RIL pays fine for alleged breach of code
Mumbai: Reliance paid a fine of Rs five lakh for having breached the takeover code of Securities and Exchange Board of India in the sale of stake in Larsen and Toubro Ltd. Sebi will continue with its adjudication proceedings against the company.

Denying any default and without admitting any liability whatsoever and simply to avoid any 'unnecessary controversy,' Reliance has paid Rs 5,000 per day, in respect of alleged delay in intimating L&T, when its holding crossed five per cent for the second time, Reliance Industries Ltd said in a release.

Sebi had appointed an adjudicator for the case involving alleged violation of takeover code in the sale of 10.05 % stake in L&T to Grasim Industries in November last.

Sebi investigations revealed that RIL was guilty of not informing the stock exchanges and L&T when its stake had crossed the five per cent mark.

RIL has maintained that it has not violated takeover code provisions since it had disclosed information, in the very first instance when the holding crossed five per cent mark prior to April 1997.

RIL had sold 2.50 crore equity shares of L&T to Aditya Birla Group's Grasim Ltd for Rs 766.50 crore on 18 November.
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IPCL price bids to be invited in March
New Delhi: Government is likely to invite financial bids for disinvesting its stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPCL) in the first week of March.

The due-diligence exercise by the bidders had been completed, while the pre-bid conference would be held sometime next week.

Government, which holds about 60 per cent stake in IPCL, has decided to offload 51 per cent equity in the petrochemicals major in two phases. While the government would transfer management control to successful bidder for 26 per cent stake in IPCL in the current fiscal, the new partner would have first right of refusal over the remaining 25 per cent equity that could be sold to public.
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Polaroid India to restructure mktg
New Delhi: Polaroid India plans to focus on documentation photography besides revamping marketing strategies to achieve a 20-25 per cent growth in revenues this year.

The company plans to move into smaller towns and rural areas, reduce prices for cameras and introduce hi-tech yet affordable products. The company has formed a national marketing and distribution alliance with MCC Imaging.

Polaroid had filed for bankruptcy in October 2001 along with its US subsidiaries to restructure its business operations and finances. The non-US subsidiaries, including those in Europe, Asia and Japan were not part of the filing.

The Indian arm made a turnaround in 2000 when it recorded profits of Rs four crore. Last year, the turnover was Rs 50 crore with some profits.

Polaroid India commenced operations in 1995 by investing about $25 million, including about $20 million in a software development centre in Gurgaon.
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Cypress Semiconductor to invest $15 mn in India
Bangalore: US-based Cypress Semiconductor plans to invest $15 million in its Indian design development centre in the next two years.

The centre, located in Bangalore, employs 100 software professionals and makes semiconductor products for the world market. It is the company's biggest design centre worldwide.

With the new investment, the centre will expand the range of products being developed. It will focus on datacom and memory domains and in local design, software modelling and broad-level engineering.
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IOC public offer for IBP at Rs 1,551 per share
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will make a public offer for shares of IBP at Rs 1,551.10 each.

IOC which has won a 33.6 per cent stake in the state-run IBP, as part of the government's disinvestment programme, is making the open offer to buy a further 20 per cent of IBP from the public, in keeping with country's takeover regulations.

The open offer price is the same as IOC paid for acquiring the strategic stake in IBP.

The offer opens on 12 April and closes on 11 May.
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Hindustan Petroleum Q3 net down 82%
New Delhi: Hindustan Petroleum reported a worse-than-expected 82 per cent drop in net profit for the October-December quarter from a year ago.

Net profit for the third quarter fell to Rs 608.1 million from Rs 3.38 billion a year ago. Net sales dropped 15.8 per cent to Rs 111.65 billion from Rs 132.65 billion.
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QuickLogic opens design centre in B'lore
Bangalore: QuickLogic, a leader in embedded standard products, opened a new design centre here where it hopes to employ hundreds of engineers over the next five years.

QuickLogic Software started off with 18 engineers and the number is expected to go up to 30 to 40 by this year-end.

QuickLogic India creates a global software team that would create new tools as well as advances in the QuickWorks software and its new WebESP programme, which enables designers to configure devices online.
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IBM introduces low-power server
New York: International Business Machines has introduced low-power computer servers with an advanced disk management system.

IBM's p610 series is intended to be used for such business applications as customer or sales force management.

