VisualSoft Q3 net down 74%
Hyderabad: VisualSofts net profit fell 74 per cent to Rs 5.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2001 from Rs 20.6 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
A major reason for this decline is the falling income which is down by 36 per cent to Rs 26 crore from Rs 41 crore in the third quarter last year.
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BG offers $350 mn to EOGIL for gas field
New Delhi: British oil and gas major BG Group Plc has made a revised offer to purchase the entire stake of Enron Oil and Gas India Ltd (EOGIL) in Tapti gas field and Panna-Mukta oil and gas field for $ 350 million.
The revised price, which is lower than the earlier offer of 388 million dollar, has not made operatorship of the fields a pre-condition.

Both ONGC and RIL had staked claim for operatorship upon exit of the present operator - EOGIL - which had led to a stalemate in the progress of the agreement.
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Air India to get more funds
Bangalore: With disinvestment put on hold due to lack of bidders, the government will infuse more funds into Air India.

"We want to make investment and then disinvestments", civil aviation minister Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters at the Bangalore airport before flagging off AI's first flight from Bangalore to Jeddah.

He said Indian Airlines would purchase 40 aircraft costing Rs 9,000 crore.

Hussain said government was working towards bilateral arrangements with several foreign airlines and talks were on with the airlines of Italy and Royal Jordan.

China, with which a bilateral already existed but was not utilised, was expected to operate two flights a week from Delhi to Beijing either in February or March, he said.

Likewise, Iran would also operate a direct flight to Teheran from Delhi and two via Kabul. India, he said, was keen on having more bilateral agreements.
Hussain said Air India was expected to make profit this fiscal, for the first time since 1995.
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Bharti sets Rs 45 as floor-price for issue
Mumbai: Bharti Tele-Ventures has fixed the floor price for its forthcoming public issue of shares at Rs 45, representing a Rs 35 premium on each share of Rs 10. The issue would open for subscription though the book-building route on 28 January.

The total size of the IPO is 185 million shares. The company has set aside 25 per cent of the shares on offer for retail investors with the remaining 75 per cent to be offered to financial institutions and high networth investors through the book-building route.

Ahead of the IPO, Bharti has decided to issue bonus shares to the company stake-holders in 1:10 ratio. For every one share, the company would issue 10 bonus shares.
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Bharti Touchtel to come to Delhi soon
New Delhi: Bharti Telenet is gearing up to launch its first private fixed-line service Touchtel brand next month.
Bharti will give some incentives to its existing customers of cellular brand Airtel in the capital if they take Touchtel service. These will include special rates for calls made from cell to fixed-line and vice-versa within the Bharti umbrella.

Bharti Telenet will not necessarily offer rates cheaper than the MTNL.

Bharti Telenet will also offer a lot of value-added and premium services to its subscribers, including free dial-up Internet access as it has done in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

It has already launched service in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana and will be launching in Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in February.
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Colgate's Q3 net up by 30%
Mumbai: Colgate Palmolive (India) has reported a 30 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 15.9 crore from Rs 12.2 crore in the Q3 of 2000-01.

Net sales (including excise duty) for this three-month period were marginally down at Rs 295 crore as against Rs 301.3 crore in the previous quarter last fiscal.

The companys board is to meet on 15 February to consider an interim dividend. In September, the company had paid a record dividend of Rs 8.25 per share for the previous fiscal.

For the nine month period, company's net profit was slightly higher at Rs 48.2 crore (Rs 43.2 crore) while sales were also a notch up at Rs 894.6 crore (Rs 883.6 crore).
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Atlas Copco to introduce new products
Pune: Atlas Copco (India), part of the Swedish Atlas Copco group, is set to introduce new products this year.
The company is positioning itself within the group as a developer for engineering design and services, with the setting up of the groups first global engineering centre for compressors outside Europe here in Pune.

The Rs. 2.5 crore global engineering centre for compressors is located on the premises of Atlas Copcos factory at Pune and will report to the business headquarters in Belgium.
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PNB Gilts Q3 net down 50%
New Delhi: PNB Gilts reported over 50 per cent dip in net profit to Rs 38.03 crore in the third-quarter of the present fiscal as against Rs 58.01 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year due to write-offs for depreciation.

