Bridgestone buyout by 2003
New Delhi: Japanese tyre major Bridgestone Corp has decided to buy out its Indian partners - ACC and Telco - from their joint venture Bridgestone ACC India Ltd by the end of this fiscal.

The sell-off by the Indian firms are said to be part of their strategic decision to divest from non-core ventures.
Bridgestone holds 64 per cent stake in the venture, while ACC has 18 per cent, Telco 8 per cent and Mitsui Corporation of Japan holds the remaining 10 per cent.
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Infosys plans another campus
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies is planning to set up yet another campus near Sarjapur Road, covered under Bangalore's IT Corrider, with an investment of Rs 618 crore.

The proposed campus with an area of 100 acres will be twice the size of its existing campus in Electronics City, christened Infosys City.

The proposed Rs 618 crore investment would be made through internal accruals.

The new campus with a building area of over 17 lakh sq. ft. is expected to house over 6,500 engineers and consultants of the $500 million company.

The company is also setting up a 20-acre campus in Bhubaneswar. Currently, it has huge campuses in Bangalore, Mysore and Pune.
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Cidco hires US firm
Mumbai: City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (Cidco) has appointed McClier, a Chicago-based company for preparing the master plan of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Navi Mumbai.

A special purpose company is to be formed with the strategic partner having majority and management control. Cidco is looking for a strategic partner who has a global presence, financial strength with large equity funding ability, having development experience and good marketing ability.

McCliers task would be to create a master plan to include manufacturing, trading, services, logistics and multi-modal transportation.
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Gesco to foray into retail
Mumbai: Gesco is exploring new areas of business including entertainment and retailing. The company already has 2.5 million square feet of area as existing business, and hopes to further expand its base to new cities and townships.

Gesco was originally the real estate division of Great Eastern Shipping and was spun off into an independent company in April 1999 with the Sheths holding 12-13 per cent in Gesco.
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RIL plans for life foray
New Delhi:  Reliance Industries is firming up plans to start its life insurance venture this year.

The company is expected to come up with the life insurance venture once it finalises its infocom plans.
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Tips plans four Hindi films
Mumbai: Tips Films plans to release four Hindi feature films during the current year. The company also plans to begin work on another film to be released early next year.

The first project for this year Raaz will be released shortly. "The music for the film has been received well," claimed Mr Kumar Taurani, managing director, Tips Films. The music for the second project Dil Hai Tumhara is scheduled to be released in April followed by the release of the film in June.

Tips set up Dashmesh Entertainment, an overseas distribution company, last year to cater to the international audiences. The company subsequently acquired the overseas distribution rights for Yaadein mid last year.

The overseas market, in the recent past, has been viewed as a large revenue generator for Hindi films. Some of the recent films that have met with commercial success in these markets include "Lagaan", "Mohabbatein" and the recently released "Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gum."
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Eonour bags 2 Hyundai orders
Kochi: Eonour Technologies Ltd has bagged two project orders from Hyundai Motors India Ltd to address the web-based requirements of the company.

These include Hyundai's supply chain requirement with their vendors. This involves the flow and exchange of information relating to the purchase process between Hyundai and their vendors over the Web.

The other solution involves sharing of trainee information among various branches of Hyundai in the country.
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Hindustan Paper to trim workforce
Kolkata: The State-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) has initiated a process to reduce manpower, improve operating efficiencies and upgrade the quality of 13 varieties of paper it manufactures.

HPC now intends to focus its entire business attention in Assam where it has two paper mills, each with an annual production capacity of one lakh tonnes of writing and printing paper.

The company plans to reduce about 10 per cent of its total workforce of 3,300 through VRS route before the end of the current fiscal. It would require to pay out some Rs 15 crore to implement the VRS.
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Vysya Bank promoters hike stake
Mumbai: Promoters of Vysya Bank have hiked their equity holding in the bank by 4.7 per cent through creeping acquisition.

At present, the promoters hold 28.10 per cent against 23.4 per cent as on 30 September 2001.

