KLM Air to decide on joining SkyTeam alliance by year-end
New Delhi: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is expected to make a final choice of its alliance partner from amongst Air France-lead SkyTeam and British Airways-led OneWorld, by the year end. During a recent press meet in Paris on the occasion of the opening of a new terminal at Charles de Gaulle on June 10, senior officials of the AF and SkyTeam had said that KLM is likely to join SkyTeam for long term strategic reasons which includes uncertainties in the US aviation sector. Stating that KLM is holding talks with SkyTeam to join the alliance, AF chairman & CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta said: “We welcome KLM in the SkyTeam, the decision will, however, be their.” When contacted, KLM spokesperson Bart Koster told FE that the long term strategy of the airline is to join one of the global alliances. For the long-term, we need a strong European partner, he said adding that a final decision will be taken soon. The third alliance is Star Alliance promoted by Lufthansa.
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Telco launches campaign against fake components
New Delhi: To protect its customers from the menace of counterfeit spares, Tata Engineering has launched a systematic multi-pronged campaign against the sale of fake spare parts using the Tata brand name. Pilfer-proof packaging and identification aids have provided customers with additional assurance when they buy Tata spares. Tata Engineering has been initiating countrywide raids to expose the sale of spurious spares and take legal action against culprits. The company’s quality assurance department, along with legal consultants have been identifying the sale of counterfeit components in popular spare parts markets across the country.
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Nalco plans to delist from regional bourses
Bhubaneswar: National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), which is all set to go for an initial public offer (IPO) in November, is planning to delist its securities from all the stock exchanges except the The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE). Sources in Nalco told FE that the company has decided to delist its scrips from Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras stock exchanges. The sources said that Nalco would take the approval of the shareholders on the proposal for delisting the securities from the major stock exchanges at its annual general meeting (AGM) on July 4, 2003. Meanwhile, the government decision to start the investments in Nalco with IPO route has sparked off widespread resentment among the employees of the company as well as the general public of Orissa. Nalco employees under the banner Nalco Employees Co-ordination Committee (NECC) have geared up the movement against the disinvestment.
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Teri launches corp round table
New Delhi: The Energy and Research Institute (Teri) has formed a corporate round table christened as ‘Business Council for Sustainable Development in India’, wherein bout 50 leading domestic corporates have come together to identify the problem areas in industrial sustainability. The council, popularly known as CORE-BCSD India, will also help develop strategies for addressing the same in collaboration with World Business Council for sustainable development. Announcing this at the Teri Corporate Environemntal Awards ceremony here on Tuesday, Teri director-general RK Pachauri said, Teri had achieved a unique distinction not only as a premier institution working in the field of energy and environment, but it had also taken up issues related to sustainable development and social responsibility of the corporate sector in the country”. Complimenting Teri for the initiative, environment and forest minister TR Balu said the effort made by the orgnisation would further help create awareness amongst corporates towards environment protection. The relentless pace of liberalisation and privatisation, coupled with the advancement of communication and information technology, has given rise to enormous transformation of the contemporary society, creating tremendous opportunities for the corporate world, he said.
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Voltas eyes big export projects overseas
Mumbai: The diversified engineering major under the Tata group fold, Voltas Ltd, is betting big on export projects in the overseas market. The company which is in the process of establishing its base in China is also eyeing Qatar, eastern-Europe and southern Africa, primarily to leverage its strengths on engineering, electro-mechnical turnkey projects and water pollution treatment projects.
According to a company source, “Voltas has initiated talks with various multinationals for tapping post-war reconstruction works in Iraq. The company will be bidding for various turnkey projects related to electro-mechanical as well as air-conditioning (AC) in the next 12-18 months.” During the last 18 months, the company has bagged various projects worth Rs 1,200 crore in the international markets for electro-mechanical and air-conditioners, said a company source. The company’s international business has an order booking (unexecuted) of around Rs 800 crore as of March 31, 2003 for international projects.
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FIs may participate in Grasim open offer for CemCo
Mumbai: Most institutions are likely to participate in the proposed open offer to be made by Grasim Industries for the demerged L&T’s cement company (CemCo). As per the proposal, Grasim is going to come with an open offer for 30 per cent of the demerged cement company of L&T at Rs 171.30 per share. An insititional official told : “We are open to participating in the open offer to be made by Grasim Industries”. Most other institutional players have also showed their willingness to participate in the open offer. A top official from another institution said: “As an when the open offer starts, we will take a call on whether to subscribe for the open offer to be made by Grasim.” Currently, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is the largest individual stakeholder with a holding of 18.60 per cent of the equity capital of Larsen & Toubro as on March 31, 2003. Amongst institutions, Unit Trust of India (UTI) follows LIC with a stake of 10.38 per cent, GIC with a holding of 2.71 per cent and New India Assurance Company with a stake of 2.70 per cent. In CemCo, L&T itself will have a 20 per cent, 32.6 per cent will be held by institutions, 34.8 per cent will be held by others including GDR holders, corporate bodies, NRIs and the like. Another 12.6 per cent will be held by Grasim.