However, it also posted 343 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 83.63 crore for the first nine months of 2001-02, as compared to Rs 18.85 crore.

The fall in net profit for the latest quarter was on account of write-offs for depreciation in the previous year, which witnessed heavy pressure on rupee and interest rates.
Total turnover stood at Rs 177.56 crore in the first nine months, up by 28 per cent from the previous year period figure of Rs 138.92 crore on account of increased trading in the market.

PNB Gilts would also venture into derivatives, apart from opening a branch in Bangalore for focusing on non-wholesale clients.
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HDFC board okays JV with Chubb
Mumbai: The board of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has approved a plan to set up a general insurance company jointly with US insurer Chubb Corp.

The board, subject to the receipt of requisite licence from Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), approved in principle the proposal to set up a joint venture company between the corporation and Chubb Global Financial Services Corp USA for the business of general insurance.
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Corp Bank Q3 profit up 10.2%
Mumbai: Corporation Bank has posted a 10.2 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 91.45 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 82.96 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Total income in the quarter was up by 15.5 per cent at Rs 602.08 crore as against Rs 521.10 crore in Q3 of last fiscal.

The total interest income was higher at Rs 500.12 crore, a rise of 10.6 per cent (Rs 452 crore in Q3 of last year). Provisioning of bad and doubtful debts was lower at Rs 17.70 crore (Rs 23.15 crore).

For nine months ended December 2001, the net profit swelled by 21.3 per cent to Rs 262.73 crore (Rs 216.52 crore) while the total income stood at Rs 1,744.17 crore (Rs 1,532.94 crore).
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Sahara group ventures into film production
New Delhi: The Sahara group is venturing into film production with the launch of a movie on life and times of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Titled Netaji, the is being directed by Shyam Benegal, and is slated for worldwide release in January 2003.
The spin-off of the film will be a 5-hour tele-series.
The star-cast would include actors from India, Japan and Britain. The total project cost is expected to be under Rs 10 crore.

Sahara Group and Benegal have entered into a MoU under which the former would finance the project and enjoy of all rights associated with the project including marketing and distribution.

The Sahara Group has recently announced plans to launch a slew of regional news channels by April this year. Sahara currently runs a free-to-air entertainment channel.
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Bharti to roll out cellular service in Mumbai in May
Mumbai: Bharti Telecom will start cellular services in the city in May.

Bharti would be a fourth operator offering cellular services in Mumbai besides BPL, Orange and MTNL's Dolphin.

The market for cellular operations in the country was expected to grow at 100 per cent in the next financial year with addition of five to six million subscribers.
Currently, cellphone subscribers base was pegged at 5.5 million.
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Siemens Q1 net $476.1m
Frankfurt: Siemens AG posted a first-quarter net profit of 538 million euros ($476.1 million), including a gain of 157 million related to its interest in Infineon Technologies.

It posted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of 487 million euros.

Sales, excluding Infineon, rose seven per cent to 20.496 billion euros from the period a year earlier, while orders rose 12 per cent to 24.926 billion.
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Geometric inks JV with Dassault
Mumbai: India's Geometric Software Solutions and France's Dassault Systemes SA have formed a joint venture company to offer software development services to the Dassault group.

Geometric will hold 70 per cent and Dassault Systemes 30 per cent of the new company called 3d PLM Software.

Dassault makes software used in computer assisted design in a range of industries including shipbuilding and carmaking.

Geometric which specialises in making product lifecycle management software solutions for the mechanical design, manufacturing and industrial markets worldwide, has worked for two Dassault group companies in the past.
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Zigma ties up with Anna varsity
Chennai: The Kolkata-based Zigma Software has signed an MOU with the Anna University of Tamil Nadu for setting up software training centres in over 250 colleges affiliated to the university.

Zigma will invest Rs 105 crore in the next two years for expanding its operations.

Of this, Rs 50 crore had been set apart for setting up Zigma branches in at least 50 colleges in phase one and Rs 50 crore for setting up software development and training centres in various cities.
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Netscape sues Microsoft
New York: Netscape parent AOL Time Warner has filed a private anti-trust suit against Microsoft seeking unspecified damages.

