Ogilvy & Mather bags HLL’s Brooke Bond tea ad account
Mumbai: Close on the heels of bagging the advertising account of Close-Up, Ogilvy & Mather India has won yet another plum account of Hindustan Lever Ltd. The agency has just bagged the ad account of HLL’s Brooke Bond Tea which is worth around Rs 35 crore, confirmed key industry sources. The account now shifts from J Water Thompson India (formerly known as HTA), the agency which handled the Brooke Bond Tea account for over a decade. Paris-based designer Shombit Sengupta of Shining Strategic Designs in conjunction with Ogilvy & Mather will design the logo and pack design of Brooke Bond tea brands which include Taj Mahal and Red Label. According to industry sources, Ogilvy & Mather has already started working on its new HLL account in Banglaore. “With this shift, HLL hopes to rejuvenate its major tea brand to take on new players as well as established players in the branded tea segment,” commented an analyst based in Mumbai.
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Concept Hospitality, Ceebros Hotels to set up south India’s first Ecotel by ’04
Mumbai: South India is to get its first Ecotel property through a joint venture between Concept Hospitality Ltd (CHL) and Ceebros Hotels Pvt Ltd (CHPL). The former is a Mumbai-based management company which also represents the Ecotel certification on behalf of HVS, the latter is part of a Chennai-based real estate major, Ceebros Property Development Pvt Ltd (CPDPL). The unnamed property, which is expected to enter the Chennai hospitality market by the fag end of 2004, will be positioned as a four-star business hotel. It is located in the vicinity of ITC Hotel Park Sheraton and Towers, on TTK Road, Chennai.
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Dishnet shelves undersea project
Chennai: Dishnet DSL Ltd, the Chennai-based pure play internet service provider (ISP) promoted by NRI businessman C Sivasankaran, has decided to shelve the ambitious $1.25-billion South East Asia Cable Network (Dishnet SEACN) project. Instead, the company has now entered into a long-term lease agreement with Singapore Telecom (SingTel)-Bharti combine for meeting its bandwidth requirements. According to the original plan, the 20,000 km undersea submarine optical fibre cable project was promoted by Dishnet’s 100 per cent subsidiary Dishnet SEACN to connect Chennai with the US via Singapore, Japan, Guam and Hawai. Top Dishnet officials told on Thursday that the company’s decision to shelve the undersea optical fibre cable (OFC) venture came in the wake of perceived changes in the international and domestic bandwidth business. “We have decided to shelve the undersea cable project and are no longer interested in it. Our decision was mainly based on the change in bandwidth business, which is currently experiencing a glut in supply”, they said adding “Given the current excess supply situation leading to bankruptcies in the international bandwidth and broadband space, we thought it was prudent to shelve the multi-billion dollar venture”.
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Gail to conduct feasibility study of Assam cracker plant
Mumbai: The state-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail) has decided to carry out a detailed feasibility study on the Assam cracker plant as the prelimnary report has found the plant to be non-viable. The government has asked Gail to take over the 36 billion petrochemical plant which is not doing well. Senior Gail officials said that the detailed study would be completed in six months following which the company would decide on the course of action. The fiscal incentive would be worked out following the report for the 20-year-old plant, the officials said. “Initial study showed that the plant was not viable but since the government has asked us to run the plant, we will take a closer look at the project,” added one official. Gail is also exploring the availibility of gas to run the plant. If Gail succeeds in acquiring a stake in the beleagured Haldia Petrochemicals LTD (HPL), then the Assam cracker plant will have access to its raw material
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Electrolux asked to give written response — Merger of Intron Ltd
New Delhi: For Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL), its legal hurdles seem far from over. The Company Law Board (CLB) has directed the company to furnish, within four weeks, a written response to a petition filed with the board by its Indian promoters, who had raised objections to the merger of Electrolux India Ltd and Intron Ltd, among other things. This comes even as the board, at a hearing held on June 18, declined to grant an interim order to the petition filed by the Indian promoters in relation to the proposed rights issue by EKL, according to a company communiqué to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). EKL's Indian promoters, Harish Kumar and Associates and Balraj Malhotra, filed a petition before the CLB on June 17, making several allegations against the company and its major shareholders and the parent company, AB Electrolux. In addition, Anita Kumar, director and shareholder in EKL, also filed a petition before the board on the same day.
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Ford may launch Focus in India
Bangalore: Ford India is looking at the possibility of launching its largest selling car in the world, Focus, in India though the company did not give specific details. "We need to launch a model in the C-D segment. Focus is a good car to be launched in India," Ford India's managing director and president, David E. Friedman, told at the sidelines of a press conference to announce the launch of centennial celebrations of Ford. The combined market size of the C-D segment is over 1 lakh units. He did not say when the car would be launched, though he admitted that Ford is committed to launch a new car during this year. Friedman said there is a possibility of launching a sports utility vehicle in India but did not give details of the model. According to industry sources, Ford is expected to launch, Everest, a seven-seater sports utility vehicle in a few months from now.
