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Hewlett-Packard
to consolidate sales, support operations
Bangalore: Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to relocate
its sales and support operations spread across Bangalore
to one facility on Hosur road. HP may take up 1.3 lakh
square feet of built-office space at Salarpuria Arena
on Hosur Road at a market rate of around Rs 30 to Rs 35
per square feet. With this relocation, HP is to vacate
its existing facility at Golf Link Campus on Airport road.
Currently, HP has a big presence in Bangalore with more
than 2,600 employees. Its sales, support, software development
and HP Labs operations are located mainly in the central
business district namely Cunningham Road, Old Bank Road
and Queens Road. In the last quarter, in the Bangalore
office market, there was limited take-up of space in the
central business district, according to CB Richard Ellis'
India Market Index, and was driven primarily by either
start-up or existing companies looking to expand operations.
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ICRA
acquires 33% stake in Online IndiaCapital
Mumbai: ICRA has picked up a 33-per cent equity
stake in Online IndiaCapital.com, a company that had got
venture funding from Sidbi Venture Capital. ICRA managing
director P K Choudhury will join the board of Online IndiaCapital
as chairman, while ICRA joint manager R R Rao will also
join the board as director. Online IndiaCapital, which
focuses on providing analytical data for the mutual fund
industry, was promoted by Sanjaya Gupta, Anurag Gard and
Aditya Agarwal in 1998. The equity stake of the three
promoters will be diluted from 67 per cent to 34 per cent,
while SIBDI and ICRA will hold 33-per cent stake each.
As per the agreement, ICRA has the option to hike its
stake by another 18 per cent to 51 per cent within the
next two years. ICRA, which was roped in for expanding
the equity base, contributed additional capital but SIBDI
converted preference shares into equity, besides chipping
in some capital. Choudhury says it has invested Rs 50
lakh in the company.
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IVRCL
Infrastructure & Projects to offer stock options
Hyderabad: IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects has
decided to offer 3 lakh options convertible into equity
shares of a nominal price of Rs 10 each at a price to
be determined as per norms to its permanent employees
through the employees stock options plan (ESOP). The company
says the proposed class of investors will not have a right
to receive any dividend or in any manner enjoy the benefit
of shareholder in respect of options granted to him till
shares are issued on exercise of options, upon which the
employees will acquire an equity holding of 3.18 per cent
in the company's paid-up equity of Rs 9.44 crore. Stating
that the voting rights of the proposed class of investors
will be to the extent of equity shares allotted to them
on exercise of options granted, the company said there
will not be any change in the control of the company pursuant
to the proposed ESOP.
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Stanchart
Private Equity to invest $11 million in NDTV
Mumbai: Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPEL)
plans to invest around $11 million in Prannoy Roy-promoted
New Delhi Television (NDTV). SCPEL is the global private
equity arm of Standard Chartered Bank, based in Singapore.
NDTV has entered into an agreement with SCPEL, which is
subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions,
a press release issued by Lazard India said. Lazard India
acted as an advisor to NDTV for the transaction. Following
this transaction, NDTV will look at an 'accelerated' growth
through expansions and acquisitions, says Lazard India
chairman Udayan Bose.
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Tanishq
sales up 39% to Rs 332 crore
Bangalore: Tanishq, the jewellery division of Titan
Industries, has posted a 39-per cent growth in retail
sales at Rs 332 crore in 2002-03 compared to Rs 238.56
crore in 2001-02. The company also achieved corporate
and export sales of Rs 57 crore, which amounts to a total
sale of Rs 389 crore. It has set a sales target of touching
Rs 800 crore by 2006-07 and is expected to contribute
to 55 per cent of the business mix of Titan Industries
from the current 43 per cent. Said Tanishq COO Jacob Kurian
said: "We have achieved an annual growth rate of
40 per cent during the three year period between 2000-03
and at a time when the total gold demand saw a decline
of 19 per cent." The net profit of the company grew
from Rs 1.87 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 7.82 crore in 2002-03.
Tanishq, with a national and scalable model is among the
top five retailers in India today. The company has also
improved its capital utilisation over the past three years
from Rs 154 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 112 crore in 2003-03.
Currently, Tanishq has 60 stores in 47 cities across the
country, out of which six are company-owned stores.
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DaimlerChrysler
unveils new C-class Kompressor
Pune: DaimlerChrysler has launched the Kompressor
with several features that were previously optional, and
is now being made available as part of the standard equipment
set. The ex-showroom prices at Mumbai for the C-200 K
manual and C-200 K automatic, with standard fitted equipment
(excluding octroi registration, insurance and other levies)
are Rs 22.28 lakh and Rs 24.38 lakh, respectively. The
new C-Class Kompressor will be available across India
at all the 15 authorised Mercedes-Benz showrooms from
this month. The company has sold 1800 C-Class models since
its market launch in May 2001. "With several upscale
specifications offered as standard equipment and with
even more power, the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class has the
dynamic character and handling like sports car,"
says Hans-Michael Huber, MD and CEO of DaimlerChrysler
India. The new C-Class Kompressor has a four-cylinder
petrol engine that offers higher performance with the
maximum power output increased from 124 Hp to 158 Hp.
The four-cylinder power plant develops a peak torque of
221 Newton-metres between 3500 and 4500 rpm. The standard
equipment now includes alloy wheels in new sporty design,
electrically folding outside rear view mirrors, steering
wheel and gearshift lever in leather trim, sun visors
with illuminated mirrors and an electric roller sunblind
for the rear window.
