RPL's refinery offtake proposal turned down
New Delhi: The government has turned down Reliance Petroleums proposal seeking higher supply allocation from its 27 million tonne refinery.

RPL demanded that the company be allowed higher allocation at par with national oil companies under the controlled supply regime.

The government is reported to have told RPL that the allocations were in accordance with approved licenced capacity under the controlled regime and the company was responsible for expansion keeping the future in mind. RPL spokesperson declined to comment.

RPL, which has plans to expand to over 50 million tonnes in the next 5-6 years, wanted a greater share of near stagnant 103 million tonnes petroleum products market.

Petroleum ministry officials said initial government sanction to RPL was for 9 million tonnes only, which was subsequently hiked to 15 million tonnes.

But with the decontrol in the refining sector, Reliance raised its capacity to 27 million tonnes for which the government could not take any liability, they added.

RPL had in its presentation to the government claimed that it lost Rs 515 crore on forced exports of 2.725 million tonnes of petrol and diesel during 2000-01 fiscal as "it was denied fair access to the domestic controlled market".

"Only 38 per cent of petrol and 84 per cent of diesel produced by RPL was absorbed domestically as against almost 100 per cent by other public sector refineries," it said.

RPL said that capacity expansion of national oil refineries by 22 million tonnes, after commissioning of its 27 million tonnes Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat in July 1999, had resulted in oversupply situation and adversely affected product offtake from its refinery.

The presentation claimed that RPL was being treated as a balancing (swing) refinery with products absorbed only when PSUs did not produce or they were shut down.

Petroleum ministry officials said that PSU refinery expansion were taken as per the 1997 approved plans for making the country self-reliant in refining capacity.
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GTB takes 13.18 pc in Triumph
Mumbai: Global Trust Bank has acquired 13.18 per cent of the equity of Triumph International Finance Ltd. on August 30, the Bombay Stock Exchange was informed.

The acquisition of 9,88,790 its shares by GTB was ``in the ordinary course of business by exercising of rights as pledgee,'' according to Triumph International.

It appears that the pledger of these shares, two family members of securities scam kingpin Ketan Parekh, failed to pay dues to Global Trust Bank. The two Parekh members together hold a 15.84 per cent stake in Triumph International. Over 42 per cent of Triumph International's share capital is held by its Managing Director, Mr Dharmesh H Doshi, and his associates. The rest, around 41.38 per cent, is with the public.

Last month, SAT had rejected the appeal of Triumph International for a `stay' on the order of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) barring Triumph from undertaking any fresh business.

Triumph International was under investigation by Sebi on a charge of manipulation of the market.
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Tata Tele, Hughes merger delayed
New Delhi: The merger in basic telecom services between Tata Teleservices Ltd and Hughes Tele.com, announced early last month, appears to be in the limbo. Although a memorandum of understanding was signed for combining basic operations over a month ago, the modalities are yet to be worked out. They have been unable to reach an agreement on the basic framework of the merged entity.

Tata offers basic services in Andhra Pradesh, while Hughes provides the services in Maharashtra (including Mumbai) and Goa. The Batata-BPL cellular combine has operations in Mumbai and Maharashtra circles, apart from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

The clash of interest between both the groups therefore takes place in the cellular and basic operations in Mumbai and Maharashtra which they have been unable to sort out. However, company officials said that the talks are still in a preliminary stage and it would take another three to six months for anything to be worked out.

They also pointed out that in any case, in the notice sent to the Bombay Stock Exchange by both the groups, it was clearly mentioned that the talks between them ``should not be construed to imply that any definitive agreement has been or will be reached between the two parties''.
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Tatas, Air France-Delta explore Air-India bid
New Delhi: Following Singapore Airlines withdrawal, the Tatas are exploring the possibilities of forming a partnership with the Air France-Delta consortium for making a bid for stake in the Air-India.

The Tata group has sent a team of officials to Paris to initiate a dialogue with the consortium for the purpose.