These computers treat an array of disk drives as if they were a single storage device, yielding improved data recovery in the event of a single disk drive failure and the potential for higher speed.
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PFC floats Rs 400 crore NCDs
Mumbai: The Power Finance Corporation is in the market to raise Rs 400 crore through a seven-year non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue at a coupon of 9.25 per cent.

Two other PSUs which have recently tapped the debt market are the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) and the ITI.

Hudco has raised Rs 250 crore through an NCD issue. The bond had a notified amount of Rs 100 crore, but Hudco decided to retain the whole amount.

The Rs 94 crore ITI issue, which closed on 13 February, was oversubscribed.
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Dalmia reduces DSQ Bio stake
Chennai: Dinesh Dalmia, the promoter of the DSQ group of companies, has reduced his shareholding in DSQ Biotech Ltd by 4.95 per cent in the last three months.

The promoter's stake has fallen by almost 50 per cent in the last 12 months. It stood at 52 per cent in January 2001, and had dropped to 8.42 per cent in June 2001.

Even in DSQ Software, the promoter's holding, as per the company's filing with the stock exchanges, had dropped to 1.95 per cent as on December 2001.
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Annapurna Foils set for delisting
Kolkata: Annapurna Foils Ltd is set to get delisted from the exchanges following the scaling up of Indian Aluminium's (Indal) stake in the company to 90.5 per cent.

Annapurna Foils has written to Calcutta and Hyderabad stock exchanges-where it is listed- to let it know about the procedure involved in getting delisted.

The company will have to determine a price to buy back the balance shares from general public.
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Enron board of directors restructured
Houston: Six members of Enron's board of directors are exiting the firm as part of its accelerating reorganisation plan.

Enron said in a regulatory filing that the resignations are effective in 30 days, which will leave eight members on the panel.

Enron said that the six who are resigning include three of the company's longest-serving directors and three who must travel long distances to fulfill their governance obligations.
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Sify seeks nod to offload arm to parent
New Delhi: Satyam Infoway (Sify) is seeking shareholders' approval on 28 February to sell its software services and e-consulting division to its parent Satyam Computers for $6.9 million.

The valuation of the division was done by Merrill Lynch.

Following this, Satyam would be a pure internet service company. The software services division which was primarily involved in web services covers India, Australia and US, contributing 20 per cent of SIfy's turnover last quarter.
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ABB India shifting to Bangalore
Zurich: Global power and automation technologies major ABB said here that it proposes to make India an important part of its research and development and value-added activities.

ABB India is shifting its headquarters from New Delhi to India's IT capital Bangalore where it already has extensive manufacturing operations.

ABB India recently saw a change of guard at the top with Ravi Uppal, formerly head of Volvo India, rejoining the group as managing director and country manager.

The Indian operations now have dedicated heads for new customer-centric divisions utilities, process industries, manufacturing and consumer industries, automation technology products and power technology products.
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PNB Asset Management starts two new funds
New Delhi: PNB Asset Management Company plans to launch two new funds gilt and liquid schemes by June.

PNB AMC manages Rs 200 crore through four closed-end equity schemes and two open-ended debt funds.

Of the two debt funds the AMC runs, the PNB Debt Fund -- with assets of around Rs 80,000 crore -- has been one of the leading performers in the medium-term debt segment in the current rally.

The more than two-year-old fund, which has a large exposure to government securities, has been the best performer in the medium-term debt category over three-month, one-year and two-year periods.

As of 31 January, the fund's net asset value was up 6.59 per cent, 22.08 per cent and 18.48 per cent in these time periods.

The AMC, which reported losses in the past four years largely because of schemes that offered assured returns, swung back into profits for the nine-month period ending December with earnings of Rs 1,270 crore.
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TCS IPO dates by the end of February
Mumbai: An announcement regarding software major Tata Consultancy Services IPO is expected by the end of February. TCS is a division of group holding company Tata Sons.

TCS would be demerged from Tata Sons, which would mean that shareholders in Tata Sons would be allotted shares in TCS in proportion to their holding in Tata Sons before taking the software major public.

TCS is believed to have registered a net profit of Rs 800-900 crore on a turnover of Rs 3,142 crore in fiscal 2000-01.
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Taj, Oberoi eye new properties in Ktaka
Bangalore: The Taj and the Oberoi Group of Hotels have initiated discussions with the government of Karnataka on setting up new properties at Karwar and Tannirbhavi.

