Britannia buys back one million shares
Mumbai: Britannia Industries Ltd has closed the buyback offer on Tuesday, mopping up 10 lakh shares at Rs 533 per share.

The promoters holding will not exceed more than 80 per cent since the company has no plans to go for another buyback in the immediate future.
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RPG Life Sciences posts Rs 3.5 crore net loss
Mumbai: RPG Life Sciences Ltd has posted a net loss of Rs 3.57 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2001 as compared to a net profit of Rs 1.18 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. Net sales declined to Rs 50.95 crore as compared to Rs 54.39 crore in the last fiscal.The company informed the BSE that other income is at Rs 1.4 crore for the current quarter as compared to Rs 2.43 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year.
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AOL eyes India media
New Delhi: US-based AOL Time Warner is looking at new media ventures in India. Officials from AOL Time Warner were part of a visiting US delegation to explore the possibility.

There has been speculation that AOL Time Warner was interested in picking up a stake in Zee Network. As is known, Zee Network had a few months ago appointed UBS Warburg to scout for a strategic partner.

There have been talks also about the possibility of AOL Time Warner having alliances with Satyam Infoway and Rediff. Besides, Indias Sony Entertainment Television was said to be in talks with AOL Time Warner for a common distribution platform.
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Gartner acquires Mumbai firm
Mumbai: Gartner Inc has acquired Mumbai-based management consulting firm Aims Management Consultants Pvt Ltd (AMCPL) for an undisclosed amount. It has also set up a 100 percent subsidiary, Gartner India Research and Advisory Services Private Ltd.

Announcing this at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, Gartner senior vice president Asia-Pacific Bob Hayward said that the investment made was significant and it was the first phase in a series of investments to be made in India.

The new entity would launch measurement services, executive programmes for senior chief investment officers in large companies and Gartner G2-a new research service that helps businesses strategists, guide and grow business strategy research over next few months. Gartner currently has 85 clients.
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IMG only to focus on sports and fashion
Mumbai: IMG, the global sports management group, will restrict its business interests to cricket, tennis, golf and fashion over the next year, according joint managing director Ravi Krishnan.

IMG recently concluded the largest ever deal with the Sahara group to sponsor the Indian cricket team. IMGs major foray into tennis this year has been the sponsorship of the Tata Open which is scheduled to kick off shortly in Chennai.
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Webcom Technologies shifts base to India
Mumbai: Webcom Technologies USA is shifting its base to India in order to reduce costs. Barring a single research and development (R&D) facility in the US, the company has shifted all its operations to India.

All the global decisions on Webcom will be carried out through the Indian office in New Delhi.

Webcom Technologies USA entered India through a strategic alliance with IICE and now together with IICE, the company is close to forming a joint venture in another two months.

The company is investing about Rs 15 crore in buying out an existing domestic call center to serve the US market and introducing CD and Web-based training as well solution development in India.
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Dynegy calls off Enron takeover
Houston: Dynegy called off its planned $8.4-billion acquisition of the energy giant Enron after two agencies downgraded Enron's credit rating to junk status.

The downgrade triggered immediate payment of billions of dollars in debt that Enron likely can't pay, leaving the once-mighty energy trader facing almost certain bankruptcy, analysts said.

Trading in both stocks were halted on the news. Enron shares had plunged $2.91, or 71 per cent to $1.20 in extremely heavy trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange; less than a year ago, they were trading at $84.87. Dynegy shares were off $4.08, or 10 per cent, to $36.81.

In a statement, Dynegy said Enron had breached its acquisition agreement, triggering a "material adverse" clause and causing it to call of the deal.
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IBM to axe 1,200 jobs
New York: IBM announced Wednesday it would cut about 1,000 jobs from its seven US chip manufacturing and development plants and another 180 jobs at a storage technology plant in Minnesota.

IBM said it aimed to reduce the size of its Microelectronics Division by 4.7 per cent to about 20,500 employees from 21,500 workers. IBM employs about 320,000 people worldwide.

IBM facilities overseas will not be affected by the job cuts, officials said.
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Lexmark to invest big in India
New Delhi: Lexmark International said on Wednesday it would make "substantial" investments in its newly created Indian subsidiary.

The company will concentrate on the markets in Delhi and Mumbai.

Lexmark was spun-off from information technology company IBM in 1991.
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Bharti Teletech picks 10% in TV Today
New Delhi: Bharti Teletech said on Wednesday it had picked up 10 per cent stake in Aroon Purie's TV Today Network.

Since ICICI ventures already holds 10 per cent stake in TV Today, which launched 24-hour Hindi news channel `Aaj Tak' in January this year, the total non-promoter holding in TVTN has now gone up to 20 per cent.

