Tata Refractories charts out Rs 84-cr modernisation plan
Bhubaneswar: Tata Refractories Ltd (TRL) is planning to modernise and expand the capacity of its plant at Belpahar in Orissa’s Jharsuguda district. “Once we are on the profit track after the modernisation of the plant, we will go for the expansion programme”, the TRL managing director Kamath said. He said that the plant’s capacity would be expanded to 3 lakh tonnes per annum from the present 1.23 lakh tonnes. TRL has launched a massive modernisation plan with an investment of Rs 84 crore to strengthen the capacity and capabilities leading to overall improvement in quality, yield and productivity. While the major part of the investment, around 58 per cent, would focus on quality and yield improvement, 30 per cent would be on productivity rise and the rest would be distributed among energy, information technology and others. The modernisation programme christened as “Fortune 500” would be completed by 2008. This investment is aimed at achieving a turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2007-08. The turnover of TRL during 2002-03 was Rs 244 crore, which includes Rs 23 crore export earnings. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 6.74 crore last year.
Back to News Review index page  

Sony To Set Up Call Centre To Beef Up Sales Muscle
Mumbai: In a significant move, the Rs 730 crore Sony India Private Ltd is in the process of setting up an in-house call centre in New Delhi, which will be accessible across India through a 1,600 toll free number, soon. For the purpose, the company is investing around Rs 4 million towards infrastructure, Keiichi Sakamoto, managing director, Sony India Private Ltd said. On the company’s new plans, Sakamoto said: “The objective behind the move is to make our call center a one-touch point for both presales and post-sales queries. In fact, this is part of our strategy to realign our customer touch points to a concept called ‘Customer Care Center’.” Further, Sakamoto added that this customer care center will comprise of inhouse call center at first level and second level of telemarketing and post-sales support agents. There would also be a team of tele-marketing and post-sales support agents working in all metros.
Back to News Review index page  

APIDC Venture Capital Biotech Fund To Focus On Service Sector
Mumbai: The early stage biotechnology fund of APIDC Venture Capital Ltd launched recently would focus on the service sector along with traditional Ayurvedic and Unani segment apart from life sciences. The service sector primarily includes contract research organisations (CROs) and projects pertaining to development of cord blood banks to source stem cells, APIDC Venture Capital managing director Sarath Naru said. The company had recently launched its biotechnology fund of Rs 150 crore of which Rs 35 crore has already been mobilised. The state government of Andhra Pradesh contributed Rs 15 crore while Andhra Bank and Life Insurance Corporation of India contributed Rs 10 crore each. The rest of the fund is expected to be mobilised in nine months, he added. The objective of this 10-year close ended fund is to achieve attractive returns primarily through the generation of capital appreciation by investing in equity, as per the Sebi guidelines for venture capital investment in India.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Power, BP offer $150 m for 85 per ccent pie in Dabhol Power
Mumbai: Tata Power Company (TPC) and British Petroleum (BP) have jointly offered to pick up 85 per cent stake held by Enron Corp (65 per cent), GE (10 per cent) and Bechtel (10 per cent) in Dabhol Power Company (DPC). TPC and BP have quoted a price of $150 million against GE and Bechtel’s demand of $370 million. Sources involved in the revival process of the Dabhol project told FE that TPC and BP have jointly held series of meetings with GE and Bechtel to work out details in this regard. TPC and BP, which have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly participate in evaluating the Dabhol gas and power project, have favoured purchase of equity than sale of Dabhol assets in their parleys with GE and Bechtel. In an equity sale, the present liabilities would be passed on to the new buyer, while in the case of sale of Dabhol assets, the liabilities are not passed on to the buyer, as equity value becomes zero. According to sources, TPC and BP have not yet submitted any formal plea to the Central government or financial institutions, which have been actively pursuing the revival of the Dabhol project. The project has been closed since May 29, 2001.
Back to News Review index page  

Bhel Solar panels on Isro satellites deployed successfully
New Delhi: The state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) has announced the successful deployment of its solar panels on the recently launched satellites Insat 3A and GSAT 2 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). A Bhel press release said, both the satellites carried a solar panel each fabricated at the company’s Bangalore-based electronics system division. The solar panels are designed for high reliability and working in stringent conditions encountered in the outer space. The state-owned engineering company has also entered into an agreement with Isro for fabrication and delivering of space quality batteries for use in their satellites. The specialised batteries, to be charged by solar panels, will provide power to spacecraft systems
Back to News Review index page  

Ford to increase sourcing components from India
Chennai: Ford India Ltd expects the sourcing of components from India by its parent, Ford Motor Company, to grow by three or four times in the next two years. At present, the component exports to Ford Motor Company's global programme is valued at about $40 million, Ford India officials told a press conference here on Wednesday. According to Arvind Mathew, vice-president and executive director — India Programmes Implementation and Supply, Ford India Ltd, castings and forgings, crankshafts, exhaust manifold, leaf springs are some of the components that Indian vendors enjoyed a tremendous cost advantage and hence can supply to Ford globally. Ford is also looking at interior trims, and some chassis components such as hubs and spindles for sourcing from India. Ford India identifies vendors who can supply to Ford Motor Company's global programme and also gives them a certification based on their reliability, quality and cost.
Back to News Review index page  

Promoters to buy Bhagyanagar stake in Surana
Hyderabad: The promoters of the Surana Telecom Ltd (STL), the Hyderabad-based jelly-filled telecom cables manufacturer, have proposed to acquire 10 lakh shares of the company currently owned by the group company - Bhagyanagar Metals Ltd (BML) - at the prevailing market price. As a result of this, the promoters' holding in STL would reach 75,63,694 shares, amounting to 66.92 per cent, the company informed the stock exchanges on Wednesday. However, this would not attract the provisions of SEBI guidelines on substantial acquisition of shares and takeovers since it amounts to inter-se transfer among the promoters, the company said.
Back to News Review index page