Enron boycotts lenders' meeting
Mumbai: Enron has boycotted the lenders' meeting scheduled to be held in Singapore from Thursday. In a statement, Dabhol power company managing director Wade Cline said, "DPC will not attend the Singapore meet following the legal course preferred by Indian financial institutions, which has put in jeopardy the negotiation meetings convened by them to discuss the purchase of foreign sponsor's equity by them."

The Indian institutions had filed a suit to protect their securities at the Dabhol project after Enron served an asset transfer notice on Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) earlier this week.
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Kinetic ties up with Hyosung
New Delhi: Kinetic Engineering, whose presence in the two-wheeler segment was through its Challenger, has tied up with the $4 billion South Korean two-wheeler major Hyosung to introduce a new bike the GF 125 into the Indian market.
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Cadbury seeks stake hike in Indian arm
New Delhi: Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the parent company, has said it is considering raising its stake in Cadbury India Ltd at a price of no more than Rs 500 per share.

The British parent, which owns 51 per cent of India's biggest chocolate company, said though no decision had been made, it aimed to take 100 per cent control of its key operating subsidiaries worldwide.

"India is obviously a key market for us," spokeswoman Christine Clinton said after the parent company issued a statement to London Stock Exchange. Cadbury Schweppes said it was looking at raising its stake "subject to legal, regulatory and corporate requirements".
At Rs 500 rupees a share, Cadbury India would be worth about $370 million.
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Hughes Software shuts online ad services
Mumbai: Hughes Software Systems Ltd on Wednesday said that it had shut down its Internet advertising services business, RightServe, which offered targeted online banner advertising services on a subscription basis.

"Since June 2001 we have been working on bringing in strategic partners who could enhance the long-term potential of the RightServe business," Manoranjan Mohapatra, Hughes' chief operating officer, said in a statement.

"We engaged with a number of entities and tried several options but none has worked out and hence the decision to exit," he said.
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McDonald's India plans expansion
Mumbai: McDonald's Corp plans to expand in India by increasing the number of outlets to 80 at a cost of Rs 3.5 billion, to be shared equally by McDonald's and its two partners. They invested about Rs 4.0 billion in the first 30 restaurants.
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SAB acquires 53% in Rochees
New Delhi: South African Breweries India has acquired the controlling 53 per cent stake in Rajasthan-based Rochees Breweries Limited for Rs 9.7 crore.

The acquisition will be funded by SABs internal resources and as per Sebi regulations, a simultaneous public offer will be made to the target companys minority shareholders. Rochees operates a brewery near Neemrana, Rajasthan that has an annual capacity of 1.5 million cases of beer.
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Timex to make India its exports hub
Mumbai: Timex Watches Ltd, a subsidiary of Timex Watches BV Netherlands, is planning to turn the Indian operations into an export hub. The company has a manufacturing facility in Noida with a production capacity of around three million watches per annum. At present, the company manufactures around 1.3 million watches.
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Tata Teleservices to invest Rs 300 crore in Andhra
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL) plans to infuse an additional investment of Rs 300 crore to expand its network to 10 more cities in Andhra Pradesh in both wireline and wireless services. The overall investment in the project so far is around Rs 1,300 crore. The fresh funding will enable the company to expand its customer base to 1,20,000 by the end of the present fiscal. At present, TTL has a customer base of 94,000 covering five cities Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Eluru.

TTL offers limited mobility service besides landline phones in Andhra Pradesh.

The company plans to lay 1,600 km optic fiber cable in the state. It has so far completed about 1,000 km optic fiber cable linking Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Eluru. The line will be extend up to Visakhapatnam by end of the current fiscal.
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Hughes Tele rolls out broadband services
Mumbai: Hughes Tele.com on Wednesday announced the launch of its broadband services in the city. The companys broadband services will be provided over 1200 km of Hughes fibre optic lines across Mumbai.

HTILs current network capacity is at 1.5 lakh lines and it has provided 1.05 lakh active connections in 10 cities in Maharashtra and Goa
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Dr Reddys diabetes drug undergoing trials
Hyderabad: Dr Reddys Laboratories said on Tuesday that its dual-acting insulin sensitiser drug DRF 2725 has entered phase three of clinical trials.

The third phase of clinical trials signals the final lap of tests that the drug has to go through before Dr Reddys Lab can submit its new drug approval application with regulatory authorities in the US and other markets.

The company had licensed DRF 2725 to Novo Nordisk in 1998 for conducting the hugely expensive process of human trials. This was in exchange for periodic payments from Novo each time the drug cleared a "milestone" in the clinical trials process.
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Cap Gemini E&Y to expand Indian ops
Mumbai: Cap Gemini Ernst and Young plans to double its employees in India from 250 to 500 and open a new software development centre over the next 6-12 months. The company already has a development centre in Mumbai.
The consulting firm also plans to start IT-enabled services to the companys financial operations in the Asia-Pacific region and a knowledge centre for the companys global operations. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young was formed in May 2000, when the Paris-based consultancy Cap Gemini merged with Ernst & Young Consulting, the consulting division of Ernst & Young.

In India, Cap Gemini Ernst & Youngs 70 per cent revenues come from offshore software development of the companys Fortune 100 clients. The rest of its business involves providing consultancy services for Indian clients.
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TVS Motor plans 12 new models
Chennai: TVS Motor Company has plans to launch 12 new models and upgrades of scooters, motorcycles and mopeds in the next 15 months.

A four-stroke version of India's best selling scooterette, TVS-Scooty and four-stroke version of the existing moped line will be launched in 2002.Over 300 engineers are working for the development of new products and in advanced areas of engine technology.
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