HDFC Q3 net up 22%
Mumbai: Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) has increased its profits by 22 per cent in the third quarter.

The company's profit for the quarter have now touched Rs 121 crore as opposed to Rs 99 crores recorded in the same quarter last year.
On the sales front, HDFC touched Rs 665 crores, a rise of almost 15 per cent.
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Ranbaxy to get $35 bn from Bayer AG
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories is expecting to receive $ 35 billion payment from German drugs giant Bayer AG by the end of this year for a new form of the antibiotic Cipro, which Ranbaxy has licensed to Bayer.
Ranbaxy has already received $15 million from Bayer. In addition, Ranbaxy will get royalties once the drug is on the market.
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GCPL announces buyback plan
Mumbai: Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) has announced a buyback plan at a price of Rs 100 per share.

The company plans to buyback 1.55 per cent of its equity for a maximum price of Rs 9.3 crore. The share, which has a face value of Rs 4, closed at Rs 56 on 10 January.
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Infosys slides in the US markets
New York: Infosys was dumped completely by investors and was down nearly $8 on the New York stock exchange. Satyam lost close to 3 per cent while Rediff continued its good run and gained 14 per cent.
Silverline and ICIC were down about a per cent each. ICICI Bank shed almost 1.5 per cent.

Public sector telecom major VSNL was almost unchanged while Wipro was down $3.78 or more than 9 per cent.
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Ford to close 5 plants
Detroit: Ford Motor Co will cut 35,000 jobs worldwide, close five North American plants and slash its production capacity by 16 per cent as part of a sweeping restructuring plan aimed at restoring the world's second-largest automaker to profit.

The company would take a charge of $5.7 billion before taxes, or $4.1 billion after taxes, against the fourth quarter of 2001.

The job cuts include 12,000 blue-collar positions in North America, in addition to 3,000 positions already eliminated from a total hourly work force of about 115,000 last year.
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Govt plans to revamp UTI
New Delhi: The finance ministry is preparing a legislation, for restructuring the troubled UTI.
UTIs restructuring will be undertaken on the basis of the reports of three expert panelsthe Deepak Parikh, the Malegam and the Tarapore committeeswhich have gone into its functioning in response to the crisis of public confidence in the Trust in recent times.

The Fund will have a three-tier structure comprising a sponsoring company at the top, a trust in the middle and asset management companies at the bottom.
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US-64 unit sales touch Rs 25.84 crore
Mumbai: The sales of Unit Trust of India's (UTI) US-64 scheme on 11 January shot up to Rs 25.84 crore, for the first time touching the Rs 25 crore mark since it opened for Net Asset Value (NAV) linked sales from the new year.

The last high was Rs 10.56 crore reported on 4 January 2002.

The total redemptions for the flagship scheme stood at Rs 12.58 crore.
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BG makes fresh bid for Enron oilfields stake
Ahmedabad: Britain's oil and gas major BG Group will finalise a new bid in the next two weeks for acquiring a 30 per cent stake in three Indian offshore gas and oil fields from Enron.

BG, which had agreed in October to pay $388 million to Enron for its 30 per cent stake in the Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields, had to renegotiate the terms and conditions due to the financial collapse of Enron.
State-run ONGC owns 40 per cent in the Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields, while the remaining 30 per cent is owned by petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd.
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SCI inks pact with Daewoo Shipyard
Mumbai: Shipping Corporation of India Ltd (SCI) has signed a contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company Ltd (DSME), South Korea, for construction and delivery of two Suezmax crude oil tankers.

The two tankers would cost over $90 million.
The company, in which the Centre would be divesting its stake, has a fleet of 93 vessels aggregating 4.26 million DWT.
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Agfa AG to launch healthcare lines
Hyderabad: The Belgium-based Agfa-Gevaert AG has plans to introduce high-end products such as computerised radiography (CR) and picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in India.

The 5-billion euro Agfa-Gevaert is engaged in film imaging business.

The company is working out a plan with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners to facilitate finance for upgrading the imaging systems in the diagnostic centres and big hospitals with CR.

Agfa-Gevaert has independent sales offices in 45 countries and has representation in 120 countries. It has manufacturing units in 12 countries including India.

Agfas subsidiary, Agfa India set up in 2000, reported a turnover of Rs 170 crore in 2001. The company expects a growth of 20 per cent this year.
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TCS plans JV with LIC
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is talks with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to set up a global financial solutions joint venture.

The idea is to leverage LIC's expertise in finance and the technological skills of TCS. The company is expected to hawk insurance solutions, initially in the domestic market, but later on across the globe.

TCS core competency includes banking, finance and insurance products and services and it has a significant presence in the segment worldwide.
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TTK forays into services sector
Bangalore: The TTK group plans to foray into services sector through the launch of a new firm, TTK Services Ltd. The new firm is aimed at serving overseas Indians planning transactions in India.

The company plans to act as an information mediator to overseas Indians in areas such as healthcare, property services, financial services, legal issues, travel and gifts and greetings.

The firms initial services would be restricted to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Later, such services would be available in 17 cities across the country.
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Jindal Praxair gets ISO 14001
Bangalore: Jindal Praxair Oxygen Company Ltd has received the ISO 14001 certification.

The certification signifies the company's conformity with the standards of international environment management, measurement and evaluation and auditing.
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Dr Reddy's Lab to sponsor diabetes research
Hyderbad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd is sponsoring a five-year collaborative research study between the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, on the genetics of diabetes and insulin resistance.

The company said the study was significant as the country was estimated to have 19.5 million diabetics, the largest in the world.

According to Dr Reddy's, the research would investigate the sequence polymorphism of several susceptibility genes in families known to have a predisposition to type-II diabetes. Expression profiling of insulin responsive tissues would also be undertaken.
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India Cements in recast mode
Mumbai: India Cements Ltd plans to go in for financial restructuring thanks to the Rs 346 crore that would directly flow into ICLs books following the sale of Sri Vishnu Cements Ltd to Zuari Cements.

Besides using a major portion of it to repay debt, it also intends to reduce the cost of debt.
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Ranbaxy to enter herbal drugs mkt
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories is set to launch a test-run for herbal products both within the country and abroad.

After a test-market drive for a year and a half, Ranbaxy hopes to be in position for a global launch with a basket of over-the-counter herbal products in three to four years.

Targeting cardiovascular, pain management, nutritional and liver profile drugs, some of which it is already producing and marketing, Ranbaxy is looking at a full-fledged division and is still evaluating various options for sourcing and creating a basket of products under its brand.
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Nalco eyes overseas expansion
New Delhi: National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) is eyeing overseas markets to expand further in 2003.

Nalco will consider setting up an aluminium smelter in Qatar and look at business opportunities in China.

China offered a huge market for aluminium and Nalco would like to explore business opportunities there.
Nalco, India's second-biggest aluminium maker, has doubled its bauxite mining capacity at Damanjodi, in eastern Orissa state, to 4.8 million tonnes from 2.4 million tonnes. Its alumina refining capacity there has also been raised to 1.575 million tonnes from 0.8 million tonnes.
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Giovani plans expansion
New Delhi: Giovani, the leading Italian name in branded formal wear, plans to increase the manufacturing capacity and set up exclusive Giovani flag ship stores in Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai.
An investment of Rs 6 cr is being made to manufacture an additional 500 suits per day. Presently, the Gurgaon factory has the capacity to manufacture 600 suits for men.
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