Indo-Suez, BNP shut equity arms
Mumbai: Indo-Suez WI Carr and BNP Paribas shut down their Indian equity operations on Wednesday. Around 65 people, mostly research analysts and sales staff, will lose jobs in both companies' Indian subsidiaries.
The restructuring would not impact BNP Paribas' commercial bank in India and other businesses like distribution of mutual fund products, according to a statement released by the bank. The bank is also planning strategic tie-ups with major retail brokers for equity operations.
Indo-Suez WI Carr, fully owned by French firm Credit Agricole Indo-Suez, is shutting down operations in 12 countries.
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Wipro teams up with Mercator
New Delhi: Wipro Ltd has entered a partnership with US-based Mercator Software Inc to offer solutions that link up different types of business software. Wipro said that it will use Mercator's integration software to deploy enterprise application integration solutions.
Mercator makes software that helps companies link up their internal operations and connects them with partners and customers through computer networks.
Wipro, which has 10,000 engineers, uses its large pool of skills and expertise in dealing with specific industry segments to customise and deploy software products.
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Slice in tetra pack
New Delhi: Pepsi Foods will introduce mango juice drink Slice in a tetra pack at Rs 10 for a 200ml slim pack in addition to the existing 250ml returnable glass bottle.
Initially, the product is being launched in Chennai, Bangalore, Madurai, Coimbatore, Goa, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda and Rajkot. The tetra pack will be introduced in Delhi and other northern Indian cities during early 2002.
The product has been designed by Pepsi's official advertising agency Hindustan Thompson Associates.
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Morepen to acquire FMHG brand
New Delhi: Morepen Laboratories Ltd is in the process of acquiring two brands for its new marketing subsidiary Dr Morepen and had begun due diligence for one of them.
The company is looking at expanding in cold and cough, fever and energy segments.
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HLL to raise its share in salt industry
New Delhi: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) on Wednesday relaunched its 'Anapurna Iodised Salt' with a view to increasing its 17 per cent market share in the Rs 2000 crore salt industry.
The new Anapurna salt has been developed with a new technology which encapsulates iodine in a manner that it not only prevents its loss during storage and transportation but also during cooking conditions, claimed HLL executive director Gunender Kapur. He said leading salt brands lose up to 40 per cent of iodine while cooking whereas HLL has successfully stabilised iodine content in its Anapurna salt.
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IRDA delays licence to Reliance Life
New Delhi: Reliance has decided to go slow in its life insurance venture as it is expected to get licence from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) only after August 2002.
IRDA chairman N Rangachary said on Wednesday Reliance Life has obtained "in principle" approval, but it would get the licence once it submits its infotech plans expected by August 2002.
Reliance has already obtained licence for its general insurance venture.
IRDA is also processing the applications of Sahara Life and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) General Insurance proposals.
Hero-Zurich is expected to apply for both life and non-life shortly now that the strategic partners -- Punjab National Bank and Vijaya Bank -- have obtained green signal from Reserve Bank for entering insurance sector.
Till date, only six companies, Reliance, HDFC, ICICI, Tata, Bajaj and Hero, have shown interest in entering both life and non-life sectors.
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J K Synthetics to delist from CSE, DSE
Kolkata: J K Synthetics Ltd plans to delist its shares from Calcutta Stock Exchange and Delhi Stock Exchange.

"The trading of the company's shares on the stock exchanges at Delhi and Kolkata is rare and negligible and is disproportionate to the fees paid by the company to these exchanges and so we want to delist our shares," company officials said.
The company will move a special resolution during the next AGM seeking shareholders' approval for de-listing. The shares would remain listed at Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange and BSE.
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LNJ Bhilwara seeks Rs 600 cr loan
New Delhi: LNJ Bhilwara Group has sought Rs 600 crore loan from ICICI, IFCI and Power Finance Corporation to part-finance the 192-MW Allain Duhangan hydro-electric power project in Himachal Pradesh.
The group recently signed the implementation agreement with the state government for the project and is gearing up to start work on it by the end of this year.The project would be completed by 2006.
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Shalimar Paints to launch colour tinting systems
Kolkata: Shalimar Paints Limited will shortly launch state-of-the-art colour tinting systems for its premium range of products. The company has tied up with Creanova, a world leader in colorants and colour tinting systems.
The company is also working on launching water-based and other eco-friendly paints for decorative as well as industrial market sector.
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Uttam Steels $170 mn FDI cleared
New Delhi: The Cabinet has approved foreign equity investment of $170 million in Uttam Steel Ltd.
A proposal by the Mumbai-based firm to induct 25 per cent foreign equity aggregating $170 million was approved by the cabinet at its meeting late on Tuesday.
Uttam Steel Ltd is engaged in the galvanising and cold rolled steel business with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes a year.
The foreign equity is being inducted to enable the firm to establish a manufacturing facility for automobile grade galvanised products and raise its production capacity to half a million tonnes.
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Tata Infotech Education to enter IT-enabled sector
Bangalore: Tata Infotech Education on Wednesday announced their foray into the IT-enabled sector by launching CReME (Customer Relationships E-Management Expert) programme.
CReME is a highly specialised programme designed by Tata Infotech in association with Turning Point, a training and assessment systems company, which trains personnel for providing services in the call centre area.
Head, education services division, Tata Infotech Limited, Rahul Thapan told reporters that the course would equip students with soft skills, speedwriting, customer relation management, computer skills and accent training.
The company has set itself a target of training 600 students in the current financial year, 2000 during 2002-03 and 3000-plus students in 2003-04.
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FIPB rejects Bhartis plans
New Delhi: The government has rejected the foreign investment proposals of Bharti Telecom Ltd and Bharti Healthcare Ltd on the grounds that "round-tripping of FDI had negative tax implications".

