Wipro net up to Rs 885.4 cr
Bangalore: Wipro's net profit for 2001-02 went up by 32 per cent to Rs 885.4 crore. The revenue was Rs 3,492.6 crore which grew by 12 per cent over the previous year. The company's net profit grew by 3.39 per cent sequentially in the fourth quarter to Rs 231.2 crore while revenues grew by 7.38 per cent to Rs 940.6 crore.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT arm of Wipro, registered a revenue decline of 3.36 per cent sequentially to Rs 588.4 crore during the fourth quarter of 2001-02. The profit before interest and tax too declined by 8 per cent to Rs 192.4 crore during the same period.

"We expect pricing pressure to continue at least through the first half of the year and put pressure on margins," Wipro chairman Azim Premji said while announcing the annual results.

"Our performance of 12 per cent year-on-year offshore price increase and 15 per cent onsite price increase is tough to repeat in the current environment," Premji said, indicating that Wipro would have a tougher year ahead.
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Dabur hires Heidrick
New Delhi: Dabur India Ltd has given the mandate of finding a new chief executive for the company to consultancy firm Heidrick and Struggles. The chief executive will be hired in place of Ninu Khanna, who recently stepped down from the post.

Khanna had joined Dabur India as its chief executive in November 1998 on a three-year contract. The contract had come to an end in November 2001.

Khanna had joined Dabur from Colgate Palmolive. It was during Khanna's tenure that Dabur took a global exposure in oncology.
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Ebony to promote retail chain
New Delhi: The Ebony chain of outlets is considering strategic tie-ups for possible shop-in-shops to increase its brand equity and also to lure more customers.

The chain has tied up with Planet M for music, the Chandigarh-based food and grocery store, Cossets, for packaged foods and dry grocery and Hyderabad-based Banjara Blues footwear company.
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RMG David gets 8 new clients
New Delhi: RMG David has wrested eight new clients, adding an annualised capital billing worth Rs 20 crore over the last one month. With the new business, the agency's current billing totals Rs 35 crore.

The new accounts include Daawat basmati rice in Delhi following a multi-agency pitch. With a media billing of Rs 1.5 crore, the agency aims to revive the brand and offer it a facelift. A new television commercial is in the pipeline.

The other new businesses that RMG has wrested include Radio City FM, Oberoi Constructions, Classic Stripes, Classic Polo T-shirts, a project on Indus League's garment brand Scullers.
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Apollo to open Colombo facility by month-end
New Delhi: Apollo Lanka, a 500-bed hospital promoted by the Apollo group, will be operational in Colombo by the end of the month. A total investment of Rs 133 crore has gone into the project, of which the Rs 550-crore Apollo Group has invested Rs 30 crore. The total built-up area of the hospital is around 450,000 square feet.

With the launch of Apollo Lanka, the number of hospitals owned by the Apollo Group will touch 15. The Apollo Lanka project began six years ago with the formation of the holding company Lanka Hospitals Corporation.
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Essel Propack eyes acquisitions in Europe
Mumbai: Essel Propack, the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel group company, has trained its sights on acquisition opportunities in Europe. The laminated tubes manufacturing major is also planning capacity expansion in its existing units in China, Egypt and Latin America.

The company is aiming at more that doubling its capacity to 7 billion tubes per annum by 2005.

The current capacity of the company is around 3 billion tubes per annum of which the Indian market accounts for 1.2 billion tubes, the Chinese market consumes around 1 billion and the balance supplied to the rest of the world.
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Essel Propack to set up manufacturing unit in US
Mumbai: Essel Propack is setting up a manufacturing unit at North Carolina in the US. The company has entered into a five-year supply contract with Procter & Gamble for their complete requirement in the North American market.

The proposed project, christened Taj, would be set up at an investment of $20 million and would be a 100 per cent subsidiary of Essel Propack.

The project, with capacity of around 500 million tubes per annum, would see an increase in the revenue of the company by around 15-18 per cent.
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Reckitt to focus on power brands
Kolkata: Reckitt Benckiser (India) has identified Dettol, Harpic and Mortein as its power brands, and plans to divert a major chunk of its media spend to these products.

Reckitt Benckiser increased its media spend by 49 per cent to Rs 29.65 crore during the year. The company's other brands include Cherry Blossom, which commands a market share of 67.7 per cent in the shoe-care category, Lizol disinfectant cleaner, Haze incense sticks, Mansion floor polish, Dispirin Plus in the analgesics segment, and Colin in the glass cleaning category.
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Jisco promoters raise stake by 5 per cent
Mumbai: The promoters of Jindal Iron & Steel Company (Jisco) have increased their stake in the company by 5 per cent. As a result, the promoters now hold a little over 48 per cent in the company, up from 43.64 as on 31 December 2001.

