D-Link launches new networking products
Hyderabad: Networking major D-Link announced the launch of a new range of high-end networking products targeted at meeting the needs of large enterprise customers. The range of products include metro access routers, metro core edge aggregation routers and multi-access routers. Announcing the launch of these products at a press meet, Prabodh Vyas, director, sales, D-Link (India), said, ‘‘With the launch of these high-end networking products, D-Link is positioned to provided end-to-end LAN and WAN solutions for large enterprises.’’ The products will open up markets with an estimated potential of Rs 700 crore for the company, he added. The company is planning to set up a plant to make mother boards for PC manufacturers. It already has six assembling units and the new plant is added one to its cap
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Samsung Watch Corporation looks to Indian market
New Delhi: The South Korea-based Samsung Watch Corporation has set its sight on the Indian watch market. Priced in the range of Rs 2,500-Rs 6,500, the Samsung watches will be made nationally available in the next 12 months through a distribution tie-up with Indian trading house IMS Teletime Ltd. Samsung has targeted an export turnover of $22 million (excluding Korean sales of around $10 million) and volume sales of 1.3 million watches from its sales in 40 countries, including Middle East and India in calendar 2003. In the calendar 2002, Samsung posted exports turnover of $20 million (volume sales: 1.1 million) and domestic (Korea) turnover of $10 million on an installed capacity of 2 million watches a year. Samsung executive director (export division) Douglas Chung said: ‘‘We plan to touch sales of 2 million pieces a year in the next five years. Since 1994, we’ve already become the No 2 watch-seller in the Middle East.’’ He adds: ‘‘Our success results from prioritising on design. We introduce between 200 and 300 models every year as against the industry average of 50-70 designs in a year.’’
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DRL to host scientific advisory meet
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has announced that it will hold a ‘Scientific Advisory Board’ meeting, consisting of international scientific opinion leaders, at New Orleans today (June 14), to review the progress it has made in its discovery research programme in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and inflammation, company stated on Friday. Further a consortium meeting is also scheduled on June 18 to review the progress of and strategy for the clinical development of Dr Reddy’s anti-cancer molecules will follow the advisory board meeting. Meanwhile, the company is proposed to present six abstracts on discovery research findings at the 63rd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association held from June 13-17, at New Orleans. The abstracts would include the demonstration of pre-clinical efficacy and safety of the compounds in development for treatment of Type 2 diabetes and mechanisms of accelerated cardiovascular disease in diabetics, the company stated.
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Hind Lever eyes Rs 1,000 cr from each brand
Mumbai: Against the backdrop of sluggish growth in the FMCG market, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) sees each of its mega brands achieving a potential scale of Rs 1,000 crore in the foreseeable future. HLL chairman Banga, at the company’s 70th annual general meeting in Mumbai said, “We are quite clear that we will be able to sustain growth in the face of competition as we have done in the past. HLL’s Power Brands now account for 93 per cent of the company’s domestic consumer business, and the top five brands include Wheel, Lifebuoy and Lux among others. Banga was speaking on HLL’s strategy for sustainable profitable growth, outlined two years ago, and the future approach. He said “HLL’s Power Brands have enormous space for growth. This will be achieved by leveraging their scale, redefining categories, liberating brands from their existing category mindset, exciting innovations fordifferentiated and relevant benefits, and leveraging technology for innovation.”
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Silverline Tech board okays plan to quit some units
Mumbai: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed Silverline Technologies at its board meeting has recommended a proposal to dispose of one or more of its undertakings in India. According to the company’s notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the board of directors of Silverline Technologies Limited at their meeting held on June 13, 2003, have recommended the following proposal for the approval of the shareholders to be obtained through postal ballot. To lease, transfer, sell or otherwise dispose of one or more of the undertakings of the company situated in India, to any person or persons for such consideration and on the terms and conditions as may be determined by the Board of Directors of the company.
