Philips: `One company, one brand'
Kolkata: Philips India Ltd is on an image changeover mode. From being known as a lighting and consumer electronics company, it now wishes to be known as India's "most respected and admired lifestyle and healthcare company''. The idea in the years ahead is to "touch the lives of most of the 200 million households in India''. Stating this during an interface with newspersons after the 73rd annual general meeting of the company here,K. Ramachandran, vice-chairman and managing director of PIL, said the company's brand positioning now was centred around the concept of ''one company, one brand''. Three to four per cent of the company's turnover would be spent annually on promoting the Philips brand. ``For the last five years, we were taking care of the legacy issues. The agenda now is to add growth and focus on cash flow and profitability'', he said, adding that the healthcare segment had been identified as a major growth area. PIL's consumer electronics business was growing in double-digits even as the domestic appliances business was "on track to emerge very strong''
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HCI may turn Srinagar property into hostel
New Delhi: The board of Hotel Corporation of India, the 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India, is to meet here on June 30 to consider a proposal for converting the hotel property in Srinagar into a hostel for the state government. Sources told that the Jammu & Kashmir Government is said to be keen on converting the hotel into a hostel for Members of the Legislative Assembly . The proposal, if accepted, could be a boon for HCI as, for the past several years, the group has not been able to make use of the entire hotel property with the security forces utilising more than two-thirds of the rooms available. The board is also likely to be informed about the voluntary retirement scheme that has already been implemented by the group. While the first batch of around 188 workers from the group, including 111 from the Delhi operations, have already been relieved from duty under the scheme, another batch is likely to be relieved soon. The implementation of the VRS is helping the group become more competitive as its annual wage bill is dropping, sources indicated. The implementation of the first phase of VRS is said to have cost the group about Rs 12 crore, which it hopes to recover shortly.
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Kesoram to exit unviable sectors
Kolkata: B.K. Birla, chairman of Kesoram Industries Ltd, said here at the 84th AGM of the diversified company that it would gradually get out of unviable businesses. He said the refractory division would be on the block shortly. Higher raw material (soyabean and cotton seed) costs, wages and energy had rendered the units unviable, he observed. He further indicated that apart from cement, tyre, rayon and spun pipes would continue to be at the core of the company's operations. S.K. Parik, director and company secretary, told that the board at a meeting later decided to either sell or lease or hive off the refractory business. The division is under work suspension since February 2, 2002.
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Telephoto Entertainments to focus on production
Chennai: The Chennai-based Telephoto Entertainments Ltd, better known as the Revathy-Suresh Menon promoted production house, is in the process of restructuring and is focussing on its core competency of production. Suresh Chandra Menon, managing director, Telephoto Entertainments Ltd, told that the company "has had a disastrous three years financially" mainly because many of the serial episodes done for Sun TV were unsold in addition to the much acclaimed film Mitr making a loss of Rs 80 lakh. For the next 12 months, the company would only do commissioned programmes. It was not able to market the episodes and the film effectively. The main reason that Mitr, which won three National awards, for best film in English, best actress and best editor, did not cover its cost was that the company attempted to market the movie by itself.
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Fiat India mum on impact of job cuts
Mumbai: Mum is the word at Fiat India Pvt Ltd. A spokesperson for the company on Thursday declined comment on any likely impact from the developments at its Italian parent, saying more information than already reported was not available for the moment.

"There is nothing for us to add here," he said. Fiat India employs 2,000 people, its factory at Kurla having an installed capacity for 65,000 vehicles per annum. It has around 70 dealers selling the Uno, Palio, Siena, Weekend and Adventure. Over 2000, 2001 and 2002, Fiat Auto is estimated to have invested $150 million in its Indian operations. With the domestic car market yet to generate sizable sales volume, Fiat India's ambitious Ranjangaon facility continues to be on the backburner, lone operational unit there being its training school.
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ONGC proposes Rs 16,000-cr investments
Mumbai: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd plans to invest Rs 16,200 crore on its upstream business for the financial year 2003-04, 47 per cent higher than the Rs 11,000 crore invested last year, the chairman, Subir Raha, told analysts. Of this, around Rs 5,700 crore will be spent on oil exploration, production and development drilling within India and Rs 6,200 crore has been earmarked for investment in oil equity abroad. The balance would be for other capital investments and for Research and Development expenditure. ONGC has reserves of more than $1 billion. Subir Raha told analysts and reporters the company would probably make an announcement relating to a new find shortly. He did not, however, divulge details.
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Coromandel Fert getting a ship unloader
Viskhapatnam: Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd is consistently ploughing back its profits into upgrading and modernising its plants during the past five years and it has spent nearly Rs 300 crore during the period on its Vizag plant, R.S. Nanda, president and managing director, has said. At a press meet here on Thursday, he said that currently the company was investing Rs 20 crore on installing a modern ship unloader at its private jetty in the port here to facilitate faster unloading of its imported raw materials without pollution. It would reduce dust emission and increase productivity. It would be commissioned before the end of the year. He said the company had also set up a reverse osmosis plant to desalinate seawater and make it fit for the production process. The plant had been commissioned at a cost of Rs 1 crore and it was on a trial basis. If it worked, it would be replicated elsewhere, he said.
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BPCL seeks new sourcing markets
Bangalore: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd eyes new sourcing like West Africa and expects it refinery margins were unlikely to be "as good as last year", the chairman,S. Behuria, said. The refinery reported a margin close to $4 per barrel last year. "This year margins have not been so good because there have been stability and prices have come down". "It is unlikely to be as good as last year's", Behuria told newspersons on the sidelines of a workshop on liquefied petroleum gas. Meanwhile, BPCL would look at sourcing low sulphur content light crude from West Africa, as the company strikes off any import of Iraqi crude in the current fiscal in its import model. "Only four per cent of Iraq crude were imported to India and now we are exploring possibility of importing low sulphur light crude from Bombay High", Behuria said. "We are looking at both ourselves, Kochi Refinery and HPCL refinery to bring in a very large crude carrier from Nigeria in the west coast."
