Many in race to acquire ITI-Pioneer
Mumbai:  Citibank, AIG, Templeton, Prudential and Zurich are in race to clinch the Pioneer-ITI deal. The deal-size is likely to be around $65-70 million. Rabobank is brokering the deal.

Citibank and AIG are the only contenders which have no mutual fund interests in India as of now.

Pioneer-ITI manages funds of over Rs 3,000 crore and has an investor base of 7.5 lakh. It is a joint-venture between Investment Trust of India (ITI) and UniCredito Italiano group, the owner of Pioneer Investment Corporation.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Asian Paints to sell phthalic anhydride Plant
Mumbai: Asian Paints plans to sell its phthalic anhydride plant at Ankleshwar in Gujarat provided it gets the right price.

Booz Allen & Hamilton has advised Asian Paints to sell phthalic anhydride plant as it is unviable to run it at a small capacity. Phthalic anhydride is a raw material that is used for the manufacture of paints.

The plant is a profitable unit for the company. About 70 per cent of the production coming of pentaerythritol and 30 per cent of the production of phthalic anhydride are captively consumed in the manufacture of paints.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Ceat scales down managerial staff
Mumbai: Ceat Ltd has substantially pruned down its management strength. The company has reduced around 96 people across its managerial staff, both at the middle and senior management level.

Ceat has offered a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh aggregate for each of these white-collared employees. In addition to this, the company has reduced its workforce by another 200 workers at the Bhandup plant in Mumbai.

The total outgo on account of these separation schemes would be around Rs 5 crore.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Govt to double stake in Hudco
New Delhi: The government will be doubling its equity base in Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) to Rs 2,500 crore.

A proposal to this effect has been forwarded by the urban development ministry for cabinet approval.

The capital infusion of Rs 1,250 crore would be done over the next five years.

At present, Hudcos net worth stands at Rs 2,045 crore comprising Rs 1,250 crore equity and Rs 795 crore reserves. The corporations total borrowings at present are to the tune of Rs 14,704 crore.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Hitachi to strengthen operations in India
Bangalore: Hitachi Data Systems, which provides information management solutions, is planning a direct presence in India next fiscal.

The company plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India.

The company has signed up with Sun Microsystems and HP and expects to leverage their channel partners to build up its storage business in India. The company has bagged several of the key accounts including Infosys, Veritas, i2 Technologies and Intel among others.

The enterprise storage market in India is estimated to be in the region of $15 million for 2001-02 and Hitachi with its partners Sun and HP command a share of nearly 70 per cent.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Equipment bank starts operations
New Delhi: Infrastructure Equipment Bank (QUIPO) has started operations by deploying about Rs 27 crore of high-value construction equipment at various sites around the country.

In the first phase, the total project cost is Rs 168 crore, out of which Rs 50 crore is in the form of equity and the balance is in the form of quasi-equity of Rs 23 crore and Rs 95 crore of debt.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Tata Tele launches pay-phone service
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL) has announced the launch of a novel pay-phone service here.

The pay-phone-on-wheels booth services, called Smart Cart, were introduced aimed at improving the accessibility of pay-phone to customers at an arms reach. The Smart Cart facilitates the operator to move around a certain geographical region and offer pay-phone services. The company plans to introduce 100 Smart Carts in the next fiscal year.

The company currently has over 1.25 lakh customers across Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Rajahmundry and Nellore.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Switcher launches summer wear
Chennai: Switcher, the Swiss leisurewear brand, has launched its summer collection in India. It has appointed Joshna Chinnapa, the reigning national squash champion, as its brand ambassador.

The 2002 summer-wear collection includes T-shirts with prints and embroidery in the price range of Rs 225 to Rs 425. Switcher will also be launching an entire range of shirts in the range of Rs 495 to Rs 795.

Switcher is manufactured in Portugal, Hong Kong, China and India.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Bajaj Allianz gets Raichur power stations contract
Bangalore: Bajaj Allianz has bagged the insurance contract for the Raichur thermal station.

