Morgan Chase, Citigroup come to Enron's rescue
Houston: Energy giant Enron Corporation has told a bankruptcy court that it has arranged up to $1.5 billion in financing to keep its operations going as it reorganises under bankruptcy protection.

The company announced this after laying off as many as 4,000 employees. The lenders who have come forward to help bail it out include JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup.

Enron will receive $250 million immediately, while another $250 million will be given when the lenders are provided with a satisfactory business plan.
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Thai Airways cuts flight to Delhi
Bangkok: Thai Airways has cut its number of weekly flights on its Bangkok-New Delhi and Bangkok-Los Angeles sectors. While the number of flights on the Bangkok-Los Angeles route will be reduced from six to three beginning January 16, the airline will operate six flights a week instead of seven a week on the Bangkok-New Delhi route.
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Mondeo price at Rs 15.56 lakh
New Delhi: Ford Motor, which plans to launch its new Mondeo sedan later this month, has pegged the price of its petrol version at Rs 15.56 lakh in Delhi.
The new Mondeo, Ford's third offering in India after the Escort and Ikon, will be positioned in the recently created 'D' car segment, which include large family cars retailing at between Rs 11 to 20 lakh.
The price of the diesel version would be Rs 16.79 lakh and deliveries of the car would begin on December 17.

The Mondeo will compete in its class with the Octavia from SkodaAuto which is priced at Rs 10.61 lakh in Delhi, the Hyundai Sonata whose basic version is priced at Rs 11.9 lakh, the Honda Accord at Rs 14.95 lakh and the Mercedes Benz C-class at Rs 19.9 lakh.
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Wipro sets up unit for Texas firm
Bangalore: Wipro has set up a software development center for Texas-based telecom switching equipment provider Santera Systems. Under an agreement, Wipro has deployed a staff of 20 in Bangalore to design and develop Santeras switches.

Wipro sees a revenue potential of up to $2 million per year from the contract and also expects the size of the development team to eventually increase to 100.

Santera Systems provides switches to carry voice and data traffic.
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Zensar forms JV with Chinese company
Mumbai: Zensar Technologies has formed a 50:50 joint venture with a Chinese company, Asia Logistics Technologies. Zensar will be among the very first Indian software companies that are keen to enter the land of the dragon. It had earlier expressed its intent to enter the Chinese software and consulting market through a subsidiary.

Zensar will initially invest $1 million in this venture. The JV will be based in Pudong, which has one of the biggest tech parks in Shanghai. Asia Logistics, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is the biggest Oracle partner in Hong Kong and China.
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Sterling Infotechs ADR, GDR cleared
New Delhi: The commerce and industry ministry has cleared Sterling Infotechs proposal to issue American Depository Receipt (ADR)/Global Depository Receipt (GDR) amounting to Rs 2,350 crore. The ministry has also approved 33 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 372 crore.

Sterling Infotechs proposal for floating 45.6 per cent of its equity in the overseas markets, to raise up to Rs 2,350 crore ($500 million) for setting up a eight-fibre pair fully protected undersea cable system, has now been forwarded to the to the cabinet committee on economic affairs.

The government has also cleared Rs 350-crore proposal of the Indian arm of Japanese company Yamaha Motors for issue of 14 per cent of the redeemable preference shares.
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Gulf Oil recasts lubricant business
Mumbai: Gulf Oil is restructuring its lubricant business operations in India. It has also plans to make a foray into neighbouring Bangladesh. Gulf Oil currently enjoys a five per cent share in the Indian lubricant market.

The company has decided to focus on the high-end lubricant business and retailing with to offerering higher margins rather than just increasing volumes. The sales to defence and railways, which accounted largely for pushing up volumes, had been curtailed, which would result in a drop in volumes in the current year but would not affect profits.
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Volvo to develop India as sourcing centre
Bangalore: The Rs 300-crore Volvo India will be developed into a major sourcing centre for components such as castings, forgings and engineering equipments catering to the entire product range of the Sweedish auto major. Volvo India will also be used as a major sourcing centre for information technology requirements of the parent company.

Volvo India is doing well with 25 to 30 per cent growth.
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MRF ups radial output
Chennai: MRF Ltd has beefed up the radial tyre production at its Arakkonam factory in Tamil Nadu following a labour strife that crippled production in its Pondichery factory. The company has stepped up production of radial tyres at its Arakkonam manufacturing facility as a temporary arrangement, following the labour strike at the Pondicherry unit. The Pondichery factory has an installed capacity to produce nearly one lakh radial tyres per year. The factory has been running on a capacity utilisation of nearly 60 per cent.
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Blue Star taps Haier Group
Mumbai: Leading air-conditioner manufacturer Blue Star Ltd is in talks with Haier Group of China to give a boost to its commercial refrigeration business. The tie-up would explore the possibility of a technical support as well as importing and distributing the high-end products of the Chinese partner in the Indian market.

