Mahanadi Coalfields achieves highest sales realisation among Orissa cos
Bhubaneswar: Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), the second largest coal company under Coal India Ltd (CIL), has surpassed aluminium major National Aluminium Company (Nalco) by achieving higher sales realisations and higher gross profit during 2002-03, to become the number one company in Orissa. MCL has achieved a sales realisation of Rs 2,803.44 crore in 2002-03 against Nalco's turnover of Rs 2,734.32 crore during the year. The coal company posted a profit before tax of Rs 775 crore in 2002-03 against Nalco's Rs 752.12 crore, according to the provisional financial results of the two companies. MCL has also posted a net profit (profit after tax) of Rs 473 crore, close to Nalco's Rs 522.07 crore during the year.
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Cadila Launches new drug for asthma treat
Ahmedabad: Cadila Pharma-ceuticals Ltd (CPL), the Ahmedabad-based Rs 550 crore pharma company, has made a foray into the Rs 442 crore anti-asthmatic market with the launch of its first drug in this category, Montelukast, under the brand name Mottelast. Till recently, the main stay of asthma management were corticosteroids and beta-2 agonists. However, these regimes are associated with serious side effects like immunosuppression and corticosteroid induced osteoporosis. CPL's new drug Montelukast is used as an adjuvant in the management of asthma which enables reduction in dosage of corticosteroids and beta-2 agonists thereby reducing the side effects drastically, according to a company release.
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Varroc Engg Noida plant to supply plastic parts to LG
New Delhi: The Rs 285-crore plastic parts major Varroc Engineering has set up its sixth plant in Greater Noida with an initial investment of Rs 11.5 crore. The facility, with a processing capacity of 3,000 tonne per annum (TPA), is part of Varroc's strategic partnership with LG Electronics for the supply of plastic injection moulded components for the latter's refrigerator line.
The facility will also service Varroc's auto clientele which include Bajaj Auto, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter, Yamaha, Telco, Mahindra & Mahindra, LML, Tata Toyo Radiators and Fiat India.
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Jet Airways to unveil new fares to stimulate growth
Mumbai: Jet Airways plans to introduce air fares which will be much cheaper than normal fares from June 15 with the new 'Super Apex Fares'. Speaking at a function to commemorate 10 years of flying in the Indian skies, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said, "The new fares are to stimulate growth, improve the bottomline of the airline and are primarily aimed at carving a new more profitable market." He added that the apex fares which were introduced last year had helped to create a market by itself without which the airline's business would have gone down by eight-nine per cent. The new fares are aimed at new customers who travel by road and rail by making air travel more viable to them. Through these new fares, the company plans to generate additional revenue without, in any way, diluting the product.
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Tata Teleservices reports Rs 205-crore loss in '02-03
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, formerly Hughes Tele.com (I) Ltd, has reported a higher loss of Rs 205 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003 as compared to Rs 148.49 crore for the previous financial year ended March 31, 2002. Total revenues registered by the company has increased by 33.68 percent from Rs 276.5 crore to Rs 369.64 crore for the above mentioned periods. The company has reported a maiden cash profit of Rs 12.3 crore. For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2003, the company has reported a loss of Rs 124.74 crore as compared to Rs 44.17 crore for the corresponding period of the previous financial year. Total revenues for the fourth quarter of the current financial year has increased by 44.6 per cent to Rs 101.27 crore from last year's figure of Rs 70.02 crore.
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Century Enka plans Rs 150-crore investment to expand units
Mumbai: Century Enka Ltd, a BK Birla group company, has embarked on an around Rs 150 crore expansion plan for its plants located in Pune and Bharuch. The company plans to invest a majority of the amount through internal accruals for its proposed expansion and modernisation programme. The company has already completed the first phase of modernisation of nylon tyre cord conversion plant in Pune during 2002-03. The second phase of modernisation of textile yarn plant in Pune is likely to be completed by December 2003. Further, the company is taking steps to revamp its polymerisation capacity at Pune plant. The company has also undertaken an expansion of nylon tyre cord fabric capacity by around 2,000 tonne per annum. It is expected to be completed by September 2004.
