THS ties up with French retail major
New Delhi:  The Home Stores (India) Ltd (THS) has joined hands with the French multi-format retailer Groupe Casino for setting up its chain of hypermarkets in Delhi. The company is also in talks with the US-based retail chain Dollar Stores to team up for its chain of supermarkets branded Sabka Bazaar.

The company plans to divest 49 per cent equity stake in the French majors favour, while the rest will be retained by Super Sabka Bazaar. While THS will be responsible for operations of the stores, Groupe Casino will provide global sourcing, maintain back-end operations like supply chain and systems.

The French retailer plans to invest $100 million in the hypermarket chains.

THS plans to open two more hypermarkets in Delhi and adjoining areas like Vaishali, Ghaziabad and Faridabad by the end of September 2002. THS, along with its other strategic partner Ansal Housing and Construction Ltd, has invested Rs 50 crore in its first hypermarket and plans to invest Rs 10 crore on each new store.
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Sony Ericsson launches handsets
New Delhi:  Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the 50:50 joint venture between Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Sony Corporation, announced the launch of the first batch of Sony-Ericsson branded handsets in India.

Beginning with the launch of T68i the worlds first multi-media messaging phone with attachable camera Sony Ericsson will launch P800, a multi-media smart phone with built-in camera and organiser; and Z700, a phone with gaming and downloads capability during July-September 2002.

T68i is being offered at Rs 26,000 and its accessory CommuniCam, small digital camera that can be attached to take pictures, is priced at Rs 8,000.
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Neutron Electronics to market Cybervision products
Mumbai: Neutron Electronic Systems will market and distribute Taiwanese company Cybervisions range of products in the Indian market. The arrangement is for Cybervisions surveillance product range that Neutron will distribute in the Indian market.

The Cybervision products will work on a large area network (LAN) instead of a closed circuit television.

Cybervisions surveillance products will come in a price range starting at Rs 1.5 lakh.
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BoI sells two MF schemes to Taurus
Mumbai: Bank of India has sold two mutual fund schemes to Taurus Mutual Fund.

The Boinanza equity linked saving on tax scheme and the Boinanza exclusive growth scheme have a total corpus of Rs 22 crore, and have been sold on an asset liability basis to Taurus whereby Bank of India will get a commission of around 2 per cent over the NAV.
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Iffco-Kribhco pitch for SCI stake
New Delhi: The Iffco-Kribhco pair are keen on acquiring the controlling stake of 51 per cent in Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) being put up for sale by the government.

As on 31 March 2001, Iffco had reserves and surplus of Rs 2,147 crore, while that of Kribhco was Rs 1,492 crore.

Apart from their huge combined reserves, the two co-operatives also have tremendous leveraging capacity on account of their low debt-equity ratios. Kribhco is also a zero-debt entity.
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LMW effects 10% cut in pay
Coimbatore: The textile machinery manufacturing major, Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd, has issued an office order, indicating the management's decision to effect a reduction in pay to all categories of staff members by 10 per cent, effective from 1 April.

The company has cited general recession and industrial slowdown, leading to lower utilisation of plant capacity for effecting the cut.

All the units and offices, including the corporate office and liaison offices of the company, have taken to a five-day week schedule from the first of this month, until further orders.
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Fiat to step up Palio production
New Delhi: Fiat India Ltd is planning to scale up production of Palio to 225 units from the current level of 200 a day.

At present, there is a waiting period of about 4-6 weeks for the delivery of Palio. Fiat is aiming to sell 50,000 Palio cars in India in calendar 2002.

The company is also on schedule to launch three new cars the Palio weekend, the Palio Adventure and the New Siena before June.
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Bhel to pick up 20 pc stake in KPCL project
Chennai: Bhel has decided to take a 20 per cent stake in the company that would be set up by Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) for implementing a 500 MW thermal power project near Bellary. Bhel would be investing around Rs 90 crore in the company.

The Jindal group would also pick up about 25 per cent of the equity in the company.

The project is being put up at a cost of around Rs 2,250 crore.

Bhels contribution to the equity would be in the form of equipment supplied to the plant.
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Luxor acquires Qutub Hotel
New Delhi: Luxor Writing Instruments has acquired the India Tourism Development Corporation -promoted Qutub Hotel in a Rs 35.7-crore open bid.

The acquisition has been made through a 50:50 joint venture between the vice-chairman of Luxor Hotels and Resorts Pvt Ltd D.K. Jain and the managing director of the Hyatt Group Sushil Gupta. Luxor intends to launch a countrywide chain of hotels and resorts.

Qutub Hotel is the first property that has been purchased by Luxor.
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NextLinx gets Danzas project
Bangalore: Danzas of Switzerland has selected NextLinx Corp, a global trade management solutions provider, for its landed cost and compliance solutions in a pilot project.

The solution developed would support the procurement and logistics processes of the industrial branch of Organizacin Techint, an Italo-Argentinian multinational group. NextLinx India will be developing and implementing the solution for the project.
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Eureka Forbes plans new launches
New Delhi: Eureka Forbes is planning a slew of new launches.

