Daewoo closes plant temporarily
New Delhi: Daewoo Motor India has temporarily shut down operations at its Surajpur plant near Delhi.

The fortnight-long shutdown has been put in place to lower inventory level as also buy time from creditors to put the unit back on track.

The Indian venture was left out of General Motors definitive agreement last month with Daewoo Motor Company of South Korea to acquire parts of its troubled empire.

Daewoo India management has since recommenced talks with its creditor banks and financial institutions seeking deferment of its loan repayment.
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AAI records all time-high turnover
New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India, which is in the process of long-term leasing of airports at four metropolitan cities, has recorded an all-time high turnover of over Rs 1,873 crore and a post-tax profit of Rs 214 crore in the last fiscal.

The turnover at Rs 1873.44 crore in 2000-01 is Rs 182.16 crore more than last fiscal, according to AAI's annual report for 2000-01 tabled in Parliament last week. Its turnover in the previous fiscal was Rs 1691.28 crore.

The AAI recorded an expenditure of Rs 1514.36 crore with over half of it going for depreciation and pay and allowances.

A large part of its income of Rs 1873.44 crore came from charges for route navigation facilities (Rs 586.25 crore) and landing, parking and housing charges (Rs 385.02 crore) earned from the airlines operating in and out of India.

The AAI's deemed foreign exchange earnings stood at Rs 521.49 crore in 2000-01 compared to Rs 479.82 crore in the previous fiscal, the report said.
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Union Bank net at Rs 314 cr
New Delhi: The net profit of government owned Union Bank of India more than doubled to Rs 314 crore during 2001-02 as against Rs 155 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Its deposits and advances went up by 15.8 per cent to Rs 40,000 crore and 24.5 per cent to Rs 22,850 crore respectively. Its net non performing assets came down to 6.26 per cent of net advances from 6.80 per cent last year.
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Promoters up stake in NIIT to 38.45%
New Delhi: Promoters NIIT have increased their stake in the company by about 3 per cent over the last few months to 38.45 per cent even as institutional holding fell by over 10 per cent to 41.29 per cent.

According to information available with the stock exchanges, Shiv Nadar Investments no longer holds 9.55 per cent stake in NIIT, but Slocum Investments, another Shiv Nadar's firm, has more than trebled its stake in the company to 16.22 per cent as on 31 March 2002.

Another promoter company Pace Industries has acquired 1.58 per cent in NIIT.
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Videocon, Mitsubishi in race for STC stake
New Delhi: Disinvestment in State Trading Corporation (STC) has attracted good response from the private sector, with about a dozen domestic and foreign companies, including the Videocon group and Japanese major Mitsubishi, expressing interest to take over the profit-making trading PSU.

In all 14 parties have filed expressions of interest to take over STC. The disinvestment ministry has rejected the application of one party while shortlisting the bids.

The shortlisted bidders have initiated the due diligence process which will be over by the month-end. The ministry has started work on the shareholders and share purchase agreements.
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Pentasoft issues pink slips to 50 employees
Hyderabad: Pentasoft Technologies Ltd has retrenched over 50 employees at its facility in Hyderabad. It is also on the verge of closing its Hyderabad operations.

The staff strength at the centre has been reduced to 30 professionals from 100 a year ago. Most of the top officials have left. There have been no fresh orders due to the downturn in the industry.
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Gujarat Gas in talks with Reliance, NTPC
Mumbai: British Gas promoted Gujarat Gas Company Ltd (GGCL) is in talks with Reliance Industries Ltd, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Kribhco for long-term supply of gas sourced from Lakshmi gasfield of Cairn Energy.

Negotiations are at an advanced stage with these companies and the final outcome would be known within a month or two after consultations with BGs top brass in London.

GGCL plans to source gas from other suppliers as well. It has also signed a transportation contract for an additional 2.7 million CMD.

The company has an exclusive five year contract with Cairn for supply of 1.7 million CMD of gas from July 102 from Lakshmi field located in Gulf of Cambay.
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Bausch & Lomb merges 2 units
New Delhi: Bausch & Lomb Eyecare (India) has merged its vision care and surgical care divisions to become a complete eyecare company.

The eyecare company has also obtained the approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to launch its own range of international pharmaceuticals products in India.

With the merger of the two divisions and plans to launch pharmaceutical products relating to eyecare, the company aims to be a total eyecare company offering full range of medicines and surgical vision care.
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US ice-cream major scouting for partners
Chennai: Haagen Dazs, the world's largest super premium ice-cream brand, is scouting for potential partners and franchisees in India. The ice-cream and frozen dessert brand is sold in over 54 countries.

Haagen Dazs is looking at adopting the boutique-cum-retailing model, where the company's products will be available at both the specially appointed boutique ice-cream stores and general retail outlets. Haagen Dazs operates through a network of over 700 Haagen Dazs cafes, clubs and speciality ice-cream shops in over 54 countries.
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Sony to buy out Discovery stake in JV
New Delhi: Sony Entertainment TV is willing to buy back Discovery Communications entire 26 per cent stake in their 74:26 distribution JV if Discovery wants to exit the venture at any point of time.