The lawsuit follows dozens that have already been filed in the wake of federal court decisions finding that Microsoft has behaved in a monopolistic manner. Earlier this month, a federal judge rejected a proposed settlement of more than 100 such private class-action suits.

Separately, the justice department and nine states have agreed to a settlement in their anti-trust case against Microsoft while nine other states are rejecting the current settlement proposal.

America Online acquired Netscape in 1999, and subsequently merged with Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
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Indian Hotels Q3 net slumps
Mumbai: Indian Hotels has reported a 83.37% decline in net profit at Rs 6.01 crore for the quarter ended December 2001 when compared with Rs 36.15 crore in the corresponding period the previous year.

Net sales dipped 32.66% to Rs 131.03 crore from Rs 194.57 crore. Other income was also lower at Rs 3.16 crore as against Rs 5.45 crore in the third quarter ended December 2000.
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Siemens-led group pacts for Bangalore airport
Bangalore: A consortium led by Siemens has signed a pact with the Karnataka state government to build a $ 230 million international airport in Bangalore.

The Karnataka State Industrial and Investment Development Corporation, the Airports Authority of India and the Siemens consortium, headed by Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, inked the shareholders' agreement.

Siemens holds a 40-per cent equity in the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) venture while the Swiss airport operator Unique Zurich Airport and Indian construction and engineering firm L&T each have a 17-per cent stake.

The Karnataka government and the Airports Authority of India each hold a 13-per cent share in BIAL, which will execute the project.
The airport will have a four-km runway.
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Warburg plans $700 mn investment
New Delhi: EM Warburg Pincus has drawn up a $700 million investment plan for India. The global investor has already invested $650 million in various Indian companies.

The company plans to invest additional $50 million in two Indian telecom manufacturing companies.
Of the $650 million that Warburg has so far invested in India, $300 million has been invested in Bharti Tele-Ventures.

Other companies in its Indian portfolio include rediff.com, HDFC, Nicholas Piramal and UTV.
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Asian Paints net up by 33.8%
Mumbai: Asian Paints has reported a 33.8 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 34.34 crore for the quarter ending December 2001 as against Rs 25.66 in the same period last year.

Net sales registered a 19.5 per cent growth at Rs 374.67 crore compared to Rs 313.64 crore for the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

For the April-December nine month period, the company's net profit was higher by 12.1 per cent at Rs 83.74 crore (Rs 74.67 crore) while sales rose by eight per cent at Rs 986.81 crore (Rs 911.32 crore).
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Cadbury Schweppes open offer begins
Mumbai: The open offer of Cadbury Schweppes to acquire the balance 49 per cent public shareholding of Cadbury India Ltd at a price of Rs 500 per share will commence on 24 January.

Cadbury Schweppes, along with Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Ltd and its Mauritius-registered subsidiary, is making a voluntary offer to shareholders of the Indian subsidiary to acquire 17,498,880 shares aggregating 49 per cent of its paid up capital. The offer closes on 22 February.

The offer price of Rs 500 is at a premium of 23 per cent to the 26-week average of the closing high low prices on the National Stock Exchange for week ending 12 December.
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Yahoo to introduce paid search service
Palo Alto: Yahoo is launching a new paid search product where customers will be able to buy specialised documents that are not generally available on consumer search engines.

The service, called Yahoo premium document search, is being offered in partnership with Divine, a Chicago company which acquired the Northern Light search engine.

Northern Light, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recently announced it was closing its free consumer search engine and focusing on specialised search services. The company's search product features a rich assortment of documents like trade publication articles, financial analyst research reports and medical journals that are more in-depth than a lot of free Web content.
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Polaris Q3 net down 7%
Chennai: Polaris Software Labs consolidated net profit fell 7 per cent in October-December from a year ago.
The Chennai-based company, which mainly writes code for the banking, financial services and insurance sectors, posted a third-quarter net profit of Rs 14.89 crore after including the financials of all its overseas subsidiaries.
Total revenue for the company and its subsidiaries fell 1.1 per cent from a year ago to Rs 75.51 crore.
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Chatterjee pays Rs 107 cr for Haldia stake
Kolkata: Purnendu Chatterjee, the principal promoter of Haldia Petro-chemicals, paid up Rs 107 crore due against his 43 per cent stake of the paid up equity capital of Rs 1263 crore of the company.

