Tata Engineering to revive Dharwar unit
Mumbai: Tata Engineering has revived plans to utilise its idle manufacturing capacity at its fourth plant at Dharwad, Karnataka, for producing special purpose commercial vehicles.

The company is planning to use the plant for applications like fire-fighting vehicles, ambulances, oil tankers, monocoque buses and buses with pneumatic suspension.

The manufacture of these vehicles would have been difficult to handle at its three regular plants at Jamshedpur, Pune and Lucknow say company officials. They add that the company may look at export possibilities from the Dharwad facility.

The Dharwad facility had originally been planned in 1996-97, when it recorded the highest sales of Rs 10,128.43 crore.
However, the demand tapered off in the subsequent years, forcing the company to put further investments at the plant on hold.

Now Tata Engineering even started taking up outsourced work from other auto companies to utilise its existing capacities better and reduce losses.
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SBI Caps to float global tenders for cement units
New Delhi: The IFCI has authorized SBI Capital Markets to float global tenders for the sale of all the units of loss-making Cement Corporation of India.

IFCI is the operating agency appointed by Board of Industrial & Financial Reconstruction for sale of CCI.

The sick public sector undertakings units have an installed capacity of 4.348 million tonnes per annum.

The net worth of the bidders should be at least Rs.100 crore in case bids are made for all units of CCI. SBI Caps and IFCI have fixed a minimum net worth limit of Rs.50 crore for bidders seeking to buy the Tandur and Nayagaon units of the company.

Foreign companies and overseas corporate bodies can also bid for CCI units, according to the eligibility criteria approved by the heavy industry ministry. Bids from foreign investors would be subject to approvals from the Reserve Bank and Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
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CCI to retire 1,870 employees
New Delhi: Cement Corporation of India is cutting its employees strength to 3,000 by retiring 1,870 employees through the on-going voluntary retirement scheme.

The move is part of a multi-pronged strategy to infuse life in the ailing company and increase its valuation before it is put on the blocks, top officials of CCI said on Monday.

"The threshold limit of 3,000 odd staff will be achieved by september, 2001 as against 4,871 employees as on march 2001, said senior company officials.

CCI, which has a debt burden of Rs 1,530 crore till date, requested the government to infuse a total Rs 57 crore for VRS in February. The Government sanctioned Rs 41 crore in the first installment that was used for relieving 855 people through VRS during May 5-10 this year, the CCI official said.

To trim fat, the ailing cement giant also roll backed the retirement age to 58 years from 60 years. The reduction in age, implemented in april 30, 2001, relieved 231 employees.
In addition, CCI has asked for Rs 34 crore to implement second tranche of VRS for additional 734 employees.
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Hindustan Lever to reposition tea brands
Bangalore: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is repositioning some of its tea brands. This is even as the latest ORG figures say that its market share has risen in the past one year in a sluggish industry.

Company officials say that the company wants to position its brands from being a matter of habit to being a matter of choice.
A1 and Brooke Bond Red Label have been relaunched.

The main reason for the exercise is that there is a perceived greater threat from the soft drink industry and the market for packed tea is shrinking.

Now the companys advertising is focusing on the younger generation who are drinking less tea and more of other beverages.

HLL recently launched Lipton ice tea in 250 ml bottles priced at Rs 10 to take the competition head on. Though the launch has been extremely selective, it is expected to go national soon.
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IOC, RPL, BPCL in race for central India pipeline
Mumbai : Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) have each put in an expression of interest for transporting petroleum products through the Rs 5,200-crore central India pipeline.

Apart from these three foreign oil companies have also put in their expressions of interest.

The 1,700-km pipeline for evacuation of petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene and naphtha from refineries in Gujarat, will be implemented on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

Petronet India Ltd (PIL), a non-governmental company promoted by IOC, BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for laying pipelines for transporting petroleum products, would undertake the construction of the central India pipeline, expected to be commissioned by December 2003..
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Otis Elevator to prune staff
Mumbai: Otis Elevator Company (India) has announced a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to prune staff at its Kandivali plant in Mumbai. There are over 300 people employed at this unit. The scheme opened today and is slated to close on September 24.

Company officials say that the scheme will enable Otis to become more nimble in its operations. Over the years, the company has created a shift in its manufacturing processes, through effective use of technology in new products and changes in its product mix. These changes have resulted in a need for rationalisation in the manufacturing process.

The company will however not introduce any VRS at its Bangalore unit where it has over 100 people.
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DPC sends termination notice to MSEB
Mumbai: The Dabhol Power Company (DPC) has served a second preliminary termination notice on the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) citing non-payment of dues by MSEB as well as the abrogation of the power purchase agreement.

A DPC media release said, This step, which continues the process of terminating the power purchase agreement, was necessary to protect the interests of Dabhols sponsors and other stakeholders.