Sony Entertainment TV and Discovery had floated a joint venture in March, creating a platform of six channels. Initially, the joint venture would be limited to a distribution partnership, where the pay channels of the two groups would be jointly marketed as a single package.

Discovery beams two channels to India-the flagship Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. SET, on the other hand, has four channels, flagship Sony, AXN, SET Max and CNBC India.
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TCS IPO may be delayed
Mumbai: The much-awaited initial public offering from Tata Consultancy Services may be delayed because of an ambiguity in the wording of a section of the Income-Tax Act.

The problem has arisen because Section 10A of the I-T Act, which confers the tax benefits, also contains a clause which says that the benefits cannot be claimed if the ownership of the company changes.
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Focus shifts to Reliance Communications Ltd
Kolkata: Reliance is shifting focus from Reliance Infocom to its subsidiary Reliance Communications Ltd (RCL), with some 500 employees of Reliance Infocom being transferred en masse to Reliance Communications. Reliance Infocom now has over 2,000 employees on its rolls.

The strategic move comes at a time when the Ambanis are close to finalising the CDMA network equipment vendor for their all-India wireless-in local loop (WLL) project which will be implemented shortly by Reliance Communications.

RCL will not only execute WLL network rollouts across 18 basic circles, but will also be the prime Reliance corporate vehicle for rolling out NLD/ILD services.
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BASF Coatings to convert Rs 2.07-cr loan into equity
Ahmedabad: BASF Coatings Limited is planning to convert its entire external commercial borrowing from the UK-based parent BASF Coatings Limited, UK into equity.

The parent company is expected to acquire 7,80,000 shares from Hydro S&S Industries Limited and individual shareholders, thereby also increasing the paid-up capital of BASF Coatings Limited.

BASF Coatings had earlier obtained a loan of Rs 2.07 crore from the parent company at six-month Libor plus 0.5 per cent per annum interest.

BASF Coatings Limited UK has also received permission to pump in an additional Rs 5 crore through Bhadro Coatings Limited, thereby increasing the paid up capital of BASF Coatings Limited to Rs 8 crore.
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Swiss co to hike stake in SQL
Kolkata: Sika Qualcrete Ltd (SQL), one of the countrys leading construction chemicals producers, is going to divest the management control of the company to its Swiss partner. Sika AG SQL is a 60:40 joint venture of Bhaskar Sen/Sadhan Dutta and Sika AG and has an equity capital of Rs 80 lakh.
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Court orders demerger of JBM Tools
New Delhi: JBM Tools Limited, a company originally promoted by Delhi-based industrialist SK Arya and later on joined by Tatas as strategic alliance partner, has been demerged pursuant to an order passed by the Delhi High Court.

The SK Arya group has acquired 50 per cent equity stake of Tatas in JBM Auto Components Limited by way of inter-se transfer among promoters and JBM Tools Limited has now been acquired wholly by the Tatas and now no connection or relation with JBM Group or SK Arya.
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Issal to offer cheaper steel
Pune: Indian Seamless Steels and Alloys Ltd (Issal) is looking to improve its cost of production through higher capacity utilisation and a conscious effort to bring down costs further.

Issal, which has restructured its operations, wiping out over Rs. 200 crore losses from its books through equity reduction and other measures over the past 18 months, is also in talks with the five financial institutions who have an exposure in it, to restructure its Rs. 240 crore debt.

During the course of the past six months, ISSAL has reduced its employees by 100. Over the next two years, it will not fill any vacancy created through the process of natural attrition.
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Faber Heatkraft planning new plant
New Delhi: Faber Heatkraft, is planning to add a new plant to its existing one at Pune by 2004.

A joint venture between Faber SpA Italy and Heatkraft of Pune, the company is involved in the manufacturing of kitchen chimneys, cooking ranges and gas hobs.

The company, which is into the manufacturing of electric chimneys and kitchen burners, has earmarked a budget of Rs 6 cr for promotional campaigns this year.
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MTNL to float new software firm
New Delhi: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is floating ComSoft, a new venture for developing communications software. This will be MTNLs second subsidiary. Earlier, its IT-enabled services division was hived off into a subsidiary called Millennium Technologies.

MTNL is also launching next month a research and training centre called the Asian Institute of ICT (information, communication and technology) with an investment of Rs 100 crore. The centre will provide managerial training and undertake strategic research in the area of communications.
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Tatas, Morrison to invest $10 m in Barista Intl
Mumbai: The Tatas and Turner Morrison will invest $10 million through fresh equity in Barista Coffee International to fund its overseas expansion.

Barista Coffee International will be the holding company for the groups foray in different countries.

Currently, the Tatas hold a 34.3 per cent stake in Barista, through Tata Coffee.

The company plans to expand in the entire South Asian region, including in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, the UAE and Nepal. It has eyes on Europe and parts of Africa too.
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Eicher to invest Rs 130 cr in HCV project
New Delhi: Eicher Motor will invest close to Rs 130 crore for its heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) project.

The first phase, in which an investment of Rs 70 crore has already been made, is near completion, and trial runs of the first vehicles produced have begun.

In the financial year ending 31 March 2003, Eicher intends to manufacture and market around 1,000 units of the vehicle. Capacity expansion will take place after a review next year.

The second phase of the business implementation is expected to require another Rs 30-40 crore worth investments.
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