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Wockhardt plans US, EU launch
Mumbai: The Mumbai-based pharma firm Wockhardt aims to launch a slew of biopharmaceuticals in the US and the European Union shortly. The company is to launch its recombinant human insulin in the domestic market by the year-end. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting on Thursday, the chairman, Habil Khorakiwala, said that the company is currently registering activities for two of its products - Wepox and Biovac-B - which is in full swing in several markets. Human insulin is being developed by the company at its Biotech Park in Aurangabad. According to Khorakiwala, the prices of human insulin have dropped by 40 per cent in the domestic market in anticipation of Wockhardt's launch. The company is expected to complete the setting up of the five manufacturing facilities, which will produce vaccines as well as non-vaccine biotechnology products by the year-end.
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BDA to revive Tracstar distillery in Karnataka
Bangalore: The Kishore Chhabria-managed BDA Ltd is set for a charge in the South. BDA with its Officers' Choice brand will kickstart its closed distillery in Karnataka and is also poised to enter Tamil Nadu with a contract manufacturing arrangement. The top company officials told that BDA had decided to re-open Tracstar distillery in the outskirts of Bangalore. The unit with a monthly production capacity of around a lakh cases has been lying closed since the late 90s. "We are reviving the plant as the Karnataka market is looking good following the State Government decision to control the wholesale trade of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). We expect the sale of `seconds' - tax evaded products to come down substantially," officials said. BDA has also inked a contract alliance with Midas Golden distillery, a greenfield project in Chennai, which would mark its foray into the Tamil Nadu market. BDA is the only other company other than the UB Spirits Division to clinch a deal with this new distillery in the State.
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Cabinet skips TRL revival issue
Kochi: Uncertainty still persists on the revival of the sick Travancore Rayons Ltd (TRL) at nearby Perumbavoor, as the State Cabinet, contrary to expectations, did not discuss the issue on Wednesday. The Cabinet was to discuss the outcome of the meeting an "enlarged Cabinet Sub-Committee" had with the promoters on May 28 and a final decision on the rehabilitation package submitted by the latter. However, official sources told on Thursday that as the issue required to be discussed in detail and hence needed more time, the Cabinet would take it up on a convenient day but before the expiry on June 27 of the extended time given by the High Court. They said that the TRL "has become too heavily indebted" and hence the Government has to study all the pros and cons before committing itself on the proposal.
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Death toll in Ranbaxy fire up to 4
New Delhi: The toll from the fire at Ranbaxy's Mohali plant has gone up to a total of four deaths, with two more workers succumbing to their injuries. The fire that broke out at the pharma major's bulk drug plant last week had resulted in two deaths, besides leaving 18 others injured. A Ranbaxy spokesperson told that two more workers had succumbed to their injuries, taking the total death toll to four. Meanwhile, except for five workers who were still being treated at the Fortis Hospital at Mohali, all others had been discharged, he said. Fortis is a Ranbaxy promoter-group company. No word is, however, out yet on the cause of the fire or the extent of damage at the Mohali plant in Punjab. The company had initiated an internal investigation into the incident, its officials had earlier said. Ranbaxy Laboratories has seven manufacturing plants in India, of which two are bulk drug facilities. The company is scheduled to have its annual general meeting on June 25.
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Reliance Capital picks 3.05 per cent equity in BSES
Mumbai: Reliance Capital Ltd has acquired 3.05 per cent equity shares of BSES Ltd (Reliance Energy) through the open market mode. Following this, the company’s shareholding along with PAC in BSES Ltd stands at 58.24 per cent. The company acquired 41,95,089 equity shares of BSES Ltd on Thursday and its shareholding along with PAC in BSES Ltd stands to 8,02,12,963 shares.

Reliance Capital Ltd has been increasing its stake in BSES at regular intervals. In April this year, Reliance Capital Ltd acquired 5.66 per cent equity shares of BSES Ltd. The company then acquired 78,00,000 equity shares of BSES Ltd through off market mode from Reliance Power Ventures Ltd and Reliance Industries including persons acting in concert. Market sources indicated that these shares were part of the shares that were garnered by Reliance Industries through the open offer for 20 per cent in BSES Ltd at a offer price of Rs 230.10. At the close of the open offer, RIL’s stake in the Mumbai-based power utility major had increased to 58 per cent.
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M&M lines up export markets for Scorpio
Mumbai: After a successful first anniversary on Indian roads, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has lined up a number of international markets as part of its plans for its sport-utility vehicle Scorpio. The vehicle is now set to enter European markets like as Italy, Spain, Serbia and Macedonia, where M&M has put in place a distribution channel. The company is also at an advanced stage to commence operations in markets like the Gulf, West Asia, South Africa, Indonesia, South and Central America and Russia. M&M ED and president (automotive sector) Alan Durante said, “We plan to replicate Scorpio’s domestic success in international markets.”
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