This payment qualifies the Chatterjee Petrochem, Mauritius, to secure management control of Haldia Petro-chemicals.
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Apollo Hospitals Q3 turnover up 18%
New Delhi: Apollo Hospitals posted an 18 per cent increase in turnover at Rs 89.3 crore for the third quarter of the current fiscal, while its profit before tax rose 7.7 per cent to Rs 32 crore for the quarter ended December 2001.

The cumulative turnover for the first nine months ended December 2001 stood Rs 266.1 crore, showing a rise of 17 per cent over the previous year's corresponding period.

Apollo Hospitals plans to introduce bio-feedback technique or physiotherapy in the next quarter, apart from increasing the number of beds in the intensive care unit to 65 from the present 40.
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Eicher posts Rs 32-lakh net profit
New Delhi: Tractor and motorcycle maker Eicher made a turnaround by recording a net profit of Rs 32 lakh for the third quarter ended December 2001, against a loss of Rs 9.30 crore in the same period of the previous year.
Net sales went up 14 per cent to Rs 153.25 crore from Rs 134.43 crore.

Cumulative sales for the first nine months of this fiscal stood at Rs 389.79 crore, a 5.8 per cent growth over Rs 368.28 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
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Cadila Healthcare Q3 net down 15.74%
Mumbai: Cadila Healthcare has posted a 15.74 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 14.70 crore in the third quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 17.45 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

Total income in the reporting quarter increased to Rs 152.27 crore as against Rs 117.33 crore last year.
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UB clinches Rs 430cr JV deal with British co
Mumbai: United Breweries will forge a strategic alliance with leading British brewer Scottish and Newcastle (S&N). S&N will market its international brands through the proposed strategic alliance and the domestic major will utilise the global network of S&N to distribute its internationally renowned Kingfisher brands.

UB has reached an in principle agreement with S&N as its proposed partner which is expected to pump Rs 430 crore into the alliance.

S&N has also agreed in principle to invest Rs 250 crore into the demerged beer business of UB through a combination of preference shares worth Rs 200 crore and a loan stock worth Rs 50 crore.

Both these instruments will carry an option for conversion into equity of UB, which could result in S&N holding up to 26 per cent of UB, after five years.
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Pallonji to buy out Sanwarmal
Mumbai: Pawan Kumar Sanwarmal group has withdrawn from the long drawn battle for the control of Forbes Gokak Ltd by deciding to sell his 18.43 lakh shares to the Pallonji Mistry group at the revised offer price of Rs 93 per share.

The stake-sale was executed through negotiated deals which was the last day for revising the offer price.

With the acquisition of 14.80 per cent holding of Sanwarmal, the stake of Mistry group in FGL is expected to increase in excess of 75 per cent.
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Hindustan Insecticides divestment plan shelved
New Delhi: The government has shelved the privatisation of Hindustan Insecticides Ltd (HIL) as the bidders withdrew from the divestment process.

The process of HIL privatisation had started last year. Expressions of interest were invited, and a few parties showed keenness to take over the company. Bid documents were issued to the shortlisted bidders, but somehow all of them lost interest in the company.

The government had decided to sell 51 per cent of its equity to the strategic partner, along with the transfer of management control.

With its plants located at Rasayani (near Mumbai) and Udyogmandal (near Kochi, Kerala), HIL manufactures agrochemicals, pesticides and DDT.
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Tata Chem posts lower net at Rs 46 cr
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals has reported a lower net profit of Rs 46.09 crore for the quarter ended December 2001, as against Rs 251.82 crore for the corresponding period last year. This is because the capital gains of Rs 205.04 crore from the sale of investments in the third quarter ended December 2000 by Sabras Investment and Trading Co Ltd, which later merged with Tata Chemicals, has not been included.

