Tata ISP to merge with Tata Teleservices
Mumbai: Tata Nova, the Internet service of the Tatas, will be shortly operating as part of Tata Teleservices.

The decision to merge has been taken to bring the Tatas voice and data communication services under one umbrella. The group is also mulling over a proposal to bring the operations of Tata Net, a division of Nelco, which deals with V-Sat terminals, under the Tata Teleservices.
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United India hires AF Ferguson
Chennai: United India Insurance Company Ltd has hired the services of AF Ferguson and Company to prepare a blueprint for its proposed foray into personal line of insurance products. AF Ferguson will examine the potential of the personal lines of insurance products and advise United India on how to tap business.
United India is also examining the viability of setting up a separate department in the company or floating a subsidiary for taking care of the personal insurance business.
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Taj Sats to cater to Oman Air
Mumbai: Taj Sats Air Catering Ltd, the joint venture company of the Taj group and Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd (Sats), has bagged a catering contract with Oman Air. The contract will be for all the seven weekly flights of Oman Air on the Mumbai-Muscat sector.

The meals would primarily include Indian and Continental cuisine, but a wider choice of cuisine would be introduced on board.
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Baan to source software from India
New Delhi: ERP major Baan plans to increase its global development work out of its Hyderabad facility from the present 30 per cent to 50 per cent.

Globally, Baan has two more such facilities, each in the US and Holland.

Baan India is also planning to add another 150 software professionals in the next 2 years and with this its team will increase from 750 to 900.
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Chrysalis renamed Chrys Capital
Mumbai: Chrysalis Capital has changed its name to Chrys Capital.

Chrys Capital was started as a venture capital firm for start-up funding. One of the firms most recent investments was in the publicly listed company BFL-MphasiS.

In April last year the firm announced that it had raised additional capital of about $125 million from investors, taking the total capital pool under management to about $200 million.
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Bharti Tele to come up with IPO
New Delhi: The floor price for the Bharti Tele-Ventures IPO, which is expected to open around 24 January, is slated to be around Rs 55.

Though the final floor price will be announced just two days before the issue, there are indications that it will be in the vicinity of Rs 55, because the last placement of stake to the major shareholders in the company including Singapore Telecom and Warburg Pincus was made at Rs 55.

Sebi has already given its observations on the offer document to the company.

Bharti is taking the book building route for its IPO in which investors will be required to offer bids rather than a fixed price issue.
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Intel buys Rs 60-cr property in Bangalore
Bangalore: Intel has has bought a 2 lakh sq.ft plot of loand at Rs 60-crore in Bangalore to set up a development centre.

The development and design centre is expected to accommodate 1,500 engineers when its fully operational. The facility on Bangalores Airport Road is expected to be functional this year.

Intel is planning to spend Rs 125 crore on this development centre.
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Ideasnyou shuts cyber caf
Mumbai: Ideasnyou, promoted by former Cadbury Scwheppes CEO Ashok Jain, has shut down its cyber cafe business. The cyber cafe business was launched last year as an alternative revenue source when three of the companys four portals failed to generate any revenue.

The Red Brick Cafe was launched in mid-01 and occupied 500 square feet of the companys 2,500 square feet office space in Mumbais Prabhadevi area.
The company had originally planned to expand the business to 4-5 cyber cafes in other parts of the city.
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ITDC to market pvt sector hotels
New Delhi: ITDC is now booking business for other hotels, looking out for consultancy work and is converting its corporate affairs division into a full-fledged communication agency to improve its bottomline.

ITDC has started three new profit centres and a financial restructuring is on to make them accountable.
The marketing division has been renamed Ashok Reservation & Marketing Services, while engineering division has become Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services and the corporate affairs department has become Ashok Creatives.
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USV to focus on natural insulin
Ahmedabad: USV is planning to consolidate its presence in the diabetics segment by focusing on natural insulin.

The domestic insulin market is estimated at around Rs 140 crore, which is growing at the rate of 24 per cent.
The Rs 300-crore companys strategy is to take on multinationals like Novo Nordisk, by focusing on bovine and porcine insulin, which are cheaper compared to human insulin.

USV is also planning to introduce some more products in its insulin basket. The company will shortly launch a variant of Mix Act insulin.
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UB eyes GMR Vasavi brewery
Bangalore: United Breweries (UB) is negotiating to buy GMR Vasavi-owned brewery located at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh.

GMR has been looking at an exit price of Rs 60 crore keeping in view the impending brewery expansion, which will increase the annual capacity to 3.6 lakh hectolitres. This will place it amongst the bigger breweries in the beer-deficit Andhra Pradesh.

The deal with GMR might help UB clear supply constraints and significantly improve its market presence in Andhra Pradesh.
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Sterlite to invest Rs 5,000 crore in Balco
New Delhi: Sterlite Industries is planning to pump Rs 5,000 crore into Bharat Alumini- um Company (Balco) to help raise the capacity of Balcos aluminium smelter at Korba from 100,000 tonne per annum to 3,00,000 tonne over the next three years.

A part of the investments could come from Balcos internal accruals.

The company has already shifted its headquarters from Delhi to Korba as a part of its organisational restructuring.
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Intelnet plans call centre in Mumbai
Mumbai: Intelnet Global Services, the 50:50 joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is planning to start a 2000-seat call centre in Mumbai.

Intelnet is targeting banking, finance, telecom, insurance, retail, utility companies, airlines and hospitality firms.

Intelnet has already tied up with Standard Life Health Care to service its back-office operations. It is doing a pilot project for the company. Intelnet plans to start off the operations in the new centre by around June.
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Tatas to bid for VSNL alone
Mumbai: The Tatas have decided to bid alone for a controlling stake in Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL), ruling out a tie-up with the BPL group.

A consortium of Tata group companies would be submitting the financial bids for VSNL.

The Tata group had earlier kept its options open on roping in a strategic partner for the bid.

The Tatas, the Reliance group and the Chennai-based Sterling-Thaicom consortium are in the final race to pick up the governments 25 per cent in VSNL.
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