Infosys Q2 net rises 31% to Rs 201.5 crore
Bangalore: IT major Infosys has registered a 30.87 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 201.56 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2001, up from the Rs 154.01 crore in the same period last fiscal. Net sales for the period under review stood at Rs 650.13 crore, up from Rs 446.1 crore.

The company has declared an interim dividend of Rs 7.50 per share (150 per cent on an equity share of par value of Rs 5 each) as compared to Rs 2.50 (50 per cent on an equity share of par value of Rs 5 each) for the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.
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ICICI to make Singapore its hub for international ops
Singapore: ICICI has decided to manage its international operations from out of Singapore. An ICICI team has descended here to give finishing touches to a growth strategy in the international domain.

ICICIs foray into Singapore will have to be cleared by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). India already has five banks here - State Bank of India, Indian Overseas bank, Bank of India, Indian Bank and UCO Bank. But at least three of them are likely to be asked to pack up and go.
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Kanbay to set up facility in Pune
Pune: Kanbay India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Kanbay International Inc, is opening its Rs 20 crore software development facility in Pune. Morgan Stanley, Household International and Safeguard Scientifics are among the equity investors in Kanbay.

Kanbay is currently working for HDFC Bank, which is implementing Paysyss vision plus suite of applications at the bank. Kanbay has no plans of listing in the Indian market but would be considering listing on Nasdaq sometime later.
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Volvo to roll out inter-city buses
Bangalore: Volvo India Ltd. is all geared up to launch inter-city buses soon.

Volvo is manufacturing bus chassis in the companys Hoskote facility. Volvo is the first company to introduce a chassis exclusively meant for buses. Volvo also has plans to introduce new products in the truck segment shortly and is working on new models. FH and FM model trucks are the flagship products of Volvo India.
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Kinetic Engg rolls out new model
New Delhi : Kinetic Engineering launched a 125 cc motorcycle, GF 125, here on Wednesday and said that it will introduce a bike every quarter over the next one year. The GF 125, priced at Rs 49,998 (ex-showroom Delhi) is the first product manufactured in a technological alliance with Hyosung Motors of Korea.
The GF 125, which is the first to sport a four-valve engine, is positioned in the high end of the motorcycle segment which has Hero Hondas CBZ and TVS Fiero.
The Pune-based Rs 1,100 crore Kinetic Group currently sells its indigenously made 100cc motorcycle Challenger, which was launched in December 2000.
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MUL forays into corporate lease
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) has made a foray into corporate lease and fleet management by setting up Maruti N2N complete fleet solutions.
MUL will help corporates to acquire, operate and re-market their Maruti cars.
This is the first time that an auto manufacturer is getting into corporate lease and fleet management. The business will be scaled up in the rest of the country soon. It will only consider Maruti vehicles and a request can be placed to a call centre, the companys office in Gurgaon, or on the website. Besides corporate lease, the company plans to enter car insurance, auto finance and pre-owned cars in an integrated form.
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HZL privatisation by December
New Delhi: The government is expected to complete privatisation of Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) by December. HZL is one of the 11 PSUs on the governments privatisation list for this year, along with ITDC, Jessop and others. The government is considering a five-year lock-in period for the strategic partner.

It has decided to offload 26 per cent equity in the PSU to a strategic partner, along with management control, thereby diluting its stake from 76 per cent to 49 per cent.
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RCF to set up 10-MW windmill project
Mumbai: Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) will set up a 10 MW windmill power generation plant with an investment of Rs 55 crore in Satara district of Maharashtra.
The company has already carried out preliminary project evaluation to ascertain economic viability with and without the incentives provided by the state and Central governments.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has shortlisted RCF for setting up and operation of a 2 tonne per day capacity plant for the supply of liquid nitrogen for its rocket launching operation.
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Tatas to consolidate media buying
Mumbai: The Tatas have appointed Rediffusion DY&R's media buying arm, Media Edge, as their agency of record following the groups decision to adopt centralised media buying approach.
Fourteen group companies, with a collective ad spend of Rs 150 crore, have signed up for the group synergy project. These include Titan, Tata Tea, Indian Hotels, Voltas, Trent, Tata AIG, Tata Internet, Tata Finance and Tata Chemicals. Under the new system, the group's expected savings would be in the region of Rs 22 crore.

