Jindal offers knowhow to China
New Delhi: Jindal Strips is in talks with a Chinese firm for offering its technological capabilities in the stainless steel field.

The technology transfer from Jindals would help the Chinese firm in reducing the price of finished goods. Jindals are also in talks with Columbus Stainless of South Africa for a technical collaboration.

Jindal Strips has been supplying stainless steel grades to this Chinese firm since last couple of months.
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Qantas to launch new airline
Sydney: Qantas Airlines will begin international service on a new carrier, Australian Airlines, in October 2002.

Qantas said it had received a go-ahead to launch the carrier after achieving a satisfactory cost structure and completing negotiations with unions over wages and work practices.

The new airline is to fly routes Qantas has withdrawn from or on ones where Qantas has been unable to make a satisfactory return.

The first stage of the service will involve phasing in flights between Cairns, Australia and Fukuoka, Singapore, Hong Kong and Nagoya between October and December.
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HTA plans to cut staff by 15-20%
New Delhi: Hindustan Thomson Associates has decided to offload at least 15-20 per cent redundant staff through VRS.

The VRS is primarily targeted at the agencys non-management staff numbering about 200.

HTA is the most heavily staffed agency. The agency is facing pressures from clients in terms of reduced ad spends.
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Bharat Electronics sales up 13%
Mumbai: Bharat Electronics (BEL) has reported a 13% rise in turnover to Rs 1,939 crore for the fiscal ended 31 March 2002 compared with Rs 1,715 crore in the previous year.

All the nine manufacturing units of BEL have made profits for the fourth consecutive year.

With a healthy order book position of around Rs 4,000 crore, the BEL is confident of maintaining its profitable growth in the coming years.
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Bajaj bike sales up 51%
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has reported a 51% increase in motorcycles sales to 69,620 units in March 2002.

Total sales was up 11.6% to 1,22,246 units, according to information posted on the company website.

While geared scooter sales fell 31% to 29,533 units, offtake of ungeared scooters was up 14% to 4,354 units.
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Himachal offers to sell Mashobra stake to EIH
New Delhi: The Himachal Pradesh government has offered to exit from the Mashobra Resorts Ltd by selling its stake to its joint venture partner EIH Ltd, the Oberoi group flagship, at a consideration of Rs 22-25 crore.

At present, the Himachal government holds a 21.22 per cent stake in the company, while EIH holds the remaining 78.78 per cent.

The state government suggested that EIH should either pay Rs 22-25 crore upfront or take the property on lease with an assured annual income to the state government.
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Sify to offer ISD calls at Rs 7 per min
New Delhi: Satyam Infoway (Sify) will offer Net telephony services at under Rs 7 per minute to the US and Europe.

Sify is expected to offer PC-to-phone calls to United States, the UK and most other European countries for under Rs 7 per minute. Initially, the company plans to come out with a test price of Rs 5.25 per minute for calls to these countries.

The PC-to-PC calls would be free of charge. International subscriber dialing (ISD) calls to the US and Europe presently cost between Rs 34-48 per minute.

Calls to several other countries, however, will be priced higher by Sify.

Sify would soon launch pre- and post-paid cards for its subscribers and might also announce a tie-up with an international service provider.
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Mahindra to sell stake in unit to UK partner
Mumbai: Mahindra and Mahindra plans to sell its 51 per cent stake in Mahindra Sintered Products, which specialises in powder metal parts technology.

The stake would be sold to British joint venture partner GKN Group for Rs 65.0 crore. The stake sale is part of the group's strategy to exit from non-core businesses, Mahindra and Mahindra said in a statement.
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GM firms up new rollout for India
New Delhi: General Motors is contemplating introducing the Chevrolet Metro and Cavalier, positioned in the Rs 10-13 lakh price band, in the Indian market.

The company plans to manufacture these cars at its unit in Halol, Gujarat.

The company has decided to introduce models from the Isuzu and Chevrolet stables beginning 2003. The first model, the Rs 5-8 lakh Isuzu Panther, a sports-utility vehicle, would be introduced next year.

This would be followed by the likes of Chevrolet Metro and Cavalier.
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Subex gets contract from BPL mobile
Bangalore: Subex Systems, a city-based telecom software company, has won a contract from BPL Mobile, to deploy its fraud management system, Ranger.

Ranger will be deployed in all BPL Mobile networks.

BPL Mobile offers cellular telephony service in Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu (excluding Chennai), Pondicherry and Mumbai and has a total subscriber base of over 800,000 customers.

Ranger FMS is part of Subex's revenue maximisation suite of products and services, RevMax.

Ranger helps operators to curb fraud through the use of innovative subscriber profiling techniques and advanced analytical capabilities.
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Kinetic begins exports of 'GF125' to Mexico
New Delhi: Kinetic Engineering has commenced exports of the recently-launched 'GF125' motorcycle to Mexico.