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Trai likely to curb number of tariff plans
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is believed to be considering restricting the number of telecom tariff plans by the operators. "We may restrict the number of tariff plans. The current permissible limit is 25 for telecom services, which is too large," Trai sources said. Sources said that this was currently under consideration and pointed out that a decision on the matter would be taken in "a few days". Asked if the restriction in number of tariffs was being considered for a specific telecom service, sources said it would cover all telecom services.
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Financial crunch forces Morepen to delay FD repayments
Mumbai: Morepen Laboratories has been finding it difficult to service its fixed deposits during the last six months. The New Delhi-based company has blamed administrative issues emerging from the takeover of its former bank, Bank of Madura, by ICICI Bank and a cash crunch as exports of a much-touted allergy drug to the US were delayed.When contacted, the company said that in the last four to five months, it has paid Rs 40 crore to meet redemption demands after investors panicked when cheques began to bounce in October '02. The company claims that around 20,000 investors have got their money back in the last few months. Morepen Lab currently has about 80,000 FD holders with the outstanding principal of Rs 150 crore. The deposits, which are unrated, carry a coupon rate of 10.5 per cent to 11 per cent with tenures ranging from six months to three years.
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Brooke Bond to lead HLL's umbrella branding
Mumbai: HLL plans to make Brooke Bond the master brand for Red Label, Taj Mahal, A1 and 3Roses and consolidate it with a single ad agency.This apart, in a shake-up of sorts, Lever is moving the Rs 10-crore Pears from JWT to McCann Erickson. The move comes soon after HLL awarded the Rs 70-crore Close-Up account to O&M.The account was previously handled by JWT. The account shift has raised eyebrows, given that JWT handles the brand across the globe and HLL brands in India tend to follow the international alignment. For Brooke Bond, Lever had invited three agencies - JWT, O&M, Lowe - to make presentations and the closely contested pitch has now narrowed down to JWT & O&M.
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Nicklodeon splits with Zee-Turner
Mumbai: Viacom's kids channel Nickelodeon has discontinued its exclusve distribution arrangement with Zee-Turner, and will now be distributed in India by its sister service MTV.While Nicklodeon will lose subscription revenue, the channel hopes to gain more viewership by re-launching as a free-to-air, advertising driven channel.No official reasons were given for the split, but industry sources said Nick was unhappy with the lack of priority in distribution given to the channel by the Zee-Turner group.
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IRFC Contracts $75-m Forex Loan
Mumbai: The Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) has contracted a $75 million five-year bullet syndicated term-loan priced at 70 basis points over Libor. HSBC, Barclays Capital, Credit Lyonnais, RZB Australia and State Bank of India participated in the general syndication of the IRFC loan. On a similar note, BSES Ltd has mandated ABN Amro Bank, Citigroup Global Markets, Singapore Merchant Bank, Rabobank and Standard Chartered Bank to arrange a fiveyear $100 million foreign currency term-loan facility.
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Karnataka not keen on Reliance gas deal
Bangalore: The Government of Karnataka is reported to be having reservations over any direct long-term purchase contracts for sourcing gas from Reliance Industries Ltd, say sources in State Government. The sources said here that RIL had sought a firm take-or-pay arrangement for a minimum 10-year period for supply of 10 million standard cubic metres per day (MSCuMPD) to Karnataka. This is equivalent to about 2000 MW.
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Hinduja TMT moots Rs 5 interim dividend
Mumbai: Hinduja TMT Ltd (HTMT) has said that its board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share (50 per cent on the par value of Rs 10 per share), for the year ended March 31, 2003, amounting to Rs 20.45 crore. According to HTMT's official statement, the consolidated audited financial results of the company and its subsidiaries will be published on or before June 30 when the final dividend will be announced. It also said HTMT was in an advanced stage of negotiations to acquire a 900-agent call centre company in the Philippines.
