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Reliance
hikes polymer prices
Mumbai: Reliance has raised polymer prices for
June. However, the product prices of fibre intermediates
have been lowered. Reliance has cut the prices of purified
terephthalic acid by 12.5 per cent to Rs 29.5 per kg and
of monoethylene glycol polypropylene by 13.1 per cent
to Rs 32.75 per kg. Polyethylene will cost 4.2 per cent
more at Rs 37.20 per kg while polypropylene will be 2.5
per cent costlier at Rs 41.35 per kg.
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Maruti
car sales rise 46 per cent
New Delhi: Car market leader Maruti Udyog has posted
a 46 per cent growth in sales in May at 39,178 units,
buoyed mainly by increasing demand for the entry-level
Maruti 800 model. Sale of the M-800 model jumped by a
whopping 80 per cent to 16,907 units over the same month
last year, a company statement said. Even the Omni van
overcame a sluggish trend and grew 13 per cent in May
2003. Maruti’s sales during April-May 2003 was 39
per cent higher than the same period last year. Following
the strong demand, the company has started production
at its third plant from last month. Sale of the premium
small cars WagonR and Alto surged by 132 and 57 per cent
to 5,179 and 3,317 units respectively, while sales of
the Zen totalled 4,384 units. Sales of the mid-size car
Esteem went up by 11 per cent, while that of the multi-purpose-vehicle
Versa rose by 480 per cent to 284 units during the month
under review. The premium sedan Baleno clocked a 225 per
cent jump in sales at 172 units.
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SRF
net profit rises 17 per cent in ’02-03
New Delhi: SRF has announced that for the financial
year 2002-03, its net profit stood at Rs 31.89 crore,
registering an increase of 16.86 per cent over Rs 27.29
crore made in the previous year. SRF’s turnover for
the financial year 2002-03 was Rs 720.90 crore, representing
an increase of 17.77 per cent from Rs 612.11 crore turnover
achieved in the previous financial year. The company’s
net profit for the fourth quarter for the financial year
2002-03 stood at Rs 5.74 crore, down 44.36 per cent from
Rs 10.32 crore made for the same quarter in the previous
year. “Over the last year, nylon tyre cord fabric
(NTCF) demand has grown. Indian demand growth at 16 per
cent last year was surprisingly firm, probably driven
by the massive improvements in productivity achieved by
the road transportation sector, on the back of better
roads and bigger trucks,” said SRF chief executive
officer (CEO) Ravi Sinha.
The company recently announced an investment of Rs 20
crore to set up plants for specialty chemicals for the
pharma industry.
Another Rs 160 crore has been earmarked for a 20 KT plant
for the production of polyester film.
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TVS
Motor bike sales up 8 per cent
Chennai: TVS Motor motorcycle sales grew by eight
per cent to touch 63,973 units for the month of May, as
against 59,207 units during the corresponding month last
year. Total two-wheeler sales grew by five per cent to
reach 96,203 units, according to a press release. The
TVS Scooty (a scooterette) sales were boosted by 16 per
cent to 14,334 units (12,351 units) due to induction of
a new variant TVS Scooty Pep. Exports also rose to 1,526
units. The moped sales continued its downward trend. The
sales for the month were at 17,896 units (19,667 units),
a drop of nine per cent.
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Cement
firms’ despatches go up in May
Mumbai: All leading cement producers ACC, Gujarat
Ambuja and L&T have registered increases in despatches
in May.
ACC has increased despatches by 11.47 per cent at 13.79
lakh tonne as against 12.37 lakh tonne in May 2002. Production
also saw an increase at 13.67 lakh tonne as opposed to
12.64 lakh tonne in May last year. Gujarat Ambuja Cements
group has posted a 47 per cent rise in despatches at 12.26
lakh tonne in May ’03 as compared to 8.36 lakh tonne
in May ’02. The production of the group for the reporting
month was up by 38 per cent at 12.12 lakh tonne (8.77
lakh tonne in May 2002), Gujarat Amubja Cements said in
a release. GACL’s despatches and production for the
month of May 2003 stood at 9.39 lakh tonne (5.98 lakh
tonne in May 2002) and 9.22 lakh tonne (6.25 lakh tonne)
respectively, it said. L&T has seen its domestic despatches
at 10.7 lakh tonne for the month against 10 lakh tonne
in the same month last year. Production saw a drop at
10.5 lakh tonne as against 11.4 lakh tonne.
