Tatas to take over VSNL control on 13 Feb
New Delhi: The government is likely to hand over managament control of Videsh Sanchar Nigam to the Tata group on 13 February after signing of share holders agreement.

Tata group would also make an open offer for acquiring additional 20 per cent stake in VSNL as per Sebi guidelines at Rs 202 per share leading to an additional outgo of Rs 1,151.4 crore.

The funds for the open offer would be provided by Tata Sons, Tata Power Company and market borrowings.
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Cummins India to sell Pune unit
Mumbai: The board of Cummins Ltd has approved a proposal to sell its foundry and castings unit in Pune.

The assets, valued at Rs 3.3 crore, could be sold individually or collectively.

The cost competitiveness of Plant II had considerably eroded due the low volumes, the company said.

Initially, plant was set up due to limited availability of quality patterns and castings from the vendors, but now supplies have improved in terms of quality and delivery, it said.
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Bajaj launches 180 cc & 150 cc 'Pulsar'
New Delhi: Bajaj Auto has launched its premium four-stroke motorcycle model 'Pulsar' in the capital in 180cc and 150cc engine capacities.

While the 180cc model, which has disc brake and electric start, has been priced at Rs 56,125, the 150cc model would cost Rs 51,152 for the disc brake and electric start variant and Rs 47,648 for only the disc brake version.
The model was being manufactured at the Bajaj Auto's plant at Chakan, near Pune with an investment of about Rs 100 crore.
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Pharmacia announces open offer for Abbott
New Delhi: US major Pharmacia Corporation has announced an open offer for acquiring 20 per cent more stake in pharma major Abbott Laboratories (India) Ltd.

The offer is slated to open on 20 March and close on 18 April.

The offer follows a share purchase agreement signed by Pharmacia with Abbott Laboratories of USA and Abbott International Ltd to purchase their entire 51.5 per cent stake in the Indian company for Rs 65.3 crore.
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Jindal Strips to dilute stake in US arm
New Delhi: Jindal Strips will dilute its stake in US subsidiary, Massilon Stainless Inc, from the current 62 per cent to below 50 per cent.

This is being done in the wake of US policy to give advantage to a company having US promoter with a majority stake.

Even though the company would dilute its stake in Massilon in favour of strategic US investors, it would continue to control its management.
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Tejas gets $6.6 mn funding
Bangalore: Telecom software startup Tejas Networks has received $6.6 million in its second round of funding, led by the private equity arm of India's Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd.

The co-investors in the funding included its founder and chairman of US-based optical networking firm Sycamore Networks, Indian-born Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande and Intel Capital, the venture funding arm of chip maker Intel.

The funding will help the company boost its product portfolio and expand sales and marketing operations.

The company makes products which help build optical networks which use laser beams to carry data on fibre optic pipes with substantially enhanced efficiency at much lower costs.
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L&T gets Rs 900 cr order from TAPS
Mumbai: The Larsen and Toubro Ltd has received orders worth Rs 900 crore for Tarapur Atomic Power project (TAPP) units 3 and 4.

The total value of projects under execution by L&T for the two 500 MW units each being set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) at Tarapur is Rs 912.53 crore.

The latest order for instrumentation covers design, manufacture, supply, installation and testing of field instruments, analytical instruments and other equipment for nuclear power plants, special tubes and other accessories.
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AIG, Fortis in talks with UTI Bank
New Delhi: America International Group and the French financial services group Fortis have evinced interest in UTI Bank and are in advanced stages of negotiations for buying into the bank.

UTI Bank is also talking to Lloyds TSB of UK and DEG of Germany.

The current price of the bank is pegged at approximately Rs 50 per share, which is higher than its earlier offered price of Rs 34 per share to South Asia Regional Fund and CDC Financial Services (Mauritius).

The exact stake that is in the offering is not known.
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Skoda seeks nod to import Octavia
New Delhi: Skoda Motor has applied to the government for importing 500 completely built unitsof its Octavia model which had been launched here in November.