These include Aquaguard Nova priced at Rs 7,600, a softener model for areas which get hard water, an arsenic removal model, an iron removal model, a fluoride removing model and Aquapower, which can run without electricity.

Eureka Forbes is also planning to increase its number of call centres from the six to 10 in one year. The company has set aside a budget of Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore for advertising.
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Tata open offer for VSNL
Mumbai: The Tata open offer for equity shares of VSNL opens on 10 April. Panatone Finvest, the holding company, is making an open offer for the purchase of up to 5.7 crore equity shares, representing up to 20 per cent of the equity capital of VSNL.

The offer is being made to the shareholders at the price of Rs 202 per share the same price offered to the government. The open offer closes on 9 May 2002.
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Maruti to launch new Esteem
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog is launching a new variant of Esteem. Fitted with a power steering, the new Esteem will be priced at Rs 5.11 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The price of the base version of the Esteem LX at Rs 4.95 lakh is likely to be reduced to Rs 4.80 lakh.

The fully-loaded Esteem VX comes at a price tag of Rs 5.44 lakh.

The new variant, called Esteem LXi, will be positioned between basic variant Esteem LX and top end variant Esteem VX.
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Zenith raises stake in Strides to 71%
New Delhi: Zenith Pharmaceuticals is increasing its equity stake in Strides Arcolab from 47.87 per cent to 71.33 per cent.

The acquisition of the additional 23.46 stake in Strides will cost the Mauritius-based Zenith Rs 96 crore.

Zenith will be acquiring the additional stake through the preferential issue route. It will be paying a premium of Rs 60 a share for the acquisition.
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Reliance emerges largest shareholder in BSES
Mumbai: The Reliance group has emerged as the largest shareholder in BSES, surpassing the 36.5 per cent combined holding of the domestic financial institutions.

The change in shareholding comes at a crucial time for BSES, with its chairman and managing director R V Shahi set to take charge as the union power secretary next week.

BSES has decided, in principle, to take over a 48 MW power project at Goa and a 500 MW project at Jamnagar in Gujarat promoted by Reliance.
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Daikin plans assembly line for ACs
New Delhi: Japanese air-conditioning major Daikin Industries Ltd is planning to set up a greenfield facility in the country for assembling its air-conditioners.

The company had acquired the AC manufacturing facility of Siddharth Shriram-promoted Siel Ltd two years ago.

The proposed plant is likely to be set up with an investment of around Rs 50 crore.

Daikin registered a turnover of Rs 84 crore in 2001-02.

The company will continue to source compressors and electronic inputs from Japan and other overseas subsidiaries.
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Bajaj Tempo to set up new divisions
Mumbai: Bajaj Tempo has decided to create divisions out of existing businesses to impart greater focus and accountability.

The Pune-based company manufactures three-wheelers, multi-utility vehicles, tractors and light commercial vehicles.

The reorganisation is expected to be completed in about 3-6 months.

During 2000-01, Bajaj Tempo had registered losses of Rs 17.35 crore on a turnover of Rs 615.07 crore, largely due to closure of its Akurdi plant for a month and a heavy provisioning towards depreciation, in addition to poor market demand.
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Apollo Tyres sales revenue up 18 per cent
Kolkata: Apollo Tyres sales revenue jumped by 18 per cent at Rs 1716.54 crore in 2001-02 against the previous year.

A Rs 1700-crore-plus revenue has enabled the company register a compounded annual growth rate of 14 per cent.

Against a negative overall industry growth in the tractor tyre segment, Apollo has posted a 42 per cent growth last year.

Similarly, in the commercial vehicle and & light commercial vehicle tyre segment, which has been crawling at the rate of two per cent, Apollo posted a 20 per cent growth.
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Gas allocation to Maruti cancelled
 New Delhi: The government today said that the natural gas allocation to Maruti Udyog Ltd was cancelled because the car manufacturer was using gas for purposes other than captive power generation.

"Maruti was allocated surplus natural gas on temporary basis for captive power generation but the company was generating electricity and supplying to Haryana government on commercial considerations," petroleum minister Ram Naik told reporters here.

MUL was allocated 0.5 million cubic metres of gas from the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline on temporary basis till such time as the Delhi Viduyt Board's Pragati power plant is commissioned.
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Sandvik may get delisted
Mumbai: Sandvik AB has announced the second open offer for Sandvik Asia at Rs 850 per share.

The aim of the parent company is to garner 100% equity of the Indian arm and delist the share from the exchanges.

Sandvik AB had increased its stake to 92.17% after the first open offer, an official statement said, adding that the second offer is for acquiring 1.55 lakh shares. The offer will open on 15 April and close on 3 May.
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Aztec FY02 net crashes 68%
Mumbai: Aztec Software & Technology Services has reported a 68% decline in net profit at Rs 13.78 crore for the year ended 31 March 2002 when compared with Rs 20.15 crore in the previous year.

Total income also decreased to Rs 78.89 crore from Rs 79.92 crore in the previous fiscal.

