Shaw Wallace breweries readies Sri Lankan push
Mumbai: Shaw Wallace Breweries Ltd, a leading brewing company under the Jumbo Group fold, plans to foray into Sri Lanka in a major way. It already has a distribution company in place — Shaw Wallace & Hedges Ltd, through which it will launch its products in the Sri Lankan market. A top company official said, “At present, we are reviewing the market in Sri Lanka and working on a strategy to make inroads into the market. We can leverage on the strength of our distribution company based in Colombo. We believe that this will give us an opportunity to tap the lucrative Sri Lankan market.” Shaw Wallace & Hedges Ltd, located in Colombo, markets a range of consumer products from canned fish, edible oil and ajinomoto, international wines and spirits and automotive products throughout Sri Lanka. Shaw Wallace & Hedges has a subsidiary called Viking Fashion Pvt Ltd which is a leading manufacturer of garments in Sri Lanka. The garments are exported to European and American markets.
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Pakistan brewery hopes for beer export to India
Kolkata: Pakistan’s largest brewery, Murree Breweries, is expecting that with the improvement in situation, it would be exporting a significant quantum of its beer production to India. “Why not? We would definitely likely to export our beer to India which has a vast market,” managing director of Murree Breweries and member of Pakistan’s National Assembly MP Bhandara said. India consumed about 72,000 barrels of bear per annum and demand was growing at about 15-20 per cent. Murree Breweries is a listed company in Pakistan and its shares were quietly actively traded at Karachi Stock Exchange despite the fact that consumption of alcoholic beverage was prohibited for Muslims in the country.
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ParkinElmer hires Labindia to distribute its products
Mumbai: PerkinElmer Inc, a $1.6 billion global technology leader in life and analytical sciences and Optoelectronics, has appointed the Mumbai-based Labindia as the sole distributor for marketing its screening and diagnostics and analytical products in India. PerkinElmer and Lab India, with a turnover of Rs 200 crore, are looking at the annual marketing potential of $10 million for the newly-launched Neonatal screening system which screens new-born babies. Labindia managing director Shriram Bhalerao said that PerkinElmer’s diagnosis systems screens for various genetic and metabolic disorders in new born babies which are hereditary. These tests are done by Neonatal system within three days of birth of the baby. If the baby has any disorder, it can be saved from mental retardation or physical deformation by simple medication or change in diet.
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Local shipping industry fears loss of cabotage protection after SCI selloff
Mumbai: The protection under ‘cabotage laws’ to Indian shipping companies may no longer hold true with foreign shipping lines being allowed to pick up to 51 per cent stake in the Indian maritime major Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). Industry sources feared that the bidder who won over SCI would cross-subsidise the coastal operations of SCI with its international operations to drive the domestic shipping companies out. Cabotage law refers to the practice of restraining entry to a country’s coastal trade only to national ships. In India, cabotage laws are governed by section 407 and 408 of Merchant Shipping act, 1958 which states that no ship other than an Indian ship or a ship chartered by a citizen of India shall engage in the coasting trade of India except under a licence granted by the Director-General.
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Tamil Nadu minerals to set up JV for granite products
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd (Tamin) will shortly float global tenders to pick a joint venture (JV) partner for its proposed granite products plant to be set up in the Sipcot complex at Irungattukottai near here at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore. ICICI is preparing a techno-economic feasibility report on the project. The report is to be finalised in a month. Global tenders for the JV will be issued after the report is scrutinised and approved by the state government, Tamin chairman and managing director (CMD N Govindan told said. This project to “add value to raw materials and generate employment opportunities” was announced in the state assembly recently by industries minister Nainar Nagenthiran.
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i-flex options open on acquisitions
Mumbai: There is a buzz in i-flex Solutions' offices these days. And it has nothing to do with the launch of a new product or acquiring a big client, but with the company's growing currency with the foreign media. So, it was not surprising that Rajesh Hukku, chairman and managing director, when asked about new developments, said, "See the coverage in the Economist." The piece, titled `Techno-coolies no more,' emphasises the company's emergence as a software products major in a market crowded out by services players.
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Xerox Modicorp: Foreign representatives to be probed
New Delhi: Further trouble is brewing for Xerox Modicorp Ltd with the Government giving its nod to the independent investigator, probing the scam involving alleged payoffs by the company to procure deals, to look into the role of foreign representatives on the board of the company. "We have given our nod to the investigators after factoring in a lot of issues, prime among them being that it should not affect the flow of foreign investment into the country. The investigators have been asked to commission the enquiry through a separate body which would route the queries through the consulates of the countries to which the representatives of the board belonged to," a senior Finance Ministry official said.