The companys earlier application for the import of 750 CBUs was rejected by the government on the ground that it was not in line with the policy on CBUs.

The Czech auto maker and part of the Volkswagen group, Skoda is now seeking one time approval for import of 500 CBUs in what it says is for seed marketing.
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Renault scouts for engine business
New Delhi: French automaker Renault is looking for engine business in India.

The company has just tied up with Mahindra and Mahindra for the supply of petrol engines for the soon-to-be-launched Scorpio.

Renaults contract with M&M includes the supply of 10,000 F4R engines for the petrol Scorpio and other premium utility vehicles.

The 2 litre engines are Euro II and III compliant and can go up to Euro IV.
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Nalco offers massive discounts
Kolkata: National Aluminium Company has decided to increase discounts to Rs 2,000 per tonne along with quantity incentives across all grades of products.
Nalco, which was offering a discount of Rs 1500 per tonne, has now increased this to Rs 2000 per tonne.
Nalco sold 1.03 lakh tonnes of metal in the domestic market in the last nine months against 87,000 tonnes it was able to sell in the corresponding period the previous year.

The price discounts are applicable to almost all its products including aluminium billets (Rs 83,000 per tonne), cast strips (Rs 87,000 per tonne), aluminium ingots (81,000 per tonne), sow ingots (Rs 85,000 per tonne), aluminium wire rods (Rs 89,000 per tonne) and plain wire rods (Rs 87,000 per tonne).
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Lakme to expand salon business
Mumbai: Lakme Lever, a division of Hindustan Lever, has embarked on a large expansion of its salon business.

HLL has already set up 32 Lakme salons in several small cities in the south and the north of the country. It is now aiming to increase this to around 200 by 2004.

All the salons will use only Lakme products. By using the products directly on the clients and thereby endorsing it, HLL is hoping that the client will be encouraged to use the vast range of Lakme products regularly.

Lakme already had four salons when it was a part of the Tata group, one in each metro for the last twenty five years.

Lakme is planning to have 10 salons each in Mumbai and Delhi and four to five salons each in the second rung cities.
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Carpenter to step up orders to JV
Bangalore: Carpenter Technology, Pittsburgh, a $1.2-billion special steels company, plans to outsource more valve steel from India through its joint venture partner Kalyani Carpenter Special Steels.

Carpenter Technology has begun to buy 300 to 400 tonnes of steel valve from the Kalyani JV.

Speciality steels made by the manufacturing joint venture are to be exported through Carpenters distribution companies globally.

The company also manufactures tool steel, die steel, high speed steel and stainless steel.
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A-I to hire 3 more A310s
New Delhi: Air-India is planning to take on lease three more Airbus. This will be in addition to the five A310s it already has on. The airline is also in the process of taking on lease two A310s.

The airline plans to ground two of the ageing Boeing B747-200 aircraft. Air-India owns four B747-200s which are more than 20 years old. The other two would be kept standby for handling chartered flights.
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Google to offer new search engine
Palo Alto: Google will unveil a new corporate search product to help companies locate documents within their own databases.

Google is selling search hardware and software, all contained in a slim device it calls the Google Search Appliance, which businesses can install behind their own corporate firewalls and program to scan whichever documents they wish.

Google said the Search Appliance was capable of scanning a host of documents from personnel records to corporate literature, engineers' computer code and even employee emails.
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MTNL selloff may be stalled
New Delhi: The disinvestment process in Mahanagar Telephone Nigam is likely to be stalled with the department of telecommunications expressing the view that the government should have control in MTNL and BSNL for the time being in view of the proposed regulatory changes in the telecom sector.

Earlier, the ministry of disinvestment had said that the process of disinvestment in MTNL will take place soon after the disinvestment of the government equity in VSNL.

MTNL operates basic and cellular services in Delhi and Mumbai and has more than 45 lakh subscribers.
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Two contenders for 30% in Agrani Sat
Kolkata: Two global satellite operators are vying for a 30 per cent stake in the Subhash Chandra-promoted Agrani satcom project.