Non-resident Indians offloaded around 3.5 per cent, while retail investors upped their holding by about 1.5 per cent, to 31.97 per cent.

Promoters of the Rs 7,000 crore Jindal group have been consolidating their holdings in other group companies as well.

The group recently increased its stake in flagship Jindal Strips by around 5.9 per cent to 40.92 per cent.
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BPL to go for business restructuring
New Delhi: BPL is evaluating merger of its two appliance companies into one entity and spinning off the alkaline battery business as part of a comprehensive restructuring exercise.

The Nambiars, promoters of the BPL group, have said this restructuring will result in the group's myriad businesses to be regrouped into five distinct heads so that complicated cross-holdings within group companies could be removed.
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HCL Perot plans IPO
New Delhi: HCL Perot Systems, a 50:50 joint venture between India's HCL Technologies and the US-based Perot Systems, is planning to float an initial public offering to raise additional capital for the company's expansion activities.

HCL Perot had earlier announced its plans to go in for listing on the stock exchange last year but was forced to put it on hold after a blizzard of allegations of insider trading shook the Indian financial markets and sent the benchmark index into a tizzy.
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HM to offer new cars for old taxis
Kolkata: Hindustan Motors has introduced a unique taxi exchange scheme that will not only help in curbing the pollution problem caused by the older taxis but also enable owners to improve their revenue.

The scheme enables taxi owners to exchange their old taxi for a new Ambassador Classic 1.5 Diesel, Bharat Stage II compliant by accepting the old car as an equivalent to the down payment.

The balance after the exchange could be paid to UCO Bank in 50 monthly installments of Rs 5000 each.
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Cement Corp to close 7 units
New Delhi: The government has asked the Cement Corporation of India to shut down its seven non-operational units.

The cabinet permitted the CCI to take advance action to close seven non-operational units. The modalities for meeting the expenditure on VRS would be worked out by the ministry of finance and ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises.

The seven non-operational units are Mandhar Cement Plant in Chhatisgarh, Kukunta plant in Karnataka, Nayagaon plant in Madhya Pradesh, Akaltara in Chhatisgarh, Charkhi Dadra Cement Plant in Haryana, Adilabad plant in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Grinding Unit of Delhi.
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Madras Fert plans VRS
Chennai:  Madras Fertilisers Ltd (MFL) has successfully concluded its third voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) with over 200 employees opting for it. The company is now planning to come out with another VRS scheme aimed at reducing its total workforce further.

With the successful completion of the VRS, the total work force of MFL has come down to 1,500. The company is currently doing an internal assessment of the staff requiremnt and skill levels to identify further redundancy among the workforce.
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Tupperware pacts with HLL
Chennai: Tupperware India (Pvt) Ltd has entered into an agreement with Hindustan Lever Ltd for cross promotion of products in the north, east and western markets.

Tupperware containers would be sold along with HLLs Dalda refined oil packets which would serve as a lead generating mechanism for customers to participate in the Tupperware parties. The company would flag the new promotional strategy from 28 April.

By the end of the year, the plastic food storage manufacturer is planning to reach out to 45 cities and would also launch a new range of 15 products targeting children. The company has introduced a range of 80 products in the Indian market so far.
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Vaidyanath SSK to set up ethanol distillery
Mumbai:  Vaidyanath SSK Ltd, company promoted by BJP vice-President Gopinath Munde, plans to invest Rs 11 crore in setting up a distillery with a capacity of 45,000 litre per day for the production of ethanol.

The sugar cooperative, which is expected to earn a profit of Rs 4 crore after the end of present crushing season, proposes to manufacture ethanol not from molasses but from secondary cane juice. The technology has been provided by the Pune-based Praj company in association with Delta-T Corp.
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Skoda to unveil Fabia
New Delhi:  Czech auto manufacturer Skoda is planning to launch the Fabia sedan in India by year-end. The car will be positioned in the mid-size segment, competing with Ford Ikon and Hyundai Accent.

Skoda Auto will start assembling engines and gearboxes in India for its mid-size sedan Octavia by July this year.

The company also plans to launch a premium version of Octavia Elegance and luxury car Laurin and Klement this year.

"From July, we will start the next upgraded assembly line for assembling engines.
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Panalpina to invest $2,50,000 in India
New Delhi:  Panalpina World Transport (holding), a Swiss forwarding and logistics company, will invest about $2,50,000 to expand its Indian operations this fiscal.

The company has already put in $100,000 last year towards upgrading its infrastructure and the fresh investment would be directed towards further expansion of its business as also enhancing its office network.

Panalpina India is hoping to end the financial year 2001-2002 with a turnover of Rs 100 crore, a growth of 20 per cent. It has set a target of 30 per cent growth this year.
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