Bajaj Allianz had emerged as the lowest bidder in the keenly-contested bidding involving both public and private sector companies. The competitors included United India Insurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Company Ltd, New India Assurance Company Ltd, Tata-AIG General Insurance Company and the Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Company Ltd.

This is the second power project that Bajaj Allianz has taken this year. The previous one was a 49 per cent share in the Pillai Perumalnalur Power Ltd.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

ICICI Bank plans more processing centres
Coimbatore: The ICICI Bank is planning to add a couple of more processing centres very soon. The bank initially established a centre in each metro, but as the business volumes grew, these centres were forced to expand.

The regional processing centres were primarily established to take care of office functions, such as opening of an account, account renewals etc, to enable the branch to concentrate on its core business activity.

The bank has a centralised database in Mumbai that handles all functions.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Indica heads for Iran
Mumbai: Telco has drawn up plans to tap the Iranian market for its Indica car for which it is close to teaming up with local car maker, Iran Khodro Company.

Iran Khodro, the largest automobile manufacturer in the country with licensing tie-ups with international majors including Peugeot and Hyundai, has expressed interest in sourcing 20,000-30,000 units of the Indica annually.

Negotiations with the Iranian company are currently on.

The deal, if finalised, would give a big boost to Telcos export drive for the Indica.

Iran Khodro, with a capacity to produce around 2.5 lakh vehicles a year and a marketshare of over 60 per cent, currently rolls out premium models like the Peugeot 206, Peugeot 405 and Peugeot Persia.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Ashok Leyland plans VRS
Chennai: Ashok Leyland will come out with a VRS plan in one week to 10 days for reducing the workforce at Ennore plant by 800. Another 300 workforce will be made part of a common pool for redeployment in other plants.

The strength at the plant has been slashed to 6,200 from 7,300 and after the VRS and transfer to the common pool, it is expected to become more competitive with a strength of around 5,400.

On the productivity front, the workers union has agreed to step up output at the assembly line from the current 84-85 vehicles per day to 96 per day.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

KfW to open shop in India
New Delhi: German bank KfW is all set to open its office in India. The banking group will provide a window to German investment in India. Funds would be disbursed to power, financial and health sectors, apart from promoting the protection of the environment and natural resources.

The joint office of KfW and its independent subsidiary DEG in India will be inaugurated on 28 February.

KfW is one of Germany's biggest banks and works with over 100 countries in around 1,600 development projects. KfW also operates as a development bank on behalf of the German government.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

RIL to dilute stake in Reliance Infocom
New Delhi: The Reliance Group will bring down its equity to 45 per cent in Reliance Infocom.

The group plans to reduce its holding from almost 100 per cent now to 45 per cent over a period of time.

The group has recently concluded divestment of minority stake in another telecom venture, Reliance Communications, in favour of US major Qualcomm for $ 200 million. Qualcomm will assist the group in providing wireless in local loop services.

Reliance has invested about Rs 2,600 crore in the infocom project till date.

Besides Reliance Infocom, the other group companies engaged in telecom businesses include Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliable Internet.

Reliance Infocom plans to build 60,000 km of nationwide, terabit bandwidth broadband network across 115 cities.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Harbhajan, Laxman to promote Ray Ban
New Delhi: Ray Ban Sun Optics (I) Ltd has roped in cricketers Harbhajan Singh and V V S Laxman as ambassadors to endorse its brands, Ray Ban and Killer Loop.

The duo had earlier come together in a Pepsi commercial during the Mera Number Kab Ayega campaign. Ray Ban is also planning a range of some 80 new models for the summer season which will be unveiled by the two brand ambassadors.

Ray Ban, which was previously the eyewear division of Bausch & Lomb Inc, was taken over by the Italy-based Luxottica group.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter

Duncans to set up tea boutique chain
Kolkata: Duncans Industries Ltd (DIL) will be setting up a chain of tea boutiques in select areas in the next four months.

The stores will be set up under the Duncans brand name and logo.

The company has identified 10 locations where outlets will come up in four months.

The group owns some of the best gardens in the Dooars and Darjeeling areas, and produces upper end orthodox and CTC teas.
Back to News Review index page   Currency converter