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J&N shuts Kolkata office, sacks 48 staff
Kolkata: Paints major Jenson & Nicholson Ltd on Tuesday announced the closure of its office in Kolkata while terminating the services of the 48-odd employees here. When J&N employees reported at their office at 225 AJC Bose Road on Tuesday morning, they found the doors closed and the closure notice pasted on it. The notice, signed by the Kolkata-based paint major’s joint managing director, JS Chatterjee, also names the 48 employees whose services have been terminated. Mr Chatterjee was not available for comment. The notice says that the company had been facing a tremendous financial crisis and cash crunch because of the continuous heavy losses in its business for the last few years. He said the company incurred a loss of Rs 26 crore during the financial year 2001-02 and this increased to Rs 38 crore by the end of the nine-month period to December 2002.
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Crisil puts L&T debt on watch; Care to review Grasim rating
Mumbai: The Credit Rating and Information Services of India (Crisil) has placed the outstanding ratings on Larsen & Toubro Ltd’s (L&T) debenture and fixed deposit (FD) programmes on ‘rating watch’ with developing implications following the company’s decision to de-merge its cement division into a separate company. The outstanding rating on L&T’s commercial paper programme has been reaffirmed. The outstanding Crisil rated debt instruments are likely to be split between the two companies as part of the de-merger exercise. Crisil is in dialogue with the L&T management to ascertain the various modalities of this de-merger initiative and will announce the final ratings in due course, the rating agency said on Tuesday. Crisil has also placed the outstanding ratings on L&T Holdings Ltd’s (LTHL) structured debenture obligation issues on ‘rating watch’ with developing implications. Crisil has also placed the outstanding ratings on Narmada Cement Company Ltd’s non-convertible debenture issues on ‘rating watch’ with developing implications. The outstanding rating on the company’s commercial paper programme has been reaffirmed.
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Sebi okays US listing of BPCL and Nalco
Bangalore: Disinvestment and communications minister Arun Shourie has said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has given the green signal to government for simultaneous disinvestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and National Aluminium Company (Nalco) in the Indian and US markets. Speaking to newsmen here on Monday, Shourie said Sebi has approved the simultaneous divestment of part of government stakes in these PSUs. With this the government can now offload shares in the Indian market and issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) for listing the companies in the New York Stock Exchange at the same time. But, he said, the government has not taken any decision in this regard. Though Shourie refused to set a time-frame for the disinvestment, he said the core group of secretaries on disinvestment will meet soon to work out the modalities including the selection of an advisor for offloading the government stakes. But, he indicated, the government proposes to undertake the process by November. At present, the government stake in BPCL and Nalco is 66.2 and 87.15 per cent respectively. The government plans to offload 25.2 per cent in BPCL through ADRs, 10 per cent in the domestic market and 5 per cent at a concessional rate to the company employees. If this goes through the government stake in the company is set to shrink to 26.2 per cent from 66.2 per cent. In the case of Nalco, the government plans to divest 25.15 per cent from its 87.15 per cent stake to a strategic partner in the company. While 20 per cent will be offloaded through ADRs and 10 per cent in the domestic market. After completion of this process the government stake in the company will be dropped by 28 per cent.
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BusinessWeek ranks Infosys 74th in top 100 IT cos list
Kolkata: India’s premier software services player, the Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies Ltd has found a pride of place among the world’s 100 best performing infotech companies, according to BusinessWeek. Infosys is ranked 74th and is the only Indian company in the list. The latest Infy recognition comes close on the heels of chairman Narayana Murthy who recently bagged the Entrepreneur of the Year award from consulting house Ernst & Young. To compile the list, BusinessWeek pooled financial data from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) computerised information on 10,000 publicly traded corporations across the globe. The minimum criterion to qualify for evaluation was a turnover in excess of $300 million. S&P is a division of McGraw-Hill Companies, which also owns BusinessWeek.
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India wins 2 Golds and 2 Silvers at Cannes ad fest so far
New Delhi: India is setting the gold standard at Cannes. After Piyush Pandey's sensational two-gold haul last year, India has once again bagged two Gold and two Silver Lions in the press and poster categories, its best performance ever at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Creative power-house Ogilvy & Mather has romped home with a Gold Lion for its 'Cancer Cures Smoking' outdoor ad, and two silvers for 'Asterisk' (for both the outdoor and press categories), all of them for their award-winning client, Cancer Patients Aid Association. But what is really heavy 'metal' stuff is that McCann-Erickson's national creative director Prasoon Joshi has opened his account at Cannes with a bang. Akshaye Kapnadak and Joshi's ads for Coca-Cola -- “Man in the Shade” and “Barber Shop” – have bagged a Gold Lion for Press Campaign in the non-alcoholic beverages category, making India a much-talked about country at Cannes this year
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VSNL signs ISD pact with MobileFirst
Mumbai: VSNL and the MobileFirst alliance, an alliance of cell companies consisting of BPL Mobile, Escotel, RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom, on Tuesday announced an agreement to make VSNL their preferred carrier for long distance traffic. Apart from the alliance partners, VSNL would also carry long distance traffic for Hutch and Idea, who are the strategic partners for the MobileFirst alliance. While the exact rates offered by VSNL for carrying the long distance traffic is not known, it is learnt that certain ‘volume discounts’ have been offered to MobileFirst. The MobileFirst alliance has an existing subscriber base of over 3m. Commenting on the agreement, S K Gupta, managing director, VSNL said, “Through this agreement, VSNL will now be among the preferred national long distance carriers and the ‘first-in-route’ for all outgoing ILD traffic for the MobileFirst alliance.”
