Raymond close to buying European garment firm
Mumbai: Raymond is reported to be in the process of acquiring an European garment manufacturer involving a $ 50 million deal which is likely to be finalized within a month. Raymond officials, however, declined to disclose the name of the company being acquired. Raymond is also holding talks with a number of European fabric manufacturers but is yet to finalize which company to strike a deal with.

The garment manufacturer which Raymond wants to acquire is into making the whole range of mens wear - casuals and formal wear.

Raymonds fabric production capacity is 23.5.million metres.

The strategy behind acquiring a European garment making firm is to export semi-processed fabric from India which could then be processed further in Europe and sold in Indian market with the Made in Europe label.

Raymond also plans to increase the capacity of its worsted suitings and denim fabrics by investing Rs 150-200 crore in its existing units in India.

This is not the first time that an Indian garment company is going global by acquiring overseas companies. Earlier, the S Kumars Group had bought over UK-based apparel company Reid & Taylor and the Aditya Birla Group had acquired the Indian arm of the UK-based apparel major Coats Viyella and bought global rights for a few of its brands -- including Allen Solly and Louis Phillipe.
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Bayer plans Rs 2,3000-crore plant in India
Mumbai: Bayer of Germany has decided to set up a Rs 2,300-crore polycarbonate plant in India. The project is most likely to be set up near Surat in Gujarat. The project will be similar to Bayers project which came up in China last year with an installed capacity of 100,000-mt. Half of the total produce is expected to be consumed in India, the remaining half to be exported.

Gujarat seems to be a hot favourite for the project because of the availability of two important inputs required for production of polycarbonate - chlorine and polypropylene.
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Bhadrachalam to merge with ITC
Kolkata: ITC Ltd, the Rs 8,816 crore cigarette and hotels company, has decided to merge its subsidiary, the Rs 623 crore ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Ltd, with itself.

The merger is expected help both the companies. While ITC's topline will grow by Rs 611 crore which was Bhadrachalams turnover in 2000-01, the paperboards maker will be benefited by ITCs immense marketing and distribution strength.

Shareholders of ITC Bhadrachalam are likely to receive ITC shares against their holding in the paperboards maker once the merger proposal is cleared.

ITC directly holds 41.26 per cent of the paid-up equity of ITC Bhadrachalam and controls 18.99 per cent stake in the paper company through its wholly-owned subsidiary Russell Credit. ITC also holds 25.72 lakh preference shares of Rs 100 each in the paper firm.
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Toyota to roll out 2 new cars
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp, Japan, is planning to come out with economy cars using maximum locally manufactured components to keep the costs low. Toyota will also be coming out with a second passenger car by early 2002.

The low coast car will be of the Corolla brand name. platform. Toyota's D-segment car will compete Hyundai Sonata, Ford Mondeo, Mercedes C-Class and Honda Accord .

No fresh investment is being planned for the roll out of the new cars. Toyota is preparing original equipment machinery at its manufacturing complex for the new projects.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor was set up in 1997 as a 51:49 joint venture, with the Japanese partner holding majority stake.

Toyota's shareholding was, thereafter, increased from 51 per cent to 74 per cent through fresh capital infusion and subsequently to 88.86 per cent last year.
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Marutis Every Plus by October
Mumbai: Maruti is expected to launch its new model Every Plus by October this year. The eight-seater Every Plus, with a 1300 CC engine, is in the van segment. It will compete with diesel powered vehicles such as the Tata Sumo, Mahindra Bolero and Toyota Qualis. Though Maruti is yet to declare the price of the car, dealers expect it in the range of Rs 4 to 4.5 lakh. The Every Plus is the second generation of Suzukis Every series and is bigger and wider than the Omni and has a semi-forward frontal design against the flat front of the Omni.
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General Motors to buy Matiz
New Delhi: The US auto giant General Motors will buy Daewoos manufacturing units in India as part of its global acquisition move.

Y.T. Cho, managing director and the chief executive officer (CEO) who oversees the Indian operations, is now in Korea to help in the negotiations between the Korean government and officials of the US auto major.