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Nicholas Piramal to transfer its stake in Gujarat Glass to new holding co
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India Ltd has in-principle decided to transfer its 53.8 per cent stake in Gujarat Glass Pvt Ltd (GGPL) to a new holding company. The decision of the board is subject to approval from the High Court. According to the demerger scheme, for every four shares held in NPIL, one share will be issued in the new holding company. “It is a derived ratio not reached through any valuation,” NPIL chairman Ajay Piramal said. The new holding company will be listed on stock exchanges and will continue to have the shareholding pattern as NPIL on the date of transfer. The Piramals hold 51.31 per cent stake in NPIL as on March 31, 2003. Currently, NPIL holds 53.8 per cent stake in GGPL while the rest is held by JP Morgan and other institutional funds. GGPL is among the top three flaconnage companies in the world in terms of volume, besides being the leader in the domestic market. It makes about seven million containers a day and its manufacturing facilities are comparable with the best in the world. On a consolidated basis, GGPL reported a net profit of Rs 5.01 crore on a gross turnover of Rs 306.49 crore for the year 2002-03.
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HM, M&M in soup as Delhi puts brakes on new RTVs
New Delhi: With the Delhi government banning further registration of mini-buses, auto companies including Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Motors are left in the lurch with a pile up of stocks. “We are waiting for a go-ahead from the transport ministry (Delhi) for a green signal, as we have finished inventories of 100-odd vehicles and nearly 300 unfinished stocks”, a Mahindra & Mahindra official said. “There is still a shortfall in supply of mini-buses in the Capital, and we continue to get enquiries”, a senior HM official said. As on June 1, Hindustan Motors has an inventory pile-up of 154 finished RTVs at its Pithampur plant, and has stopped further production.
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GTL plans to add 1,400 staffers by '04
Bangalore: GTL plans to ramp up employee numbers from 1,100 to over 2,500 by the end of March ’04. The company, which provides BPO services through its GlobalCMS division, also plans to open a centre in Pune — it currently has a centre in Navi Mumbai — and is looking at the possibility of setting up a near shore centre in Ireland or Canada as well as onsite facilities in the US and UK. GTL’s senior vice-president (marketing and strategic initiatives), Pradeep Phadke, said the company will consider increasing its global presence either through acquisitions or through strategic alliances. GTL’s Pune centre is expected to house around 700 to 800 employees, and will also serve as its disaster recovery site, Phadke said. GTL focuses on verticals such as financial services, telecom and healthcare. Financial services currently contribute around 45per cent- 50 per cent of the company’s topline.
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Cable guys join hands to take on big daddies
Mumbai: The cable industry is going through mergers and realignments in anticipation of the conditional access regime coming into force from mid-July. At least two major groups of cable operators in the metros have regrouped as multi-system operators (MSOs) to challenge the monopoly of big networks like IN Cable, Siticable, Hathway and Kolkata’s RPG-Netcom. The management team of Wincable, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Hathway Cable & Datacom, has decided to part company with the Rajan Raheja-Star joint venture, along with large groups of cable franchisees, to relaunch themselves as Broadband Pacenet. Wincable directors Jagjit Singh Kohli, Yogesh Radhakrishnan and Yogesh Desai had earlier pioneered the expansion of Hindujas’ IN Cable before falling out with the Hinduja family in May 1999. Subsequently, they floated the Wincable network financed by Hathway, winning over large groups of franchisees in Delhi and suburban Mumbai.
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Eternit Everest to modernise 3 units
Hyderabad: Having registered a turnaround, Eternit Everest Ltd, the Thane-based Rs 211-crore asbestos cement sheet company that was acquired by the Associated Cement Companies Ltd during last year, now plans to take up projects for debottlenecking and modernisation at three of its manufacturing units. The company, which pioneered fibre cement roofing industry in the country in 1934 with a first manufacturing unit at Kymore in Madhya Pradesh, now has three other plants in Kolkata, at Podanur in Tamil Nadu and at Nasik in Maharashtra. It has a modern research and development centre at Nasik. The company has now taken up modernisation works at Kymore, Podanur and Kolkata. "These are likely to be completed by the end of the financial year. All these investments would contribute towards further improvement in quality of the product, in reducing pollution load as also automation of the plants for further improving overall productivity," the management informed its shareholders.
