|
20th
Century, PNC join hands
New
Delhi: Rupert Murdochs 20th Century Fox and Pritish Nandy
Communications have signed an agreement to jointly produce movies
in India.
This is the first time a Hollywood studio has joined hands with a
strategic partner to produce and distribute movies in India.
So far, Fox has been distributing movies in the country. They
recently distributed PNCs Bollywood Calling which was released
a fortnight back.
Back
to News Review index page
Infosys
gets SunAmerica contract
Mumbai:
Infosys Technologies Ltd has won a contract from American
International Group firm SunAmerica Inc to transform its policy
administration system into an Internet-based system.
SunAmerica is a financial services company specialising in
retirement savings and is servicing three million Americans
currently.
Back
to News Review index page
HLL
to shift seeds business to subsidiary
Mumbai: The
board of Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is meeting on December 12 to
consider a proposal to transfer the companys seeds business to
its subsidiary company, Paras Extra Growth Seeds Ltd.
The company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the
transfer of business will be undertaken at a consideration and
effective date to be decided by the board at its meeting. Paras
Extra Growth Seeds was formerly known as Grand Food and Catering
Consultants Ltd.
Back
to News Review index page
Dabhol
Power sacks 50 HQ staffers
Mumbai:
Dabhol Power Company has decided to sack 50-odd staff at its
Mumbai headquarters. DPC is also expected to sack 500-odd
employees deployed at the Dabhol project site in near future.
The company is expected
to retain a minimum possible number of employees at its HQs.
Back
to News Review index page
Aarti
Drugs to set up plant for high-end bulk drugs
Mumbai: Aarti
Drugs plans to set up a greenfield project for low- volume,
high-priced bulk drugs at Tarapur in Maharashtra. The plant will
produce cisplatin, irbesartan and clopidogrel in the therapeutic
segment of anti-cancer, anti-hypertension and cardioprotectant,
respectively.
The proposed
multi-purpose plant for different bulk drugs would have a capacity
of around three tonnes per month. The plant, which would
eventually opt for US FDA approval, would incur a cost around Rs 5
crore and would be operational within nine months.
T he company has already commenced production of certain bulk
drugs like indinavir and nevirapine in the anti-HIV segment at its
existing facility in Tarapur and Sarigam in Gujarat.
Back
to News Review index page
Zuari-Chambal
Group eyes Paradeep Phosphate
Simla:
Zuari-Chambal Group has evinced interest in acquiring 74 per cent
Government stake in Paradeep Phosphates Ltd and has given an
Expression of Interest (EoI) to buy 51 per cent holding in the
state-owned National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL).
Zuari-Chambal Group is
also in talks with some IT companies to either acquire them or
pick up stakes.
Back
to News Review index page
B4U
TV scouts for strategic partner
Mumbai:
B4U Television Network is scouting for strategic partners after
the channels relationship with its existing alliances Fashion
TV (FTV) and MCM ran into rough weather.
The channel is in talks with overseas corporate bodies for raising
funds for its film financing plan, the corpus for which will
initially be around Rs 30 crore.
Back
to News Review index page
Chubb
buys 2-3% in HDFC
Mumbai:
The US-based Chubb has picked up 2-3 per cent stake in the HDFC.
The US registered funds that are major investors in HDFC include
Putnam Funds, Janus Adviser Series, Van ECK Funds, and Merrill
Lynch Funds.
Chubb has had a presence in India for over four years starting
with its tie-up with Kotak Mahindra. The alliance fell through
after Kotak decided to enter the life insurance business instead
of the non-life segment. Since then, Chubb has been in search for
a partner.
Back
to News Review index page
Dabur
CGU to infuse Rs 110 cr
Mumbai:
Dabur CGU life insurance will bring Rs 110 crore into its capital
account next week, following which the company will get the
operational licence from the regulator.
Dabur CGU plans to launch its array of products in January. The
launch will take place simultaneously in three cities Delhi,
Mumbai and Chennai.
The company has already tied-up with Lakshmi Vilas Bank, ABN Amro
Bank and Canara Bank for its launch.
Back
to News Review index page
Jindal
Steel declares 50% dividend
Mumbai:
Jindal Steel and Power has announced a dividend of 50 per cent to
the shareholders. According to a release, the unaudited results
for the first quarter of the current financial year showed a net
profit of Rs 26 crore on a turnover of Rs 146 crore.
The improved results of JSPL have been achieved as a result of its
focus on backward integration.
According to the chairman, O P jindal, "The manufacturing
cost of sponge iron at JSPL is the lowest in the country. The
sixth foray kiln was commissioned in September 2000, increasing
the installed capacity of sponge iron to 6.5 lakh metric tonne,
making the company the second largest producer of coal based
sponge iron in the world."
Back
to News Review index page
Tatas
to invest in telecom biz
Mumbai:
Tata Group plans to invest between Rs 10,000 to Rs 14,000 crore in
the telecom business over the next five years.
The group is looking at this investment as an infrastructure
investment.
The Tata group expects to
invest in basic, cellular, national long distance, international
long distance and internet services. The flagship for the
investment will be Tata Teleservices which is currently in talks
with Hughes Tele.com for a merger.
Currently, the company holds the licence for Andhra Pradesh and
has recently bagged the licence for four more states including
Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Karnataka.
Back
to News Review index page
Tata
Chem revamps marketing network
Mumbai: Tata
Chemicals has revamped the distribution and marketing structure of
its salt and cement businesses. The company has terminated its
long-standing cement marketing arrangement with cement major ACC
from November 30.
It has also replaced Vardhaman Chemicals, its sole distributor of
branded salt, by setting up its own nationwide network.
The company has put in place 33 distributors for the salt business
to gain direct control over operations. It has created a team to
market cement, mainly in the Saurashtra region in Gujarat.
Back
to News Review index page
Godrej
identifies 5 power brands
Mumbai:
Godrej Consumer Products has identified five power brands for
fuelling future growth. These include toilet soaps Cinthol,
FairGlow and Godrej No.1, Godrej Hair Dye and liquid detergent
Ezee.
While these brands will be pushed aggressively nationwide, the
others will be supported in pockets where they are strong.
The company is also planning to enter new categories through
acquisitions and in-house developments of brands. These new
categories maybe hair oil, paper napkins and sanitary napkins.
Back
to News Review index page
Interbrew,
SUN eye UB Beer
Bangalore:
Interbrew has joined hands with an overseas Indian partner, the
Russia-based SUN Group, promoted by the Khemkas, to jointly bid
for a strategic stake in UB Beer Ltd.
SUN, the largest
Indian-owned investment entity in Russia, is the promoter of asset
management company SUN F&C, which manages a mutual fund by the
same name. Interbrew has an alliance with SUN in the beer markets
of Russia and Ukraine. Interbrew is one of the four foreign
brewers shortlisted by the UB group for divesting 26 per cent
stake in its demerged beer-only company, UB Beer Ltd.
Back
to News Review index page
Bates-Saatchi,
Publicis arms to merge
Mumbai:
Zenith Media, the media buying arm of advertising agencies Bates
India and Saatchi & Saatchi, and Optimedia, the media buying
arm of Publicis, are expected to merge in India by the first
quarter of 2002.
The merger will take
place on the lines of the international merger that took place in
October end this year between Publicis Groupe SA and Cordiant
Communications Group (CCG) PLC.
The two combined their
media buying operations into one company, the $20-billion Zenith
Optimedia Group.
Back
to News Review index page
|