While Korea had been rocked by the political impact of Daewoo selloff, its Indian unit had witnessed unrest over the retrenchment of 237 workers.
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L&T to offer VRS to managerial staff
Mumbai--Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) is trying to reduce its managerial staff by around 450 through its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) launched during end June. Already, 415 people have opted for the scheme as on August 31, 2001.
L&T had targeted a reduction of around 1,200 personnel through this round of VRS.
The actual figures, thus, fall substantially short of the manpower reduction the company was targeting. Total outgo on account of the VRS is expected to be around Rs 25 crore.
The company would be shortly launching similar VRS programmes for some of its joint venture, subsidiary and associate companies.
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Premier Auto to launch MUV and light truck
New Delhi-- Premier Automobiles plans to launch a multi-utility-vehicle and light truck by this year-end.
PAL would introduce these vehicles in technical alliance with Taiwan's China Motor Company, a group company of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors, Doshi said at the sidelines of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' annual convention here.
The vehicles would be manufactured at PAL's closed Kaylan plant in Mumbai where it used to make cars under an erstwhile joint venture with France's Peugeot.
The vehicles would be slotted in the premier category and in the first year, PAL is aiming at selling about 7,000-10,000 vehicles. PAL had identified the non-metros, semi-urban and rural markets for these vehicles.
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Pendse hits back at Tatas
Mumbai--Former Tata Finance Ltd (TFL) managing director Dilip S Pendse said that the board of Tata Finance was responsible for all decisions taken by the company during his tenure.
A statement by advocates, Bhave & Company, issued on behalf of Pendse said, The Tatas have been putting the blame squarely on our client despite knowing that our client was an employee of Tata Finance and all the decisions taken were as per the directions, formal and informal instructions of board of directors of Tata Finance and with full knowledge and consent of the board of directors.
This is for the first time that Pendse has commented on the controversy ever since the Tatas filed an FIR (first information report) with the economic offences wing of the Maharashtra government on August 6 alleging criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts and cheating against him and five other TFL executives who were sacked. Pendse resigned from Tata Finance on June 31.
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HP India to rev up operations
Kolkata-HPs expansion plans in India wil notbe affected by the $25 bn Compaq deal says HP India President Arun K Thiagarajan.
The company proposes to step up its back-office operations in Bangalore in a major way. A cutting-edge R&D centre, HP Labs is also slated to come up shortly.
Talking to the press at a CII meet here Thaigarajan said it was too early to comment on the implications of the global merger in India but for now it is business as usual. HP plans to step up back office operations in a major way, he said.
The back-office operations at Bangalore will handle various fixed asset accounting and supply chain management work for HP Europe and HP US. Currently the back office operations employ about 200 people. This could increase to about 800 people in the next two years time.
Plans are also on to set up a state-of-the-art research and development centre, HP Labs, which will provide consulting solutions to companies. Outsourcing call centres is also on the agenda. The company is expected to come up with a consultancy division in Bangalore to provide software solutions to companies.
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BSNL going mobile in 43 cities
Indore-Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will provide mobile telephone services in 43 cities of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh by March 2002. A senior company source said BSNLs services would be cheaper than the existing services provided by private players in the field and the existing private players in the field will not be able to match the network of the BSNL throughout the road and rail network, specially on the national highways and state highways, unlike the existing services, where after some distance the link fails.
However, the department has so far been able to sell 111 mobile connections, out of the targeted 600. Similarly in the Wireless in Local Loop category it was able to sell 191 connections out of the 1500 targeted.

Agrawal denied these phones are not working properly and clarified that people are told in advance about their range and other facilities
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China plans giving News Corp & AOL Time Warner access to TV audience
Beijing-China is in discussions with News Corp and AOL Time Warner to allow them to broadcast directly to television audiences in limited parts of southern China, the government's broadcast authority said on Wednesday.
A deal would be contingent on the two companies ensuring wide access to the United States for CCTV-9, the English-language channel of China's main government-controlled television network, said a spokeswoman for the State General Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
If negotiations are successful, China will allow New York-based AOL and Sydney-based News Corp to broadcast to households in parts of Guangdong, a booming southern province next to Hong Kong, the official said.
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Thermax to sell exits Surface Coatings unit; sets up new subsidiary
Pune--Thermax Ltd continues to exit non-core areas. While it has already exited from the bottled water business, the company is now in the process of closing down another subsidiary, Thermax Surface Coatings Limited. Thermax has already exited from its electronic components, systems and software, fans, leasing and financing business.
Thermax Limited has set up a new subsidiary Thermax International Limited (TIL) based in Mauritius which will be a holding company for all Thermax overseas ventures.
Thermax has invested in ME Engineering Limited, US and Thermax Inc, USA through TIL. The companys other overseas subsidiaries Thermax (Rus) Limited, Russia, and Thermax Europe Limited, UK will come under this holding company, Pheroz Pudumjee, director of Thermax Limited said. These UK and US investments was earlier done through Mermose Investment Holdings Limited.
Anu Aga, chairperson of Thermax, announced that the company would look into the possibility of a buyback.
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Government hunts for another Scooters India ally
New Delhi-The ministry of heavy industry is looking for a joint venture partner for Scooters India Ltd for offloading upto 74 per cent stake in the company after being let down by Piaggio.
The ministry intends to shortly invite expression of interest (EoI) from private companies.
Sources said that the company had been successful in developing an electric-powered three wheeler which was doing well.
Efforts were also underway to rope in another domestic partner to further upgrade SIL's product portfolio, he said.
Scooters India's net worth currently stands at over Rs 40 crore. The company, which manufactures three-wheelers under the brand Vikram posted a profit before tax of Rs 6.78 crore on a turnover of Rs 133.04 crore during 1999-2000.
Italian auto major Piaggio had evinced interest in picking up government stake in Scooters India two years back.
It backed out later on reports of a feasibility study undertaken by international consulting firm PriceWaterhouse.
Scooters India is one of the five companies besides Praga Tools, Bharat Pumps and Compressors and Reyrolle Burn which the department of disinvestment had referred back to the ministry of heavy industry expressing its inability to sell them at this stage.
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