7 bids for IBP
New Delhi: Seven companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Reliance and IOC, have put in price bids to acquire management control in petro retailer IBP.

Other companies which submitted financial bids for acquiring 33.58 per cent government equity in IBP include BPCL and HPCL. Reliance put in two bids through RIL and RPL.

Financial bids for the sale of government stake and management control in IBP closed on 31 January and the oil PSU is likely to be privatised in a months time. The government holds 59.58 per cent stake.

IBP, which has a retail chain of over 1,500 outlets, commands close to 6 per cent market share in the 102-mt petroleum product market in India.
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ModiCorp out of race for VSNL
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court cleared the way for the VSNL disinvestment, after it rejected a petition filed by ModiCorp seeking its inclusion in the bidding, at a belated stage.

The petitioner (ModiCorp) has missed the bus and cannot now claim to join in at the fag end of the journey. There is also merit in (VSNLs) contentions that the petition is highly belated and the delay is not explainable, Justice Manmohan Sarin said in his order that came just a day before the financial bids for VSNL closed.

The shortlisted biddersReliance, Tatas and Sterlingwould submit their proposals on 1 February.
A final decision on the strategic partner would be taken by the cabinet committee on disinvestment on 5 February.
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Reliance Q3 net up 20%
Mumbai: Net profit of Reliance Industries for the third quarter ending December 2001 has gone up from Rs 684 crore to Rs 822 crore, marking a hike of 20 per cent. But total income is down from Rs 6,430 core to Rs 5,467 crore, registering a loss of 18.5 per cent.
Net profits for the company have actually slipped by 4.1 per cent. Markets are quite disappointed with the results and Reliance shares have been beaten down after the declaration of these numbers.
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MTNL Q3 net falls 31.2%
New Delhi: MTNL has said its fourth-quarter profit would show the effects of a steep fall in long-distance call tariffs after its third-quarter profit dropped by a sharper-than-expected 31.2 per cent.

MTNL, a leading provider of fixed-line telephone, cellular and Internet access services in Mumbai and New Delhi, reported its October-December net profit fell to Rs 328 crore or Rs 5.21 a share, from Rs 477 crore or Rs 7.57 per share a year earlier.
MTNL's third-quarter profit was dragged down by several factors, mainly higher tax payouts and increased staff and operating costs.
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Grasim Q3 net up 8.1%
Mumbai: Grasim Industries reported its October-December net profit rose 8.1 per cent from a year ago, helped partly by an unexpected tax write-back and lower interest costs.

Net profit was Rs 89.86 crore or Rs 9.8 a share, up from Rs 83.14 crore or Rs 9.07 per share a year earlier. But net sales fell 5.2 percent to Rs 1127 crore from Rs 1189 crore.

"The company has been able to uphold its performance during the quarter due to improved performance of its cement and fibre businesses," Grasim said.
In addition to cement, which accounts for 44 percent of its sales, the diversified, flagship company of the Aditya Birla group also makes textiles, viscose staple fibre, sponge iron and caustic soda.
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Zurich finds partners for Indian insurance foray
Mumbai: Swiss insurance group Zurich Financial Services has identified partners for its proposed foray into the Indian life and general insurance industries.
Zurich will hold a 26 per cent stake in each of the two ventures. The DCM Sriram Consolidated will hold a 35.5 per cent stake in each of the two ventures.
Other partners include Punjab National bank and Vijaya Bank, which will hold a 26 per cent and 12.5 percent equity stake respectively in both the joint ventures.
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Daewoo India posts Q3 loss
New Delhi: The Indian unit of South Korea's troubled car maker, Daewoo, reported a net loss of Rs 85.74 crore in the third quarter ended December 2001 from Rs 115 crore in the year ago.

Net income crashed a steep 75.2 per cent to Rs 37.54 crore from Rs 152 crore a year ago as car sales fell on concerns over the future availability of spares and its ability to continue providing service support.
The results also showed Daewoo ran up a cash loss of Rs 33.82 crore in the quarter.

Daewoo India makes the compact Matiz and the mid-sized Cielo and Nexia models at its car plant on the outskirts of Delhi.
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PSI Data to acquire Birla Technologies
Mumbai: Software services provider PSI Data Systems has decided acquire nearly all the stake in Birla Technologies Ltd for Rs 112.6 million.

