.
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Wockhardt introduces new anti-depressant drug
Mumbai—Domestic Pharma major Wockhardt has introduced Venlafaxine capsules with Novel Drug Delivery System (NDDS)technology under the brand name 'Flavix-XR' for the treatment of depression.
Wockhardt chairman, Habil Khorakiwala, said in a release, "Depression counts among the five largest illness in India and is growing at an alarming rate. Venlafaxine is well accepted globally with sales crossing $1-billion."
Also because of its NDDS technology, patients would now need to take only a "once-a-day" dose for a 24-hour action, as opposed to multiple doses, Khorakiwala added.
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Go ahead given to Terminator
New Delhi—The Terminator (the name given by some NGOs to the technology that can alter plants genetically to produce sterile seeds) has been given the go-ahead by the Bush administration to the $301-million Delta & Pine Land, one of the world’s top-10 seed companies, to begin commercial production of seeds using the notorious Terminator technology.
Scientists across the world say Terminator could deal a blow to some 1.4 billion resource-poor farmers in developing countries.
India buys more than $2 million worth of fruit and vegetable seeds from the US every year. With a marketshare of 23 per cent, the US is the largest supplier of seeds to India.
Although many of the of the world’s gene giants like Syngenta (the world’s largest agribusiness firm formed in November 2000 with the merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca), BASF, Du Pont, Pharmacia (Monsanto) have patents on the Terminator technology, only Delta & Pine Land has declared its intention to commercialise Terminator seeds till now.
Delta & Pine is also the world’s biggest cottonseed company, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in North America, Brazil, Argentina, China, Mexico, Paraguay, South Africa, Australia and China.
Till now USDA had been reluctant to allow D&P to use Terminator technology commercially because of the overwhelming public opposition to the US government’s direct involvement in GM seeds.
But after a new agreement last week, D&PL now has the exclusive rights to sell the seeds while the USDA will get a royalty of 5 per cent on the net sales.
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