The Tatas have also brought in Pradeep Iyengar from Fulcrum, Hindustan Thompson Associates' media specialist arm, to coordinate the group's media buying.

Hindustan Lever was the first company in India to pool its media buying and planning functions under one roof when, in January this year, it appointed MindShare to manage its Rs 600 crore-plus consolidated advertising account.
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Hero Honda to pay 200% spl interim dividend
New Delhi: Two-wheeler giant Hero Honda has decided to declare a hefty special interim dividend expected to be in the range of 200 per cent. Hero Honda, like HLL, has chosen to dip into its deep pocket. The company has reserves in the region of Rs 400 crore and a 200 per cent special interim dividend would cost them about Rs 80 crore.
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Shree Laxmi shuts 5 branches
Ahmedabad: Shree Laxmi Co-operative Bank closed down all its five branches in the city on Tuesday following a huge erosion of funds due to poor recovery of loans.
Laxmi Co-operative Bank has been ailing for the past ten years, and has been classified as a weak bank since 1991. It has a deposit base of Rs 19.4 crore as on March 31, 2001.
The bank management has informed the RBI that the bank would not be able to take part in clearing house activities.
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Motorola sacks 7,000 employees
Chicago: Motorola is cutting another 7,000 jobs following loss amounting to $1.4-billion for the quarter ended September 30.
Faced by a slump in demand for cellphone, Motorola decided to slash 32,000 job cuts in total.
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Birla Sun Life to raise Rs 50cr by equity
Kolkata: Birla Sun Life Insurance plans to raise its equity by Rs 50 crore by next quarter, taking its total equity base to Rs 170 crore.

Birla Sun Life plans to float a subsidiary of Birla Sun Life Distribution to sell its policies through corporate agents including banks and corporates. The company which has entered into agreements with Citibank and Deutsche Bank is also in talks with a few other banks.
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Nabard to finalise life insurance venture
New Delhi: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development will finalise its life insurance business venture with a foreign partner by June 2002.

Four foreign insurance companies have made presentation to Nabard, of which GE Capital is one.

Nabard is planning to start with a minimum Rs 100 crore capital and is likely to offer 26 per cent stake to the foreign player.

Nanda said Nabard's insurance business would specially try to penetrate the rural market which so far only LIC had been able to reach.
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AutomartIndia ties up with GM
New Delhi: AutomartIndia, has signed an MoU with General Motors India (GMI) to develop used car business at GMI dealership.
The tieup would entail the use of GMI dealers infrastructure while AutomartIndia will provide the expertise in developing used car business of Opel dealers. It will also introduce GMI used car brand OK 5 Star for all GM products and AutomartIndia Certified Car for all non-GM products.
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Gold coin on every Bolero
New Delhi: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd has tied up with Tanishq for offering buyers of the 'Bolero' vehicle jewellery worth about Rs 7,500-8,000 with every purchase.

Recently, Maruti ran a similar scheme for its largest selling 800-cc car.
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Alcatel to buy 9.75% in Agrani
New Delhi: French satellite major Alcatel is slated to pick up 9.75 per cent stake in Indias first private sector satellite project, Agrani Satellite Services Ltd(ASSL), at a consideration of $15 million. Agrani is a Rs 1,150 crore project.

ASSL, having an authorised share capital of Rs. 100 crore, proposes to purchase C and KU-band satellite from Alcatel which is built around Alcatel's Spacebus satellite platform.

ASSL will establish and operate the satellite system infrastructure, and offer capacity to service providers and other corporate/institutional users.
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Nike attracts buyers via Internet
Bangalore: Nike wants to encourage the consumers to buy on the Internet. It has repackaged its site with offers such as Nike Killer deals, wherein products that have been on its racks beyond a certain period of time are offered at discount. Here, a customer can get Nike T-shirt , priced at Rs 375, with his / her name or choice of message on it. The revamped site also includes other features such as downloadable screensavers, wall papers etc.
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