VSNL to invest Rs 1,200cr in NLD services
New Delhi: Videsh Sanchar Nigam would invest about Rs 1,200 crore over the next three years in national long distance services.

VSNL would aim to start the services by end of the current financial year or the first quarter of next financial year.

Government last year decided to terminate VSNL's monopoly on international long distance and grant it a compensation package to offset the losses likely to occur because of the advancement of the demonopolisation by two years.

Under the proposed compensation package, VSNL was to be offered licence to run national long distance services, as well as a category a Internet service provider (ISP) licence which would enable it to offer Internet access all over the country.
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Data Access to offload stake
New Delhi: Internet service provider Data Access India is planning to offload part of equity to a carrier company next year. The company is currently in talks with other players including a global carrier company.

The company has already mandated Arthur Andersen to do the due dilignece and valuation of DAI.

The actual offloading will take place after the company gets the international long distance licence which it will apply soon after the guidelines are out.
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UTI to delist Mastershare
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India is contemplating delisting Mastershare from the bourses some time in the beginning of next year and open a repurchase window itself, in line with the move on other schemes, which were delisted earlier.

These schemes include UTI Masterplus 91, Mastergain 92 and 11 other schemes where repurchase windows had been opened for their prevailing Net Asset Values (NAVs) following their delisting from the bourses last year.

The schemes, which were delisted by UTI from April 26, 2000, include Master Plus 91, UGS 2000, UGS 5000, Mastergain 92 and Grand Master, and Mastergrowth from May 22, 2000. Monthly Equity Plan (MEP) 1993, MEP 1995, MEP 1996, US 92, EOF were delisted from June 26, 2000 while listing for ISEF was not renewed from November 20, 2000 and US-95 from August 1, 2000.
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Hindustan Inks to infuse $30-m equity into US arm
Mumbai: Hindustan Inks and Resins has received permission from the Reserve Bank of India for an equity infusion of around $30 million into Micro Inks Corporation, its wholly-owned subsidiary in the US.

The additional capital will be utilised for expanding the equity base of Micro Inks Corporation, incorporated to manufacture a variety of printing inks for the US printing industry.

The funds will be invested in equipment, working capital and other logistics required to meet the sales target.
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Mandarin to buy 25% of Leela
New Delhi: Mandarin Oriental Hotel is set to pick up a 25 per cent stake in the Leela Group of hotels for Rs 250 crore. The deal in expected to be finalised early next year.

The Leela Group has three luxury hotels in Mumbai, Goa and Bangalore and the fourth one is slated to open in Udaipur next year.

Mandarin hotels will invest between Rs 225 and Rs 250 crore in picking up 25 per cent equity stake. The current management at Leela holds 80 per cent, which will come down to 55 per cent once the deal is through.

A team from Mandarin hotels had visited the three Leela properties in the last week of August this year.
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Heinz targets 12 brands
New Delhi: Heinz, the maker of ketchups which acquired the food brands of the erstwhile Glaxo India, has identified 12 brands for possible acquisitions.

Heinz is known for its product range comprising names like Complan, Farex and Glucon-D. The brands which were acquired have extremely strong recall and are perceived to be strong on the value for money front.

Heinz also plans to introduce new products from its over 50 brands sold abroad. Some of the major brands which Heinz sells worldwide includes Heinz baked beans, Heinz ketchup, Starkist fish and Tuna fish.

Heinz has an overwhelming 50 per cent marketshare in the US market.
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Yamaha to infuse Rs 350cr into Indian arm
New Delhi: Yamaha Motor is investing Rs 350 crore to revive its Indian arm. Yamaha is following the preference capital route at a coupon of 14 per cent. The proposed redemption period for the same is six years.

Yamaha Motors had increased its equity from 74 per cent to 100 per cent by buying out the share of Escorts Limited in the joint venture company.
Subsequently, Yamaha has been making huge investments into the company. It invested Rs 200 crore earlier this year also through preference shares to be remitted over a period of two years and acquired another Rs 50 crore worth of preference shares held by Escorts.

Yamaha has a target of introducing four new models over the next two years.
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StanChart plans back office hub in India
New Delhi: Stanchart bank plans to start its global back office hub in India to service other banks and companies. Stanchart is also acquiring an IT company called IT-365 Pvt Ltd.

Stancharts dedicated back office services company in India, Scope International, had till now been offering back office transaction, data processing, software development, maintenance and support activities for the banks Indian and overseas operation.

Now the company seeks to extend this service to other FIs and organisations too. This company will provide various services relating to deployment of IT infrastructure and production systems, including hardware, telecom and software infrastructure management to various companies, banks and other entities.
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Tata Steel to co-brand products
Mumbai: Tata Steel is in talks with several of its customers for using the Tata' name for their products ranging from refrigerator to buckets'. For instance, a refrigerator using its steel will have a Tata tag along with its brand name. The co-branding will be across a gamut of products.