DPC had served the first notice on May 19, 2001. The two sides have time until November 19, 2001, to settle the issue amicably.

DPC said that despite the issuance of the second notice, it is keen on an amicable resolution based on a complete recovery of foreign sponsor costs but dismissed the measures suggested by the Godbole committee and attempts by financial institutions to find a solution to this problem as unrealistic and illogical.
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Bilt to acquire Bilt-BGPL
New Delhi: Ballarpur Industries has announced an in-principle decision to acquire Bilt Graphic Paper -- formerly Sinarmas Pulp & Paper -- for over Rs 293 crore which will be followed by BGPL's merger within itself.

At present, another group company Bilt Paper Holdings holds 83 per cent of BGPLs equity, while the remaining 17 per cent rests with ICICI.

Bilt's board of directors on Monday also authorised the company to issue Rs 250-crore worth of fully convertible debentures on rights basis to its existing shareholders.

The board has also directed Bilt to consider the option of sale of shares held by it in BPHL's wholly-owned subsidiary, Janpath Investments & Holdings, as part of consideration subject to independent valuation and statutory approvals.
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Cipla sends AIDS drugs for PDS distribution
Mumbai: Ciplas first free consignment of anti-AIDS drug, Nevirapine, comprising of 900 bottles of Nevimune suspension in 25 ml packs has been despatched to various hospitals as desired by Unicef.

Cipla expects to supply around 5,000 such bottles in the next phase. Nevimune suspension is priced at roughly Rs 50 per bottle.

Nevirapine is the first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor.

Ciplas nevirapine supplies are being made to the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Chennai, KEM hospital and the Sir JJ Group of Hospitals in Mumbai and the Vani Vilas Hospital in Bangalore.

Cipla had, in its proposal to the ministry of health and family affairs, said that it will offer Nevimune (nevirapine tablets and suspension) for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection at no cost for distribution within India.

Nevimune, at that time, was priced at Rs 135 ($3) per tablet, a discount of 150 per cent on the international price of Rs 344 ($8) per tablet, though analysts do not expect supplies of this nature to impact the companys bottomline significantly.
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Opel Corsa sports model launched
Ahmedabad: General Motors India (GMI) has launched a sports special edition of the Opel Corsa, pitched against the Ikon 1.6 Zxi, Accent 1.5 GLS and other cars competing in the segment.

The new variant called Corsa 1.4 GLS Sport is priced at Rs 6,18,352 (ex-show room, Delhi) and is available in three colours - intense black, vermello beta and passion yellow.
It is equipped with features such as chrome plated alloy wheels, decklid spoiler, full length body side graphics, body side skirts, body coloured decklid garnish, additional high mounted stop lamp, power OSRVs and the option of a customised floor mat set.

GMI president and managing director Aditya Vij said that Corsa Sport is competitively benchmarked on features and price with other top-end versions in the segment adding that it is also packed with luxury features like power steering and windows, central locking with deadlocking facility, split folding seats, pollen micro dust filter, auto unlocking crash sensor, air conditioner with heater & with individual vent controls, child safety door and window locks.
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Mineral water brands get ISI mark
New Delhi: Major players in the mineral water category including Ramesh Chauhan's Bisleri, Coca-Coal's Kinley, Pepsi's Aquafina, Nestle's Pure Life and Prakash Chauhan's Bailley have obtained the ISI mark. Not more than a fortnight is left before the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) quality certification comes into effect in the packaged water industry.
In the natural mineral water category, only three brands -- Himalayan, Catch and Life Spring -- have obtained the mandatory ISI certification.

BIS has recently reduced the testing fee from Rs 1.49 lakh to Rs 96,000 for the large manufacturers, while small manufacturers will continue to be charged Rs 84,000.

As per the agreement with the manufacturers, BIS would test samples four times a year. The water would be tested on various criteria such as microbilogical impurities, toxic content and presence of radioactive element. All the eight BIS labs have been assigned the task of testing water.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare in its notification last year had set March 29 this year as the deadline for mandatory labeling of all the packaged water which was extended later to September 29 after many bottled water manufacturers requested the ministry to extend the deadline in view of their inability to withdraw non-ISI marked water from the market.

The notification would also be applicable to the imported bottled water brands like Evian and Perrier.
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Kraft Food to manufacture Tang
Hyderabad: The US-based Kraft Food International that is part of the $35-billion tobacco major Phillip Morris and the worlds second largest food company is setting up a 100 per cent subsidiary to manufacture powder softdrink.

The US-based company is setting up a state-of-the-art plant in Pashamylaram industrial estate, 40 km from Hyderabad. The plant will go on stream from September 29.

The new company, called KJS India Pvt Ltd, will manufacture powdered softdrink called Tang, with an initial investment of Rs 40 crore.