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Digital GlobalSoft net seen growing 20 per cent
Bangalore: Digital GlobalSoft Ltd., the local software arm of Hewlett-Packard (H-P), is expected to report a growth close to 40 per cent in its software sales and close to 17-20 per cent in net profit for the current financial year, analysts said. There are concerns that the company would report a further price cut in the next quarterly earnings announcement, which could be "as significant as 10 per cent" which in turn could drag down the operating margins further. The company reported a 394 basis points drop in margins at the EBITDA level (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) due to 331 basis points increase in travel costs, 193 basis points hike in other
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India Cements plans to sell Visaka, Raasi
Mumbai: The Chennai-based India Cements Ltd, maker of Sankar, Coromandel and Raasi brands, has told its lenders that it would raise Rs 800 crore by selling its group companies Visaka Cement Industry Ltd and Raasi Cements within three years to pay off huge debt and mounting interest. The outer limit for the sale would be year 2006. In a debt reorganisation plan cleared by the corporate debt restructuring forum of financial institutions (FIs) and banks, the southern cement major has said that it would quickly (by March 2004) sell off its non-core assets, including ICL Shipping Ltd and real estate assets, to raise about Rs 60 crore to meet immediate payment requirements. The company has also promised to cut 1,000 jobs through a voluntary retirement scheme that would cost Rs 50 crore, but save Rs 10 crore every year. It currently has 4,500 personnel on its rolls.
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Tenali Ram goes to UK, Hanuman prefers US
Mumbai: The Kerala-based Toonz Studios has sold the world rights of its original 26-episode animation series ‘The adventures of Tenali Ram’ to UK-based distributor Indigo Kids. Bill Dennis, the CEO and president of Toonz Studios,said that Indigo Kids expected to pull in $2m in business in the first run, with broadcasters in 80 countries considering deals for ‘Tenali Ram’. Several of these may be signed during the Cannes festival. Toonz is also close to a $250,000 deal with Warner Brothers’ Kids WB for the US rights for another animation series from the studio ‘The Adventures of Hanuman’. The Hanuman series is expected to be ready by next September. The India rights for Hindi telecast for both the series have earlier been sold to Cartoon Network and for Malayalam to the Asianet channel.
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Sundaram-Clayton to demerge air brakes biz
Chennia: After the Suzuki buyout and riding fast with ‘Victor’, Venu Srinivasan, chairman and MD, TVS Motor, is busy finalising the business strategy for Sundaram-Clayton (SCL), which had originally promoted the two wheeler venture, TVS Electronics and a host of holding arms.SCL has come closer to finalise the blueprint for restructuring its three businesses — air brake actuation systems, foundry and investments portfolio. As part of the strategy, the air brake business is to be demerged from SCL and formed as a separate venture in which the US partner, American Standard (AS) will hold a majority stake leaving a minority stake for TVS. As of now, TVS group holds 40.83 per cent in the Rs 18.96-crore equity of SCL, with American Standard having 39.17 per cent and 13.2 per cent with the public.
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Private cellular cos gear up to take on BSNL
Kolkata: The battle for a piece of the national cellular pie is about to get really fierce, with the private cellular flock training its guns on BSNL-CellOne’s sensational Plan 525, which charges 40 paise per minute for all cell-to-cell local calls. Private cellular operators are expected to close ranks and slap a flat 30-paise per minute access charge (read: interconnect usage charge) for terminating all BSNL-CellOne local traffic on their networks.Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has allowed forbearance (jargon for Trai accepting what the operators charge) so far as cell-to-cell interconnection rates go. But top circles close to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said, “We will not waive access charges for terminating CellOne local traffic on our networks. Negotiations are on with BSNL and the termination charge for cell-to-cell local calls is likely to settle at 30 paise per minute.”
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India a money-spinner for struggling MNCs
New Delhi: India is fast emerging as the growth engine for multinational companies. Indian subsidiaries of MNCs are clocking better growth rates than their global parents both in terms of sales and net income. While the vast Indian market being an attraction for the world majors cutting across sectors — FMCG, consumer durables, engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemicals etc have long been talked about, comparisons of the financial results of companies in India and abroad support the statement. Significantly, this phenomena has gained pace in recent years as the international market is stagnant and the Indian economy is back on track. And it implicitly squares up into increasing contribution from Indian operations to the total revenues for MNCs.
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