Probe into
CMC scrip price hike: Shourie
New
Delhi: Union disinvestments minister Arun Shourie on Tuesday
called for a probe into the sharp rise in the share price of CMC
Ltd after the government decided to privatise the computer
maintenance giant.
The share price of the public sector company had more than doubled
from Rs 150 to Rs 319 a share in just two months after the
government announced its decision to disinvest.
Tata Consultancy Services
(TCS), which has quoted a price of Rs 200 a share, has emerged as
the sole bidder for CMC.
Prevailing high prices of
CMC at the time of sale could cause problems for both the
government and TCS.
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IFCI
pleads for a bailout
New
Delhi:
IFCI has asked Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to take over its $
120-million loan guarantee given to three private power projects
in the south.
PFC has decided to take up the issue at its board meeting on
October 5. If the loan guarantee given to the three power projects
in Tamil Nadu are transferred, PFC stands to gain the guarantee
fee of 2.5 per cent annually from the power producers, apart from
one-time guarantee management fee of 1 per cent, which IFCI would
have to give to PFC.
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Enron
turns down Tata Power and BSES offer
Mumbai:
Enron Corporation has rejected offers of Tata Power Company (TPC)
and BSES Ltd to pick up stake in Dabhol Power Company (DPC).
The equity value is included in the cost incurred by the
stakeholders in developing, constructing and operating the three
billion dollar project over last nine years.
BSES Ltd wanted the capital cost of the 2,184 MW project to be
brought down, foreign loans be converted into rupee debts and a
moratorium imposed over their repayment.
TPC, on the other hand, has appointed Ernst & Young as
consultants to study the feasibility of the project.
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IA-Canada
3000 alliance on anvil
New
Delhi: Canada 3000 will join hands with Indian Airlines by
this weekend to provide inter-line domestic connectivity,
according to Canada 3000 director (India) Nutan Gupta.
The airline already has an agreement with IA to handle its ground
handling operations in the country.
Canada 3000 would begin its India operations on October 9. It has
ruled out any fare hike in immediate future.
Canada 3000 is starting
India's first non-stop polar flights over the North Pole from
Delhi to Vancouver and Toronto from October 9.
Canada 3000 would use the latest long-range Airbus A340-300
aircraft for the Delhi-Vancouver flights and plans to use the
A330-200 for operating from Mumbai.
It has invested $150 million for launching its services to India.
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SilkAir
starts flights to Kochi
Singapore:
SilkAir, wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines will launch
direct flights to Kochi from October 28. Kochi is SilkAir's second
destination in India after Thiruvananthapuram.
Flights to Kochi will depart Singapore on Wednesdays and Sundays,
with the frequency to be increased to four times a week from
February 1, 2002.
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Coke
seeks IPO waiver for 5 years
New
Delhi: Coca-Cola, India, is reported to have asked the
government for a five-year moratorium on mandatory disinvestment
of 49 per cent stake on the plea that continuing losses in its
eight-year stint had eroded its net worth significantly.
The company has sought relaxation in the disinvestment clause
under its foreign collaboration agreement after accumulated losses
mounted to 66 per cent of Coke's total investment of over Rs 3200
crore in India over the last eight years.
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Usha
Group may offload 49% equity in Usha India
New Delhi: Usha Group is planning to offload 49 per cent of
its semi-conductor business Usha India. Usha India has defaulted
in payment to financial instituions in last six months due to
slowdown and has sought rescheduling of its loan liabilities of
about Rs 73 crore.
The company has
approached IFCI for a two-year moratorium on interest and pay back
of principle in about seven years.
Usha India, the Rs 100
crore company is generating a cash profit of about Rs five crore.
With a capacity of 60
million units, Usha India has cut cost by 20 per cent as part of
austerity drive at its production facilities at Delhi-Faridabad.
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Gujarat
Positra ties up with Radisson Hotels
Mumbai:
Gujarat Positra Port Infrastructure Ltd (GPPIL) has tied up with
Radisson Hotels to manage its five star hotel in the Positra
Special Economic Zone (SEZ). GPPIL has also signed a MoU with the
Manipal Institute of Management to provide it with land for its
business and engineering colleges at the SEZ.
The 200-room five-star hotel, under the Radisson chain, would be
developed at a cost of Rs 150 crore by GPPIL.
The first phase of the hotel would be operational by 2004.
Radisson hotel chain already operates in Calcutta, Chennai and New
Delhi.
The Manipal Institute would invest around Rs 250 crore to develop
an engineering college with 500 seats and a management college
with 100 seats in addition to a 500-bed hospital for its medical
college.
The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) is also
scheduled to start a training center with 250 seats at Positra.
GPPIL had earlier entered into a MoU with BSES to execute a 261 MW
power project, which would go up to 1,700 mw in the second phase
to meet the requirements of the Positra SEZ.
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RPL
to get $113.5 m forex loan from PFC
Mumbai: The
state-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has sanctioned a foreign
currency loan of $113.55 million to Reliance Power for its petcoke-based
power plant at Jamnagar. BSES has already expressed its desire to
pick up 100 per cent equity in this Rs 2,909 crore project.
