Rs 400-cr IDBI assistance to Batata
Mumbai: The Industrial Bank of India has sanctioned Rs 400 crore financial assistance to Batata, the proposed merged entity of the cellular companies Birla, AT&T, Tata and BPL combine, for expansion of their projects.

The expansion to network new areas is basically to cater to the growth in subscribers, which has been 140 per cent in the four circles during the past 12 months compared to the industry's average of around 85 per cent.
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HLL sells adhesives unit to ICI India
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever has sold its adhesives business to ICI India for Rs 9 crore. HLL is a subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch Unilever and ICI India is 51 per cent owned by ICI.

The adhesives business has an annual turnover of around Rs 10 crore.
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Xavient makes India its global hub
New Delhi: US-based IT solutions provider Xavient technologies is setting up offshore development facility in New Delhi, as part of efforts to make India hub for its global operations. The company plans to invest up to $2 million in the country next year for ramping up infrastructure and towards recruitments.

The company has raised about $10 million in two separate rounds of funding and current investors include Alta Partners, TCW and Chartered Ventures.
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Pajero to roll out in April
New Delhi: Hindustan Motors will introduce Pajero as completely-built-units and may launch the vehicle in the form of completely-knocked-down kits.

In the CBU form, Pajero would be priced at Rs 30 lakh while as CKDS the vehicle would sport a price tag of Rs 20 lakh.
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Cafe Coffee Day to expand
Bangalore: Cafe Coffee Day, a division of the Rs 180-crore Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd, plans to establish 200 cafes across the country.

The company plans to invest Rs 80 crore over the next 2-5 years. The funds will be generated out of internal accruals and commercial borrowings from banks. The company expects to break even by March 2002.

The company plans to swamp Mumbai with around 50 Cafe Coffee Days over the next 6 months. It will add mini metros like Chandigarh and Kochi to its list of locations by March 2002. Besides looking at commercial and residential hubs in metros, the company is also eyeing other varied locations like corporate houses, airports, hospitals and shopping malls.
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HLL sells part of Tasty Bite stake
Ahmedabad: Hindustan Levers is selling a part of its minority stake in Tasty Bite Eatables to Preferred Brand Foods (India) for an undisclosed price.
Preferred Brand Foods has sought government permission to acquire 59,530 non-convertible non-cumulative redeembale prefernce shares of a face value of Rs 10 each of HLL in Tasty Bite Eatables. The FIPB had earlier this month given the go-ahead to the PBFIL proposal.

PBFIL already has been granted foreign collaboration approval and foreign equity participation of 74.22 per cent amounting to Rs 190.45 lakh in TBEL through a downstream venture.
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FIPB clears Toshibas $46-b India hub
New Delhi: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has cleared the $46-billion Japanese major, Toshiba Corporation's proposal to make India a hub for sourcing equipment for its global infrastructure projects.

Toshiba Corporation, through its Rs 5.2 crore Indian subsidiary, Toshiba India Private Limited, would also provide technical support and specialised after sales service to the infrastructure needs of its international offices.

Toshiba is involved in developing power projects and in several information technology initiatives, including outsourcing software solutions from Indian companies.
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FIPB rejects Giesecke proposal
New Delhi: The FIPB has rejected the proposal of Giesecke & Devrient of Germany to manufacture and supply bank notes, security documents and paper, cash handling systems and to start end-to-end security solutions.

According to the finance ministry, the proposal of manufacturing and production of bank notes was not open to private sector on security reasons.
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Volvo to make India its chassis biz hub
Mumbai: Volvo India plans to develop India as its bus components and chassis business hub for the Asia-Pacific region. In the initial stage, Volvo will strive for increasing indegenisation of its buses from 15 per cent to 50 per cent.

Volvo will explore the possibility of exploiting the cost advantage accrued in manufacturing the components in India.

Volvo will also explore the possibility of exporting the buses and trucks to various countries in the region from India.
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Arvind to get licence from DuPont
Ahmedabad: Arvind Mills is close to clinching a deal with US-based DuPont for acquiring the licence for CoolMax, a quick-drying fabric, which is designed for quick evaporation of sweat.

Under the pact, DuPont and Arvind would work to develop new products as well as give Arvind a preferential access to its new products.

CoolMax will enable Arvind to launch a range of new products, from denim to shirting.
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Hyundai lauch Accent variant next year
Mumbai: Hyundai Motor is likely to introduce a new variant of Accent in 2002 with a diesel engine sourced from Detroit Diesel, an arm of DaimlerChrysler.

The new engine being considered will be more powerful than the 1,527cc engine currently fitted in the Accent DLS.

In Europe, the Accent is already available with a Detroit Diesel engine.
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PwC unit bags $200m global deals
Kolkata: The Indian solutions delivery centre (i-SDC) of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has bagged four new global contracts worth more than $200 million from Cadbury Schweppes, Conoco, British Gas and Anheuser Busch.

PwC global has around 500 people across the globe, out of which, 250 are in India alone.

The i-SDC has a 512 kbps link to PwC USA, and a frame relay link with satellite back-up connected to the PwC network. This enables clients to connect to the nearest of PwC's 1500 offices to interact with the company. The centre's international private leased line allows i-SDC to work on the client's server.
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Hero Group pulls out of insurance JV
Bangalore: The Hero Group has pulled out of an insurance joint venture with the Zurich Insurance Group, Punjab National Bank and Vijaya Bank.

In the meantime, Vijaya Bank and Punjab National Bank have sought the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) permission for increasing their stakes in the insurance joint venture.

The Hero Group was seeking a 51 per cent stake in the venture.
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OM Kotak offers cover for lenders
Mumbai: OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Ltd is introducing a novel credit insurance product for lenders up to a limit of Rs 50 lakh per borrower.

A bank or an NBFC can buy this cover paying a lumpsum premium towards the repayment of the loan amount on the death of a borrower. The financial intermediaries need to buy the cover for at least a group of 5,000 borrowers.

In case the person for whom the cover is bought dies, the insurance company will step in to pay up the loan.
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