The Bangalore-based PSI is 70.35 per cent owned by Indian Rayon and Industries Ltd, an Aditya Birla Group company.

Birla Technologies is a subsidiary of Grasim Industries, India's third-largest cement maker, also part of the Aditya Birla Group.

Birla Technologies, which specialises in enterprise integration and mobile applications, has annual revenues of more than Rs 300 million.
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FIs moot tax-free bonds to refinance DPC foreign debt
New Delhi: The Centre is planning to allow the IDBI-led financial institutions to raise tax-free bonds for re-financing the offshore loans of $746 million of the Dabhol Power Company.

The Centre is also considering to exempt customs duty on LNG, being used for the power project. The government is actively contemplating levying a concessional customs duty, as is applicable to power projects, on equipment imported for LNG terminals.

FIs had asked the government to grant soft loans for squaring off the loans of the offshore banks for Phase-I besides conversion of the dollar loans extended by domestic banks and subsidiaries of the Indian banks.

They had also sought central guarantees for raising fresh loans. But the finance ministry has turned down both these proposals.
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Reliance Industries gets clean chit
New Delhi:  The disinvestment ministry has given a clean chit to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) making it eligible to participate in the disinvestment process of public sector undertakings.

Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy had sought RILs disqualification under guidelines for bidders. In his reply, disinvestments minister Arun Shourie said, "We have examined the letter based on details of pending cases provided by RIL in pursuance of our guidelines and found that none of them falls under the guidelines issued by this ministry."

"I assure you that government will apply the guidelines strictly and mechanically in all cases," he has stated in the letter.
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ONGC posts increase in net profit in Q3
New Delhi: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has reported a marginal increase in its net profit at Rs 1409.66 crore in the quarter ended December 2001 as against a net profit of Rs 1403.80 crore posted in the corresponding period last year.

The net sales declined by 8.32 per cent to Rs 5640.58 crore in October-December as opposed to Rs 6152.86 crore in the corresponding period of 2000-01.

ONGCs net profit for the first nine months of the current fiscal posted an increase of 16 per cent to Rs 4552.66 crore as compared to Rs 3937.33 crore in April- December 2000-01.
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Tata Elxsi to tap animation market in US
Chennai: Tata Elxsi Ltd is all set to tap the animation market across the US and the Far East. While India will also be targeted, the approach to tapping the ad film and domestic film industry in India will be more of an indirect approach through partners.

Tata Elxsi currently has a total of 75 3D animators and 150 2D animators. The company is planning to set up a new development centre at Techno Park in Trivandrum. This centre, which will house close to 75 software professionals, will work on sub-domain technology, to compliment its Bangalore centre.
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Peopleone Consulting takes over Mumbai CA firm
Chennai: Peopleone Consulting has acquired Mumbai-based chartered accounting firm Harish Chopra and Associates in an all stock deal. Post acquisition, Harish Chopra and Associates would be 100 per cent owned by Peopleone and Harish Chopra would own between 10 to 15 per cent of Peopleone.

Peopleone was conceived as an online placement venture and was part of the Go4i bouquet of offerings. The company subsequently adopted an offline model and christened itself Peopleone. JP Morgan Chase owns 20 per cent of the company.

Peopleone plans to have an online presence shortly and is currently negotiating to buy the Peopleone URL from its current owner.
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Bajaj Auto not to sell ICICI stake
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has no intention of selling its stake in ICICI Ltd. The company, which picked up a five per cent equity stake in ICICI a couple of years ago, was known to be a bit unhappy with the share swap ratio assigned for the reverse merger involving ICICI and ICICI Bank.

The boards of both ICICI and ICICI Bank had approved a share swap ratio of one equity share of ICICI Bank for two equity shares of ICICI. The reverse merger proposal in toto envisages the amalgamation of ICICI Bank with ICICI, ICICI Capital Services Ltd and ICICI Personal Financial Services Ltd.