PFC has sanctioned Rs 5,556 crore as terms loans and guarantees to
26 private power projects to generate 6,191 MW power. The projects
funded include Jayprakash Hydro project, Maheshwar Hydel project,
Ispat Energy Ltd, Bina Power Supply Co, Vemagiri Power Generation
Ltd and Samalpaty Power Corporation.
The company has also decided to sanction Rs 380 crore to the
National Thermal Power Corporation for renovation and
modernisation of old plants/thermal power stations.
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RPL, Shell,
Kuwait Petroleum, IOC in race for IBP
Kolkata:
Reliance Petroleum Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, Shell and Kuwait
Petroleum Co are in race for picking up 33.58 per cent stake in
IBP Co Ltd. IBPs sell-off has attracted 12 domestic and foreign
companies. IBP reported a turnover of Rs 8,388 crore in 2000-01.
The central government
holds 59.58 per cent stake in IBP, followed by the financial
institutions and banks with 21.85 per cent, the public with 18.15
per cent and employees 0.42 per cent.
Reliance wants to pick up a stake in the IBP with a view to
strengthening its marketing network for its Jamnagar refinery that
produces 27 million tonne of petroleum products a year.
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Infy
ties up with consultancy firms
Kolkata:
Infosys is in talks with four global consultancy majors,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Accenture and Cap Gemini
Ernst&Young, to help it outsource banking applications
softwares.
The move to have a tie up with such consultancy firms is aimed at
helping Infy focus on its key area of developing cutting-edge
banking software and also making its solution services more
cost-effective for its customers.
Infosys off-the-shelf banking products are already operational
in 15 countries across the world and the tie-up would help the
company offer better services to a wider global clientele.
Infosys has products like Finacle, BankAway and PayAway for the
banking and financial segment.
Infosys clients include a range of private and public sector banks
and foreign banks.
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US'
Headstrong sets up office in India
New Delhi: The US-based global consultancy firm,
Headstrong, has set up a 50:50 joint venture with Satish Jha in
India.
Based in Delhi, Headstrong India plans to pitch for clients in the
infotech and telecom consultancy areas.
Jha has also taken a 25 per cent stake in Delhi-based e-services
company Infocus Interactive for an undisclosed amount. The
privately-held company employs about 100 software professionals
and had revenues of Rs 2 crore in the last fiscal ended March
2001.
Headstrong seeks to offer a full range of services, from strategy
to solution implementation through application maintenance
worldwide. Its global client list includes IBM, Oracle, Sun
Microsystems, Siebel and Informatica.
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Aztec
sacks 10% staff
Bangalore: Aztec Software has sacked 10 per cent of its
staff on account of uncertainty in business.
Company officials said
the move was needed because customer acquisition time in the US
has lengthened and project outsourcing decision has almost frozen.
Aztec does not foresee any further reduction in its workforce.
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Beeyu
to brew instant coffee with Tata
Kolkata:
Beeyu Overseas and Tata Coffee will be manufacturing instant
coffee in Russia through a joint venture.
The company has been
exporting coffee to Russia. Efforts are on to increase the companys
presence in the overseas market primarily in Russia. Lately, it
has initiated steps to make a presence in Dubai and other Middle
East nations which are the largest importers of tea from India.
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B4U
turns pay channel
Mumbai:
The B4U Entertainment Channel will become a pay channel from
January next year. To start with, B4U movies will be encrypted
from November. The B4U Music channel will remain free.
The average rate per
subscriber per month is proposed at Rs 6.50. B4U plan to subsidise
the price of the boxes and distribute them against refundable
deposits of around Rs 8000 per box. B4U has a vast library of both
current hits and blockbusters from the Bollywood industry besides
old classics.
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M&M
to roll out high-power tractors
Mumbai: Mahindra
& Mahindra (M&M) and South Korean partner Tong Yang Mulsan
are developing a series of high-power tractors under the brand
name Horizon IV.
The 85-100 horsepower
tractors expect to take on John Deere and Case New Holland in the
Indian and global markets.
M&M markets Tong
Yang's tractors in the US under its own brand name. The marketing
alliance has now been extended to Europe.
M&M is planning to
introduce 20 new models, including four-wheel tractors from the
Arjun range (which is part of Horizon II series), by 2003.
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Essar
to enter petro-product retailing
Mumbai:
Essar Oil plans to retail products of other oil companies by
mid-2002. The company has begun talks with other companies and is
waiting for government nod while its own refinery is yet to attain
completion.
Essar plans 250 outlets
the first year, which will be a combination of company owned or
funded and dealer owned. The company will target North and West
where product supply is below demand.
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No
fresh FDI in retail sector
New
Delhi: The government will not allow fresh foreign direct
investment (FDI) in the retail-trading sector. However, companies
already having foreign financial collaborations will be spared.
Walmart, Mark & Spencers, and C&A, which had plans of
entering India, will be affected by this decision. RPGs
association with Dairy Farm International in FoodWorld will not be
affected.
While 100 per cent FDI in
retail trading was allowed for a while, the government bowed down
to pressures from the domestic trader community who felt the move
would have a disastrous impact on them.
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