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Imax ties up with Aerens to expand theatre network
New Delhi: Imax Corporation has entered into an agreement with the Delhi-based Aerens Developers & Engineers Ltd to develop three more entertainment complexes in the country. With this, the total number of Imax theatres across the country will go up to six, making India the second fastest growing market. This is also part of the company's strategy to expand its presence in the international market.
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Samsonite India plans design plant
Hyderabad: Samsonite India, a subsidiary of the Rs 5,000-crore Belgian travel goods and accessories major Samsonite, has announced plans to locate a composite global design centre (GDC)-cum-manufacturing plant in the country with a total investment outlay of about $15 million. The company has short-listed Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Chennai in Tamil Nadu as possible locations for this new development.
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Around 400 HCI staff accept VRS
New Delhi: In a move that could help the Air India subsidiary, Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) become leaner, about 400 of its staff have finally accepted the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). Official sources told that the cost to the company of the VRS offer which has been accepted by the staff at the Delhi Centaur Hotel, and the Chefair catering units in Mumbai and Delhi would be in the region of Rs 20-22 crore
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HC takes up Jessop hearing
Kolkata: An appeal of the Staff Association of Jessop & Co Ltd (JCL) was taken up for hearing on May 5 by a division Bench of Calcutta High Court. The court fixed all the appeals to be heard analogously on May 15. The Government argued that JCL does not come within the meaning of `strategic sector'. The association, however, stated that the status of Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Ltd (BBUNL) be equated with JCL. The latter is a subsidiary of BBUNL.
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Mallya, Chhabrias in talks to bury the hatchet
Bangalore: In a significant step, talks are on between the two feuding families of the Indian spirits business to resolve their differences. Aided by some political intervention, negotiations have taken place between the UB group Chairman, Vijay Mallya, and the estate of the late Manu Chhabria, promoters of Shaw Wallace & Co Ltd, to reconcile differences, including a 17-year-old legal battle in a Hong Kong court.
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BSES names lead arrangers for term loan
Mumbai: Power generation and distribution utility BSES Ltd has appointed ABN Amro, Citigroup, Rabobank and StandardChartered as lead arrangers for raising a syndicated $100 million foreign currency term loan. This is the first such fund raising by BSES after the Reliance Group acquired management control in the company in January. The five-year loan will be used for BSES's "general corporate expenditure", a news release said here on Monday.
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Bharat Forge hopes to bag big auto parts outsource pie
Mumbai: Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL), on Monday encased its strong 2002-2003 performance in a frame of 10 year-optimism.
Fifteen big automotive companies with resident International Purchasing Offices have disclosed a budget of $1.5 billion to source auto components from India in 2003, B.N. Kalyani, Chairman & Managing Director, BFL, said at a press briefing. Due to poor manufacturing scale, Kalyani doubts if their buying will exceed $500 million, actuals last year being around $300 million. But the potential remains, and Kalyani sees outsourced volume at 10 times higher in 2010.
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Nicholas Piramal to bet on exports
Mumbai: Exports to regulated markets is the new mantra for the Mumbai-based Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL). The company is to focus on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and generics especially for the US markets and contract research and manufacturing apart from exporting vitamins. The NPIL Chairman, Ajay G. Piramal, said that the immediate area of focus on APIs would be to work on both off patent and on patent drugs. "On the generics front, we will be working at `early to market' generics in collaboration with innovative companies only and not with generic companies as the trend has been in the industry," he added.
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Radio Mirchi eyes Rs 60-crore revenue
Kolkata: Entertainment Network (India) Ltd, a Times Group company, which operates FM radio stations in several cities under the brand Radio Mirchi, hopes to generate Rs 60 crore revenue in the current fiscal. Stating this during an interface with newspersons at a function held here to mark the launch of Radio Mirchi in Kolkata, the Managing Director of Entertainment Network (India) Ltd, A.P. Parigi, said Radio Mirchi was already present in Indore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Pune. The FM channel would soon be unleashed in Chennai, Bhubaneswar and Jabalpur.
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