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Dr Reddy's to present research findings at US meet
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, the Hyderabad-based drug major listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has announced that it would be presenting six abstracts, representing its discovery research findings, at the 63rd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association being held from June 13 to 17 at New Orleans, US. In a press release, the company said the abstracts being presented would feature the progress of Dr Reddy's discovery programme, which would include demonstration of preclinical efficacy and safety of the company's pipeline compounds in development for treatment of type-2 diabetes, discovery of potential new diagnostic markers for onset of type-2 diabetes and mechanisms of accelerated cardiovascular disease in diabetics.
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Dettol, Ayush row whips up `antiseptic' lather
New Delhi: It is now the turn of soaps Dettol, from the Reckitt Benckiser stable and Ayush from Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) to lather up a debate on the fine line between `an antiseptic soap', `an anti-bacterial soap' and `an ayurvedic medicinal preparation with antiseptic properties' — even as they battle it out in the Delhi High Court, on whether HLL's commercial for its Ayush soap showed Reckitt's Dettol soap in a `disparaging' manner. The soap saga commenced in February this year, when Reckitt Benckiser filed a petition seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction against HLL's Ayush commercials. Subsequently, an ex-parte order had been granted later in February, following which HLL had to take its commercials off air, legal sources said. In April this year, the Court vacated this interim injunction, following an appeal from HLL. The hearing for the main petition is scheduled to come up in July.
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FashionTV, Modi Group spat continues
New Delhi: The spat between Fashion TV (FTV) Paris and its distribution partner - Modi Entertainment Television - took another turn with FTV preparing a civil-criminal charge against Lalit Modi and the Modi Group in France and in India. FTV in a statement alleged that the Modi Group has been entering into agreements selling the Fashion Bars concept to third parties and collecting substantial advance payment. It said that the Modis should have sought written permission to engage Fashion TV in long-term partnerships or franchising agreements. In another statement, The Modi Group on Friday said that the Delhi High Court had issued a show cause notice for contempt of court against Fashion TV Paris for not complying with the order passed by the Delhi High Court on May 19, 2003. According to the order FTV was directed to re-encrypt the signal of its channel, preventing it from being free-to-air. It has also restrained Fashion TV Paris from entering into any third party agreements for distribution, advertising, merchandising and licensing rights.
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Rama Newsprint up for sale — ICICI scouting for buyers
Kolkata: Rama Newsprint Ltd, the largest newsprint manufacturing company in the country with an annual installed capacity of 1,50,000 tonnes, located near Surat in Gujarat, is up for sale. The lead bank for the company — ICICI Ltd — has already started the process of selecting a suitable buyer for RNL. Altogether, two large paper mills, namely, Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt) and West Coast Paper Mills Ltd (WCPML), and a leading publishing house, Gujarat Samachar, have expressed interest to acquire controlling equity stake in RNL in spite of the fact that the newsprint major is burdened with huge debt. Sources familiar with the development told Business Line that executives from the interested companies had already visited the mill and had evaluated the technical and financial parameters of the company. They are now negotiating with ICICI.
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Venkateshwara Hatcheries to manufacture FMD vaccines
Pune: The Rs 1,300-crore Venkateshwara Hatcheries group is all set to get into the business of manufacturing vaccines for the dreaded foot and mouth disease which played havoc with economies around the world a couple of years ago. The company has entered into a technical tie-up with Brazilian company Bio-Vet, one of the world's largest producers of vaccines for poultry, pet animals and FMD and is setting up a Rs 20-crore manufacturing centre at Hinjewadi near Pune, its chairperson, Anuradha Desai, said. "We plan to be in the market with the product ten months from now,'' she said. The company plans to manufacture forty million doses of FMD vaccines and 15 and ten million doses each of bacterial and other viral vaccines in the new facility.
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Lee Pharma gets Brazilian accreditation
Hyderabad: Lee Pharma (P) Ltd, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company, has announced that it has obtained accreditation for its product - Omeprazole - as a reference standard by Brazilian Pharmaceutical Committee for its official monogram to be published in their country's Pharmacoepia. The company is currently engaged in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients, mainly anti-ulceratives, cardiac category and anti-fungal range of products. Lee Pharma, which has been exporting to Europe and Latin American countries, claims to have forged a turnover of over Rs 20 crore from exports.
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