Tata Chem forms mgmt teams with Floatglass, Vasishti
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals has formed joint management teams with Floatglass India and Vasishti Detergents to create operational synergies with 40 main customers.

Tata Chemicals is forging alliances with soda ash customers which are mainly glass and detergent producers. Its soda ash plant, with a capacity of 8.75 lakh tonnes, is located at Mithapur, Gujarat.

The company has created the post of key account managers to act as a conduit between main clients. One manager will handle around six clients.

The company is exploring the possibility of using the sea route for transporting goods to the long-distance markets in the East and the South.

Total size of the domestic soda ash market is around Rs 1,600 crore. Tata Chemicals controls 40 per cent of the total market.
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IDBI to buy Rs 100 cr of IFCI assets
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has agreed to purchase assets worth Rs 100 crore from IFCI.

IDBI has further agreed to provide a total capital of Rs 400 crore to IFCI against Rs 200 crore decided earlier. IDBI holds 30 per cent equity stake in the IFCI, which is saddled with high non performing asset of over 20 per cent and lower than stipulated capital adequacy ratio.

The finance ministry had asked three key shareholders of IFCI IDBI, State bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation to provide Rs 200 crore each as capital in order to shore up its CAR.
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Hetero Drugs bags $10 million order from Brazil govt
Hyderabad: Hetero Drugs Ltd has received a $10 million order from the government of Brazil for supply of two latest anti-AIDS drugs -- Lopinavir and Ritonavir.

With the supply of these two drugs, which are patented by Abbott Laboratories, the company hopes to increase its exports to Latin American countries.

Hetero is one of the major suppliers of anti-AIDS drugs for Latin American markets. Of the Rs 189 crore of the companys exports to Latin America during the current year, the share of anti-AIDS drugs was Rs 120 crore.

The company produces 13 anti-AIDS drugs out of the 14 drugs available worldwide. The company occupies second position, next to Cipla, in the Rs 25 crore Indian anti-AIDS drugs market.
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BP bids for DPC
Mumbai: BP has expressed interest in acquiring Enrons stake in the 2,184-mw Dabhol power project.

The IDBI-led consortium will now examine the validity of the EoI as last date for submission of the same has long expired on 7 February.

So far, IDBI has received seven bids from global and Indian energy companies.

The seven companies include global energy majors like Royal Dutch Shell, Gaz de France and British Gas India while the domestic contenders are state-owned Gas Authority of India, Reliance Industries, Tata Power Company and BSES.
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Zee, Maharashtra sign pact for online lottery
Mumbai: Ecool Gaming Solutions, a Zee group company, has signed an agreement with the Maharashtra government to act as an exclusive agent to conduct online lotteries for a 10 year period.

Ecool has assured a minimum fee of Rs 100 crore to the state from the online lottery operations in the first year of operations.

Some part of the revenues from this lottery business would be transferred to a specific corpus to be used for social welfare projects in the state.

The first draw of the online lottery venture was likely to take place in early part of next fiscal.

The Zee group will establish minimum 3,500 terminals for the lottery in Maharashtra and 14 other states.

Zee group will invest Rs 500 crore to build the infrastructure for online lottery and gaming business.
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IBM plans to invest $700 mn
Bangalore: IBM plans to invest $700 mn in the next three to five years for overall business development in the area of Web services.

The investment by IBM would be in the field of marketing and developing products, among others.

IBM India plans to focus on web services within India, wherein it would work closely with Indian independent software vendors to enable developers easily create, deploy and maintain web-based applications.
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L&T to launch overseas venture
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro is readying for an aggressive thrust overseas. It is in final stages of setting up a flagship export company L&T International to drive up revenues from overseas markets.

The new company, which would be headquartered in the Middle East, would work towards brand building, risk management, legal and statutory requirements.

L&T International would also be involved with effective logistics management for the various group entities making foray into the international markets.
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Court puts Jessop privatisation on hold
Kolkata: A court has put on hold till April a government decision to privatise state-run engineering firm Jessop, following a petition by workers opposing the sale.

The cabinet committee on privatisation had approved the sale of a 72-per cent government stake in loss-making Jessop to Ruia Coatex.

The Calcutta High Court has asked the BIFR not to give effect to any decision regarding the restructuring of Jessop for four weeks.

The next hearing on the privatisation of the Kolkata-based firm would take place after three weeks.

Jessop, which has a 1,500-member workforce, has accumulated losses of Rs 372 crore.
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Reliance shifts regional offices to Kolkata
Kolkata: The Reliance group plans to make Kolkata its eastern India hub. Reliance is moving the eastern regional offices of all major group companies under a single roof in the city.

The new integrated city operation will house the representative offices of Reliance Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Insurance, Reliance Infocom, Reliance Telecom, Reliable Internet, Reliance Logistics, Reliance Power and Reliance Engineering Associates.

The Kolkata hub will also house the fibre division of Reliance Petroleum which is closely involved in Reliance Infocoms national broadband venture.

Nita Ambani, wife of Mukesh Ambani, is likely to be directly involved in customising the interior decor of the Kolkata corporate hub.
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Hughes Escorts launches DirecWay
New Delhi: Hughes Escorts Communications has announced the launch of DirecWay, Indias first national satellite-based broadband Internet service.

The service, targeted at high-end and corporate users, will include an assured quality to consumers.

HECL has invested over $15 million for the project which, it claimed, would cover over 800 cities and rural areas.

DirecWay will enable two-way real-time video streaming with a data transfer rate of one megabit per second. DirecWay would be ideal for such applications as video conferencing, interactive learning, training and education, remote maintenance, inter-bank branch services and ATM and credit card verification.