The funds raised by offloading this stake would be used by TV Today for expansion of infrastructure, including more (outside broadcast) vans, incrumber of cameras and flyway dishes. Besides divestment of stake, TV Today is also planning to go public and launch an initial public offer by 2003.
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Pacific Internet cuts jobs
Mumbai: Pacific Internet has cut down its staff in India, pulled out of two of the five cities it had a presence in and is shifting focus to corporate customers.

In the last nine months, the Indian staff strength was reduced from 100 to 37 and the ISP has pulled out of Chennai and Delhi in order to retain its focus on Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.

With a subscriber base of 3,000 retail customers and a 100 corporate customers, Pacific Internet has not been able to make significant inroads in the dial-up access space here since its launch in early 2000.
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TTK to buy Bharatplanet.com
Chennai: The TTK group is close to acquiring Bharatplanet.com, a portal which offers communication and healthcare services to non- resident Indians (NRIs).

TTK is planning to take over the portal, which has business synergies with its group firm, TTK NRI services. TTK group has completed the due-diligence work. The deal would be announced very shortly, once the valuation of Bharatplanet is done.

Bharatplanet.com has two divisions - the portal and a technology services division. The portal would be merged with TTK NRI Services while the tech services divisions would continue to function independently.
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BPL's Q2 net dips 53%
Bangalore: BPL has posted a sharp 53 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 10.3 crore in the second quarter of the current year from Rs 22.3 crore in the corresponding quarter last financial year.

Gross sales declined by 25 per cent to Rs 341.4 crore from Rs 459.2 crore during the period.

Its EPS stands at Rs 3.7 for the second quarter against Rs 8.04 for the corresponding quarter.
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Britannica signs up with Kiwi firm
Mumbai: Britannia Industries has signed up agreement with Fonterra Co-operative Group of New Zealand for its proposed joint venture for the dairy products business.

Britannia will get about Rs 115 crore for its 49 per cent equity in the dairy business from the New Zealand-based dairy major.

According to the agreement, Fonterra Co-operative will hold 49 per cent stake in the JV, while the remaining 51 per cent will be held by BIL and associates.

The New Zealand partner is expected to bring several new products from its basket to the Indian market through the JV.
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Zydus Cadila to expand OTC basket
Ahmedabad: ZYDUS Cadila Healthcare has decided to expand its OTC basket and is planning to launch around half-a-dozen products as part of its plans to consolidate this division.

Starting with the launch of a dietary fibre product for weight reduction next month, the Rs 510 crore company is planning to launch around five food supplement products during 2002-2003.

Besides, it has also decided to get into the digestive segment, in which it will launch its first product in the next few months.
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Faber to make India its production hub
Mumbai: Faber Spa has decided to make India the manufacturing hub for the SAARC and other Asian markets near India.

The company will target Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka through its manufacturing facility in Pune.

In Bangladesh, the company is selling 200-300 pieces of Faber range of electric gadgets per month and would soon be entering Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The all India sales of the company is around 3000 pieces per month.
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Egana to set up production base in India
Mumbai: Egana Goldpfeil -- owners of brands like Esprit and Carrera -- plans to set up a watch and jewellery manufacturing base in India for its export markets.

Egana has brands like Esprit timewear, Esprit jewels along with other 42 lifestyle brands in the category of watches, jewels and leather accessories.

Egana has manufacturing plants in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Egana has so far invested $2 million for its Indian operations and will further invest around $2 million next year. Having started operations in 1999, Egana has increased its distribution points in India to more than 240 stores.
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Nocil petrochem unit shut down
Mumbai: National Organic Chemicals Ltd (Nocil) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its petrochemicals plant was shut down from 27 November.

Senior company officials said this was an annual maintenance shut-down. The petrochem unit will remain shut for the next 15 days.

Nocil has been going through a difficult phase with the Shell group backing out of its offer to buy Mafatlals stake in the company. This has also affected the companys modernisation and expansion plans.
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Intercontinental picks 12.5% in GL Hotels
New Delhi: The US-based Intercontinental Hotel Corporation (IHC) has picked up a 12.5 per cent stake in the Ravi Ghai-promoted G L Hotels Ltd which is setting up a five-star deluxe property in Mumbai.

Intercontinental is pumping in $3 million for the project. The investment consists of a hefty premium on shares.

G L Hotels said IHC had agreed to be a strategic partner and shareholder and provide technical and management services to its upcoming hotel in Mumbai.
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M&M gives Esops
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra has allotted 5 per cent of its current paid-up share capital of the company to the Mahindra & Mahindra Employee Stock Option Trust.

The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that it has allotted 55,24,219 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a premium of Rs 49 per share to the trust under the Employee Stock Option Scheme (Esop) of the company.

The price has been arrived at after taking into consideration the closing prices of the last 15 days preceding the day on which the stock options were vested with the trust.

The current paid up share capital of the company stands at Rs 110.48 crore. Post-allotment, the equity would go up to Rs 116 crore.
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