Airtel offers 'M Business 'suite of solutions for cos
Mumbai: Bharti Tele-Ventures has entered the mobile business solutions market with its 'M-Business' suite of solutions through its cellular services arm Airtel.

The company plans to offer customised telecom solutions integrating wireless, wireline and data services to businesses.
The company says the 'M-Business' suite of solutions will enable corporates to reduce telecommunication costs by 20-25 percent.
Company officials said the size of the mobile business solutions market for the cellular segment alone has been estimated at over Rs 1,000 crore, which makes it an attractive business to enter.

The company has split its target customer base into two segments — large businesses and small and medium enterprises (SME).
The industry verticals, being targeted by the company include IT services firms, call centres, manufacturing and engineering companies and banking and financial services.
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GM India writes off losses worth Rs 373 crore
New Delhi: General Motors India, the wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Corporation has accumulated losses worth Rs 400.4 crore in the accounting period ended September 30, '02.

According to the company's profit and loss account for April 1, 2001-September 30, 2002 a large chunk of the losses — Rs 373.4 crore — has been written off against the company's share value, bringing it down from Rs 10 to Rs 4.25/share.

The company says this was done to represent the worth of the share considering losses accumulated during the initial years of operations.

The company is hopeful of making good its losses with the launch of mainstream cars like Corsa sail and Optra and says in future these type of write-offs will not be required.
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MphasiS-BFL Q1 net up 40.3 percent
Bangalore: Software and BPO services group, Mphasis-BFL's net profit jumped 40.3 per cent to Rs 19.49 crore in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 13.879 crore last year.
Sequentially, net profit rose by 4.1 per cent. The revenue for the group grew 45 per cent to Rs 130.22 crore year on year and 7.7 per cent over last quarter.

Mphasis' hike in revenues came from development of e-solutions for onsite engagements as well as offshore efforts from new and exiting clients and also call-centre subsidiary MsourcE, said the company.

MsourcE won two new clients in the last quarter and MphasiS added 10 new customers, of which five were in the financial services vertical.
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Lupin to sell 12.5 percent stake to Newbridge
Mumbai: The promoter of pharma major Lupin Ltd, Dr Desh Bandhu Gupta, has announced his intention to sell nearly five million shares amounting to 12.55 per cent of Lupin's equity at Rs 252 per share to Newbridge Capital for a total consideration of Rs 127 crore. This comes after a placement with Citigroup.

Henceforth the stake of the promoters and associates in Lupin Ltd will fall to 42 per cent.

Last week, Dr Gupta had sold 12.55 per cent to CVC International, a Citigroup company for a consideration of Rs 126 crore.

According to a release by the company, the purchase by Newbridge is conditional upon various matters including approvals by the board of directors of Lupin and the investment committee of Newbridge Capital, completion of a due diligence process, receipt of regulatory approvals and execution of the final detailed agreements. The process will be completed in the next two months.
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Timex to set off losses against net worth
Timex Watches Ltd has proposed to set off its losses against its net worth. The proposal was cleared at the company's board meeting held yesterday.

The company has accumulated losses of Rs 125 crore during the 12 years of its operations in India. Its gross net worth as on March 31, 2003, was Rs 143.87 crore.

As per the proposal, Timex Watches will reduce the paid-up capital value per equity share from Rs 10 to Re 1 as well as the paid-up value of preference share capital from Rs 100 a share to Rs 10. The company will also utilise the amount available in the share premium account.

Timex of the US holds 83.54 per cent of its equity capital and 100 per cent of the preference share capital.

Timex will now have to get the approval of the minority shareholders in its coming annual general meeting and will also have to apply to the regulatory authorities and the Delhi High Court before implementing the scheme.
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ACC earmarks Rs 275 crore for capex
Mumbai: The 16.4 million tonne cement major, Associated Cement Companies (ACC), has earmarked Rs 275 crore for capex in the current fiscal.

The investment would primarily be spent on modernisation of the existing plants and technology upgradation of some facilities.
The company is planning to setup two new ready mix cement (RMC) units, one at Noida and the other in Mumbai during the current year. The company currently operates 11 RMC units across the country.

Meanwhile the company is exploring the option of a brownfield expansion at its Chibasa unit at Jharkhand.
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UTStarcom plans manufacturing unit in India
New Delhi: US telecom company UTStarcom plans to set up manufacturing operations in India and has applied to the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) for setting up a subsidiary.
The company's plans are in initial stages.

Sources said the company has not yet decided whether to go for domestic manufacturing with a partner or on its own.

The company already has R&D centres in India. It has over 160 employees in its various offices in India.

UTStarcom is world leader in PHS, a wireless access technology. It is also one of the largest suppliers of broadband systems.

Recently, it launched its MediaSwitch, an end-to-end solution designed for telecom operators and broadband service providers to deliver high quality TV and on-demand entertainment service over IP.
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Reddy's obtains tentative US FDA approval nod for drug
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories has received tentative approval from the US Food and Drugs Administration for Nesazodine HCL tablets with dosage strengths of 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, 200 mg and 250 mg.

Nesazodine is the generic variant anti-depressant drug Serzone.
Seven other companies have also received tentative approvals for the drug which recorded a sales of $261 million in the US in 2002 as per IMS data.

The product is not likely to contribute any major revenues for the company in view of the presence of several players and a limited market size.
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CCD meet to consider CMC, VSNL residual stake sale
The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) on July 10 will consider sale of 26 per cent residual government equity each in Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and CMC Ltd.

Officials said the government enthused by the Maruti IPO, was exploring options of book-building to offload its residual stake, provided the strategic partners agreed to it. However, the Tatas have remained non-committal so far.

The Tatas hold 65 per cent stake in CMC, and as per the shareholders' agreement, have the first right of refusal to buy the residual government equity in the company.

According to the agreement the group can either buy the stake at Rs 197 a share (the price at which the stake was acquired from the government) or at the fair market price, whichever is higher. The CMC stock is currently ruling at Rs 435.

For VSNL, the Tatas had launched an open offer after acquiring 26 per cent stake in the company from the government.
They picked up almost 24 per cent stake through the offer, and their stake is now at around 50 per cent.

The CCD meeting will also take up the cases of Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL), Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL), Dredging Corporation of India Ltd (DCIL), Hindustan Organics and Chemicals Ltd (HOCL) and National Fertiliser Ltd (NFL). Back to News Review index page