According to the 2000-2001 annual report of Bajaj Auto, the company was holding at last year's close 43,139,450 shares of ICICI, commanding a total market value of Rs 279.19 crore.
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FIPB defers decision on Suzuki proposal
New Delhi: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has deferred a decision on Suzuki Motor Corporation's proposal to set up a two- and three-wheeler manufacturing facility in the country.

The government had sought certain information from Suzuki's erstwhile Indian partners, namely TVS, regarding the agreement between the two companies at the time of parting ways following which TVS had clarified its stand to the government in a letter submitted to the FIPB.

The proposal is likely to be taken up again for consideration around mid-February.
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NIIT plans more centres in China
Coimbatore: NIIT is planning to strengthen its education network in China. The company, which has been operating pilot centres in China, enhanced its operation in partnership with six universities and three software technology parks. NIIT plans to establish 500 centres over a period of five years. In the last three months, NIIT's education network in China crossed the 50-centre mark.
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Surana Telecom net down
Hyderabad: Surana Telecom has recorded a total income of Rs 45.35 crore and net profit of Rs 4.52 crore for the quarter ended December 2001, as against total income of Rs 33.04 crore and net profit of Rs 5.81 crore during the corresponding quarter last year.

For nine months ended December 2001, revenues were Rs 74.21 crore (Rs 52.32 crore) and net profit Rs 7.02 crore (Rs 7.47 crore).
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Pantene wins packaging award
Mumbai: Procter and Gamble's New Pantene Pro-V Shampoo has won the Global Packaging Design Award at the London International Advertising Festival.

The New Pantene Pro-V has five variants which claim to give five distinct end-looks - Smooth&Silky, Volume and Fullness, Balanced Clean, Lively Clean and Anti-Dandruff.
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Crocodile to install e-kiosks
New Delhi: Crocodile Products Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between the Singapore-based Crocodile International and the Coimbatore-based Shivrams Associates, is testing innovative e-kiosks, an information joint where the shopper can browse through Crocodile's entire catalogue of designs or make transactions using a cash card, at some of its galleries.

The company is also planning to introduce soft luggage and ladies garments into the market this year.
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Tisco logistics venture eyes west coast
Kolkata: Tata Iron & Steel Company has joined hands with IQ Martrade & Holding GmbH of Germany for undertaking port operations.

The new joint venture will concentrate only on Haldia dock where it has acquired Berth No. 12 on a 30-year lease and limit its services to meeting the requirements of the private sector steel giant there. It will, however, reserve the option to extend the same to other companies, including SAIL. At Haldia, it will enjoy the freedom of deploying its own labour and equipment.
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Infy tops IT exporters list
New Delhi: Infosys has turned out to be the biggest IT exporter among all publicly-listed companies for the first nine months of 2001-2002. The company has about Rs 1,900 crore from exports. According to Nasscoms export earnings estimates, Wipro was second with extimated export earnings of Rs 1,700 crore.

Satyam Computers is at No.3 with Rs 1,300 crore. HCL Technologies comes in at No.4 with estimated export earnings of Rs 1,150 crore.

Nasscom has, however, not considered the export earnings of unlisted IT majors like TCS, IBM Global, Patni Computer Services, Cognizant, GE, Datamatics and i-Flex.
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Sony slashes prices
Mumbai: Sony India has decided to reduce prices of some of its models to push the brand into a more affordable bracket in India.

The company recorded a market share of 3.7 per cent in the colour television according to ORG-GFK figures for November '01.

Sony India is also planning to test market some high value-added products from its international line-up and once the market for these products expands, the company will go in for local manufacture.
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Bhel posts 1% growth in net sales
New Delhi: Bhel has registered a marginal 1 per cent growth in the net sales in the third quarter ending December 2001 over its performance in the second quarter of the same fiscal.

However, the companys net sales increased to Rs 4,167.30 crore from Rs 3,586.49 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The company has registered a sales turnover of Rs 1610 crore in Q3 as compared to Rs 1594 crore in Q2.
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Britannia Q3 net up 45%
Bangalore: Britannia Industries Limited has seen its net profits for the quarter ended December 2001 rise by 45 per cent on a year on year basis.

The net stood at Rs 22.7 crore against Rs 15.7 crore for the comparative period. Net sales were up 9.39 per cent at Rs 348 crore against Rs 318.10 crore. Staff cost was marginally down at Rs 23.40 crore (Rs 25 crore).

