Tata Steel plans plant in SA
New Delhi: Tata Steel plans to invest Rs 300 crore for setting up a ferro-chrome plant in South Africa within the next 30 months. The company has expressed interest in acquiring other Indian steel plants as well.

Most of the steel plants in the country are badly hit by recession. Companies like Lloyds Steel, Essar Steel and Ispat, have reported losses of over Rs 300 crore.

Tata Steel chose South Africa for its ferro-chrome plant mainly because chrome was abundantly available in that country than in Jharkhand state, which houses the flagship company of the Tatas.
Moreover power costs in South Africa was merely 60 paise an unit as against over Rs 2 here.
Tata Steel has technical collaboration with global giants like Nippon Steel, Thyssen, Hitachi, Posdata, Krupp Stahl.
Back to News Review index page  
ISG to open office in Germany
New Delhi: India Software Group (ISG), the software divison of K.K. Birla's Chambal Fertilisers and Chemical Ltd (CFCL), is setting up a sales and marketing office in Germany.

The company is already operating in Morocco through a joint venture with a local partner, while in Germany it has presence through its clients BMW and others.

ISG will enter the US market through its acquisition of US based Novasoft, which it is set to buy in the next few months.
Back to News Review index page  
Bacardi-Martini incurs Rs 45.3-crore loss
New Delhi: Bacardi-Martini India Ltd has run up losses of Rs 45.36 crore in Indian operations as on March 31, 2001. It was the third year of the companys operations in India.

The companys term loans from scheduled banks are Rs 21 crore and external commercial borrowings (ECB) from Bacardi Capital is Rs 15.91 crore as on March 31, 2001.

Though the company continues to be in the red, losses are coming down. The loss for the year ended March 2001 was Rs 12.67 crore as against Rs 15.91 crore in 1999-2000. Turnover rose to Rs 28.42 crore from Rs 17.66 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Cosmo Films plans Rs 45-cr expansion
New Delhi: Cosmo Films Ltd is planning to invest about Rs 45 crore to expand the capacity of its paper plant by another 10,000 metric tonnes. Cosmo Films, which recently acquired 76.51 per cent shares of Gujarat Propack in an all-cash deal worth Rs 87 crore, has announced an open offer for another 20 per cent in line with the Sebi takeover code.
Back to News Review index page  

Bharti to launch Airtel in Kolkata
Kolkata: Bharti Enterprises, which had recently acquired the city-based cellular service provider SpiceCell, would launch its own brand AirTel in the city in early December.

Bharti currently runs cellular operations in New Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai besides Kolkata.
Back to News Review index page  
AV Birla Group in race for Enron stake
Mumbai: Aditya Birla Group has entered the race for acquiring Enrons stake in the Dabhol Power Company.

The groups move comes after Tata Power and BSES started due diligence on Dabhol power plant.

Enron has put on the block its 65 per cent stake in DPC. While Enron holds the majority 65 per cent, the two US-based minority stake holders Bechtel and GE hold 10 per cent each while 15 per cent is with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.
Back to News Review index page  
Honda to introduce new two-wheelers
New Delhi: Honda is planning to launch two new two-wheelers in the Indian market.

Preparations are on to launch the new models soon. Honda Motorcycles and Scooter has already launched the Honda Activa in the Indian market.

Both the two wheelers would be imported as completely built units initially. Honda has sought government approval for the launch and has said that the proposed sales of CBUs would be primarily in the nature of wholesale trading.
Back to News Review index page  
Piramal to exit from ayurveda company
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India has decided to exit its joint venture with ayurveda firm Shree Dhootapapeshwar (SD), which will buy out Piramal's stake in Solumiks Piramal, their equal joint venture.

SD will buy NPIL's stake at above its book value of about Rs 3 crore. Solumiks Piramal made a loss of Rs 0.2 crore during the year 2000-1.

Piramal would continue in the joint venture with another ayurveda firm Charak Healthcare. Called Charak Piramal, the joint venture markets an over-the-counter appetiser Hungree.
Back to News Review index page  
Rado to make investment in India
New Delhi: Swatch India, the Indian arm of Switzerland-based Rado Watch, plans to make sizeable investment in the country to expand operations.

The company plans to expand its operations, including outsourcing watch components from the country.

Currently, the company has 20 customer service outlets in the country.
Back to News Review index page  
Indian Bank, Uco to get Rs 1,800-crore bailout
New Delhi: The finance ministry has decided to provide a Rs 1,800-crore bailout package for Indian Bank and Uco Bank.While Rs 1,600 crore would go to Indian Bank, Uco Bank would get the balance Rs 200 crore.

Indian Bank is expected to get the amount in two equal installments, with the second part to be given in the next fiscal.

The recapitalisation assistance to Uco Bank would compensate the bank for its Rs 202 crore expenditure on the VRS offered to 3,936 employees.

Uco Bank has decided to go in for a public issue next year by which time it would meet the requirement of a net profit for three years.
Back to News Review index page  

Reliance to prepay FI loans
New Delhi: The Reliance group has decided to prepay its entire outstanding loans of Rs 1,100 crore with the domestic financial institutions by September 30 next year.

The group has to pay back Rs 500 crore to ICICI, Rs 500 crore to the Industrial Development Bank of India and Rs 100 crore to the Industrial Finance Corporation of India.

The loans were taken by various Reliance group companies including Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum to finance the groups Jamnagar petrochemicals complex.

Last year, the group had generated a cash flow of Rs 6,552 crore which was used to prepay some of the institutional loans.
Back to News Review index page