Both Bharti Healthcare and Bharti Telecom have shareholding in them by Bharti Global.
Bharti Global owns 3.3 crore shares in Bharti Healthcare and 24 lakh shares in Bharti Teletech, which has a scheme of arrangement with Bharti Telecom.
Both had approached the FIPB for transfer of Bharti Globals shares to Indian Continent Investment Ltd, a Mauritius-based wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Global. Both the companies had explained that the transfers were being effected for strategic reasons.
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Acterna likely to clinch RIL optic fibre deal
New Delhi: Acterna India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the $1.5 billion Acterna Inc, US, is set to clinch a deal with the Reliance group for the latters optical fibre backbone in the country.
Acterna, the market leader in optical transport, cable networks and local loop operations will synchronise communications with the master hub once Reliances optical fibre network is laid out.
Acterna India is also in talks with the RPG Netcom for remote fibre testing and management system as well as synchronisation system.
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IOC to exit Indo Mobil
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation has decided to walk out of Indo Mobil, its joint venture with Mobile Petroleum, by divesting its entire 50 per cent stake in favour of its partner.

The decision to part ways follows the merger of Exxon with Mobil.
IOC has decided to sell its stake and its entire shareholding of 22,000,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each following the losses suffered by the company in the lube segment. IOC had tied up with Mobil to launch some high end lubricants both for the industry and the automobile sector.
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SKF offers VRS
Mumbai: SKF Bearings India has announced a second round of voluntary retirement scheme to shed excess manpower. Its current employee strength is 2,019.
SKF has set no numerical target for this VRS. In its first VRS, the company had reduced its workforce by 684 persons involving an outgo of Rs 57 crore.
The company has been hit by the weak performance in the automotive sector, a major consuming industry. Both trucks and tractors sales have shown negative growth.
SKF India reported a net loss of Rs 3 crore for the third quarter ended 30 September 2001 on account of a 20 per cent cut in production. It had posted a net profit of Rs 22 crore in the same quarter last fiscal due to a non-operating profit of Rs 24 crore from sale of its property at Nariman Point, Mumbai.
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Thermax reports Rs 5.34 cr net profit
Pune: Thermax Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 5.34 crore for the quarter ended 30 September, despite a lower turnover of Rs 96.67 crore.
Thermax ended 2000-01 with a net loss of Rs 13.22 crore. Thermaxs second quarter performance has been buoyed by higher other income, at Rs 12.12 crore.
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Royal Philips makes open offer again
Mumbai: Royal Philips Electronics has said it would make an open offer for the outstanding public holding of 17.1 per cent in its Indian subsidiary, Philips India Ltd.

At Rs 105 per share, the offer price is a hefty premium of 35 per cent over Tuesday's closing price of Rs 77.45. The Philips stock shot up by Rs 15 in Wednesday's trading to close at Rs 92. The Dutch consumer electronics major intends to mop up the entire outstanding shares of Philips India and also delist them from the bourses. It has the option to delist if the holding crosses 90 per cent, according to the company.

Philips had increased its stake in the Indian company to 82.9 per cent from 51 per cent last year through an open offer.
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Skoda to roll out Fabia, Superb next year
Mumbai: Skoda Auto, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, will launch two of its latest modelsthe Fabia and the Superbin India late next year.

The Fabia is expected to be launched by Diwali of 2002, and the Superb will follow soon.

The Fabia comes in various body styles, including a hatchback, three-box and estate version. The Superb, a luxury car, was unveiled in Frankfurt this year.

The company's Aurangabad facility is being prepared as an export hub to cater to neighbouring markets.
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BTAL-BPL integration stalled
Mumbai: The integration and merger process of Birla-Tata-AT&T (BTAL) with BPL Communications has been stalled following a petition filed by CDC Financial Services of the UK against BPL on voting rights issues.

Apart from BPL, the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T are the main promoters of the cellular behemoth.

CDC Financial Services, which holds 7.29 per cent stake in BPL Communications, had recently approached the Mumbai High Court to grant an interim stay on the cellular merger.

HC, however, had turned down the plea and the matter is sub judice pending the hearing. The main contention of the international investor was that BPL had ignored its statutory and voting rights while finalising the merger with BTAL.
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HLL to roll out rotis
New Delhi: Hindustan Lever (HLL) is all set to enter the ready-to-eat foods category with the launch of chapatis. The product will be available under the Annapurna brand name. The ready-made chapatis will be initially launched in Mumbai. The product will be sold through the Modern bread outlets. Depending on the response to the product, the company plans to extend it to other markets as well.
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