The company, a joint venture between Hughes Network Systems and Nandas-led Escorts group, claims it has the largest number of satellite terminals in India and has a share of over 40 per cent in the very small aperture satellite (VSAT) communications market.
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Reliance buys 762 flats from Cidco
Mumbai: The Reliance Group has signed a deal to purchase 762 apartments from Cidco for Rs 102 crore.

Reliance purchased 162 apartments at Cidco's upmarket NRI complex in Navi Mumbai for Rs 32 crore. It also booked 600 flats at Cidco's Beverly Park complex, which is being developed at Kopar Khairane near Vashi.

The company has bought over entire property, paying Rs 70 crore for the complex.
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Annapurna salt to spice up African dishes
New Delhi: Unilever will market the Indian branded salt Annapurna in the African continent.

Annapurna is the second India-born brand to go global, after Fair & Lovely. The skincare cream is marketed all across South East Asia and the Middle East.

Annapurna is being marketed in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote dIvoire, where the consumption of salt is very high.

Annapurna salt in the African countries will be manufactured and distributed by the local Unilever subsidiaries.
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DHL acquiring control of Indian arm
New Delhi: DHL Worldwide Express is acquiring majority control of its Indian arm, DHL India by buying out a large chunk of equity of the Guzder family of AFL group and other shareholders.

DHL will increase its stake to almost 52 per cent from the current level of 12 per cent in a deal valued at Rs 60 crore. The total FDI will be to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

DHL Worldwide Express is one of the worlds largest air express networks.
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MUL selloff likely to be delayed
New Delhi: The governments move to dilute its stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) has hit another roadblock with the centre and Suzuki failing to arrive at a consensus on the control premium and the revised shareholders agreement.

The rights issue would dilute governments holding in Maruti by 24 per cent, following which the government intends to sell-off its remaining stake through an initial public offering.
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SSI borrows Rs 750 cr for expansion
Chennai: SSI, a computer education and software services firm, is borrowing Rs 750 crore from Union Bank of India to part fund an expansion.

The borrowing in the current January-March quarter would be spent on the ongoing construction of a new 2,500-seat offshore software development centre.

The loan from Union Bank of India has been availed at an interest rate of 12 per cent. The repayment will be over 12 quarterly installments starting January 2003.

SSI expects to complete the Rs 175 crore facility by the last quarter of 2002.
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HP govt takes over Wildflower Hall Hotel
Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has taken over the control of Wildflower Hall Hotel, a joint venture of the Oberoi group and HPTDC and appointed S K Baldi, a senior IAS officer, as its administrator.

The government paid Rs 9-crore to the Oberoi group in lieu of expenditure incurred by it.

The Oberoi group has spent about Rs 100 crore on the project reducing the government equity to less than 10 per cent.
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HTA bags Helios account
Chennai: Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA) has bagged the advertising account of Helios and Matheson Information Technology Ltd., a software company.

Helios offers a portfolio of integrated network computing and software solutions to its customers.

The company has a presence in the US and South East Asia.

HTA had recently bagged the Cholamandalam Insurance account. HTA has been managing the advertising accounts of Parryware and Parry's confectionery of the same group.
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Chemfab plans to raise $10 mn
Chennai: Chemfab Alkalies Ltd is planning to raise equity money of around $10 million from the overseas markets to fund its capacity expansion programme.

Chemfab Alkalies is exploring the possibility of listing the company on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The other option is to get the holding company, Dr Rao Holdings Pte Ltd, to come out with an IPO in Singapore.

Chemfab, which produces caustic soda and chlorine from its 100-tpd plant in Pondicherry, intends to double the capacity.

It also proposes to introduce a new product, sodium hypochlorite, which is used in the manufacture of disinfectants, floor cleaning liquids and water treatment.
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Gujarat Gas net up 28 per cent
Ahmedabad: Gujarat Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Gas, has registered a 23-per cent increase in sales for the year ended December 2001.

The company recorded sales of Rs 362.43 crore as against the previous years Rs 294.55 crore.

The gross profit at Rs 102.47 crore showed an increase of 25.14 per cent over the year-ago figure of Rs 102.47 crore. The net profit posted an increase of 27.66 per cent at Rs 59.06 crore.

The companys customer base has increased from 121625 to 135936 while the gas sold has gone up from 3489.07 lakh scm to 4139.40 scm reflecting an 18.64-per cent increase in the volume of gas sold.

The board of directors of the company has proposed a dividend of Rs 10 per share and a one-time special dividend of Rs 22.50.
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Samsung India produced 2 m CTV sets
New Delhi: Samsung India Electronics claims to have achieved two-million Colour TV (CTV) production in India.

"The significance of the two-million mark can be gauged from the fact that we have achieved the one million production mark in the span of three years from the commencement of production in June 1997," Samsung India managing director S S Lee said in a statement.
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NHAI moots mutual fund
New Delhi: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) plans to use the mutual fund route to part fund the Rs 58,000-crore national highways development project.

The mutual fund could also have participation from private entrepreneurs who could get an assured return of 12-15 per cent on the seed money contributed by them.

These funds would be leveraged in a flexible manner to fund highway projects in the form of equity as well as debt.

NHAI will be raising Rs 6,200 crore through market borrowings during 2002-03.
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Tata SSL plans wire plant at Jamshedpur
Mumbai: Tata SSL is planning to set up a 90,000-tonne greenfield wire plant at Jamshedpur.

Tata SSL has also tied up with a Hungarian company to manufacture 15,000 tonne of steel wire in that country.

The company at present meets the entire bead wire requirements of multinational tyre company Continental for its Sweden plant.

Continental is now looking at Tata SSL as a bead wire partner for its other plants across the world.

The company has received an order to supply 4,000 tonne of steel wire for the Bandra-Worli trans-harbour sea link project in Mumbai.
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