Sterlite wins HZL for Rs 445 crore
New Delhi: The government decided to sell its 26 per cent stake in Hindustan Zinc Limited to Sterlite Industries along with management control for Rs 445 crore.

The cabinet committee on disinvestments cleared a bid by Sterlite for HZL. Sterlite bid about Rs 90 crore higher than the reserve price of Rs 353 crore. The second best bid was from Birla group company Indo Gulf which quoted Rs 321 crore.

Indo Gulf and Sterlite were the only two bidders for government's stake in HZL.

Following the sale of 26 per cent equity, the government holding in HZL would come down to 49 per cent from 76 per cent now.

The new partner would now have to make an open offer for additional 20 per cent stake as per Sebi guidelines.
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IA to acquire 43 aircraft from Airbus Industrie
New Delhi: The Indian Airlines has decided to acquire 43 aircraft - a mix of A-319, A-320 and A-321 - at Rs. 10,089 crore to replace its ageing fleet of A-300s and Boeing 737s.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Airline's board of directors. The board also decided to send a report to the civil aviation ministry seeking clearance for purchase of the new aircraft.
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Aaj Tak not for sale
New Delhi: TV Today Network has denied that its Hindi news channel Aaj Tak is up for sale.
It is absurd. We have never talked to Star to sell Aaj Tak, said TV Today Networks CEO G Krishnan. We are the most successful TV news channel. We have cornered 60 per cent of the news audience and 64 per cent of the ad pie. Why should we sell Aaj Tak?, affirmed Krishnan.

The company would look at launching an English news channel in the next 12-14 months, besides expanding into regional markets.
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Coke to launch tea, coffee
New Delhi: Coca-Cola plans to introduce ready-to-drink tea and coffee in India. These will be launched under the global brand name, Georgia.

Coca-Cola India has already started store-testing its coffee through McDonalds. Initially, two machines have been installed in Delhi for taking consumer feedback and to decide on the final price positioning.

Coca-Cola India has finalised and put in place its sourcing of milk, tea and coffee powders, and vending machines for the winter launch.
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Net helps LG India gain
New Delhi: The Indian unit of South Korea's LG Electronics cut its inventory holding to a day from 4.5 days 18 months ago and saved about Rs 350 million in 2001 by buying components over the Internet.

The company procures about 90 per cent of its components through internet-based transactions and the reverse auctions will be open to its 103 domestic vendors.

In 2001, the company sold goods valued at $1.5 million over the internet out of total sales of Rs 22.16 billion or $454 million, which was a 16 per cent rise from the previous year despite a slowing domestic economy.

LG is targeting sales of $4 million through the internet in 2002 and expects a quarter of that to come from Indians living in the US, UK and Europe who gift appliances to their families in India.
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Ericsson, Bharti ink Net applications pact
New Delhi: Cellular handset company Ericsson has signed a pact with Bharti Televentures to develop and test mobile Internet applications for the Indian market.

The new applications will be tested and verified at the Ericsson development facility here.

The facility will provide service providers, application developers and content providers access to a global pool of expertise and wider range of mobile application technologies to develop solutions for the local market.
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Microsoft India to double staff
New Delhi: Microsoft India plans to double the number of workers at its Hyderabad-based software development centre to 300 in the next one year.

The company plans to invest $50-$75 million over the next 12-18 months in hiring new professionals and expanding infrastructure at the centre.

The Hyderabad centre is into core research for the next generation of technologies.

Microsft India had achieved an annual turnover growth of 40 per cent during the last three to four years.
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FirstRing raises $3.9 mn
Bangalore: FirstRing Inc, a US-based call centre company with its delivery centre in India, has raised $3.9 million in a fourth round of funding from existing investors, taking its total funding to $15 million in the past two years.

WestBridge Capital Partners, India's Hero group and Ravi Sethi, a US-based Indian entrepreneur, took part in the latest funding.

FirstRing currently has about 700 employees in Bangalore and is targeting revenue of $28 million by the end of March 2003.

FirstRing offers customer support for e-commerce, help desk services, e-mail processing and specialises in back-office operations.
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NIIT buys US co
New Delhi: NIIT has bought US-based Osprey Systems, an enterprise solutions provider for $3.0 million cash, its second acquisition so far this year.

The purchase of North Carolina-based Osprey would help NIIT expand its product offerings in the packaged software support and installation market, estimated at $86.6 billion in 2005.
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TotalFina to shift focus to LPG, chemicals, lubes
Mumbai: French oil major TotalFinaElf has decided to shift the focus of its Indian operations from oil and gas to chemicals, lubes and LPG.

The company has called back its chief representative in India, Jean Claude Breton, and has decided against a replacement for him. Breton will leave for Paris next week.

TotalFina recently wrapped up its LNG joint venture with Tata Power and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), which it was pursuing since 1994.

The company's profitable ventures in India include its chemical business, operated through subsidiary Atofina, and Elf lubricants. TotalFina is also trying to buy out ExxonMobil's LPG business in India.
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Telco to launch 49-tonner
Mumbai: Tata Engineering is working on a new 49-tonne heavy commercial vehicle (HCV). The new HCV is expected to make its commercial debut in the first quarter of next year.