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Viceroy
Hotels in talks to become Marriot franchisee
Hyderabad: Viceroy Hotels, a city-based luxury
hotel, is in talks with Marriot International to become
a franchisee of the global hospitality major. Severe competition
coupled with the declining occupancy rate and poor visitors
growth, has forced the management to have a brand, backed
by the quality standards and expertise to improve the
overall performance. Confirming the developments, P Prabhakar
Reddy, chairman and managing director, Viceroy Hotels,
said: “We are in an advanced stage of negotiations
with the Marriott International to become a franchisee.
We hope to sign the deal in the next few days.”
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ONGC
asks Gail to cut off gas supplies to Iffco
Mumbai: Exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
(ONGC) has dragged Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail) to
recover its dues from leading fertiliser co-operative
Iffco. ONGC has asked Gail not to supply natural gas to
Iffco, as the latter has not paid its dues to it, to the
tune of Rs 230 crore. The ONGC board discussed this proposal
at its meeting in May. However, no decision was arrived
at meeting. A senior ONGC official said that since ONGC
supplies natural gas to Gail which in turn supplies it
to Iffco, ONGC has decided to put pressure on Iffco to
cough up the dues by involving Gail. Senior Iffco officials
declined to comment on the issue but added that they have
not received any such communication from Gail as yet.
Iffco officials, however, said that it is a long pending
issue and they would take a call on it once they receive
a communication from Gail.
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MTNL
may get to certify digital signatures
New Delhi: If you are a Trump subscriber, chances
are that by year-end you will also have a digital signature.
This could be installed on the prepaid simcard so that
MTNL can establish a one-on-one relationship with the
customer. The user in turn would get a stronger individual
personal identification and only after this is established
will any commercial transaction, like recharging is possible.
This is just one application of the digital signature,
which is open to MTNL once it becomes a digital signature
certifying authority (CA). MTNL is preparing to apply
for a licence to the Controller of Certifying Authorities
(CCA) in the department of information technology by the
first week of August. Technology infrastructure is being
put in place to handle one million signatures and PriceWaterhouseCoopers
(PWC) is offering end-to-end consultancy including technology
and business plan.
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Bharti
plans $185-mn US listing next fiscal
New Delhi: Bharti is planning to list in the United
States during the next financial year, with the size exceeding
$185m. The company, which has just touched the 1m mark
is aiming for 6m customers nation-wide by March ‘04.
The company is also aggressively looking at acquisitions
to expand its network and customer base in the current
fiscal. Bharti has also announced an investment of over
Rs 175 crore on its network of mobile infrastructure,
in the Delhi circle, taking the total investment to Rs
1,950 crore by the end of this fiscal. Revealing that
the process for overseas listing had already started internally,
Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said, “We are hopeful
of an overseas float in the next financial year, and we
will be going for a US listing.” On the size of the
proposed offering, Mittal said “The last offering
was of $185m, and this one would be more than the last
one.” The company is yet to take a decision on which
bourse it would get listed, he added.
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Idea
plans Rs 800-cr capex this fiscal
Mumbai: Idea Cellular, the Tata-Birla-AT&T
combine, has earmarked an investment of Rs 600-800 crore
for FY04. However, Idea does not plan to tap the market
to raise money as it has already tied up the equity and
debt requirements. Vikram Mehmi, acting CEO, Idea Cellular,
confirmed that about Rs 600-800 crore would be invested
in capex across all five circles. “The investments
will help to augment capacity and improve the quality
of service,” said Mehmi. However, he refused to give
details of investments circle-wise. Last fiscal, Idea
had invested about Rs 700 crore in capex.Idea has invested
a total of Rs 4,800 crore in various circles so far. “Of
the total debt of around Rs 2,000 crore, foreign loans
comprise about Rs 400 crore and the balance are rupee
loans,” said Mehmi. The total equity so far is Rs
2,700 crore which includes Rs 500 crore of preference
capital raised through Standard Chartered Bank Mauritius
late last year. The company is likely to be net cash flow
positive within the next year and a half, according to
Mehmi.
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M&M:
Upbeat on future prospects
Mumbai: At a post-FY03 results meeting with analysts
here today the top brass of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
(M&M), manufacturers of the Scorpio sports utility
vehicle, maintained there is a future to be had as an
independent small automobile company. According to Anand
Mahindra, managing director, M&M, there were risks
before the company earlier - product development, quality,
ability to locate a marketing sweet spot and deliver to
customers' expectations and even if that was done, to
see what M&M's role as an independent small automobile
company, was. "There is a case to be made for focussed
differentiated products in the automobile arena,"
he said, pointing to the Land Rover, still among the most
profitable premium offerings from Ford. Companies from
the Indian automobile scene - like Tata Engineering or
2-wheeler manufacturers who introduced indigenous models
- "have proved that the credibility gap can be bridged."