The promoters of Agrani satcom are in discussions with two leading international satellite operating companies.

Indications are that the 30 per cent stake will be offloaded to a single satellite operator who will step on board as strategic partner in the Agrani satcom venture.

So far, Alcatel Space Industries and Arianespace of France have committed to pick up 13 per cent between themselves in the company. Alcatel Space proposes to invest $15 million for a 9.75 per cent stake, while Arianespace intends to inject $5 million for a 3.25 per cent stake in the Agrani project.
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I-Flex eying US acquisitions
Mumbai: I-Flex Solutions plans to acquire a US-based software firm operating in the financial vertical.

The company has ramped up its US operations in last few months to launch its software products. It has forged alliances with Hewlett-Packard and IBM and is also working with consulting companies like KPMG for implementation partnership.
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Sasken Comm recasts business
Bangalore: Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd has restructured its business into four key verticalssemi-conductors, terminal devices, network equipment and Internet access solutions.

The restructuring is aimed at being a more customer and market-centric company.

Each vertical will have one business head and this way projects could be evenly distributed as per the specifications.

The companys current services alliances with majors like Intel would also be distributed across the verticals depending on the technical nature of the project.

While the restructuring has involved redeployment of some employees, there was no likelihood of any lay-off related to the new business structure.
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Aamir to produce TV ad for Coke
Mumbai: Leading cine star Aamir Khan will be producing a high-voltage television commercial for Coca-Cola India.

Enthused by the success of Lagaan, Aamir Khan is foraying into the production of ad films now.

Aamir Khan Productions will produce the next Coke commercial, which will be directed by Ashutosh Gowariker of Lagaan fame. Aamir will also star in the commercial.
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Schreiber to acquire 11 pc Britannia stake in Dynamix
New Delhi: The US-based Schreiber International Inc plans to acquire Britannia Industries Ltd's (BIL) 11 per cent stake in the Dynamix Dairy Industries Ltd.

The move follows Britannia's decision to enter into a separate joint venture with Fonterra Cooperative Group of New Zealand Dairy and divest its existing equity in the Rs 300-crore DDIL.

Schreiber, which has supplied DDIL with technology for cheese manufacturing for its Baramati dairy, already has an eight per cent stake in the company.

Schreiber International has applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for permission to acquire the shares held by Britannia Industries.
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Nalco ADR/GDR offering soon
New Delhi: The Government will soon launch the process of offering 30 per cent of its equity in National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) through an issue of American depository receipts (ADR)/global depository receipts (GDR).

The government currently holds 87.15 per cent equity in Nalco and its shares are listed on the Bombay and National stock exchanges.

Nalco accounts for about a third of the primary aluminium produced in the country. It has a consistent track record of profit generation and cash accruals.
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Dabur to expand pharma business
New Delhi: Dabur India Ltd is set to grow its own pharma business through the acquisitions route.

The inorganic growth would be largely funded by the family.

Dabur's pharma business clocked a robust 25 per cent growth for the year ended March 2001, with sales of over Rs 100 crore. Ranked 42nd among the pharma companies in the country, Dabur would not be averse to spinning off the pharma division into an independent company.

Currently, Dabur's domestic pharma business contributes about 8 per cent of the total turnover while exports accounts for about 12 per cent.
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Voltas to air-condition Queen Mary
Kochi: Voltas, in association with an Italian company, has clinched the deal to air-condition the world's largest cruise liner, Queen Mary II.

The time-bound project will be completed off Nantes in France and the ship would set sail by December 2003. Of the total project cost of Rs 135 crore, the deal is expected to fetch Voltas Rs 80 crore.

The international division of the company has undertaken other prestigious projects like the electro-mechanical engineering work of the Hong Kong airport, Hong Kong cyber port and the Rs 200-crore cooling project for a military station in Qatar.
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