Airtel and Escotel to share infrastructure
New Delhi: Airtel and Escotel have announced a tie-up in the sharing of infrastructure in circles where they both are competitors. This agreement would include all the five circles where the two companies are operating.
While sharing of telecom infrastructure is a common trend in Europe, this is the first time in India that two cellular operators have agreed on such a tie-up.

The two companies will compete against one another in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UP East and UP West.
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Jet Airways on IATA security committee
New Delhi: Jet Airways has been made a member of the security committee of International Air Transport Association (IATA). It will be represented on the IATA committee by its general manager (security) Col A S Bedi for a two-year term.

Jet Airways has introduced new generation equipment including vapor tracers for quick detection of all kinds of explosives, narcotics and chemicals. The private carrier has also acquired sophisticated explosive detection spray kits and metal detectors.
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AOL eyes stake in Sify, Rediff
New Delhi: The interactive division of AOL-Time Warner is negotiating with Satyam Infoway (Sify) and Rediff to pick up their stakes. AOL is considering launching an India-specific Web site for which this move has been mooted.

Two AOL-Time Warner officials were in India last month for talks with several Indian groups, including RPG, Living Media, Sify and Rediff among others.
Satyam Computers had resolved earlier to sell their holding in Sify in favour of a strategic investor. Satyam has around 53 per cent stake in Sify.
Rediff too had earlier indicated that the company is on the lookout for a strategic partner.
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TCS signs $43.5-m IT deal
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has signed a $43.5 million deal with Britain's United Utilities Plc for delivering information technology services.
The agreement is for a three-year period, with the option of renewal for another five years.

As part of the deal, TCS will provide general IT requirements and intelligence gathering to United Utilities, support and maintain various IT platforms of the British company and develop software applications.
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SAS suspends flights to India
New Delhi: Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) will suspend its service to Delhi from Copenhagen from February 1.

However, the airline will maintain its presence in India throughout the suspension period and continue to service its customer base in the country.

SAS had in September last year, deployed its first A340 on the India route and announced a phased expansion of its frequency from 5 to 7 flights a week on this route. It had commenced its operations in India in September 1995.
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PTC breaks even
New Delhi: Power Trading Corporation has broke even in six months of starting operations and is hoping to end the current financial year with net profit.
The corporation is presently trading about 450 MW of power worth Rs 800 crore.

PTC is operating at a lower margin of just two per cent in order to cover the costs only.

PTC has been buying 100 MW power from Chhatisgarh, 160 MW from West Bengal, 70 MW from the private power producer Malana in Himachal Pradesh and another 100 MW from Goa. It is selling power to Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana.
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Amrutanjan diversifies to IT, biotech
Chennai: Amrutanjan has diversified into areas like information technology and biotechnology. One of its major initiatives is a 30 seater state-of-the-art call centre near Chennai in collaboration with California based Nhancement Technologies.

The call centre, being set up at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore, is undergoing trials and is expected to become commercially operational later this month.

As part of the international call centre project, the company plans to set up a call centre training institute also in collaboration with Nhancement Technologies.
Yet another major initiative of the group is in the area of biotechnology with Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU).

The group's two-year-old biotechnology division is planning a Rs 3 crore research centre, in association with MKU, concentrating on DNA sequencing services and DNA based disease diagnostic efforts.
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Indian Hotels to raise $75 mn via bonds, loan
Mumbai: Indian Hotels Co Ltd plans to raise around $75 million through bonds and a Japanese loan.
The company plans to make a bond issue of up to $50 million and also arrange a low interest Japanese yen loan equivalent to around $25 million.

Indian Hotels plans to utilise the proceeds for expansion and to meet its routine capital expenditure. A part of the proceeds will also be used to repay existing high cost loans.
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Tisco bags exports trophy
New Delhi: Tisco has bagged the all India trophy for 1999-2000 for excellence in exports in the engineering sector.

The award, instituted by Engineering Export Promotion Council, will be given by commerce and industry minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on 9 January 9 here.

Others who bagged the trophy in the section include Enfield Industries, NALCO, BHEL and Jyoti Structures.
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Citibank eyes Centurion stake
Mumbai: Citibank is keen on picking up a 26.1 per cent stake in the Centurion Bank. The American banking major has already done its due diligence and the recommendations have also been forwarded to its head office.

The deal, if fructifies, will be valued between Rs 12-14 per Centurion Bank share. The foreign stake in Centurion currently stands at 37 per cent. Thus, any foreign investor can pick up only 12 per cent given the sectoral cap in banking which stands at 40 per cent. Further, a foreign bank having operations in the country can only pick up 20 per cent in a domestic bank.
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Morepen eyes Abbott stake
New Delhi: A couple of pharma majors including Morepen Laboratories are keen to pick up 51.5 per cent stake of US pharma MNC Abbott Laboratories in its Indian subsidiary. Morepen and one more US-based pharma major have initiated talks with the merchant banker appointed by Abbott.