For the nine-month period ended December 2001 BIL had a topline of Rs 1077 crore a rise of eight per cent compared to the same period in FY 2000-01. The component of other income stood at Rs 5.90 crore compared to Rs 5.50 crore.
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BPCL posts net profit of Rs 71.9 cr
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum has posted a net profit of Rs 71.9 crore for its third quarter ended December 2001, down 37 per cent from Rs 113.6 crore in the same period last year due to a sharp fall in import parity prices of products resulting in lower price realisation.
Net sales for the quarter have also declined by 16 per cent to Rs 9,801.1 crore from Rs 11,637.7 crore.

Crude throughput during the quarter was lower at Rs 2.19 million tonnes as compared to Rs 2.20 million tonnes in the corresponding previous period. Sales growth was 0.8 per cent, down from 4.3 per cent in the same period last year.

For the nine-months ended December 2001, BPCL's net profit declined 28 per cent to Rs 476.7 crore from Rs 660.1 crore.
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Bom Dye Q3 net loss at Rs 22.94cr
Mumbai: Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company Ltd has posted a net loss of Rs 22.94 crore in third quarter ended December 2001, compared to Rs 11.71 crore in same period of previous fiscal.
Net sales/income from operations in the period under review was higher at Rs 201.64 crore as against Rs 200.61 crore in Q3 of last year.
The net loss has been arrived after considering extra-ordinary items of Rs 2.07 crore (Rs 1.78 crore in Q3 of last fiscal) being voluntary retirement compensation.
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Titan reports Rs 6.99cr Q3 net
New Delhi: Titan Industries has reported a net profit of Rs 6.99 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 against Rs 2.37 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

During the quarter, the companys sales turnover increased by 17 per cent to Rs 122.20 crore against Rs 104.83 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
The sales turnover of the jewellery division in the quarter increased from Rs 55.43 crore in the previous year to Rs 85.24 crore in the current year.
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ICICI Bank CD gets top Icra rating
New Delhi: ICRA has assigned an A1+ rating, indicating highest safety in the short term, to the Rs 5 billion Certificates of Deposit programme of ICICI Bank.

The rating takes into consideration IBL's strategic importance to its parent ICICI, IBL's comfortable profitability and capital adequacy, the good control on asset quality.

Besides, highest safety rating also factors in the technology and retail initiatives of the bank, which have increased IBL's potential to increase its fee based income apart from enabling it to raise deposits at low cost.
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Virgin offers free stopover in London
New Delhi: Virgin Atlantic has announced that even economy class passengers flying from India to the US would be offered a free stopover at London.

All such passengers can spend one night free of cost at the Holiday Inn hotel at London and the new scheme would come into operation from 1 February.

While the service was already available for upper and premium economy class passengers, it has now been extended to all passengers. Free coupons would also be offered by the airline for travel from London airport to Holiday Inn Hotel by bus.
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Essar Steel Q3 net loss of Rs 142.15 crore
Mumbai: Essar Steel Ltd has posted a net loss of Rs 142.15 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared to net profit of Rs 15.08 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Total sales for the period under review were also down to Rs 468.05 crore as against Rs 621.67 crore in the third quarter of 2000-01.

Net loss and total sales for the nine month ended December 2001 stood at Rs 448.80 crore and Rs 1,530 crore respectively.
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IDBI Bank net up 20.97%
Mumbai: IDBI Bank has posted a 20.97 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 8.94 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared to Rs 7.39 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The total income for the period under review grew by 32 per cent at Rs 23.05 crore as against Rs 17.54 crore in the third quarter of 2000-01.

The net non-performing assets were down to 2.03 per cent on December 2001 from 2.76 per cent as on September 2001.

Net profit and total income for the nine month period ended December 2001 stood at Rs 41.88 crore (Rs 9.22 crore for Apr-Dec 2000) and Rs 466.83 crore (Rs 438.25 crore) respectively.
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Arvind Mills brings down losses in Q3
Mumbai: Arvind Mills has brought down its net losses sharply to Rs 21.63 for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared to Rs 86.24 crore in Q3 of previous fiscal year.