The 125cc motorcycle, made as part of the 'GF' series with technology from South Korea's Hyosung Motors, would be sold under the co-brandname of 'Kinetic in collaboration with Hyosung', a company statement said here.

The Pune-based two-wheeler maker also has an exports agreement with Hyosung under which it can sell the motorcycle worldwide through its own distribution network as well as the existing dealership network of Hyosung.

Hyosung exports motorcycles to more than 60 countries with 'GF' being the dominant brand in Germany, Egypt, France, Indonesia and Vietnam.

During April-February this fiscal, the company sold 40,280 motorcycles in the domestic market and exported 657 units of the 'Challenger'.
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HAL posts all-time high profit
New Delhi: The Hindustan Aeronautics has posted an all-time high profit and turnover, Rs 305 crore and Rs 2,730 crore (both provisional), respectively, during 2001-02.

That was a growth of 15 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively over the previous fiscal, a company statement said here.

HAL also exported goods and services worth Rs 67 crore, a 14 per cent rise over the previous year.
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Sterlite gets 5-star grading
Chennai:  The smelter complex of Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd at Tuticorin has been awarded five star grading for its health and safety management system by the British Safety Council.

The Tuticorin copper smelter complex is the first in the world to be awarded such a grading for safety standards. The five star rating would facilitate the smelter complex to compete for the Sword of Honour award given by the Council.
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Sasken launches new device platforms
Bangalore: Sasken Communication Technologies has unveiled two new device platforms Aparate and PenSeive which will function as desktop and hand-held web-pad devices respectively.

While Aparate is positioned as a basic level device, PenSeive is slotted at the high-end. Sasken is also currently drawing up plans to work on a third platform which will be targeted at the lower-end, positioned below Aparate.
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I-Flex to tap European market
Chennai:  I-Flex Solutions Ltd (I-Flex) plans to aggressively tap opportunities in Europe. Europe accounted for 19 per cent of the companys revenues of Rs 321 crore for the year ended March 2001.

The firm has bagged orders from Citibank and UBS Warburg. The orders would act as good referrals to further the companys growth in the region.

I-Flex, which is best known for Flexicube - an universal banking solution, has customised its offering to suit the local requirements.

Another area of opportunity in Europe is solutions for brokerages. An Amsterdam-based application service provider has hosted Flexcube@broker, an I-Flex solution, to provide a trading platform for brokers to trade on Euronext, a European trading system.
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Webdunia gets $3 million funding
Mumbai:  Leading Indian language portal Webdunia has closed its second round of funding with $3 million. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has come in as the lead investor.

The company received its first round of funding of $2.8 million in February 2000 from Walden International Investment Group and angel investor Prakash Bhalerao.

Webdunia runs a comprehensive general interest portal in Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. Webdunia currently offers multilingual e-mail, multilingual chat and an Indian language search engine.
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Pepsi, Coke slash prices
New Delhi:  Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have slashed the price of their 300-ml returnable glass bottles across all brands by 20 per cent, from Rs 10 to Rs 8.

The 300-ml RGB segment accounts for the major chunk of the total soft drinks market in the country. Both the companies follow region-specific pricing strategies for their brands.

Pepsi has also slashed prices of its 200-ml packs in Rajasthan and smaller cities to Rs 5 while Coke is following the same pricing strategy in some parts of Uttar Pradesh for its 200-ml bottles segment.
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Tatas to build transmission line for PowerGrid
Mumbai: Tata Projects Ltd will execute two turnkey projects worth Rs 76 crore for Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL).

The company will build the 238-km, 400-kv double circuit Dhaulganga-Bareilly transmission line under the Dhaulganga Transmission system and the 220-KV transmission strengthening project in Goa.

The company had recently bagged a Rs 39.4-crore order from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd for Kudankulam township project in Tamil Nadu.
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DCM Shriram promoters hike stake to 49.8 pc
New Delhi: The promoters' of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) have further raised their stake in the company to 49.8 per cent from 44 per cent at the start of the financial year through creeping acquisition route.

The Shriram brothers have mopped up almost 5 per cent stake from the open market for the year ending 31 March 2002.

With the Shriram brothers raising their stake to 49.8 per cent, the public holding has come down to about 28 per cent and FIs' stake stands at 22 per cent approximately.
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Mahindra-BT teams up with VeriSign
Mumbai: Mahindra-British Telecom has teamed up with VeriSign Inc to set up an information assurance laboratory at its Mumbai centre.

The centre would address security and trust solutions at a global level, said a news release from the company. The laboratory will shortly commence a third party certification service to test and certify the inter-operability of VeriSign's partner products with VeriSign's managed public key infrastructure service.