Meanwhile,Tata Engineering shareholders and debenture holders approved the company's initiative to set off miscellaneous expenditure, impairment in value of part of its fixed assets lying in capital work in progress and diminution in value of certain financial investments aggregating to Rs 1,180 crore, against the balance in the securities premium account.

The company would now seek the confirmation of the Bombay high court to give effect to the scheme of restructuring.
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Shareholders okay MosChip pref offer
Hyderabad: The shareholders of MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd, have approved the preferential issue of equity shares and warrants.

The shares/warrants will be issued to ESS Technology Inc, Flextronics Semiconductor Inc, Solutions Technologies Inc, UTI A/C India Technology Venture Unit Scheme and S Sivakumar.

As per the proposal, 3,160,000 shares and 950,000 warrants will be issued to these investors at a price of Rs 30 each.
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Vantel to merge two subsidiaries
Hyderabad: Vantel Technologies Ltd, the Hyderabad-based software products and services company, has decided to merge two of its subsidiaries Vantel Networks and Clex Electronics with the parent company.

A decision to this affect was taken by the company board to facilitate better management under a single entity. Vantel Networks, the Bangalore-based subsidiary of Vantel Technologies, is engaged in the development of products for the parent.
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BPL Mobile reduces tariffs for mots-roamfree
Kochi: BPL Mobile has launched the new mots-roamfree with more features by adding more networks and reduced tariffs.

Now mots-Roamfree could be used in Chennai, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in addition to Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Pondichery. Soon consumers would be able to mots-Roamfree all over the country.

BPL Mobile had reduced the mots-Roamfree roaming tariffs from Rs 10 per minute to Rs 3 per minute.
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Tata Tele ready to launch broadband services
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices is gearing up the launch of its digital subscriber line broadband services and data centric solutions soon.

Tata Teleservices is planning to roll out its basic services by June this year in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka among other circles.

The company, which had targeted to reach out services to about 1,20,000 subscribers by the year-end, had in fact achieved remarkable growth and is set to cross the 1.5 lakh mark. In August 2001, the company had about 58,000 subscribers.
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Cisco offers voice solutions
New Delhi: Cisco Systems has announced the availability of a range of voice solutions that will enable telecom service providers in India to take advantage of the deregulation of the telecom sector.

Cisco's universal gateways AS5350, AS5400 and AS5850, Cisco PGW 2200, Cisco BTS 10200, Cisco H.323 Gatekeepers, Cisco SIP Proxy Server, Cisco IP Phones and Cisco ATA 186 Analog Adaptor are available from 27 March.
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Radico to foray into beer market
Bangalore: Radico Khaitan Ltd is in talks with an undisclosed international brewer to import beer.

RKL will target the premium end of institutional sales. Given the high tariff walls, sale of imported beer in the open retail market is not likely to bring enough volumes.

The import tie-up with the global brewer will mark RKL's foray into the beer business.

The Rampur-based Radico Khaitan is a significant player in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country liquor markets.

The Rs 550-crore company's national brands include 8 PM whisky and Contessa rum, both of which sell over two million cases annually.
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Coca-Cola Web site for youth
New Delhi: Coca-Cola has launched myenjoyzone.com, a Web site for youth, which comprises a series of contests in association with McDonald's among other brands.

According to a press release, Coca-Cola plans to organise roadshows in sync with myenjoyzone.com.
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Orchid launches 3 new drugs
Chennai: Orchid Healthcare, the formulations division of Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd., is launching three antibiotics in the domestic market.

The drugs are Cepirom (Cefpirome injectible), Cebanex (Cefoperazone plus Sulbactam injectible), and Zopercin (Tazobactam plus Piperacillin injectible).

These are broad-spectrum anti-infectives that can be used to cure a large number of infections.
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Gujarat Positra to go for NY listing
New Delhi: Gujarat Positra Port Infrastructure, which is setting up the country's first special economic zone, has finalised plans for a New York Stock Exchange listing with a $800 million convertible foreign currency bond issue. Gujarat Positra's proposed FCCB issue will have warrants which can be converted into equity at the end of the fifth, sixth and seventh years.

This will be the first SEZ venture in the country to go for an overseas listing.
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Maruti to revamp production
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog is going in for a revamp of its manufacturing operations from April.

Under this exercise, production of different models will be concentrated in a single plant rather than a scattered production.

Maruti has three production plants at its manufacturing facility in Gurgaon. The total installed capacity of these three plants is 3.5 lakh vehicle units per annum. In 2001-02, Maruti is expected to produce about 3.7 lakh units at these three plants.
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Net4India to launch pre-paid IP cards
New Delhi: Net4India, which has tied up with Delta3, will come out with pre-paid IP calling cards from 1 April, with denominations varying between Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 and the price of a call to US will cost Rs 7-8 per minute.

Satyam, HCL Infinet and Data Access are also firming up their offerings and many of them are believed to be in talks with IP telephony service providers including Net2Phone, Dialpad and Delta 3. Most of the services are expected to be rolled out by middle of April.
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