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Bhilai
Steel production rises 24% in April-June
Kolkata: The total saleable steel production of
Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) belonging to Steel Authority
of India during April-June 2003 was 9.89 lakh tonnes.
This marks a growth of 23.8 per cent over the corresponding
period of the previous year. Regarding the finished steel
production, it marked a growth of 25.8 per cent. This
record production also crossed the annual performance
plan of BSP by 106.4 per cent. BSP in a press release
said that the production of plate mill registered a growth
of 72.4 per cent, merchant mill 15.6 per cent and wire
rod mill 14.3 per cent. "A 40-per cent growth was
registered in heavy structurals' production. Billets production
in Q1 also registered a 28.3 growth over the last year.
Taking in to consideration the recovery on the price front
BSP has also started supplying pig iron in the market,"
the release said. BSP says April-June is generally a lean
season for the steel industry. Still BSP finished the
first quarter of 2003-04 with the best ever Q1 performance.
Despatch of saleable steel was 9.49 lakh tonnes and loading
for direct despatches was 4.53 lakh tonnes. BSP now operates
six blast furnaces and produces around 14,500 tonnes of
hot metal everyday. In order to meet the sinter requirement
due to operation of the sixth blast furnace, BSP decided
to rejuvenate the old sinter plant, which was closed down
after commissioning of the new sinter plant. The sinter
plant 1 now produces an average of 2,500 tonnes daily.
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IOC
may set up plant to convert residue coke to petrol
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation is likely to set
up a plant for converting refinery residue coke into LPG
and petrol. The plant may come up at its Koyali refinery,
says IOC CMD M S Ramachandran. The decision to set up
such a unit was based on the success of the company's
in-house R&D technology, Indmax, at a Rs 150-crore
pilot plant set up at Guwahati. "Out of 100 litres
of coke, roughly 40 per cent could be converted into LPG.
Of the rest, only 10 per cent remained as residue while
the remaining was converted into gasoline," says
Ramachandran. The company has planned a combined investment
of about Rs 8,000-9,000 crore in setting up a 2-million-tonne
cracker for converting naphtha into petrochemicals such
as paraxylene, purified terephthalic acid and polypropylene,
in addition to setting up the Indmax-based plant.
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Fiat
India to restructure its capital
Mumbai: Fiat India plans to restructure its capital
to nullify the effect of accumulated losses. Press reports
in the past pegged these losses at several hundred crores,
the company has so far declined an official figure. Fiat
India's spokesman toes the same line. The company, he
said, reduced its losses by 65 per cent in calendar 2002
from the previous year's level. Details of the proposed
capital restructuring were not disclosed. Fiat Auto's
investment in Indian operations is estimated at Rs 2,000
crore. "Work has been proceeding as usual at our
Kurla plant and we are on schedule for the launch of a
new petrol variant of the Palio, which will be unveiled
shortly," Fiat India CMD Alberto Montanari said in
an official statement. "Fiat Italy is continuing
to provide us with the necessary support and the company
has already decided to restructure its capital thereby
nullifying the effect of accumulated losses in India.
Our immediate focus will be on instilling confidence in
our dealers, vendors and customers. Our future product
launch is rolling out as scheduled and we will simultaneously
focus on rationalising operations for better efficiencies."
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Eicher
Motors sales grow 32% in June
New Delhi: Eicher Motors Ltd (EML) has posted a
32-per cent growth in sales during June as against the
previous year. EML sold 1,266 vehicles in the domestic
market during June as against 957 vehicles in the corresponding
period previous year. Sales in the domestic market during
the first quarter of the current fiscal (April-June) also
grew by 32 per cent to 2,846 vehicles as compared to 2,148
during the corresponding period previous year. Total sales,
including exports during the first quarter of the current
fiscal, were 3,059 as against 2,502 in the first quarter
of the previous year. Besides a healthy growth in its
LCV range, EML's volume growth reflects in part the contribution
of its 16T GVW (gross vehicle weight) heavy commercial
vehicle, Eicher Jumbo 20.16 which was launched in the
last quarter of the fiscal 2002-03. The company sold 230
units of this product in the first quarter of the current
fiscal and is encouraged by the positive response as reflected
in its high repeat purchase levels.
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Bajaj
Auto to raise dealer network to 500
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto is planning to increase its
dealership strength to around 500 in a bid to have a greater
penetration in semi-urban and rural locations. The company,
which currently has around 430 dealers, is looking at
achieving the target by the end of 2003-04. The company
has also undertaken an exercise to weed out around 50
non-performing/ low-performing dealerships. Bajaj Auto,
during the last financial year, also extended its Bajaj
Auto Service Standard (BASS) initiative to standardise
the workshop of 250 dealers and 50 authorised service
centres. The programme included developing a uniform external
and internal look for its dealerships. The company is
also continuing the rationalisation of its vendor-base
which has resulted in the further aggregation of purchases.
The exercise will result in the company having a consolidated
base of 180 vendors supplying components to Bajaj Auto's
plants. The company has a large number of its vendors
located either near Pune or Ahmedabad. Bajaj Auto is encouraging
vendors located further away to tie-up with third-party
logistic providers who along with local vendors are supplying
multiple deliveries to Chakan and Waluj plants. The company
currently manufactures geared scooters, step-thrus and
the BYK motorcycle at its Akurdi plant. The plant at Waluj
manufactures the Bajaj Auto-Kawasaki range of motorcycles
and three-wheelers, while the Chakan plant manufactures
the ungeared scooter and the indigenously developed Pulsar.
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