The company has set a target of doubling its export turnover.
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VSP records 22 per cent higher sales
Hyderabad: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has recorded best performance in all fronts for the month of November. The turnover of Rs 2,415 crore in the first 8 months of the current fiscal is the best sales turnover since inception. This represents a growth of 22 per cent in turnover over Rs 1,977 crores achieved during the same period last year.

Exports have grown by 27 per cent and the domestic sales improved by 22 per cent during the same period. The sales turnover of Rs 311 crores and exports turnover of Rs 44 crores are also the best for any month in this financial year.
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Cisco to set up in-house HR call centre
Bangalore: Cisco Systems (India) Pvt Ltd is all set to launch an intra-organisation call centre, which will function as a virtual HR person for its employees in India.

Cisco currently has close to 650 employees in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. This initiative is a move towards automating all HR processes and will ride on the unique concept of treating its employees like customers and offering them 24x7 access to information.
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Hathway to expand in North, West
Mumbai: Hathway Cable & Datacom has decided to expand its Cine Channel to at least 13 cities within six months in the northern and western regions of the country. Kanpur and Lucknow will be added in the next two months while it will focus on Gujarat in the western region. Surat and Baroda are to follow after a presence already in Ahmedabad.
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Bentley Systems plans development centre in India
New Delhi: Bentley Systems India Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the US-based Bentley Systems Inc is planning to set up a software development centre in India, which is likely to be operational by 2003.

Bentley, an infrastructure engineering software solutions provider, intends to invest about Rs 10 crore in India over the next two years.
The software development facility is likely to come up in either Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai.

Globally, the company has about 7 development facilities.
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Morepen to acquire Burnol
Mumbai: Morepen Laboratories is close to acquiring Burnol antiseptic cream from Reckitt Piramal. The brand was bought over by Reckitt Piramal and was flaundering after the marketing joint venture between Reckitt Benckiser and Nicholas Piramal broke down in July this year.

Antiseptic cream Burnol, which is probably one of Indias most enduring brands, originally belonged to Knoll Pharmaceuticals. Four years ago Reckitt Piramal jointly acquired it for Rs 12.5 crore.
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Allianz to launch asset mgmt co
Mumbai: The Allianz group is planning to launch an asset management company by the end of next year. The company, which recently launched products in both general and life insurance along with joint venture partner Bajaj, is also in talks with Stanchart Bank to distribute its products.

Bajaj-Allianz currently operates its retail network through eight regional branches, which will go upto 22 locations by next year.

Allianz Ag, which recently acquired Dresdner Bank, will also be deciding the fate of Dresdners operations in India after the merger process is completed in Germany and other countries.
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Lalbhai group to exit FMCG business
Ahmedabad: The Lalbhai group company, Anil Starch Products, has decided to move out of FMCG business. The company had launched its consumer products division two years ago, with the Enerzip glucose candy and Amaizo corn flour and custard powder.

But sales remained at very low levels. The division is now being closed and senior executives earlier recruited from the FMCG industry have been issued pink slips.
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ColourPlus inks deal with Morarjee
Mumbai: Morarjee Brembana and the Chennai-based ColorPlus Fashions have formed an alliance to manufacture and market garments. Accordingly, Morarjee Brembana has started supplying fabrics manufactured using a recent German technology enabling the garment company to produce an exclusive range of shirts. The shirts are marketed under the ColorPlus-Morarjee Brembana name.

The German company Elite had introduced a new technology in the European market last year. Morarjee Brembana sourced this technology for improving the fabric quality.

Eleven different shades of shirts, manufactured using the new technology, has been introduced in the market during the festival season. Initially, 25,000 shirts were produced.
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BILT exits Phoenix Pulp
New Delhi: Ballarpur Industries Ltd has de-linked itself from the Thailand-based Phoenix Pulp and Paper Company Ltd. The company has sold its entire holding to Siam Cement Corporation. The inability to gain majority holding in Phoenix was one of the factors that prompted the L.M.Thapar group to exit from PPCL.
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Intel to increase Indian investments
New Delhi: Intel is raising its investments in India despite a 20-per cent slump in its global revenues in the previous quarter. The additional investment is aimed at increasing the market penetration for Intel products.

The company is aggressively targeting smaller towns with its products.

As part of the strategy to tap the Indian market more effectively, the chip major is working with Indian software development companies to develop software applications in Indian languages.

The company is working with Webdunia and Mithi.com to develop software in Indian languages. These Indian companies have developed products like web browsers and e-mail software with Indian language interfaces.
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Bharti Tele offers Esops
New Delhi: Bharti Group has decided to offer stock options to about 4,000 employees of Bharti Tele-Ventures at 50 per cent discount to the issue price. The company is also planning to add 1,000 employees within the next two months.

The number of shares to be offered to each employee will be worked out later depending on the years of service each has put in.

Bharti also said the next round of fund raising would be in the international market through an American Depository Receipt (ADR) issue.

The company is in the process of diluting 10 per cent of its equity, constituting 18.5 crore shares through a domestic listing.
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