The Oberoi group is keen on setting up a luxury hotel with a golf-course facing the sea.

While Karnataka was one of the first states to announce a tourism policy way back in 1992, a plan of action was being finalised by the cabinet sub-committee on tourism to facilitate private participation in developing tourist infrastructure.
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India Cements slides to second place
Mumbai: India Cements, which till recently was the number one player in south India, has lost the coveted position to the Grasim Industries-Larsen & Toubro combine, which today commands a marketshare of 18.12 per cent.

India Cements, which divested its entire stake in the one million tonne Shree Vishnu Cements to Zuari Cement, has slipped to the second position for the first time with an overall marketshare of 16.4 per cent in the southern states.

Madras Cements and the Gujarat Ambuja-ACC combine have jointly emerged as the third largest with marketshare of 10.7 per cent each in the South.
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Fiat to put in $600m in Indian operations
New Delhi: Fiat is pumping in $600 million in its Indian operations.

An Indian delegation led by commerce minister Murasoli Maran, which is on a five-day visit to Italy, had meeting several meetings with Italian companies, who showed keen interest in the Indian market.

Maran will also lead the delegation to Netherlands, to showcase India as a conducive destination for FDI. The minister is on a visit to the two European nations as part of his Destination India programme. The list of delegates visiting Italy and Netherlands include company officials from Reliance Industries, TCS, ING Insurance, Continental Constructions, Arthur Andersen, Export-Import Bank of India, Modi Enterprises to name a few.

Italy and India are exploring the possibilities of collaboration in aerospace and defence.
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Apple, Sun & Ericsson sign pact
San Jose: Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems Inc and Ericsson have teamed up to develop a system for bringing multimedia content such as movie clips to cell phones and other wireless devices.

Dubbed the Ericsson Content Delivery Solution, the system will include Apples QuickTime streaming video application, content-distribution software from Sun and wireless infrastructure from Ericsson. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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Dredging Corp selloff in works
New Delhi: Dredging Corporation of India is going to be privatised. DCIL, which contemplated an IPO last year, has given up the plan in favour of privatisation.

Over the last five years, the companys net profit has grown at a compounded annual rate of 25 per cent, and in the October-December quarter its net profit rose 30 per cent.

Its share price has shot up from Rs 90 to Rs 220 on reports that the privatisation price could be in the region of Rs 480. The company has a fleet of dredgers for dredging ports and reclaiming land.
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RIL gets nod for 3 Tullow oil blocks
New Delhi: The government has approved Reliance Industries acquisition of three oil and gas blocks from Irelands Tullow Oil.

A conditional approval has been given to Reliance Industries to acquire Tullow Oils three oil and gas blocks in Gujarat Kutch and Krishna-Godavari Basin.

In February last year, Tullow signed agreements with RIL to sell between 40 to 50 per cent stake in five of its oil and gas blocks in Gujarat offshore, Gujarat Kutch Basin, Cambay Basin and KG Basin.

Reliance would acquire 50 per cent stake in block GK-OSJ-1, offshore Gujarat. Post sell-off, Tullow would have a 25 per cent stake while state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporatin would have 25 per cent stake.

The company would acquire 40 per cent stake in GK-OS-5, offshore Gujarat block, while Tullow would have 50 per cent stake post-selloff in the block and the US-based Okland Oil Co would have 10 per cent interest.

Reliance would also acquire 40 per cent stake in KG-ON-1 in Krishan Godavari basin, while Tullow would have the remaining 60 per cent stake.

Reliance has been given the operatorship in all the three blocks.
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News Corp suffers $606m loss
SYDNEY: Rupert Murdochs News Corp posted a $606 million second-quarter loss after writing down the value of its broadcast sports contracts.

Media mogul Murdoch admitted the results had fallen short of the companys own revenue and profit goals.

While there were hints of an upswing in the US advertising market, the advertising slide took a toll on sports programming, leading to a $909 million writedown on the National Football League, Nascar auto racing and Major League Baseball contracts at News Corps 85 per cent owned Fox Entertainment Group.

Fox, which holds News Corps television, film and cable businesses, also scaled back cash flow growth estimates to upper single digit percentage growth.
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Shaw Wallace set to seal tie-ups abroad
Mumbai: Shaw Wallace & Company Ltd is in talks with three global wine-makers based in France, Australia and the US for marketing international brands in India.