Sales and other income was up 17.81 per cent to Rs 361.84 crore during the period under review against Rs 307.13 in the previous quarter of 2000-01.

After considering interest on post-restructuring basis, the company earned a net profit of Rs 8.65 crore.
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Snowcem Q3 net dips to Rs 2.35cr
Kolkata: Snowcem India registered a sharp decline in its third quarter net profit at Rs 2.35 crore over Rs 7.04 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The decline in net profit was mainly on account of a sharp dip in net sales to Rs 30.49 crore from Rs 55.55 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal.
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Orchid's Q3 net profit falls
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals net profit dipped to Rs 2.25 crore in the third quarter ending December 2001 against Rs 5.96 crore recorded in the same period of the corresponding year.

Sales and operating income of the company stood at Rs 95.71 crore agasint Rs 90.19 crore.

The company's net profit in the nine months ending December 2001 also fell to Rs 10.42 crore against Rs 16.61 crore while the sale and operating income during the period was Rs 278.34 crore against Rs 270.53 crore.
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UB reports Rs 21.51cr net loss
Bangalore: United Breweries has reported a net loss Rs 21.51 crore for the quarter ended December 2001, compared to a net profit of Rs 4.75 crore for the same period in the previous year.

The three months happens to be the 'off-season' quarter of the business year when beer sales are at its lowest ebb.

For nine months ended December 2001, the company incurred a net loss of Rs 35.22 crore, compared to a net profit of Rs 12.88 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

UB attributed the loss to an additional interest burden of Rs 20 crore compared to the corresonding period of last year, owing to increased borrowing for acquisition of breweries, coupled with the impact on account of non-beer activity.
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KIOCL records net profit of Rs 53-cr
New Delhi: Kudremukh Iron Ore Company has recorded a net profit of Rs 53 crore during April-December 2001.

KIOCLs gross turnover during the period stood at Rs 105 crore
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Castrol Q4 net up by 14.13%
New Delhi: Castrol India has posted a net profit of Rs 32.060 crore for the quarter ended December 2001 as compared to Rs 28.090 crore in the quarter ended December 2000.

Total Income for the quarter ended December 2001 is at Rs 2931 million as compared to Rs 2758.70 million in the quarter ended December 2000.

For the year ended December 2001, the Company has posted a net profit of Rs 115.670 crore as compared to Rs 134.380 crore in the year ended December 2000.
Total income for the year ended December 2001 is at Rs 1078.920 crore as compared to Rs 1038.760 crore for the year ended December 2000.
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PFC Q3 net profit dips 6%
New Delhi: Power Finance Corporation has reported an over six per cent decline in the third quarter net profit at Rs 291 crore as compared to Rs 312 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The company, however, registered a five per cent growth in profit before tax at Rs 377 crore for the period ending December 2001 as compared to Rs 359 crore over the same period last year.

For the nine month period ending December 2001, PFC showed an increase in net profit from Rs 582 crore in fiscal 2000 to Rs 592 crore in 2001.
Gross profit also increased from Rs 703 crore to Rs 739 crore in the nine month period.
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McDowell Q3 sales rise 7%
Bangalore: McDowell & Company reported sales of Rs 247.12 crore for the quarter ended December 2001, up 7 per cent from Rs 231.38 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company had recorded a 13 per cent growth in its mainline brands as a consequence of its continuing investments in brand building.

However, its profit before tax has slid to Rs 10.07 crore in the quarter ended December from Rs 12.24 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company said its profitability had been impacted by Rs 3 crore because of the turnover tax imposed by the Kerala government, which it claimed, was in violation of the agreed tender conditions.
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LIC relaunches 3 pension plans
Mumbai: The Life Insurance Corporation of India has relaunched its three pension plans in the market with lower assured returns. It has also introduced a new scheme Jeevan Anand, a policy where the life insurance cover continues even after the term of the basic policy.

Jeevan Anand will be a combination of the endowment assurance and whole life plans. It provides for the payment of the sum assured and the bonus amount on the survival of the policyholder at the end of the selected term.

The risk cover for the full sum assured will, however, continue as long as the policyholder is alive. Upon his death, his survivors will receive an amount equal to the sum assured.
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