The profits of the company have also been affected by Rs 20.24 crore, which has been paid to the government on account of the downward revision of the urea retention price with retrospective effect. The companys net sales during the period increased by about three per cent to Rs 387.94 crore from Rs 376.89 crore.
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DSCL posts 11% rise in sales
Mumbai: DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited (DSCL) has reported a 11 per cent growth in turnover to Rs 323.43 crore for the quarter ended December 2001, up from Rs 292.45 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of last year.

The improvement in turnover was on account of higher trading activity.

During the quarter, operating profits dropped marginally to Rs 28.62 crore from Rs 36.92 crore due to severe price pressure in commodities business such as plastics and chemicals.

Operating profit for the nine months ended December 2001 at Rs 95.19 crore was down from Rs 105.05 crore reported in the corresponding period last year.
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VSNL buys land in Bandra-Kurla
Mumbai: Videsh Sanchar Nigan Ltd (VSNL) has finalised a property deal at Bandra-Kurla complex for a consideration of Rs 55.65 crore to set up a corporate office, a technical building and provide accomodation for the employees.

VSNL already has two corporate offices in Mumbai, at Fort and Prabhadevi. Both the offices would be retained. The company has appointed an architect to draw up a plan to develop the property.
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Motorola to set up campus in Bangalore
Bangalore: Motorola India Electronics is setting up a full-fledged campus at Whitefield in Bangalore. The campus, scheduled to be fully operational by end-2003, will be approximately 250,000 to 300,000 square feet in size, with the capacity to house close to 1,500 software engineers in the first phase.

The campus is expected to have a modular design structure to provide for further expansion. Motorola India Electronics, which is the R&D and software development arm of the global major in India, currently has three groups based in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
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Philips rolls out battery-free radio
Mumbai: Philips India is set to roll out a new range of battery-free radio across the country. It runs on a small dynamo that has to be charged by winding a key.

The radio is priced at Rs 995.

The company has recently launched the new radio at all its distributors meet at Jaipur and will continue to showcase the product in all other launches during the year.
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Panalpina India forms new consortium
Mumbai: Panalpina India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Switzerland-based $4-billion freight forwarding and logistics company Panalpina World Transport (Holding) Ltd, has formed a strategic alliance with Safexpress, a leading logistics company, and Miebach Consulting Group, supply chain management consultants, to form a large cargo network logstics and supply chain consortium.

Panalpina operates in five areas: airfreight imports, airfreight exports, seafreight exports, seafreight imports and logistics.
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UTI Bank may issue shares to LIC
Mumbai: UTI Bank is in talks with Life Insurance Corporation for making a preferential allotment of equity. The proposed move is aimed at lowering UTIs holding in the bank to 40 per cent from 44.9 per cent by 31 March.

UTI Bank had earlier placed 26 per cent equity stake with South Asia Regional Fund and CDC Financial Services (Mauritius), which are among the funds managed by CDC Capital Partners. The equity placement at Rs 34 a share helped in lowering the UTI holding in the bank to 44.9 per cent from 60.7 per cent.
The present negotiations with LIC for raising fresh capital and diluting the parents holding is aimed towards fulfilling the instruction of the Reserve Bank of India.
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Australian co plans car unit in AP
Hyderabad: Holden Company of Australia, promoted by US-based General Motors, plans to set up a 600 to 700 cc car assembly unit here.

It is currently holding discussions with a city-based industrial group to form a joint venture.

Holden, which manufactures Barina and Commodore vehicles, has a 40-per cent share in the automobile market in Australia. The transfer of technology to the local company would involve a sum of $20-25 million.
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Parle Agro plans product expansion
Mumbai: Parle Agro Private Ltd is looking at product expansion in its various business segments. It plans to introduce two more fruit flavours in the N-Joi series of milk shakes.

In the fruit drink segment where Parle Agro has a hugely popular product Mango Frooti, it is planning to get into orange and pineapple under the same brand name.

Bolstered by N-Joi's success in Mumbai and Chennai, Parle Agro is going in for a national roll-out of the product by the end of March 2002.
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