The company is in advanced stages of negotiations with these international companies. The deal is expected to strengthen Shaw Wallace's position in the Rs 40-crore Indian wine market.

The company is also in talks with several wine makers based in Chile and Italy.
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Ad war erupts betweenTata Salt, Annapurna
New Delhi: Tata Chemicals, which markets Tata Salt, has taken umbrage to the electronic campaign for Hindustan Lever's Annapurna salt.

Tata Chemicals has approached the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) against the currently-on-air advertising for Annapurna salt which ends with a child bidding goodbye (or tata) to all other salts available in the market.

According to ORG-MARG estimates, the domestic branded salt market, by volume, is estimated at 15 lakh tonnes. Tata Salt leads in the branded salt market with a market share of 18 per cent. HLL's Annapurna, which has been very aggressive in marketing-related activities in the recent months, has a market share of 16 per cent.
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Sika AG buying out Indian partner's stake
Kolkata: Sika AG is buying out its Indian partner's stake in the Kolkata-based Sika Qualcrete Ltd.

Sika AG has already received the necessary clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and currently, the money transfer is on in accordance with the RBI guidelines.

Sika AG, established in 1910, is a leader in the construction chemicals industry. It has 80 manufacturing and marketing offices across the globe.

In Sika Qualcrete, the Swiss company held a 70 per cent stake. Sadhan Dutta, promoter of Development Consultants Ltd, held 15 per cent. The rest was held by some of his associates.
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Binny makes final VRS payments
Chennai: Binny Ltd made the final payments of Rs 68 crore under the voluntary retirement scheme. It is now set to commence its other projects under the rehabilitation scheme, including the container freight station and a new textile mill.

The company hopes to clear the dues to the banks and financial institutions in March. This includes Rs 108 crore with Rs 62 crore payable to the consortium of banks and Rs 46 crore to financial institutions, government of India and the State Bank of India.

The company has renewed the licence to set up the freight station that is expected to commence operations in mid-March. It will have a capacity to handle 5000 TEU per month.

The company is also on the look out for real estate for its new textile mill near S.V. Sugar Mills, a group concern located on the route to Kanchipuram.
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Cadila sulfolane for Taiwan co
New Delhi: Casil Health Products Ltd (CHPL), a group company of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, has executed Rs 1.5-crore worth sulfolane (tetramethylene sulfone) order from Chinese Petroleum Corporation, Taiwan.

With applications such as aromatic extraction and acid gas treatment, among others, sulfolane is in demand as a curing agent and in pharma applications.

CHPL became the third manufacturer of sulfolane in the world.

Sulfolane is used in bulk drugs manufacturing in the pharma industry. The present turnover of CHPL is Rs 5 crore and it is planning to increase the production capacity shortly.
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ebm-Nadi launches new range of products
Chennai: ebm-Nadi International Pvt Ltd, an Indo-German joint venture, has announced the launch of a range of brushless DC motors, axial fans, ventilation fans and accessories for the domestic, commercial and industrial segments.

The products would find application in industrial segments including refrigeration, bottle cooling, telecommunication, windmill application and automobile industry including cabin cooling of heavy vehicles and army vehicles. Brushless motors have a lifespan five to six times longer than conventional products.

A DC all-plastic fan has been designed for condenser cooling in automobiles. The four-inch, 12 v DC blower is specifically designed for the computer industry. The blower can move high-pressure air through computer servers. The DC brushless axial fans will find application in the electrical and electronic industry.
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Rubco floats tender to export 10,000 tonnes
Chennai: The Kerala State Rubber Co-operative Ltd (Rubco) has issued a global tender to export 10,000 tonnes of ribbed smoked sheet 4 grade rubber.

The tender, floated this week, will be valid till 11 March.

The tender offers rubber procured from January this year and has sought offers for export from Kochi port.

Rubber prices, which had slipped to Rs 24 a kg for RSS 4 grade towards the second half of 2001, have recovered during the last few weeks, though they are still below MSP.
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BSNL seeks default carrier status for NLD calls
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has sought default carrier status for all international calls made by its subscribers.

In a letter to the telecom secretary, BSNL has noted that this would help it stave off the losses it would suffer on account of having to make Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) the preferred carrier for all outgoing calls.

