Tata Engineering FCCB issue oversubscribed
Mumbai: Tata Engineering's $100-million foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) offering, including a $10-million green-shoe, which opened abroad post-Bombay Stock Exchange trading hours on Wednesday, was oversubscribed more than 10 times. This was revealed by merchant banking circles, say reports. The book got covered within 30 minutes of launch, over 120 institutional orders received from across the world. The high demand was despite limiting the order size to $10 million per client.

The bonds have a tenure of five years and coupon of 1 per cent. Issuer's call can be after three years at 125 per cent premium. "This is a land mark transaction. On a stand-alone basis, this credit enhancement is among the highest in the last five years for an Indian corporate," Ravi Kapoor, head (equity capital markets), DSP Merrill Lynch, was quoted as saying.
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Zee Telefilms promoters sell 3% stake to FIIs
Mumbai: Essel group promoters have offloaded 3 per cent of their equity holding in Zee Telefilms, placing 1.23 crore shares in block deals with foreign institutional investors on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The proceeds will be used to pay all dues owed to Zee Telefilms and Essel Propack, a press release from the Subhash Chandra-lead Essel group of companies said.

The shares may have been sold at around Rs 120 in two block deals aggregating to around Rs 150 crore. According to National Stock Exchange information on ZTL's shareholding pattern of 30 June 2003, the promoters held a combined stake of 50.49 per cent (Indian promoters: 23.51 per cent; foreign promoters: 26.98) while FIIs had 29.43 per cent.
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NDTV seeks nod for StanChart arm buying stakes
New Delhi: NDTV has filed an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board seeking approval for Standard Chartered Private Equity (Mauritius) Ltd to subscribe to its equity shares having a face value of Rs 10 each for an investment of $11.4 million (approximately Rs 52.88 crore) on a repatriation basis, news reports said quoting government sources.

According to the application, post-issuance, the total foreign equity in NDTV will go up from 16.47 per cent to 25.96 per cent while domestic holding will come down from 83.53 per cent to 74.04 per cent. Out of the 25.96 per cent foreign equity, the Standard Chartered Bank outfit will hold a 14.35 per cent stake in the company while the holding of the existing foreign partners will come down to 11.61 per cent.
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Infotech inks deal with Tele Atlas
Hyderabad: Infotech Enterprises has signed a long-term contract with Tele Atlas NV of the Netherlands to provide map data conversion services, one of the largest outsourcing engagements for the digital mapping industry. Under this project, Infotech will deploy a large number of data conversion specialists to work on various projects for Tele Atlas over the next three years.

Infotech chairman and managing director B V R Mohan Reddy said the engagement reinforced the successful relationship enjoyed with Tele Atlas over several years. Infotech stated that Tele Atlas products were widely used both in consumer and business-to-business applications for navigation, location services, logistics, traffic and fleet management. The company provided accurate reproduction of street networks to support turn-by-turn route guidance across virtually every road in Europe and North America.
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Sentini, H&R Johnson tie up for ceramic tiles plant
Hyderabad: Sentini Technologies in association with H&R Johnson is establishing Sentini Cermica at Chigurukota in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh for manufacturing ceramic tiles. The 50:50 JV company, involving an investment of Rs 65 crore, is expected to be commissioned by January 2004. SCL chairman M Gopalakrishna says the project is funded by equity of Rs 25 crore and debt of Rs 40 crore. Indian Overseas Bank, ING Vysya Bank and UTI Bank are providing the long-term finance.

The company has entered into an agreement with Gas Authority of India for the supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin. H&R Johnson (HRJ) is the largest ceramic tiles company in the country with a turnover of over Rs 400 crore and total installed capacity of 15 million sq mt per year from four manufacturing units. Sentini Technologies, on the other hand, is engaged in providing enterprise network management solutions for companies in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
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Ranbaxy Q2 net up 42% sales rise 20%
New Delhi: Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd's India operations clocked a 42-per cent growth in net profit and a 20 per cent growth in sales for the quarter ended 30 June. The company recorded sales of Rs 858 crore in Q2, as compared to Rs 714 crore in the corresponding period for the previous year. It registered a net profit of Rs 196 crore, as against Rs 138 crore in the previous year.