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Patni likely to raise $60-90 mn via IPO
Mumbai: Software services firm Patni’s domestic issue, which is expected sometime towards the end of the current year, is likely to be between $60m and $90m, according to sources familiar with the matter. The issue will be restricted to the domestic market.
Merchant bankers DSP Merill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra Capital have been given the mandate to handle the issue proceedings, while Citigroup (erstwhile Saloman Smith Barney) will be co-book runners to the issue, sources said. Patni chairman and CEO Naren Patni, when contacted, said: “We are undertaking basic preparatory steps as part of the IPO process, and will comment when there is specific information to share.”
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Empee Distilleries to acquire Alembic unit
Bangalore: The Rs 400-crore Empee Distilleries Ltd is buying out the Vadodara-based Alembic Group's Nirayu distillery located at Whitefield near Bangalore. With this, Alembic is poised to make a complete exit from Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) business.
When contacted, the Chennai-based Empee declined to comment. However, informed sources said negotiations were in advanced stage and the acquisition would be effected anytime now. Empee's payout for the distillery could not be ascertained. It must be mentioned that Alembic had earlier sold its IMFL brand - Whitefield Whisky and Brandy - to Radico Khaitan Ltd for an undisclosed amount. Alembic's core business interests span across pharmaceutical and glassware sectors.
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Tata Steel's Steelium may rake in Rs 1,000-cr sales
Mumbai: De-commoditising steel is ambitious. But just over three months into being the world's first branded cold rolled (CR) steel product, `Steelium' is Tata Steel's biggest brand in terms of monthly sales volume. The brand was unveiled in Goa on February 27, 2003. Company officials speaking on the sidelines of Steelium's launch here on Tuesday, estimated that it should rake in sales of over Rs 1,000 crore in 2003-2004. "It is already our biggest brand,'' Anup Sahay, chief of marketing (distribution & branded products), Tata Steel, said. Together with galvanised steel brand, `Shakti', branded flat steel products are seen to fetch sales in excess of Rs 1,500 crore. Last month end, while disclosing Tata Steel's financial results for 2002-2003, its managing director, B. Muthuraman, had said sale of branded products this year should touch Rs 2,200 crore. At current monthly levels, Steelium should notch up sales of 3,50,000 tonnes annually. However, in six-months' time the sales would go up to 4,00,000 tonnes, officials said.
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SAIL's raw material division posts 9 per cent growth
Kolkata: The Raw Materials Division (RMD) of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has registered a growth of nine per cent during the first two months of 2003-04 compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. "In the current financial year, RMD's mines at Kiriburu, Meghahatuburu, Bolani, Barsua and Kalta have planned to supply about 13.59 million tonnes of iron ore which is 15 per cent higher than previous year, to the steel plants of SAIL at Bokaro, Durgapur and Rourkela," according to a company press release. RMD has chalked out plans for the development of Hill No 3 of Kiriburu, which will enable the division to have an additional six lakh tonnes of iorn ore production every year. Work has also begun to mine iron ore at `D' area of Bolani for an estimated production of one million tonne per year.
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European approval for Orchid product
Chennai: The Chennai-based Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd today said that its API product, Cefuroxime Axetil, has been granted the Certificate of Suitability (CoS) by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines. This is the third CoS granted to Orchid, according to a company press release. The release quoted K. Raghavendra Rao, managing director, Orchid, as saying that this approval will enable the company to expand its product offerings in the European market.
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Birla group to be largest cement producer
Mumbai: The AV Birla group would spend about Rs 2,200 crore to gain control of the 16.5-tonne per annum cement-making capacity of Larsen & Toubro, making it the largest cement producer in the country with a market share of roughly 22 per cent. The total cement manufacturing capacity in the country is in the region of 125-130 million tonnes per annum, of which Grasim would control nearly 31 million tonnes after it acquires L&T's cement division in a structured deal struck on Tuesday. It would also have taken over debt of Rs 1,868 crore apportioned to the cement division of the engineering major when it is hived off as a separate company, CemCo. According to the demerger scheme, every share in L&T will fetch 0.8 share in CemCo. The break up post-demerger will be Grasim 12.6 per cent, L&T (Engg) 20 per cent, financial
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Bata may cut staff to keep its sole tight
Hyderabad: Bata India Ltd, the country's leading footwear major, is of the view that competition in the days to come would be more aggressive and though the company was competent to withstand, a massive restructuring was required to support its endeavour.
The footwear major finds it difficult to continue its price competitiveness and retain its market share with the current size of workmen. The company strongly favours a major downsizing of its workforce. "The company in its present form will only lose its market share until and unless the company rationalises its huge workforce to make the products price competitive," the Bata India managing director, S.J. Davies, opined in a recent communiqué to shareholders.
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