The French carrier along with its consortium partner, Delta, had earlier withdrawn its offer for A-I as it could not find an Indian partner.

The Tatas had overlooked Air France last time as it was courting Singapore Airlines at the time. The Tatas had partnered with Singapore Airlines to bid for 40 per cent government stake in A-I. The Singapore Airlines, however, withdrew its offer citing political opposition.
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DGCA withdraws Mesco airlines' permit
The director general of civil aviation has withdrawn the permit of Mesco Airlines to operate air taxi service following home ministrys refusal to give security clearance to the company and its directors. The company directors are under investigation by the CBI for alleged financial irregularitie.

The DGCA had earlier suspended the company's license for four days as it had deployed foreign pilots without the mandatory clearances from the regulator.

The Delhi-based company has a fleet of helicopters, including three 26-seater Russian-built MI T-172s and had been issued a permit for an air taxi service, non-scheduled services and agricultural operations. It began operations more than five years ago.
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Apollo to lauch truck & tractor radial tyres
New Delhi: Apollo Tyres, the market leader in truck tyre segment with a share of over 65 per cent, is planning to launch radial tyres for trucks and farm vehicles.

A company official said that with the advent of multi-axle vehicles and increasing emphasis and focus of the government on development of road infrastructure, the demand for radial tyres is bound to grow exponentially.

The Rs 1,458-crore company has already completed the expansion related to farm radial tyres and is very soon planning the commercial launch of these tyres, the official said.

"Farmers will be able to take benefit of these tyres in the coming kharif season as these tyres have distinct operational advantages over ordinary tyres," he claimed.

Vice-chairman Onkar S Kanwar said with normal monsoon this year, the food grain production was expected to increase, resulting in higher freight movements.

"This should, hopefully, increase the demand for truck tyres in the country. Further, the government's emphasis on development of road infrastructures as well as development of express highways, should also give a fillip to the tyre demand in the country," Kanwar said in company's annual report.
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FIs take control of Malvika Steel
New Delhi: Usha group has lost control of its ambitious Rs 2,800 crore Malvika Steel to financial institutions for availing conditional credit of Rs 173 crore to complete the project in Uttar Pradesh.

The group has not only sold 51 per cent stake to FIs, led by IFCI, but also mortgaged its remaining 38 per cent for availing the credit while losing the management control in the process.

The project, which virtually crashed due to enormous interest burden that would amount to more than half the project cost, is 90 per cent complete, according to Rajeshwar Singh, director (works).

Out of the Rs 1,700 crore credit from FIs, as much as Rs 910 crore was accounted for by the interest alone, leaving just Rs 800 crore as actual flow of fund for the project. About Rs 500 crore as interest for the next two years is also being added to the cost.

The FI s have appointed B. Dutta as the new managing director.

Addressing a meeting of the reconstituted board, IFCI chairman P. Narsimham said, "It is the smoothest ever takeover of such a mega project."
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Bajaj Auto to offer more VRS
New Delhi: Bajaj Auto Ltd, which recently completed its second voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), is likely to offer more such schemes to reduce its over 14,000-strong workforce by 2004.

Bajaj Auto vice-chairman Madhur Bajaj said, "A workforce of 11,000-12,000 people would be best for us in the next 2-3 years when we reach the targeted optimum production level of two million units."

Last year, the company had spent Rs 79.94 crore on VRS which was opted by 2,017 employees. This resulted in an annual savings of Rs 30 crore.

The company had posted a 57.2 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 262.56 crore over a 6 per cent fall in turnover at Rs 3,963.94 crore last fiscal. Bajaj Auto's total two-wheeler sales declined by 15.05 per cent during 2000-01 at 10.53 lakh units.

As part of the current restructuring exercise Bajaj Auto is revamping its marketing and sales department and taking other cost-cutting measures to boost profitability.

The company is focussing on the high-growth motorcycle segment and has introduced several models like 'Eliminator', 'Boxer CT', 'Caliber Chroma' and 'Aspire' this year to increase its market share.
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Honda to invest Rs 100 cr on scooter unit
New Delhi: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) has announced to invest Rs 100 crore to more than double its existing production capacity by 2005.

