Car sales rise 41 per cent in May
New Delhi: Passenger car sales surged again in May by 41 per cent with all major companies like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Engineering (Telco) recording a strong growth. Total sales rose to 55,166 units from 39,150 units in the same month last year, data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) showed. May sales were also higher by 30 per cent as compared to 42,506 cars sold in April this year. The increase has been attributed to the eight per cent excise duty reduction in the Budget.

Cumulative (April-May 2003) car sales jumped 35 per cent to 97,672 units from 72,345 units a year earlier. Sale of trucks and buses rose by 27.4 per cent to 16,725 units during the review month (13,123 units) with both light and heavy vehicles posting higher sales. Cumulative sales in this segment stood higher by 16.5 per cent at 28,569 units (24,520 units). Total two-wheeler sales went up by 3.5 per cent to 4.40 lakh units as demand for motorcycles slowed down during the month, while scooters and mopeds recorded a decline.
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Ramco Inds plans new units to hike asbestos sheet capacity
Kolkatta: Ramco Industries Ltd has chalked out an ambitious expansion plan, which includes setting up of fibre cement sheet (asbestos sheet) manufacturing plants in Kharagpur and Vijayawada. This should boost the company’s capacity for asbestos sheets by over 50 per cent from the current 2.7 lakh tonne per annum (TPA). “We are setting up plants in Kharagpur and Vijayawada. Each will have a capacity of 72,000 TPA. The Kharagpur plant, the company’s first in West Bengal, will help service the eastern markets,” said Ramco Industries Ltd president SA Bhima Raja. The Kharagpur and Vijayawada plants will entail an investment of Rs 15 crore each and will go on stream by January-Febuary next year. “The machinery has been ordered and the civil works will have to be carried out,” he explained. The company expects its topline to touch Rs 500 crore in the next three years. For the year ended March 2002, it has posted a sales of Rs 143 crore and net profit of Rs 17.7 crore.
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Apollo Tyres launches Apollo Jewels for 2003-04
New Delhi: Apollo Tyres Limited (ATL) has announced the launch of a dealer recognition programme titled Apollo Jewels for 2003-04. Applicable to both Apollo Tyre World and Apollo Radial World dealerships, the programme will select top performers across India based on several parameters of sales and service. According to an ATL release, the company has committed to invest capital and grow these select dealerships as model retail outlets. In a function here, the company handed over 65 cars and 32 two-wheelers valued at Rs 2.45 crores to 97 of its successful dealers from the Northern Region under the ‘Dealer Vehicle Scheme’. The awards included Toyota Corolla, Ford Ikon, Maruti Esteem, Zen, Hero Honda and Bajaj motorcycles and two-wheelers.
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Jindal Steel eyes 6 per cent growth, to invest Rs 550 cr for expansion
Mumbai: Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) is targeting a five to six per cent growth rate for the current year and has lined up a number of expansion strategies, which it claims, will double its capacity of producing sponge iron by 2004-05. This is an expansion plan of about Rs 550 crore and is partly being financed by internal accruals and partly by financial institutions (FIs) and banks. The company plans to set up a new capacity at its Raigarh plant which will be able to produce about 2.5 lakh tonne of liquid metal per day. Also, in line is the addition of four new kilns to its existing six kilns, each of which has a capacity of producing about 500 tonne per day which will thereby increase its installed power generation capacity. JSPL vice-president and CEO V Gujral said that the company had chalked out a number of plans which would double its sponge iron capacity. Gujral said, “JSPL has targeted a five to six per cent growth rate for the current year and has begun production of flange columns and parallel beams in the medium and heavy
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Birla’s final offer price for L&T to be cheaper than recent deals
Mumbai: The final offer price by the AV Birla Group for Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T) cement business, pegged between $70 and $76 per tonne, will still be lower than the other recent deals in the cement sector in India. The Larsen & Toubro (L&T) board will meet on Tuesday to formalise the demerger of its 16.5 million tonne cement business. Prior to this, the Grasim board will also meet to give its nod to the final demerger proposal.
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HC to hear Pfizer, Parke-Davis merger case today
Hyderabad: The long-pending controversy over the merger of Pfizer Ltd and Parke-Davis India Ltd, following objections raised by the minority shareholders, can now be expected to come to an end shortly with the final hearing of the case posted for Tuesday at the Division Bench of Bombay High Court. Though the scheme of amalgamation was approved by the shareholders of Pfizer and Parke-Davis at the court directed general meetings on August 21 last year itself, the merger process was stalled with the minority shareholders filing an appeal in the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court and obtaining an ad-interim stay on March 13 this year. This ad-interim order has restrained Pfizer from taking further steps in the implementation of the scheme of amalgamation.