Ranbaxy's first half sales for its domestic operations stood at Rs 1,907 crore, registering a growth of 51 per cent. Interestingly, domestic operation sales clocked Rs 525 crore, a five per cent increase over the previous year. However, export sales witnessed a robust 80 per cent growth at Rs 181 crore, as compared to Rs 767 crore in the previous year. Net profit was up 104 per cent at Rs 476 crore, as against Rs 233 crore.
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IOC to continue with Chennai-Madurai pipeline
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation is continuing its plans to construct the Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline on its own. The project will be placed before the company's board for approval soon. The 670-km pipeline was originally planned as a joint venture between Petronet Ltd and IOC but it fell through following the former's insistence on a "take-or-pay" clause, which IOC was not agreeable to, reports say. Under the new plan, IOC has whittled down the capacity of the pipeline and reduced the project cost to Rs 380 crore from Rs 505 crore earlier.
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Honda Siel targets No 1 slot in premium segment
Mumbai: Honda Siel Cars seeks to dominate the premium segment. Hajime Yamada, president & CEO, Honda Siel Cars, says the category, which is currently 100,000 units-strong in an overall passenger car market of 600,000 units, should grow to 250,000-300,000 units by 2010 against total market size of one million units. The growth forecast is founded on handsome rise in income with customers and slower rise in premium car prices, which has enhanced affordability.

"We will need a second facility when our sales touch 50,000 units," he said. At present installed capacity at Honda Siel Cars is 30,000 units, its FY04 sales target being 20,000 units, composed of 18,000 units of City, 1,800 of the latest Accord and 900 units of the new CR-V. The company's targeted FY04 market share in segments where it operates is 21 per cent (City, Accord & CR-V together), a rise from FY03's 16 per cent.
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ACC records 122% rise in net profits
Mumbai: ACC has posted a 122-per cent rise in its net profits at Rs 44.14 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June 2003, as against Rs 19.84 crore in the same period in 2002-03. Net sales for the reporting quarter grew to Rs 962.31 crore as against Rs 881.33 crore in April-June 2002. Interest costs also came down to Rs 24.96 crore for the first quarter of this fiscal as against Rs 33.44 crore in April-June 2002. Cement sales volumes grew by six per cent at 38.52 lakh tonne in the reporting quarter over the same period last year.

The depreciation for the quarter was marginally higher at Rs 43.56 crore due to the commissioning of Chanda, Madukkarai and Tikaria captive power plants and augmentation of Tikaria grinding capacity. The ready-mix concrete (RMC) business has also reported growth in sales and profitability. "The cement industry has posted a lower growth rate of around 4 per cent in the first quarter 2003-04, as compared to 7.6 per cent in the previous corresponding quarter. The lower growth rate was mainly due to the transporters strike which affected dispatches in April 2003.
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TCL Q1 net up 43% to Rs 49 crore
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) has posted a 42.7 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 48.53 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June 2003 as against Rs 34.01 crore during the corresponding period previous fiscal. But net sales was lower by 5.7 per cent from Rs 326.64 crore to Rs 307.90 crore during the quarter under review. Decline in net sales has been attributed to the company's decision to re-phase its urea sales in line with the agricultural season.

Consequently, sales of urea have reduced during first quarter ended June 2003 and stock-in-trade has shown an increase when compared to first quarter ended June 2002. The company is confident that this decision will have a positive effect on financial performance in the long term, and a normal monsoon will contribute to improved sales in the forthcoming quarters. TCL managing director Prasad Menon says: "Over the just concluded quarter, we have maintained steady progress towards achieving our stated objectives across all our key businesses. This has been achieved through a judicious mix of enhanced operational efficiencies, efficient financial management and innovative marketing strategies, all of which strengthen my confidence in our ability to retain our leadership position and continually deliver value for all our stakeholders."
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