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BIFR clears scheme for Restile Ceramics
Hyderabad: Restile Ceramics Ltd, the Hyderabad-based ailing ceramic tiles manufacturer that is currently under the purview of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, has informed the stock exchanges on Wednesday that the BIFR has sanctioned the rehabilitation package vide its letter dated December 18, 2002. According to the company, BIFR, as a part of the rehabilitation package, has sanctioned the reduction of existing equity share capital of Rs 9,44,29,880 to Rs 1,89,86,000, which works out to 20 per cent of existing share capital. In this connection, the RCL board of directors at their meeting held during last week, has fixed the record date as July 26.
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Nod for recovery suits against Thapar Ispat
New Delhi: Trouble is far from over for Ludhiana-based Thapar Ispat Ltd. The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction has given its nod to the secured creditors to legally proceed against the company for recovery of their dues. Considering the case at the recent hearing, the Bench noted that all the secured creditors have objected to the reference filed by the company before the Board. They have also requested BIFR to permit them under Section 22(1) of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act (SICA) to file or continue with the recovery suits filed by them against TIL and its guarantors. The company, however, had not responded to the application made by the secured creditors, the Bench noted. "This is a second reference filed by the company before the Board. The company was operating but was not servicing the dues of the secured creditors," the BIFR Bench observed, adding "it would be unfair if the secured creditors were still denied permission to proceed legally against the company and guarantors."
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VHS ties up with Vimta Labs — To open research centre in Chennai
Chennai: The Chennai-based VHS Hospital has agreed to collaborate with the Hyderabad-based Vimta Labs to establish a research centre in Chennai, the Vimta VHS Research Centre. It is to be inaugurated on Friday. A clinical reference lab (for sophisticated diagnostic tests) and a 50-bed pharmacology unit would be established in VHS's Chennai campus as part of the collaborative effort. According to Dr S.P. Vasireddi, chairman and managing director, Vimta, the resources and equipment for the lab would be theirs, while VHS would provide the space. Dr Vasireddi said that VHS has earmarked 13,000 sq.ft. for the centre. Vimta, for its part, would commit Rs 3 crore initially. Through the venture, Vimta hopes to support the expansion of its core business of carrying out pharmaceutical bioequivalence tests (study to ensure equivalence of a drug belonging to different companies in the human body).
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ONGC to begin drilling work at 37 wells by ear-end
Mumbai: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will begin drilling on the 37 wells awarded to it under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), by the end of this year. A year after the first block was awarded to the company under the policy, the process of finalising contracts for two rigs from overseas bidders is yet to be completed. A company official said that ONCG has received bids from Norwegian and European companies, which are under scrutiny. “Since we are a government organisation, we have to be transparent and hence the delay in commencing the drilling work,” the official reasoned. He added that hiring of rigs is very expensive and hence the company was treading cautiously. The cost of hiring a rig is Rs 1.5 crore per day. ONGC bagged 37 of the 70 exploration wells thrown open by the government under the first three round of NELP. The government is presently doing roadshows for the fourth round of NELP under which 22 wells have been offered. The official added that it takes approximately 40 days to drill a deep water well. He added that the two rigs would be used to drill all the wells awarded under NELP.
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Adani plans salt business foray
Ahmedabad: After ports, gas distribution business and retail stores, the Ahmedabad-based Rs 4,500-crore Adani group is now diversifying into the salt business. The company is all set to execute a Rs 48-crore export oriented project for production of industrial grade high purity salt and has entered into a sole distribution agreement with the Kowa Company of Japan. Under the agreement, Kowa would purchase the salt produced by Adani Chemicals Ltd, a wholly owned company of the Adani group, and sell it on an exclusive basis in the international markets. The annual minimum production target for the first year is 500,000 metric tonnes, which can later go up to 1 million metric tonnes depending upon the monsoon spell.
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EIH net profit down 56 per cent to Rs 15.47 cr in 02-03
New Delhi: Oberoi group company EIH Limited has suffered a 56 per cent drop in its net profit to Rs 15.47 crore during the year ended March 2003 from Rs 35.56 crore in the previous year. However, revenue during the year increased to Rs 435.28 crore from Rs 427.33 crore in 2001-02. Operating profit during 2002-03 was Rs 81.32 crore as against Rs 96.24 crore in 2001-02. The financial results were approved by the board of directors on Thursday which also recommended a dividend of Rs 3 per share (30 per cent), stated a company press release. EIH has also decided to delist its equity shares from the Chennai and Delhi stock exchanges as there has been no trading in the shares of the companies at these exchanges during over the past two years. EIH shares will continue to be listed as Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and Calcutta Stock Exchange.
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Ipca to set up two 100 per cent arms in US, UK within six months
Mumbai: In a bid to grow its international business, pharma major Ipca Labs has chalked out plans to set up two wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and the United Kingdom, within the next three to six months. After achieving reasonable success with its formulation exports in developing countries, the company has set its eyes on the five largest generics market, that is, US, Europe, Japan, Mexico and Brazil. Amongst the developed nations, Ipca already has a presence in the UK market, where it sells through distributors. “Once our subsidiary is established and the product registrations are in place, we will be able market products on our own terms,” managing director, Premchand Godha said. First on its growth prescription, is its entry into the US markets, which will entail an investment of Rs 20 to Rs 50 crore, depending on the number of products the company would want to register. Each registration can cost anything between Rs 4-6 crore.
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