Hero Honda Q3 profits double
New Delhi: India's largest motorcycle manufacturer Hero Hondos net profits almost doubled in the third quarter at Rs 133 crore. This is 90 per cent more than the Rs 70 crore clocked in the corresponding quarter last year.
Sales were up almost 1.5 times at over the Rs 1,200 crore level, 43 per cent more than the Rs 849 crore of the previous year.
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ONGC rejects British Gas bid
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has rejected another bid by British Gas to become an operator of three offshore oil and gas fields. British Gas has been trying for some time to become the operator of the Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields, considered among India's top discoveries in the last two decades.
British Gas has been wanting to acquire a 30 per cent stake in the venture originally owned by the now bankrupt Enron for US$ 338 million, an offer which ONGC says is not good enough.

The Panna-Mukta fields have recoverable reserves of 184 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent in gas, and the Tapti gas field has reserves of 96.3 million cubic metres of gas.
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Volvo enters SUV market
Detroil: Swedish automaker Volvo drove into the sport utility vehicle market by unveiling the XC90 during the media preview at the North American International Auto Show.

Built on a car platform, the all-wheel drive XC90 has room for seven adult passengers. The SUV is designed to look more compact than it is, with the back window angled in to make the roof shorter.

The second row of seats includes a middle seat that can move forward, for parents who want to have their child seated closer to them. The third row has two seats that can fit adult passengers.

The 272-horsepower SUV also has inflatable side curtains that come down in a rollover to protect passengers sitting in all three rows.
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Zee founders to repay dues to company
Mumbai: The founders of Zee Telefilms will repay their remaining dues to the company this week.
Zee had lent Rs 220 crore to two affiliated companies to buy stakes in two media firms, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation and B4U. The deal caused an uproar amongst investors which led the founders to commit to returning the money to the company.
They had already repaid Rs 148 crore to Zee.
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Ikon sales up 90% in 2001
New Delhi: Ford Motor sold 43,341 of its mid-size Ikon cars in 2001, up 89.7 per cent on the previous year.

The sales include 15,211 cars in the domestic market and exports of 28,130 completely knocked down kits, Ford India said in a statement.

Ford also sold 110 of its Mondeo sedans which it launched in December.

The Ikon, launched in India in December 1999, competes in the domestic market with General Motors' Opel Corsa, Fiat's Sienna, Hyundai Motor's Accent and the Esteem from Maruti Udyog Ltd.
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Adani Exports plans Rs 331cr gas supply unit
Ahmedabad: Adani Exports plans to build a Rs 331-crore gas supply network linking three towns in western India.

The company plans to supply re-gassified liquefied natural gas through underground pipelines to domestic households and commercial and industrial users in Baroda, Ahmedabad and Mehsana in Gujarat.

Adani Exports has inked a preliminary agreement with state-run Indian Oil to buy 1.3 million standard cubic meter per day of regassified LNG from the first quarter of 2004. This will be raised to 2.5 million standard cubic meter per day by 2007-08.

Adani Exports has formed a separate company, Gujarat Adani Energy, to execute its gas distribution business.
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British firm to set up software facility
Chennai: UK-based Xansa plans to set up a software facility at Sipcot Siruseri Industrial park near here at a cost of Rs 233.56 crore.

An Indian subsidiary Xansa (India), had been formed for setting up the project on 27.36 acres of land.
Xansa would construct 8.5 lakh sq.feet software development facility which would offer direct employment to nearly 5,200 people.
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Sail to set up two SBUs
Kolkata: Steel Authority of India Ltd is expected set up two strategic business units by April. Sail is creating one SBU each for flat products and long products. Sails Bokaro and Rourkela steel plants along with the flat products wing of the Central Marketing Organisation (CMO) would form one SBU.

The other SBU will be composed of Bhilai and Durgapur steel plants and the long products wing of the CMO.
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REC cuts lending rates
Mumbai: The Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd (REC) has affected an across-the-board 100 basis points cut in its lending rates. The maximum lending rate will now be at 14 per cent with the minimum at 10.5 per cent.

Disbursements of loans sanctioned earlier will also carry the revised interest rates.

REC, a state-run financial institution, lends funds for the purpose of rural electrification. The company has also diversified into other related areas like the financing of decentralised power generation projects, new and renewable energy sources amongst others.
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Vizag Steel turnover up 20%
Kolkata: The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has reported a turnover of Rs 2,777 crore for the nine months ended 31 December 2001, an increase of 20 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

VSP said exports increased by 26 per cent during the same period.

VSPs turnover was Rs 3,855 cr, the best since its inception.
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Gas allocation to Maruti Udyog cancelled
New Delhi: Petroleum ministry has cancelled the natural gas allocation to Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) and reallocated the same to Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) to meet the CNG demand of automobiles in Delhi.

MUL was allocated 0.5 million cubic metres of gas from the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline on temporary basis till such time as the Delhi vidyut boards Pragati power plant is commissioned.
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Britannia ropes in six cricketers
Mumbai: Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) has signed up six national cricketers to fuel a mega brand promotion initiative.

The company has decided to focus on two segments namely the biscuits market and the mass market in the snacks arena. Tiger, 50-50 and Timepass have been chosen the lead brands in these two categories to drive the bottom line.
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Publicis to form a group alliance
Mumbai: Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis India are formin a Rs 250-crore entity. Both agencies will operate under one roof and departments will unite.

All back-end operations and below-the-line units will be united, as will the core creative and account planning departments of both agencies. There will be only one creative director and a single client serving director.
Publicis merged with Saatchi & Saatchi last year to form the worlds fifth largest ad group.
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Grasim signs pact with Pantaloon
Mumbai: Grasim Industries has entered into a strategic and technical alliance with the Pantaloon group to market fabrics made from viscose staple fibre. Under the arrangement, both the companies will work closely to develop fabrics with high viscose content.

While Grasim will develop the fibre, Pantaloon will manufacture the high-viscose fabric and garments.
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Saurav Ganguly to campaign for Air Sahara
New Delhi: Air Saharas TV campaign featuring Indian cricket team captain Saurav Ganguly will make its maiden appearance on 22 January to coincide with the start of the one-day series between India and England.

The television campaign will initially be available only on the sports channel. But later it will be extended to other channels also.
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PNB Housing cuts rates
New Delhi: PNB Housing Finance Ltd has reduced the interest rate on its home loans for resident and non-resident Indians by 25 to 50 basis points for different slabs. The processing and administrative fees have also been reduced from 1.8 per cent to 1 per cent.

The revised interest rates for loans up to Rs 25 lakh for 10-year loans are 11.75 per cent and for those between 11-15 years, 12 per cent. For 20-year loans, the interest rate is 12.25 per cent.

For loans above Rs 25 lakh, the revised rates are 12, 12.25 and 12.5 per cent for loans of up to 10 years, 11-15 years and 16-20 years respectively.
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