Tata Steel already has branded construction sheets. The focus of the brands will be mainly on stockyard products and has a reasonably high demand in the market. Housing and construction material will form a bulk of the material that will be branded for a better recognition and visibility.

The company has also tied up with Telco, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hyundai for the auto companies' requirement of body panels and chassis. About two-thirds of the capacity of Tata Steel's Rs 1600-crore cold rolling (CR) mill in Jamshedpur have been earmarked for the auto sector.
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RCI to enter India
New Delhi: Resort Condominiums International, the worlds largest timeshare exchange company, will make its entry into the Indian market towards mid 2002 to help new developers set up and run resorts in a professional and profitable manner. The timeshare major is also looking to rope in some good resorts in Kerala and Rajasthan into its network.
The RCI India timeshare exchange platform has 50 resorts affiliated to it and over 40,000 owner families. Worldwide, its network is credited with 3,800 resorts in over 100 countries.
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Polykorp eyes branded chappati market
Mumbai: Polykorp has decided to brand chappatis. Bhats chappatis, as they are called, are being made through an automatic chappati-making machine developed through a technology supplied by Mysore-based Central Food Technological Research Institute.

Bhats chappati, being test marketed in Bangalore, will go across South India by mid December.
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HCL Technologies ties up with BT
New Delhi: HCL Technologies Limited has formed a strategic alliance with British Telecom to provide contact centre services through the Apollo Contact Center operated by British Telecom at Belfast, Northern Ireland.

HCL Technologies would pay $11.5 million initially to acquire 90 per cent equity stake in Apollo Contact Centre with British Telecom holding the remaining 10 per cent. HCL Tech would acquire the 10 per cent holding from BT at the end of the third year for a sum of $1.2 million. As part of the agreement, the strategic alliance has been guaranteed a revenue of $30.24 million over the next three years.
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MTNL plans JV with Prasar Bharati
New Delhi: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) proposes to float a joint venture company with Prasar Bharati to provide cable services as part of its diversification into entertainment and information.

The company has initiated talks with Prasar Bharati and hopes to finalise the deal by the end of this fiscal.

As part of its modernisation, the MTNL would have completed laying the optical fibre cables to replace the copper wires in Delhi and Mumbai by the next fiscal. MTNL would also consider using its optical fibre and high-end copper cable distribution systems to offer television signals for both computer and TV sets as also Internet video on demand. Multimedia services would be offered using the content provided by Prasar Bharati. The company was deploying asymmetric digital subscriber loop (ADSL), a technology that allows combinations of services including voice, data and one-way full motion video to be compressed and delivered over existing copper cables.

The equipment would allow subscribers to download data at speeds of up to 6 mbps and to upload information at speed of up to 76.8 kbps. In addition, the company is also installing asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, which permits switching and transmission of voice, data and video at high speed. The ATM switches can produce video on demand service to consumers in Mumbai and Delhi.
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Satyam to sell Sify stake
Mumbai: Satyam Computer Services has started negotiations with AOL Time Warner and Singapore Telecom for offloading part or all of its 52.5 per cent stake in Satyam Infoway.

Satyam has decided to offload its stake in the Nasdaq-listed Sify to enable both companies to remain pure play companies in their respective areasSatyam Computers in software services and Satyam Infoway in Internet access. Satyam would also buy Sifys fledgling software services division for an already agreed $7 million.

AOL Time Warners media arm has already set up a subsidiary here and operates the movie channel HBO, news channel CNN and the Cartoon Network.
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TCS sets up acquisitions team
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has set up an internal team which will focus only on acquisition strategies. The team, headed by Mahesh Bhandari, vice-president, corporate strategic planning, will be assisted by Debashish Pottdar, an M&A specialist hired recently from Arthur Andersen. The M&A team will look at opportunities not just in India, but across the globe.

TCS is eyeing a United Kingdom-based software company but declined to give any details on the deal.
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Taj Kerala offers 22% to Mauritius firm
New Delhi: Taj Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd, a joint venture between The Taj Group and the government of Kerala, is offering a 22 per cent stake to a Mauritius-based investment firm Amaind Investments.

While the Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), the Taj group flagship, and its associates hold about 67 per cent stake in the company, the remaining 33 per cent is held by Tourism Resorts Kerala Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation.

Taj Kerala has already sought permission of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to bring in the foreign direct investment.

The joint venture already has four operative hotel projects in Kumarakom, Thekkady, Varkala and Kochi. The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation has invested close to Rs 6 crore in the venture.
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TCS opens demo centre in Amsterdam
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has opened its first demonstration centre in Amsterdam. The facility will be used for presenting TCS's products and services to potential clients in Europe.

TCS has major Dutch corporations such as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, ABN Amro Bank, Nuon and ING Group as some of its main clients in Europe.
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