With a successful product launched, a small company should
then endeavour to shorten response time, sustain innovation
at lower cost and take on global markets cost effectively.
"If we do that, we can maintain leadership and develop
leadership in new areas," Mahindra said against the
backdrop of M&M's Scorpio.
While the Scorpio is claimed to have a four-week waiting
period at present, Dr Pawan Goenka, chief operating officer,
M&M's Automotive Segment, said the broad strategy
in place for the business was - operate from competitive
strengths, go mass market, avoid taking big players head-on,
use of appropriate technology, and putting value in products.
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Budget
class hotels thriving in Kovai
Coimbatore: Though Coimbatore may not have the
potential to generate business for star hotels, it has
immense potential for the budget class hotels, which record
good occupancy rates even during recessionary times. The
city's lack of places of tourist interests has been a
dampener in attracting tourists in hordes but its strategic
location as a gateway to diverse places of tourist interests
needed to be exploited, according to Ramkumar Giri, managing
director, Chennai Bottling Company Ltd, and promoter of
Hotel Alankar Grandé in Coimbatore. Speaking to
pressperson here on Monday before the formal inauguration
of the hotel, styled as a `premium business class hotel',
scheduled for June 4, he said nearly 90 per cent of the
travellers coming to the city were business class travellers.
The absence of foreign tourists coming in large numbers
to Coimbatore was one of the reasons for many of the big
guns in the hospitality sector to drop their plans for
building star category hotels in the city. But business
class hotels in the medium budget category were still
having good occupancy rate in the city despite the industrial
recession. Giri said what was needed was a proper packaging
of the places of tourist interest to a business traveller
who would like to utilise the spare time available with
him/her for making short trips. He was holding negotiations
in evolving suitable packages to meet the interests of
this class of visitors and to help unwind themselves by
going to golf courses etc.
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Hero
Honda May sales up 12.25 pc
New Delhi: Hero Honda Motors Ltd said on Monday
its sales for the month of May rose by 12.25 per cent
to 1.63 lakh units, powered by robust growth in sales
of the Splendor model. Splendor, which Hero Honda claims
is the world's largest selling two-wheeler model, notched
up an all time record sales of 1,02,050 units in May,
the company said in a statement here.
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RCI
India to focus on China
Banglore: Developing China as a favoured holiday
destination among Indians will be RCI India's biggest
focus this year, according to Raju Shahani, president
and general manager, RCI Expansion Markets, RCI India
Pvt Ltd. Apart from China, the other expansion markets
that the company would be eyeing are Turkey, West Asian
countries and East Africa. The RCI Network has affiliations
with 19 resorts in China, 25 in Turkey, 50 in Egypt and
11 in Israel. Shahani, who took over the China region
three months ago, says just as RCI India had started promoting
Chinese destinations, SARS struck. "We have had about
160 cancellations to South-East Asia and China."
Talking of China's growing stature in the tourism scene,
Mr Shahani said that while India had 2.5 million visitors
in 2002, China boasted of 12 million visitors during the
period. "By 2010, it will be the largest tourist
destination in the world." Other focus areas for
RCI this year would be adding more destinations in India,
especially in Rajasthan and Kerala, he said. In a recent
survey of RCI's 500 heavy user member families across
the country, Rajasthan was voted the destination of choice.
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SAIL
sets turnover target of Rs 20,000 cr
New Delhi: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL),
which has registered a net profit during the January-March
2003 quarter after incurring losses for several years,
has set for itself a turnover target of Rs 20,000 crore
for the current fiscal along with an export target of
one million tonnes of steel. This will be possible through
simultaneous efforts in increasing productivity, reducing
costs and streamlining operations. The SAIL Chairman,
V.S. Jain, told presspersons here that there was still
scope for increasing production by another seven to eight
per cent over the current level of almost 100 per cent
capacity utilisation. He said that efforts to bring down
the cost of debts by replacing expensive loans with cheaper
borrowings by taking advantage of the present low interest
regime was yielding good results and during 2002-03, the
average cost of borrowings had been brought down by 1.5
per cent to 9.5 per cent. "During the current fiscal
it could be possible to bring down the interest rate by
another 0.5 to 0.75 per cent," Mr Jain said and added
that since the total borrowings were around Rs 13,000
crore, it could actually result in a savings of approximately
Rs 100 crore on interest outgo alone. The company is also
planning to reduce manpower by another 9,000 to 10,000
during the current year along with technical upgradation
of plant and machinery with an annual investment of around
Rs 600 crore to Rs 800 crore.