The shares were bought by the promoters primarily from foreign institutional investors and private corporate bodies.
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IDBI to get $100-m LoC from ADB
New Delhi: IDBI has got a line of credit of $100 million from the Asian Development Bank. IDBI has also reached the final stages of an arrangement with KfW of Germany for co-financing of infrastructure projects.
The funds will be lent against private infrastructure projects in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The duration of loan from ADB will be 20 years on floating rate basis.

The KfW deal is being negotiated and is likely to be taken up at the latest Indo-German meeting. KfW is a development bank for developing countries that operates on behalf of the German government.
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Kinetic eyes partner for fin arm
Mumbai: The Arun Firodia-controlled Kinetic group is planning to rope in an equity partner for its finance outfit, Kinetic Finance.

Kinetic Finance is likely to finance 1.3 lakh Kinetic two wheelers with a disbursal of around Rs 250 crore in the current fiscal.

The Firodias are looking at the option of joining hands with a foreign bank or a financial institution to bring the advantage of lower cost of capital to the business.
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Agrani to increase super stores
Mumbai: Agrani Convergence, the retailing subsidiary of Subhash Chandra's ASC Enterprises, plans to expand its chain of technology super-stores to 80 from 13 by the end of the financial year '02-'03.

About half of these outlets will be company-owned and the investment per store will range from Rs 65 lakh to Rs 1 crore, depending on the size. The outlets offer an assortment of telecom, information technology and learning, media and entertainment products such as cellular handsets and connections, Internet access kits, maintenance services, PCs, peripherals, multi-media kits, music CDs and digital cameras.
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Asha Bhonsle sings jingle for Rasna
Bangalore: Asha Bhonsle will sing a 3.2 minute jingle for softdrink concentrate Rasna.

Of this song, a corporate advertisement clip of 45 seconds has been cleaved as well as product clips of 20 seconds each. The song has a fusion of gospel music with beats of soul and Bossa Nova and is set in the Indian popular song style and is composed on Raag Yaman.

The new promotions will figure not only on television and radio but also at a lot of village fairs.
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Zuari Ind reports Rs 2.79 cr net profit
New Delhi: Zuari Industries has reported a net profit of Rs 2.79 crore for the third quarter ended 31 December 2001 against Rs 10.52 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

During the quarter, the companys net sales decreased by 7 per cent to Rs 304.44 crore against Rs 328.51 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. For the nine months ended December 2001, the net profit grew by 13 per cent to Rs 17.68 crore as against Rs 15.64 crore for the corresponding period last year.
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ITC to shift food division to Bangalore
Kolkata: ITC's food division is likely to be moved to Bangalore. Currently, it is housed in Maurya Sheraton in Delhi.

ITC is likely to kick off a manufacturing unit in Bangalore.

In Bangalore, the company will carry out research and developement to introduce new recipes for packed ready to eat to food.
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TCS ties up with Singapore institute
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Service has tied up with Singapore's Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology to jointly develop software products.
TCS, alongwith GIMT, will set up a software centre in Singapore which will be focusing on embedded software.

Embedded software is one of the areas identified by the Singapore government for developing a centre of excellence.
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PNB to float IPO by March
New Delhi: The Punjab National Bank (PNB) plans to offer 4 crore shares in the primary market by the end of the current financial year. The bank, which would offer about 15 per cent of its equity, is approaching the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) with its prospectus shortly.

PNB's IPO is expected to be at a fixed price. The banks share has a book value of Rs 120.
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Paras Pharma forays into healthcare
Ahmedabad: Paras Pharmaceutical Ltd, engaged in production of the popular over-the-counter (OTC) brands, has set up a Rs 50-crore multi-speciality hospital in Ahmedabad.

The 275-bed Sterling Hospital was inaugurated by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The hospital would have seven major operation theatres equipped with HEPA filters, MAC laminar tents from USA, German lighting systems as well as hi-tech monitors from Europe and USA for all its beds.

In addition it would have digital cardiac cath lab, spiral CT scan, complete non-invasive cardiac diagnostic setup, dialysis units, EEG & EMG facilities and various other multi-faculty specialities.
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