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Mafatlal Burlington plans denim capacity expansion
Mumbai: Mafatlal Burlington Industries Ltd (MBIL) is planning to expand capacity from the current 10 million metres per annum to 20 million meters per annum to take advantage of the renewed interest in differentiated denim worldwide. A 50:50 joint venture company between the $1.3-billion Burlington Industries, USA, and Mafatlal Industries Ltd, MBIL's turnover in 2002-03 was Rs 120 crore and is currently operating at full capacity. According to Rajiv Dayal, chief executive officer, MBIL, this is up significantly from the 50-60 per cent capacity utilisation registered four years ago. It is also looking to leverage its distribution systems, brand strength and customer relationship to improve business. According to Dayal, the potential for growth in India was enormous and the Indian denim segment alone would register 8-15 per cent growth over the next few years. These would result from the spurt in incomes, consumerism and retail sector growth currently being witnessed in India.
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Chittivalasa Jute Mill workers protest lockout
Viskhapatnam: The workers of Chittivalasa Jute Mill here staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorate on Monday, urging the Government to take immediate steps for the re-opening of the mill under lockout since June 2. The Chittivalasa Jute Mill Workers' Union, affiliated to the CITU, submitted a memorandum to the collector, Sunil Sharma, stating that there was no unrest in the mill for the past seven years and the management had taken the step of declaring a lockout in haste, rendering 5,000 workers jobless.
The union stated in the memorandum that in April the management had issued a notice to the workers under 9 (A) proposing a cut in wages, overtime and HRA besides DA freeze and several other anti-labour measures.
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Poor response to Matrix Labs' open offer
Hyderabad: The open offer at a price of Rs 276 to the shareholders of the Hyderabad-based drug company Matrix Laboratories Ltd (MLL) by its promoters could not evoke any interest since the MLL scrip reached the all- time high price of Rs 499 on the bourses across the country. The MLL scrip, which recorded a year's lowest of Rs 48.75 on June 14 last year, has been rising ever since the company announced its plans to acquire the Ranbaxy-controlled Vorin Laboratories Ltd and the Chennai-based Shriram group-managed Medicop Technologies Ltd. The scrip has recorded an increase of nearly ten times during the last one year to register the year's highest price of Rs 499 on June 13 this year. As a result of unusual spurt in price, the open offer could mobilise only 26,180 shares, amounting to 0.27 per cent of the company's equity, as against the proposed acquisition of 19.43 lakh shares, working out to 20 per cent, through the offer. The promoters, who were holding 35.35 per cent stake in the company, have already consolidated their holding through preferential offer by acquiring a holding of 26.04 per cent, taking their total holding to 61.39 per cent.
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Henkel SPIC gets Rs 27-cr loan from parent
Chennai: Henkel SPIC India Ltd has received another bout of financial support from its parent company — the German multinational, Henkel KgaA, has given its Indian arm a loan of 5.1 million euros (Rs 27 crore). The RBI approval for the loan was received on Monday. The 3-year loan will carry an interest rate of 4.4 per cent, and would be primarily used to repay some of the higher cost debt, Henkel SPIC's officials told on Monday. Only last year did Henkel SPIC receive Rs 40 crore from Henkel, by way of preference capital, carrying a dividend rate of 4 per cent. This was "principally" responsible for the rise in Henkel SPIC's networth, to Rs 302.38 crore from Rs 256.49 crore earlier.
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Rs 1,500 cr to be spent on exploration
Mumbai: Encouraged by the recent gas and oil finds, Reliance Industries Ltd would be making fresh investments to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore ($300 million) in exploration over the next two years. Announcing this at the company's AGM here on Monday, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, RIL, said the gas discoveries in the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast is estimated at 14 trillion cubic ftt - double the volume of 7 trillion cubic ft estimated earlier. The finds would mean additional Rs 10,000 crore revenue for the company annually. However, no operating revenues are expected from the K-G gas till 2006. Elaborating on RIL's increasing interests in the oil and gas sector, Ambani also announced that RIL has struck gas in an onshore block in Yemen, where it holds oil equity. This discovery is equal to about half of Reliance's share of crude oil from the Panna-Mukta-Tapti oil and gas fields which produce 26,000 barrels of oil and 2.4 mmscmpd gas. Ambani said: "Reliance will be building a gas transmission infrastructure to take gas to industrial, commercial and household consumers by the year 2006." In the second-half of this decade, between 25 to 33 per cent of the company's profits are expected from the upstream business
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EDS plans to expand BPO ops to Chennai, Gurgaon
Mumbai: Electronic Data Services (EDS), the second largest software services company in the world, is looking at cities like Chennai and Gurgaon in Haryana for expanding its BPO centres in India.EDS officials on Monday inaugurated their first BPO centre in Mumbai. Steve Heidt, president, BPO global delivery, said, “We have begin our first centre in India, this is part of our best shore strategy wherein we are not only looking at India but several other countries within Asia.” EDS officials said the Mumbai centre will be backed up by EDS facilities in Gurgaon and Chennai. Subsequently, EDS will locate BPO facilities in these cities, where currently software development centres are located. EDS has also opened a BPO centre in Malaysia. Heidt said the company is looking at other countries like the Philippines. EDS has around 3,000 people in the BPO business in Australia and New Zealand. It is now looking at increasing its exposure to these regions. A final strategy by the company is likely to be announced by June 18, when the company holds its analyst meet in Plano, US.
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