TV 18 closes two offices
Chennai: Television Eighteen has decided to close two of its offices as part of restructuring of its news gathering operations. TV 18 is shutting down its offices in Chennai and Kolkata.

But the company plans to expand its news gathering operations to cities like Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

News gathering in the new cities will be done by contract staff, who will operate with minimal infrastructure.
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BoB to expand overseas
Dubai: Bank of Baroda is set to expand its overseas operations by opening new branches and introducing more value added and technologically upgraded services to compete with its international peers. BoB is the only Indian bank to have a presence in the Gulf.
As much as 20 per cent of the bank's profits of 87 million dollars comes from its overseas operations which also contributes 20 per cent of its total balance sheet size of 14.4 billion dollars.

The bank would open two more branches in the UAE in addition to the existing six and one more in Oman where it had three branches. The possibility of opening a branch in Doha, capital of Qatar was also being looked into considering the country's huge gas reserves.

BoB is also planning to start opearations in Malaysia and a representative office in China. The bank, which has an office in New York, will expand its business in the United States.
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Maruti valuation report by January
New Delhi: Valuation of Maruti will be completed by January-end as part of government's plan to divest its equity in the joint venture auto company. KPMG, Ernst and Young, and S B Billimoria had been appointed by the government last month as valuers.
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IBP stake valued at Rs 800cr
Mumbai: The 33.58 per cent government stake, put on block for divestment, in IBP has been valued at around Rs 800 crore. Major oil companies, including Reliance, Indian Oil Corporation and Shell, are in the race for picking up the stake in IBP. The valuation price thus works out to about Rs 1,094 a share, which is 180 per cent more than the current market price.

IBP has over 1,500 retail outlets across the country.

At present, the government holds a 59.58 per stake in the oil retailer, while banks and FIs hold 23.41 per cent in the company, employees hold 0.70 per cent, and the balance 16.31 per cent is with other shareholders.
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Tata Chem revamps distribution network
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals has revamped its distribution network. The new strategy is aimed at giving TCL an opportunity to increase its presence in the FMCG sector by leveraging its distribution setup. The company expects a 20 per cent growth in sales from the salt business.

Tata Salt has a market share of around 37 per cent and sales of about Rs 160 crore, growing at 10 per cent per annum over the last few years.
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Sun F&C to launch debt-oriented schemes
Mumbai: Sun F&C Asset Management Company is set to launch debt oriented fixed maturity schemes. These include a bond and a gilt fund.

The company has already filed the offer document with the Sebi.

Both the schemes have seven different interval funds with maturity period of 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, one year, three year, five year and seven year.
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VisualQuest to develop applications for Nokia
New Delhi: Visualquest India Private Limited (VPI), a wireless solution provider, has been chosen to develop mobile applications by Nokia for its network.

VPI has recently developed Visual IM (Instant Messenger) with a Nokia product. Nokia is set to approve two more VPI products - VisualMail and VisualScript with its Nokia OK stamp in a weeks time. Japans NTT DoCoMo is the only company which offers these applications under iMode, which is limited to Japanese markets only.

Nokia would assist VPI in publicising and promoting these applications in the global market through its website and would offer these value added services to its US and European customers.

While VisualMail is an interactive animated messaging over Internet-enabled phones, the VisualScript would enable to receive contents in different languages.
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Bharti enters Haryana
New Delhi: Bharti Enterprises has launched TouchTel, its basic telecom service offering, in Haryana. Union minister for communications Pramod Mahajan inaugurated the service by calling up Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit, while Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, who also attended the launch, called up renowned cricket star Kapil Dev.

Bharti, which is planning to invest a total of Rs 200 crore in setting up its basic telecom network in Haryana, has already invested more than Rs 100 crore in the project. Bharti has partnered with telecom majors like Siemens, Nortel, Cisco and Duraline for the network.
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HLL launches new range of skincare products
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) has launched a new range of body washes under the International Lux skincare umbrella. The new range includes, International Lux Skin Care Moisturising Body Wash and Lux Skincare Deep Cleansing Body Wash. Priced at Rs 90 for 250 ml, the new range now comes with a lufa (an accessory for bath).

The new product range is targeted at the urban Indian woman who actively seeks skincare products and is currently unsatisfied with the existing soap-bar solutions.

The company plans an aggressive television campaign featuring Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai to promote the product range.
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Nike launches top-end shoes
New Delhi: Nike India has launched its top-of-the-line product Nike Shox in the Indian market coinciding with its global launch.

Priced at Rs 9,000 plus, Shox is the result of 17 years of extensive R&D effort. Nike regards the shoes column technology as the most significant breakthrough since Nike Air.
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RIL to set up New Economy ventures in Navi Mumbai
Mumbai: The Reliance Group plans to set up the headquarters of Reliance Infocom and Reliance Lifesciences at the 135-acre complex in Navi Mumbai. The group has shut down its associate company Terene Fibre India's polyester staple fibre unit at the site after providing voluntary retirement to around 350 employees.

A part of Reliance Infocom's operations including a call centre is already located in the complex.
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Fabmart enters retailing through Pantaloon
Mumbai: Pantaloon Retail India has entered into a strategic alliance with the Bangalore-based retail portal Fabmart to undertake food and grocery retailing at its hypermarket outlets.

Fabmart will start a retailing outlet at Pantaloons hypermarket store in Bangalore. Later, outlets will be opened in other stores. Pantaloon operates hypermarket stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Calcutta. It has also bought real estate in Mumbai to start a hypermarket.
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GAIL to enter retail LPG mkt
Kolkata: Gas Authority of India will soon enter retail marketing of liquefied petroleum gas.

GAIL has submitted a proposal to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas for this purpose.

GAIL is looking at some more joint ventures to retail natural gas and auto LPG in some of the major cities of the country.

For retailing CNG and piped gas in Delhi, GAIL has a joint venture with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the Indraprastha Gas Limited. For the Mumbai market, GAIL has a joint venture with British Gas and the Mahanagar Gas.
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MICO to hike foreign stake
New Delhi: Motor Industries Company Ltd (MICO) has received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to increase foreign equity from the current 56.99 per cent to 60.55 per cent. The company proposes to increase foreign equity through the buyback route.

MICO is the first company to move FIPB to raise foreign stake in it by taking recourse to the new law.

The company plans to fund the entire transaction, valued at Rs 50 crore, from the free reserves held by it.

It proposes to buy back two lakh equity shares from shareholders on proportionate basis through a tender offer.

MICO plans to buy back the shares having a face value of Rs 100 at the price of Rs 2,500 per share and complete the transaction within12 months from the date of approval.
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