Since it is not mandatory for VSNL to route all incoming international calls onto the BSNL network, even while it is forced to route all international calls to the VSNL gateway, this would lead to unfair competition, BSNL said.
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Boston bags e-learning order
Hyderabad: Boston Software Consultants India Pvt Ltd hasbagged a major e-learning order from the Manila-based AMA Computer University.

The company said it would implement its flagship product Intralearn XE for the Philippines university. According to the company, this is the largest e-learning order for it in Asia as far as the number of users was concerned. AMA University has a student population of around 1.5 lakh users and 200 campuses in Philippines and other parts of the world.
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Zensar systems for RPG`s Giant stores
Pune: Zensar Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RPG group's new Giant Hyper store chain for providing IT systems for a period of three years.

Zensar will develop a software system that would integrate Giant's head office to its different operations segments, ending with checkout counters in the stores.

The investment on this from the RPG Group is Rs 8 crore spread over the three years.
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PMI opens chapter in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Project Management Institute Inc, the US-based organisation with over 74,000 professionals working on project management worldwide, has commenced operations here as Pearl City Chapter and plans a centre at Chennai soon.

The Pennsylvania-based Institute, established in 1969, is a non-profit professional association engaged in project management solutions.
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IBM India roadshow in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: IBM India Ltd will hold roadshows in 14 cities beginning with Hyderabad on February 18 at hotel Taj Banjara. The roadshow targets the small and medium business segment and would focus on end-to-end e-business offerings.
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Microsoft launches Visual Studio
Bangalore: Microsoft Corporation India has launched Visual Studio.NET and the .NET Framework, the application development tool and platform that provide a complete solution for building, deploying, and running XML Web Services.

This new tool would be introduced at the launch event in Bangalore on 19 February and would subsequently be introduced in six other cities by 27 February. The launch of VS.NET will complete the developer component of .NET framework.

More than 5,000 companies were expected to adopt this new tool and build applications on it.
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LIC Housing Fin private placement
Mumbai: LIC Housing Finance Ltd has privately placed debentures for a total amount of Rs 392 crore. A total of 25 investors subscribed to the issue.

The issue was for an aggregate amount of Rs 100 crore and was rated `AAA' by Crisil. The debentures, with face value of Rs 1 crore each, were offered under three options -- 5-year, 7-year and 10-year. The company collected Rs 139 crore under the 5-year option, Rs 178 crore under the 7-year option and Rs 75 crore under the 10-year one.
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Krishna Jala Nigam plans Rs 350-cr bond issue
Mumbai: The Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd (KBJN) has planned an issue of redeemable non-convertible bonds worth Rs 350 crore for cash at par by 28 February. The company plans to issue tax-saving infrastructure and regular return bonds.

The bonds have been guaranteed by the Karnataka government for timely payment of principal and interest.

Both the infrastructure and regular return bonds will have a face value Rs 5,000. For infrastructure bonds, investors will have the option of investing for three years with an interest rate of 10.50 per cent.

Five-year investments will have a put-and-call option after three years with a 10.50 per cent interest rate. The rates will increase to 10.75 per cent for the fourth and fifth year.

The money raised will be used to fund the Upper Krishna project.
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ITI bond issue oversubscribed
Bangalore: The ITI bond issue of Rs 94 crore, which opened for subscription on 4 February, has been oversubscribed by 1.25 times at its close on 12 February. The company has swapped the Rs 94 crore bonds raised during 1999 at 13.25 per cent for the same amount at 8.95 per cent by exercising call option.

The bonds issue was made to retire high cost debts, thus resulting in a considerable savings to the company.
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Bata plans new range of footwear
Kolkata: Bata India Ltd is planning to introduce its Weinbrenner brand of rugged leather shoes and sandals, ranging between Rs 599 and Rs 1,199.

The company is also streamlining its distribution by creating a four-tier set-up of dedicated stores, each designed to meet the needs of a particular kind of customer.

At the top rung is the International Store, which stocks Bata's international range of products and brands. The second tier comprises city stores, which are located at upmarket commercial centres, catering to the fashion-oriented middle and high-income group consumers.

Family stores, the third tier, is very much part of the Bata chain, located at high-traffic commercial locations in major and developing towns.

At the bottom is bazaar stores, located at high traffic and densely populated markets. They offer basic volume brands for price-sensitive consumers and typically feature merchandise on clearance and discounts.
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