HMSI, a fully-owned subsidiary of Japan's Honda Motor Company, has a plant at Gurgaon where it has invested Rs 200 crore to make two-wheelers. It has recently commenced manufacturing of a 102 cc gearless scooter 'Activa'.

"We will be investing an additional Rs 100 crore by 2005 to increase our production capacity to three lakh units from the present one lakh units," HMSI president, Haruo Takiguchi, said.

He said the current annual production capacity would be doubled to two lakh units by 2003. HMSI would produce about 45,000 scooters this fiscal, which would be hiked from April next year.

"We should achieve break-even by selling about two lakh scooters in 2003-04," Takiguchi said.

HMSI would also launch two new scooter models, including geared scooters over the next two years, after which it would venture into the growing motorcycles segment.

"We will produce basic entry level (100-110cc) motorcycles initially," the HMSI chief said, adding it would ensure that the company gained volumes in the competitive domestic market.

He, however, said that the new models would be exclusively developed for the Indian market like the 'Activa' rather than sourcing models from the parent company's stable.

HMSI, Takiguchi said, had plans to make the country a global export base for two-wheelers. "We want to make India an export base for two-wheelers. Exports should account for 10 per cent of our total production from fiscal 2004," he said.

In this fiscal, the company expects to ship 1,500 scooters to neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

"In the next fiscal, we will commence exports to Japan and US besides Latin America, Europe, Turkey and Mexico," Takiguchi added.
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Net4india draws up Rs 35-cr expansion plan
New Delhi: Net4India, Internet infrastructure and services company, has drawn up a Rs 35 crore investment plan for the next 18 months to set up three regional and one major data centre in Gurgaon and IT service centres in south east and middle east regions.

Net4India CEO Jasjit Sawhney said the company was also planning to operationalise its two satellite gateways this month in Chennai and Delhi for which it has already got in-principle nod from the Department of Telecom.

"We will use over 60 per cent of the total 45 mb satellite bandwidth for our own use - mainly for our network of 300 servers, and 30 leased line connections while the remaining amount would be for selling to third party users like ISPs and corporates," Sawhney said.

Net4India is setting up Internet data centres (IDCs) in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Kolkota soon, which will add to its existing six IDCs - Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.

It is setting up a 25,000 sq ft IDC in Gurgaon next year to serve offshore clients, he said.

The company's overseas plans for the next 12 months include entering into the South East and Middle East markets by setting up centres to take up services activities.

At present, Net4India has one office in the UK to look after the European markets in the Internet application development (IAD) segment.

Sawhney said that the company would not go beyond 10 cities for dial-up ISP services as its core focus is web solutions and systems integration and networking.

The company, which has a sizable chunk of domestic marketshare in the Internet domain name registrations will introduce three suffixes - '.info', '.base' and '.name' - in the next one month.

Ninety per cent of Net4India is owned by UK-based Sawhney group of companies with 10 per cent split between employees and promoters' associates.
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Merrill Lynch downgrades BSES
Mumbai: Merrill Lynch has downgraded the scrip of city-based electricity distribution company BSES Ltd from "accumulate" to "neutral" due to uncertainities over its investments in Orissa's power distribution units.

"We believe BSES's attempt to turnaround its three power distribution companies in Orissa will be a slow and painful process and these utilities - WESCO, NESCO, SOUTHCO - continue to register high systems losses", Merrill Lynch said in a company research report here.

The investment bank said earnings would go up reflecting tax benefits for the Dahanu generation units but the concerns over Orissa investments were likely to keep the valuations depressed.

The power utility's core business, distribution in the suburban areas of country's financial capital, appears to be sound, it added.

However, BSES may be affected by delay in passage of electricity bill in Parliament, it said adding new 500 MW power project at Safale near Mumbai was still awaiting the techno-economic clearance from the Central Electricity Authority.
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