Nicholas Piramal India is also in the running for acquiring the Abbott stake. Abbott Lab had put its stake in its subsidiary on the bloc as part of a refocus exercise of its business segments.
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Wilmar ties up with Acalpo
New Delhi: The $3-billion Wilmar group, Asia's second largest edible oil conglomerate, is making a fresh entry into India with a new company and another collaborator.

The first casualty of this step is going to be the 600-tonnes per day refinery planned by Adani Wilmar Ltd in Kakinada, which has now been scrapped by Wilmar Trading Pte Ltd. Instead, the multinational is now routing all future investments in India through a new company floated in Singapore.

Adani Wilmar, a 50:50 partnership, is the first direct investment by a multinational in India's edible oil sector. The company owns India's biggest refinery at Mundra (Gujarat) and markets the 'Fortune' brand of oils.

Wilmar has now tied up with Acalpo Trading Pte to form a new joint venture, Acalpo Wilmar Pte to set up Acalmar Oils and Fats, which will seek the necessary approvals from FIPB for making fresh investment in India.
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Telcos marketshare in HCV goes up
Mumbai: Telco has retrieved part of the marketshare in heavy commercial vehicles segment that it had lost to its rival in the last few months.

Telco has upped its overall marketshare in commercial vehicles to 61.8 per cent in April-November `01, from 61 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

In the truck segment (medium and heavy), Telcos marketshare has risen by 2.4 per cent to 71.5 per cent, while Ashok Leylands share declined from 30.9 per cent to 28.5 per cent during the period.

In the bus segment, Ashok Leyland upped its marketshare from 49 per cent to 49.3 per cent, although its volumes fell from 7435 units to 5470 units. Telcos marketshare slipped to 50.7 per cent (51 per cent last year) as its volumes declined from 7743 units to 5622 units.

In the medium commercial vehicle segment, Telco increased its marketshare from 77.3 per cent to 79.7 per cent despite a decline in volumes. Its volumes slid to 12,822 units from 13,623 units last year, while Ashok Leyland, whose volumes fell from 4003 units to 3270 units, saw its marketshare slipping from 22.7 per cent to 20.3 per cent.
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MovenPick to set up ice-cream parlours
Ahmedabad: The $700-million Swiss ice-cream major MovenPick plans to set up a chain of ice-cream and coffee boutiques in all major cities of India.

At present, it has only three outlets one in Delhi and two in Bangalore.

Among the cities being targeted are Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa and Ahmedabad. Most of these outlets are expected to become operational by mid 2002.
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BPL back in VSNL race
New Delhi: BPL Communications has re-entered the race for buying management stake in Videsh Sanchar Nigam. The company has informed the department of disinvestment that it would independently bid for VSNL.

BPL wants to independently submit the bid. It has asked the DoD to change the eligibility criteria for the bidders.

The eligibility criteria for bidding for VSNL envisages that the bidders should have a net worth of Rs 2,500 crore. This means that BPL would have to form a consortium in order to meet this criterion. BPL has asked the DoD to reduce the net worth criterion to Rs 25 crore.
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Welspun gets Rs 62-crore Oman order
Mumbai: Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd, makers of spiral pipes, have bagged an international order worth Rs 62 crore for three-layer PE and internal epoxy lining coated spiral pipes.

The company will be supplying of 32 to 62 inches coated spiral pipes totaling 82 km to the Barka Water Transmission project of the ministry of housing, electricity and water in Oman.
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Whirlpool forays into cooking range
New Delhi: Whirlpool of India Ltd has announced its foray into the cooking range segment with the introduction of its MagiCook cooking range in the market.

The two models MagiCook 20 and MagiCook 22 are priced at Rs 16,000 and Rs 22,000, respectively.
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Tatas eye global hotel chain
Mumbai: The Tata group is looking at acquiring an international hospitality chain that could catapult it to the top league among the global hotel majors. The group is looking at premium-end chains that will help it position the Taj brand in the top bracket in the hotels industry. The group would ideally look at a chain with key properties in the US, Germany, France and the UK.

Recently, Indian Hotels was almost on the verge of acquiring the super premium Carlyle in New York, but the deal fell through.

Meanwhile, the Taj group of hotels, as part of a restructuring exercise, is planning to sell seven out of its 60-odd hotel properties in India and overseas.

The Taj group is India's largest hotel chain offering 56 hotels in 40 locations across South Asia and 6 hotels in other parts of the world.
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Telco explores assembling cars for others
Mumbai: Tata Engineering is exploring the possibility of assembling vehicles for multinational or domestic auto companies at its manufacturing facilities.

This will help the company to better utilise its huge surplus capacities while creating additional streams of revenue.

Earlier this year, the company had started taking up jobs like producing dies and castings. Now, the company is offering to assemble complete vehicles.
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Videocon plans Rs 300 crore facility in Sharjah
New Delhi: Videocon has firmed up plans to set up a Rs 300 crore greenfield facility in Sharjah to manufacture colour televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and air-conditioners. All products manufactured at the new facility will be sold under the Videocon brandname.

Videocon already has an assembly line for colour televisions in Dubai. The group has manufacturing operations in China where it manufactures Internet-enabled televisions.
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