The laboratory would also develop expertise in areas of architecture, design and development of applications and simulate secure enterprise and Internet architectures on which the commercially deployed Internet infrastructure of companies would based.
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TV-18 plans to expand abroad
New Delhi: Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV-18) is planning to expand abroad. The company will look at various options, including setting up greenfield ventures or picking up equity.

The company has decided to issue secured partly convertible debentures of Rs 150 each to existing shareholders on a rights basis in a 1:13 ratio. It has also made a preferential allotment of 7 lakh shares at Rs 88 with Octopus VC Ltd.

The company will look at supplying content to other channels or picking up stake in either a television software production company or even a broadcasting company outside India.

The company has already done some preliminary work on this.
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Philips suspends ops at Kolkata unit
Kolkata: Philips India Ltd has suspended operations at its enabling technology group factory here. This follows the acceptance of a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) by all the 130 employees working in the factory, which has been manufacturing plastic parts for over 30 years now.

The turnover of the unit was pegged at Rs 12 crore in the last accounting year.
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IPCL turnover at Rs 5,400 cr
Ahmedabad: Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) has recorded a production of 1.36 million tonnes during 2001-02 as against an installed capacity of 1.35 mt.

According to a company release, IPCL has achieved a turnover of nearly Rs 5,400 crore, while it has been successful in marketing some 1.5 mt of petrochemical products.

The volume of production at the Vadodara and Nagothane complexes was over 100 per cent, while that at the Gandhar complex was at 97 per cent of the operating capacity.
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Tang plans more flavours
New Delhi: Tang from Kraft Foods is ready to launch two new variants and rationalise prices to take on competition head-on.

In addition to the original orange flavour, Tang is now being made available in lemon and mango flavours.

The two new flavours have been test-marketed extensively in the southern markets. Brand Tang is manufactured and marketed in India by KJS India Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Philip Morris India.

The company is mulling introducing another one-two flavours of Tang within the current calendar year.
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Hudco to raise Rs 5,200 cr
New Delhi: Housing & Urban Development Corporation Ltd. is targeting to raise Rs 5,200 crore of resources in the current financial year.

Bulk of the funds proposed to be raised in 2002-03 will be through bonds and short term loans, while Rs 255 crore is expected through additional equity infusion by the government.

In 2001-02, Hudco had raised Rs 5,073.11 crore, with Rs 2,468.16 crore coming from public sector bonds and Rs 1,130 crore coming from short-term loans.
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Amex to set up global service centre in India
New Delhi: American Express is expanding its global operations infrastructure in India by setting up a 1.37 lakh sq.ft service centre at Gurgaon, Haryana to service its clients worldwide.

This centre would offer activities such as voice and data based customer services, fraud and risk modelling and financial processing to American Express' customers, the company said in a statement here.

In recent months, American Express has entered into several strategic relationships with leading service providers at locations in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The centre is expected to complement this infrastructure and will employ several hundred full-time positions initially with room for further growth in the future.
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Schenectady ups Herdillia stake
Mumbai: Schenectady has hiked its stake in Herdillia Chemicals to 81 per cent from 61 per cent through preferential allotment of equity shares.

Schenectady Holdings India, the US firms Indian arm, has infused Rs 24 crore into Herdillia, a Duncan Goenka group company, at a total premium of Rs 12 crore last month.

Last year, Schenectady had picked up a 50 per cent stake in Herdillia by buying out the Duncan Goenka group.

The fresh infusion of funds will help the companys expansion and modernisation plans.
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Escorts plans region-specific tractor models
Mumbai: Escorts is planning to step up its presence in the 35-40 hp segment of the domestic market by launching different products for different regions.

The company, which had recently launched the "Josh", a 35 hp tractor aimed at farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, is set to launch the Farmtrac "Champion", a tractor targeted at Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra later this month.
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Goodricke lines up low priced brand
Kolkata: Goodricke Group Ltd will launch a sub-economy tea brand soon.

The brand will be pitted against the regional brands and will be sold at the same price as these brands.

The price would be approximately 10-20 per cent lower than Goodrickes economy brand, Zabardast.
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Godrej ropes in Priety Zinta
Mumbai: Godrej Appliances has signed on actress Priety Zinta as the brand ambassador for its refrigerator brand Pentacool.

The company will air its first commercial featuring Zinta on 3 April, which will be followed by print campaigns.

Godrej Appliances plans to spend Rs 15-20 crore on advertising and marketing its refrigerators.
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Maruti posts Rs 550 millon profit
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Limited has announced a net profit of Rs 550 million in the fiscal year ended March 2002.

The announcement marked a remarkable turnaround for Maruti which in the previous fiscal posted a $56 million loss ahead of the government's plans to dilute its equity in the joint venture company.

Maruti had a turnover of almost Rs 93 billion in the financial year ended 31 March.