The company has acquired 8 acres of land in the industrial development area (Phase II) of Medak district to manufacture the Tang powdered softdrink concentrate with an initial capacity of 6,000 tonne per annum.

Tang soft drink concentrate was launched in India some time ago by importing it from Thailand where the parent company has a plant.

Kraft Food also makes cheese and chocolates.
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Mercedes-Benz recoups
New Delhi: Mercedes-Benz India may be out of the purview of the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction next year, according to chief executive Jurgen Ziegler.

Mercedes-Benz is a wholly-owned subsidiary of German-US auto giant Daimler-Chrysler. It had notified the BIFR in 1999 that its accumulated losses of Rs 336 crore had exceeded the net worth of Rs 600 crore by more than 50 per cent in nearly five years of operations and as per the Sick Industrial Companies Act, Mercedes-Benz India was "potentially sick" as the accumulated losses had resulted in erosion of 50 per cent or more of its net worth.

Officials in the company say that this year (January-December) will be good for the company.By next year, Mercedes should be out of the BIFR.

Mercedes-Benz India posted a profit of Rs 20 crore over a turnover of Rs 242 crore in 2000. The company has targeted to double its sales to about 1,600 cars in 2001.
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EID Parry recasts
Chennai: EID Parry (India) Ltd, the Murugappa group flagship company, has prepared a financial restructuring package that would help the company pare its debt-equity ratio drastically, besides cutting operational cost.

The other objectives of the financial recast are a moratorium on fresh capital expenditure and swapping high cost debt with low cost one.

Officials of the company said the company will reduce its total debt to equity ratio, including working capital, to 1:1 in the current fiscal and further down to 0.7:1 level by the next fiscal.

At present, the companys debt to equity ratio stands at 1.24:1, higher than the accepted industry level of 1:1. Sources said the company has decided to freeze all capital expenditure for the coming year so that the cash generated could be channelised to reduce part of the outstanding loans, and, therefore, the interest outgo.

EID Parry is also reported to be in talks with its major creditors like ICICI, IDBI and the State Bank of India to replace high cost debt with low cost loans. Besides this, the company has also put a blanket ban on any fresh borrowing from the market, they added.
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Herdillia Chem, HOCL face competition from imports
Mumbai: Domestic chemicals manufacturer Hindustan organic Chemicals stopped production at its phenol plant in Kochi, Kerala, last week after a huge pile-up of inventories and another domestic phenol-maker Herdillia Chemicals may also close its plant in Mumbai.

This is on account of low-cost chemicals being imported from Singapore. Import prices have dropped to as low as $385 per tonne from a level of $578 in April 2001.

In the last four months cheap imports of products like phenol and acetone from Singapore have flooded the Indian market.
Most of the imports are believed to have originated from Japanese chemical major Mitsui Chemicals, which has a facility in Singapore.

Domestic prices have declined from Rs 44,000 tpa in January to Rs 28,000 in September 2001. Import prices were as high as $670 per tonne in November 2000.
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Spic Petro uses bank guarantee to pay CPCL dues
Mumbai: Cash-starved Spic Petrochemicals has been unable to pay Rs 40 crore as compensation to Chennai Petroleum Corporation (CPCL), its former joint venture partner in the proposed PTA and PFY project. As a result it has decided to provide a bank guarantee instead of paying hard cash to CPCL, senior financial institution sources said.

A Spic spokesman confirmed the move, but pegged the compensation figure at Rs 36 crore.

Spic has to pay compensation for deciding to go it alone on its PTA and PFY project. CPCL had dragged the company to court on the issue. The two sides had later entered into a memorandum of settlement.

Sources in Spic's lenders consortium said: "Spic was not in a position to advance any money in view of its tight liquidity position."
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Whirlpool launches new range of washing machines
New Delhi: Whirlpool of India Ltd has launched the new Whitemagic AquaShower range of washing machines. The new range will be available in two models -- Fully Automatic and 2-Touch Automatic.

This new wash system is a combination of the Agipeller and the Special AquaShower.

According to a company release, the Whitemagic AquaShower range, is priced at about Rs 13,450 for the fully automatic and Rs 11,340 for the 2-Touch Automatic.
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Nutricia to expand Indian activities
New Delhi: Nutricia India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Netherlands-based nutritional foods and supplements company Nutricia International, is set to expand its scope of activities in India.

The company has drawn up plans to introduce a whole array of specialised nutritional products that can be sold over-the-counter and intends to import these products from facilities overseas to test market before creating capacity to manufacture these products locally.

Nutricia is part of the Netherlands based Koninklijke (Royal) Numico NV and one of the leading players in the nutritional foods market in Europe.

The company has further said that manufacturing facility for these products can be set up after the test marketing if the consumer demand justified creation of capacity locally.
Nutricia had acquired a Hindustan Lever facility in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, about two years ago.
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