The board has recommended a dividend of 16% (Rs 0.50) per share of Rs 3.
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Mphasis Q4 net up 79%
Mumbai: Mphasis has reported a 79.19% rise in net profit at Rs 13.26 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March2002 when compared with Rs 7.4 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenue declined to Rs 83.99 crore from Rs 84.53 crore.
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BTAL raises Rs 280 crore through private placement
Mumbai: Cellular major Birla-Tata-AT&T (BTAL) has raised Rs 280 crore by placing ten-year, cumulative, redeemable, preference shares with Standard Chartered Bank.

The company is in final stage of talks with domestic banks and financial institutions to mop up another $40 million. Standard Chartered has the mandate from the company to raise $100 million as rupee funds.

The three promoters - the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T - have infused an additional equity of Rs 557 crore in the fiscal 2001-02. As on March 31, 2002, the company has a total debt of Rs 1,410 crore and equity of Rs 2,240 crore.
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BPL Tele launches new gizmo
Bangalore: BPL Telecom has launched a product to help firms combine Internet data and telephone lines.

The product will help corporate customers cut costs by using their local switching equipment and the Internet to make voice telephone calls and offer functions such as messaging and video streaming.

The SNX 8500 is India's first indigenously built integrated enterprise communications platform designed around a Gigabit IP switching fabric and combines the benefit of an IP-PBX, media server, CTI server across LAN, WAN and traditional copper-wired networks.
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Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 US jobs
Chicago: Arthur Andersen would axe 7,000 jobs out of its 26,000-strong US workforce.

The process of whittling down staff numbers could take several months, the company said. The axe would fall most heavily in the areas of audit practice and administrative services.

The reduction in the US workforce is coupled with measures aimed at reducing
expenditures, the accountancy firm said.

Most of Andersen's remaining US staff would continue to provide services to clients and build a firm with audit and tax expertise, it said.
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Dabur wants deals for anti-cancer drug
New Delhi: Dabur India has initiated negotiations with two global pharmaceutical giants for co-licensing its anti-cancer DRF 7295 molecule for drug development and marketing.

Co-licensing with a global pharma giant will help DIL to get access to the required expertise for phase III clinical trial and successful development and marketing of the anti-cancer drug.

DIL is focussing on developing drugs for cancer management. It is working on 29 product patented molecules for cancer treatment.
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Arvind Mills gets HC nod for debt restructuring
Ahmedabad: Arvind Mills has been given a go ahead by the Gujarat high court for carrying out debt restructuring plan.

The plan would not only enable the company to post a one-time networth increase of Rs 500 crore in the forthcoming quarterly results due next week but also wipe out the accumulated losses of over Rs 500 crore. The company had posted a whopping Rs 300 crore loss in 2000-01, both on account of a heavy interest burden on borrowings which exceeded Rs 360 crore and also due to the slump in worldwide demand for denim.

The recast is expected to provide a permanent reduction in the interest burden of the company, halving it from Rs 360 crore to Rs 180-Rs 190 crore annually.
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Rallis, Tata Chem to set up Kisan Kendras
Hyderabad: Tata Group companies, Rallis India and Tata Chemicals plan to set up farm management services christened Kisan Kendras in Andhra Pradesh.

The first centre at Vijayawada will provide technology expertise for the fruits and vegetable growers in and around the Krishna basin. While the cost of the centre is estimated at Rs 80 lakh. The marketing of the final produce is facilitated through sub-centres available through the Rallis network chain.

The Tatas have set up three centres - one in Madhya Pradesh, Chitradurga in Karnataka and Nasik in Maharashtra.
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Amway to strengthen Persona brand
Kolkata: Amway India plans to strengthen its presence in India by introducing more India-specific products. The company has decided to fortify its newly launched Persona umbrella brand of cosmetic products, as well as explore options to export them in other Asian countries.

Amway has two products in the Persona range - toothbrush for adults and a newly launched talcum powder. By May this year, the company has lined up a series of launches that include a toothbrush for children to be called Persona Junior, a family toilet bar soap and hair grooming products for men.

Amway India clocked a turnover of Rs 553 crore in 2000-01 and accounts for almost 40 per cent of the Rs 1,300 crore organised direct selling industry in India.
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Silverline moves senior management to India
Hyderabad: Silverline Technologies Limited has decided to shift senior management of its global operations to India from the US.

The move aims at further augmenting the quality and timeliness of delivery function, allow rapid expansion of the companys offshore delivery base to serve geographically dispersed clients.
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GE Capital to set up 3 contact centres
New Delhi: GE Capital India is in the process of setting up three new contact centres, each in Pune, Mohali (near Chandigarh) and Jaipur. These centres with a capacity of 1,000 seats each are expected to be up and running by December-end, 2003.

The company already has contact centres in Gurgaon (3,500 seats), Hyderabad (2,500 seats) and Bangalore (2,000 seats).

At present, the company has about 11,000 contact centre agents and by next year, GE Capital is likely to induct at least 2,000 agents.
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