"This turnaround by the company has come in a year when the car market was flat and the overall economic sentiment remained depressed," Maruti managing director Jagdish Khattar said in a statement releasing the company's annual financial performance.

Maruti sold about 340,000 vehicles in the domestic market during 2001-2002 compared with 335,000 units in 2000-2001.
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A-I plans acquisition of aircraft
New Delhi: Air-India is preparing a Rs 10,000 crore plan to acquire 23 new aircraft over the next 5 years.

The airline is also set to commence operations to the west coast of the United States.

The airline will continue with its current exercise of dry-leasing aircraft to meet current requirements.
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Coke to market Sunfil through FMCG cos
New Delhi: Coca-Cola is roping in large distributors of firms like Hindustan Levers, ITC, Britannia and Marico to promote Sunfil across the country.

Coca-Cola will make Sunfil available in grocery shops, paan shops and departmental stores to make a wider presence in the household segment.
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Balco begins en mass transfers
New Delhi: Bharat Aluminium Company management has effected an en-mass transfer of its employees in Delhi and other metros.

Balco Employees Union General Secretary P N Sharma said the transfers were illegal and termed it a breach of trust on the part of the new management.

The transfers would lead to movement of 160 employees across the four metros to its operational hub at Korba in Chhattisgarh.
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Forbes Gokak to acquire Electrolux stake
Mumbai: The Shapoorji Pallonji group company Forbes Gokak has concluded a deal to acquire Swedish white goods major Electrolux ABs 40 per cent stake in the joint venture Eureka Forbes for Rs 32 crore.

The acquisition will result in Eureka Forbes becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forbes Gokak since it already holds the other 60 per cent.

Forbes Gokak has also agreed to pay an annual royalty of Rs 25 lakh to Electrolux for using the Eureka Forbes brand name. This will be valid for a period of five years.
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Honda goes region-specific
New Delhi: Honda Motor Company is streamlining its Indian operations using an integrated region-specific strategy.

This integrated approach means, the Indian subsidiaries like Honda Siel, Hero Honda, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters and Honda Siel Power Products need to take their regional demand curves into consideration while finalising new models and technologies.

The company is looking to export the Accord in CBU form to Saarc countries and expand the Citys CBU export business beyond Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
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Indica plant closed for 40 days
Pune: Tata Engineering has closed its Indica car plant at Chikhali near here for 40 days with effect from 1 April, in a run up to the launch of its sedan.

Dealers were informed in early March about the closure of the plant for the proposed upgradation and asked to lift enough stock to tide them through April.
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Jindal's Haasil ready for release in May
Mumbai: Vijay Jindal, the former vice-chairman of Zee is all set to launch himself as film producer with his maiden title Haasil'.

Produced by Karma Productions, the film has been produced in a record time of less than nine months. With a mid-level budget of Rs five crore, the shooting and editing for Haasil' is over and the film is slated for release sometime in May this year.

Jindal is currently in negotiations with several music companies for the sale of the music rights of his film.
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ACC records 27.5% rise in production
Mumbai: There has been a 27.5 per cent rise in cement production by Associated Cement Company last month at 12.87 lakh tonnes as against 10.09 lakh tonnes in March 2001.

Cement despatches also rose by nearly 12 per cent at 12.73 lakh tonnes last month against 10.32 lakh tonnes in the same period last year.
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ONGC net profit up 8.1%
New Delhi: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has reported a 8.1 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 5,655 crore for 2001-02 as compared to Rs 5,229 crore in the previous year.

"The net profit has been worked out after making a provision of Rs 3,247 crore as corporate tax and payment of Rs 6,082 crore towards other statutary dues," an ONGC release said here.
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HPL sales fall short of target
Kolkata: Haldia Petrochemicals sales for the year ending March were Rs 24 billion rupees, 20 per cent short of its target.

HPL, eastern India's only petrochemicals unit, started full commercial production on 1 August last year and had targeted Rs 30 billion rupees in sales for its polymers and chemicals.

The HPL plant produced 750,000 metric tonnes of polymers and chemicals in 2001-02.
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PTC net profit at Rs 7.5cr
New Delhi: Power Trading Corporation has recorded a net profit of Rs 7.5 crore during 2001-02 over a turnover of Rs 350 crore.

The company, with an equity base of Rs 24 crore, traded 1,630 million units of energy during the last financial year surpassing its target of 1,500 million units that was set for the year, a PTC statement said here.
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Jay Shree promoters hike stake in buyback
New Delhi: Jay Shree Tea promoters have increased their stake by about two per cent to 39.21 per cent in the company under its equity buyback programme which closed on 30 March.

The buyback, which commenced on 24 May last year, was done at a price not exceeding Rs 62 per share, with the average price being Rs 51.20 per share and actual investment in the entire process was only Rs 2.06 crore.
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