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MobileFirst
inks pact with Rediff for infotainment
Kochi: MobileFirst, an alliance of leading cellular
operators in the country such as BPL Mobile, Escotel,
RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom, has announced a strategic
tie-up with Rediff. com for the development of innovative
entertainment content and services on the SMS platform.
Committed to offering value enhancement services, this
is the first in a series of offerings by the MobileFirst
alliance on the value-added services arena. With this
first tie-up, Rediff.com will develop inno- vative entertainment
and contest-oriented content and services accessible to
the 3- million strong MobileFirst subscriber base on the
Rediff.com short code number 7333. The content strategy
developed throughout the year would focus on region specific
customised content related to movies, music and sports
to create greater appeal amongst the subscriber base.
Rediff.com will also manage the contests and logistics
of the same, a press release here said. The alliance will
see the formation of an innovative pan-Indian contest
channel accessible on mobile phones for MobileFirst subscribers.
MobileFirst will use the existing Rediff.com code number
7333 for subscribers to participate in various contests
that will be launched periodically across the network.
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Orchid
signs marketing pact with US co Apotex
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals
Ltd signed a supply and marketing agreement today with
Apotex Corp for the sale of its injectible medicines in
the US. The products will be developed and manufactured
by Orchid in India, while Apotex will handle the marketing
and distribution. An Orchid release indicated that agreement
tied the companies exclusively for eight injectibles,
of which three are high volume products that are currently
protected by patent in the US. The release added that
all intellectual property rights for the products would
vest with Orchid. According to Craig Baxter, President,
Apotex International, "The agreement is a milestone
for us; historically we sold only our own products".
The agreement, that is "technically renewable every
10 years", stipulates that US would be the location
for arbitration, said Orchid officials. The companies
indicated that they plan to extend the scope of the agreement
to cover Canada too. The Orchid release said that the
US market consumes annually about $1.5 billion worth of
injectible antibiotic products targeted by it through
the agreement. According to Raghavendra Rao, managing
director, Orchid, "The revenue from the venture will
start coming from April 2005". He forecast that Orchid
would derive about 30 per cent of its revenue from developed
markets in about three years time.
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Coke
to raise investment in TN
Chennai: Coca-Cola Company has said that it will
increase its investment in Tamil Nadu and probably put
up one or two more plants (bottling plants) next year.
This was conveyed by a Coca-Cola delegation led by Patrick
T. Siewert, group president, East and South Asia, which
called on the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa,
at the Secretariat on Monday. According to a Government
press release, the Coca-Cola team also told the chief
minister that the company procured a substantial part
of its sugar requirement from Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa,
the release said, wanted Coca-Cola to market through its
retail chain the products made by women's self help groups
in the State. Agreeing to look into this request, Siewert
also told the chief minister that the company was interested
in involving itself in primary education and primary healthcare
in Tamil Nadu.
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AstraZeneca
developing TB drug — Opens $10-million research facility
near Bangalore
Bangalore: The Indian arm of AstraZeneca said on
Monday that it expects to reach the first milestone in
developing an anti-tuberculosis drug by 2006 and a fully
developed drug by 2010. ``We hope to find a candidate
drug for tuberculosis by 2006. Another four years, may
be by 2010, we should have the drug ready. But that's
ambitious,'' the AstraZeneca Plc chief executive, Sir
Tom McKillop, told a news conference after inaugurating
the company's $10-million research facility near Bangalore.
A candidate drug is the first milestone towards the discovery
of a drug that is ready for a toxic testing on animals.
The pharma giant is investing around $40 million including
the capital cost of around $ 10 million in its Indian
facility towards the development of an anti-TB drug. ``But
it will take more than $40 million to develop the drug.
We will need a lot more investment. As of now, we don't
have a specific number,'' Sir Tom said. Sir Tom said the
development of a primary care drug usually costs up to
$1 billion. ``This is a high-risk poker. Only one out
of 10 cases end up becoming a success. We would be the
pathfinders. No one has developed anti-TB drug for the
last 40 years,'' Sir Tom said.
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